Dual Panel1Woe betide the rebellious children! says the LORD, who make plans, but not of my devising, who weave schemes, but not inspired by me, so piling sin on sin.
2Without consulting me they hurry down to Egypt to seek shelter under Pharaoh's protection, to take refuge under Egypt's shadow.
3Pharaoh's protection will lead to humiliation and refuge under Egypt's shadow will bring you disgrace.
4Though his officers are at Zoan and his envoys reach as far as Hanes,
5that unprofitable nation will leave everyone in sorry plight; they will find neither help nor profit, only humiliation and contempt.
6“THE Beasts of the South”: an oracle. Through a land of hardship and distress, of lioness and roaring lion, of sand-viper and venomous flying serpent, they convey their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on camels' humps to an unprofitable people.
7Worthless and futile is the help of Egypt; therefore have I given her this name: Rahab Subdued.
8Now in their sight write it on a tablet, engrave it as an inscription that it may be there in future days, a testimony for all time to come.
9They are a race of rebels, disloyal children, children who refuse to listen to the LORD's instruction.
10They say to the seers, “You are not to see,” and to those who have visions, “Do not produce true visions for us; give us smooth words and illusory visions.
11Turn aside, leave the straight path, and rid us of the Holy One of Israel.”
12Therefore these are the words of the Holy One of Israel: You have rejected this warning and put your trust in devious and dishonest practices on which you lean for support,
13therefore you shall find this iniquity like a crack running down a high wall, which bulges out and suddenly, all in an instant, comes crashing down.
14It crashes and breaks like an earthen jar shattered beyond repair, so that among the fragments not a shard is found to take an ember from the hearth, or to scoop water from a pool.
15These are the words of the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: In calm detachment lies your safety, your strength in quiet trust. But you would have none of it;
16“No,” you said, “we shall take horse and flee.” Therefore you will be put to flight! “We shall ride apace,” you said. Therefore swift will be the pace of your pursuers!
17When a thousand flee at the challenge of one, you will flee at the challenge of five, until you are left solitary as a mast on a mountaintop, a signal-post on a hill.
18Yet the LORD is waiting to show you his favour, and he yearns to have pity on you; for the LORD is a God of justice. Happy are all who wait for him!
19People of Zion, dwellers in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. The LORD will show you favour and answer you when he hears your cry for help.
20The Lord may give you bread of adversity and water of affliction, but he who teaches you will no longer keep himself out of sight, but with your own eyes you will see him.
21If you stray from the path, whether to right or to left, you will hear a voice from behind you sounding in your ears saying, “This is the way; follow it.”
22You will treat as things unclean your silver-plated images and your gold-covered idols; you will loathe them like a foul discharge and call them filth.
23The Lord will give rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and as the produce of your soil he will give you heavy crops. When that day comes your cattle will graze in broad pastures;
24the oxen and donkeys that plough the land will be fed with well-seasoned fodder, winnowed with shovel and fork.
25On every high mountain and lofty hill streams of water will flow, on the day of massacre when fortresses fall.
26The moon will shine as brightly as the sun, and the sun with seven times its wonted brightness, like seven days' light in one, on the day when the LORD binds up the broken limbs of his people and heals the wounds inflicted on them.
27See, the LORD himself comes from afar, his anger blazing and his doom heavy. His lips are charged with wrath and his tongue is like a devouring fire.
28His breath is like a torrent in spate, to load the nations with an evil yoke. He sieves out the nations for destruction; he puts a bit in their mouths to lead the peoples astray.
29But for you there will be songs, as on a night of a sacred pilgrim-feast, and gladness of heart as if one marched to the sound of the pipe on the way to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.
30Then the LORD will make his voice heard in majesty and reveal his arm descending in fierce anger with devouring flames of fire, amid cloudburst and tempests of rain and hail.
31For at the voice of the LORD Assyria's heart fails her, as she feels the stroke of his rod;
32tambourines, lyres, and shaking sistrums will keep time with every stroke of his rod, of the punishment which the LORD inflicts on them.
33Topheth was made ready long ago (it, too, was prepared for Molech); its fire-pit, made deep and broad, is a blazing mass of logs, with the breath of the LORD like a stream of brimstone setting it ablaze.