Isaiah 29:13-32:18
English Standard Version
13 And the Lord said:
“Because (A)this people (B)draw near with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
while their hearts are far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,
14 therefore, behold, (C)I will again
do wonderful things with this people,
with wonder upon wonder;
and (D)the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”
15 Ah, (E)you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel,
whose deeds are (F)in the dark,
and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”
16 (G)You turn things upside down!
Shall the potter be regarded as the clay,
that the thing made should say of its maker,
“He did not make me”;
or the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?
17 Is it not yet a very little while
(H)until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?
18 In that day (I)the deaf shall hear
(J)the words of a book,
and out of their gloom and darkness
(K)the eyes of the blind shall see.
19 (L)The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord,
and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the ruthless shall come to nothing
and (M)the scoffer cease,
and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,
21 who by a word make a man out to be an offender,
and (N)lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,
and with an empty plea (O)turn aside him who is in the right.
22 Therefore thus says the Lord, (P)who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:
“Jacob shall no more be ashamed,
no more shall his face grow pale.
23 For when he sees his children,
(Q)the work of my hands, in his midst,
they will sanctify my name;
(R)they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob
and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 And those (S)who go astray in spirit will come to understanding,
and those who murmur will accept instruction.”
Do Not Go Down to Egypt
30 “Ah, (T)stubborn children,” declares the Lord,
(U)“who carry out a plan, but not mine,
and who make (V)an alliance,[a] but not of my Spirit,
that they may add sin to sin;
2 (W)who set out to go down to Egypt,
without asking for my direction,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh
and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
3 (X)Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,
and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.
4 For though his officials are at (Y)Zoan
and (Z)his envoys reach (AA)Hanes,
5 everyone comes to shame
through (AB)a people that cannot profit them,
that brings neither help nor profit,
but shame and disgrace.”
6 An (AC)oracle on (AD)the beasts of (AE)the Negeb.
Through a land of trouble and anguish,
from where come the lioness and the lion,
the adder and the (AF)flying fiery serpent,
they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys,
and their treasures on the humps of camels,
to a people that cannot profit them.
7 Egypt's (AG)help is worthless and empty;
therefore I have called her
(AH)“Rahab who sits still.”
A Rebellious People
8 And now, go, (AI)write it before them on a tablet
and inscribe it in a book,
that it may be for the time to come
as a witness forever.[b]
9 (AJ)For they are a rebellious people,
lying children,
children unwilling to hear
the instruction of the Lord;
10 (AK)who say to (AL)the seers, “Do not see,”
and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us (AM)smooth things,
prophesy illusions,
11 leave the way, turn aside from the path,
let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,
“Because you despise this word
and trust in (AN)oppression and perverseness
and rely on them,
13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you
(AO)like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse,
whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;
14 and its breaking is (AP)like that of a potter's vessel
that is smashed so ruthlessly
that among its fragments not a shard is found
with which to take fire from the hearth,
or to dip up water out of the cistern.”
15 For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,
“In (AQ)returning[c] and (AR)rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
But you were unwilling, 16 and you said,
“No! We will flee upon (AS)horses”;
therefore you shall flee away;
and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”;
therefore your pursuers shall be swift.
17 (AT)A thousand shall flee at the threat of one;
at the threat of five you shall flee,
till you are left
like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,
like a signal on a hill.
The Lord Will Be Gracious
18 Therefore the Lord (AU)waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore he (AV)exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
(AW)blessed are all those who wait for him.
19 For a people shall dwell (AX)in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. 20 And though the Lord give you the (AY)bread of adversity and the (AZ)water of affliction, (BA)yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. 21 (BB)And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is (BC)the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. 22 Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. (BD)You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”
23 (BE)And he will give (BF)rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. (BG)In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, 24 and (BH)the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. 25 And (BI)on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, (BJ)when the towers fall. 26 (BK)Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when (BL)the Lord binds up (BM)the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.
27 Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar,
burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;[d]
his lips are full of fury,
and his tongue is like a devouring fire;
28 (BN)his breath is (BO)like an overflowing stream
that reaches up to the neck;
to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction,
and to place on the jaws of the peoples (BP)a bridle that leads astray.
