Isaiah 30:8-18

English Standard Version

A Rebellious People

⁸And now, go, ^(A)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.^[a]
⁹^(B)For they are a rebellious people,
    lying children,
children unwilling to hear
    the instruction of the Lord;
¹⁰^(C)who say to ^(D)the seers, “Do not see,”
    and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us ^(E)smooth things,
    prophesy illusions,
¹¹leave the way, turn aside from the path,
    let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
¹²Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,
“Because you despise this word
    and trust in ^(F)oppression and perverseness
    and rely on them,
¹³therefore this iniquity shall be to you
    ^(G)like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse,
    whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;
¹⁴and its breaking is ^(H)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.”

¹⁵For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,
“In ^(I)returning^[b] and ^(J)rest you shall be saved;
    in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
But you were unwilling, ¹⁶and you said,
“No! We will flee upon ^(K)horses”;
    therefore you shall flee away;
and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”;
    therefore your pursuers shall be swift.
¹⁷^(L)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

¹⁸Therefore the Lord ^(M)waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore he ^(N)exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
^(O)blessed are all those who wait for him.