29 You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, (BQ)as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to (BR)the mountain of the Lord, to (BS)the Rock of Israel. 30 And the Lord (BT)will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger (BU)and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst (BV)and storm and hailstones. 31 The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the Lord, (BW)when he strikes with his rod. 32 And every stroke of the appointed staff that the Lord lays on them (BX)will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. (BY)Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. 33 For (BZ)a burning place[e] has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, (CA)its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; (CB)the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.
Woe to Those Who Go Down to Egypt
31 Woe[f] to (CC)those who go down to Egypt for help
and rely on horses,
who (CD)trust in chariots because they are many
and in horsemen because they are very strong,
but (CE)do not look to the Holy One of Israel
or consult the Lord!
2 And (CF)yet he is wise and brings disaster;
(CG)he does not call back his words,
but (CH)will arise against the house of the evildoers
and against the helpers of (CI)those who work iniquity.
3 The Egyptians are man, and not God,
and their horses (CJ)are flesh, and not spirit.
When the Lord stretches out his hand,
the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall,
and they will all perish together.
4 For thus the Lord said to me,
(CK)“As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey,
and when a band of shepherds is called out against him
he is not terrified by their shouting
or daunted at their noise,
(CL)so the Lord of hosts will come down
to fight[g] on Mount Zion and on its hill.
5 (CM)Like birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts
will protect Jerusalem;
he will protect and deliver it;
he will spare and rescue it.”
6 (CN)Turn to him from whom people[h] have (CO)deeply revolted, O children of Israel. 7 For in that day (CP)everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.
8 (CQ)“And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man;
and a sword, not of man, shall devour him;
and he shall flee from the sword,
and his young men shall be (CR)put to forced labor.
9 (CS)His rock shall pass away in terror,
and his officers desert the standard in panic,”
declares the Lord, whose (CT)fire is in Zion,
and whose (CU)furnace is in Jerusalem.
A King Will Reign in Righteousness
32 Behold, (CV)a king will reign in righteousness,
and princes will rule in justice.
2 (CW)Each will be like a hiding place from the wind,
a shelter from the storm,
(CX)like streams of water in a dry place,
like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
3 (CY)Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed,
and the ears of those who hear will give attention.
4 The heart of the hasty will understand and know,
(CZ)and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.
5 (DA)The fool will no more be called noble,
nor the scoundrel said to be honorable.
6 For (DB)the fool speaks folly,
and his heart is busy with iniquity,
to practice ungodliness,
to utter error concerning the Lord,
(DC)to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied,
and to deprive the thirsty of drink.
7 As for the scoundrel—(DD)his devices are evil;
he plans wicked schemes
to ruin the poor with lying words,
even when the plea of the needy is right.
8 But he who is noble plans noble things,
and on noble things he stands.
Complacent Women Warned of Disaster
9 (DE)Rise up, you women (DF)who are at ease, hear my voice;
you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech.
10 In little more than a year
you will shudder, you complacent women;
for the grape harvest fails,
the fruit harvest will not come.
11 Tremble, you women (DG)who are at ease,
shudder, you complacent ones;
(DH)strip, and make yourselves bare,
(DI)and tie sackcloth around your waist.
12 (DJ)Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields,
for the fruitful vine,
13 (DK)for the soil of my people
growing up in thorns and briers,
(DL)yes, for all the joyous houses
in the exultant city.
14 For the palace is forsaken,
the populous city deserted;
the hill and the watchtower
will become dens forever,
(DM)a joy of wild donkeys,
a pasture of flocks;
15 until (DN)the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,
and (DO)the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.
16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.
17 (DP)And the effect of righteousness will be peace,
and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust[i] forever.
18 My people will abide in a peaceful habitation,
in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 30:1 Hebrew who weave a web
- Isaiah 30:8 Some Hebrew manuscripts, Syriac, Targum, Vulgate, and Greek versions; Masoretic Text forever and ever
- Isaiah 30:15 Or repentance
- Isaiah 30:27 Hebrew in weight of uplifted clouds
- Isaiah 30:33 Or For Topheth
- Isaiah 31:1 Or Ah,
- Isaiah 31:4 The Hebrew words for hosts and to fight sound alike
- Isaiah 31:6 Hebrew they
- Isaiah 32:17 Or security
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Bible Gateway Recommends
