1 ARST Yahweh says,“Terrible things will happen to you, my people who rebel against me. You make plans, but what you plan is not what I want. You have made an alliance with the rulers of Egypt, but you did not ask my Spirit if that was what you should do. By doing that, you have increased the number of your sins. BSB BSB: “Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine, who form an alliance, but against My will, heaping up sin upon sin.
2 ARST You went to Egypt to ask their rulers for help, without asking for my advice. You have trusted in the army of the king of Egypt to protect you; you have trusted in them like people sit in the shade to protect themselves from the sun. BSB BSB: They set out to go down to Egypt without asking My advice, to seek shelter under Pharaoh’s protection and take refuge in Egypt’s shade.
3 ARST But the result of your trusting in the king of Egypt is that you will be disappointed and disgraced; because you trust in him, you will be humiliated. BSB BSB: But Pharaoh’s protection will become your shame, and the refuge of Egypt’s shade your disgrace.
4 ARST Officials from Judah have gone to the cities of Zoan and Hanes in Egypt to make treaties, BSB BSB: For though their princes are at Zoan and their envoys have arrived in Hanes,
5 ARST but all those who trust in the king of Egypt will be humiliated, because that nation will not be able to help you; the treaty that you have made requesting help from them will be useless; instead, the result will be that you will be humiliated and disgraced.” BSB BSB: everyone will be put to shame because of a people useless to them. They bring neither help nor benefit, but only shame and disgrace.”
6 ARST Isaiah received from Yahweh this message about the animals in the southern part of Judah, the desert part: That area is one where people experience a lot of troubles and difficulties, an area where there are male and female lions and various kinds of poisonous snakes. Caravans go through that area taking donkeys and camels loaded with valuable goods. They are taking them to Egypt because they hope that the army of Egypt will protect them, but it will be useless. BSB BSB: This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people of no profit to them.
7 ARST The promises made by the king of Egypt are worthless; therefore I call Egypt‘Useless Rahab, the sea monster that does nothing.’ BSB BSB: Egypt’s help is futile and empty; therefore I have called her Rahab Who Sits Still.
8 ARST Yahweh told me to write on a scroll a message, in order that it would be a witness to the people of Judah that would endure forever. BSB BSB: Go now, write it on a tablet in their presence and inscribe it on a scroll; it will be for the days to come, a witness forever and ever.
9 ARST It would remind them that they are deceitful and always rebelling against Yahweh, and that they refuse to pay attention to what he tells them. BSB BSB: These are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to obey the LORD’s instruction.
10 ARST They tell the people who see visions from Yahweh,“Stop seeing visions!” They tell the prophets,“Do not reveal to us what is right! Tell us pleasant things; do not tell us visions about things that are true! BSB BSB: They say to the seers, “Stop seeing visions!” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us the truth! Speak to us pleasant words; prophesy illusions.
11 ARST Stop doing what you have been doing; stop telling us what the Holy One of Israel says to us!” BSB BSB: Get out of the way; turn off the road. Rid us of the Holy One of Israel!”
12 ARST Therefore, this is what the Holy One of Israel says:“You have rejected my message, and you are relying on those who oppress and deceive others. BSB BSB: Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says: “Because you have rejected this message, trusting in oppression and relying on deceit,
13 ARST Therefore, the result of your sin of rejecting me will be that you will suddenly experience disasters; what will happen to you will be like a cracked wall that suddenly collapses on you.” BSB BSB: this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail, a bulge in a high wall, whose collapse will come suddenly—in an instant!
14 ARST You will be smashed like a clay jar is smashed when it is dropped and shatters completely, with the result that there is not one piece big enough to sweep out cinders from a stove or to carry a little bit of water from a well. BSB BSB: It will break in pieces like a potter’s jar, shattered so that no fragment can be found. Not a shard will be found in the dust large enough to scoop the coals from a hearth or to skim the water from a cistern.”
15 ARST Yahweh, our God, the Holy One of Israel, also says this:“I will rescue you from your enemies only if you repent and trust in what I will do for you; you will be strong only if you quit worrying and trust in me. But you do not want to do that. BSB BSB: For the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said: “By repentance and rest you would be saved; your strength would lie in quiet confidence—but you were not willing.”
16 ARST You said,‘No, we will escape on horses that the army of Egypt will give us!’ So you will try to escape. You said,‘We will escape from the army of Assyria by riding on swift horses!’ But those who pursue you will also ride swiftly. BSB BSB: “No,” you say, “we will flee on horses.” Therefore you will flee! “We will ride swift horses,” but your pursuers will be faster.
17 ARST As a result, a thousand of you will flee when only one of them pursues you! When five of their soldiers threaten to kill you, all of you will flee. Only a few of you will be left, like a single flagpole on top of a mountain, or like one single signal flag on a hilltop.” BSB BSB: A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee, until you are left alone like a pole on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.
18 ARST But Yahweh wants to act kindly toward you; he is great because he desires to act mercifully. Do not forget he is a God who acts justly; Yahweh is pleased with those who patiently trust in him. BSB BSB: Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore He rises to show you compassion, for the LORD is a just God. Blessed are all who wait for Him.
19 ARST You people who live in Jerusalem, some day you will not cry anymore. Yahweh will be kind to you when you call out to him for help. He will answer you as soon as he hears you call. BSB BSB: O people in Zion who dwell in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will surely be gracious when you cry for help; when He hears, He will answer you.
20 ARST Although now Yahweh has brought poverty on you, he, your teacher, will not hide himself from you. He will teach you many things clearly. BSB BSB: The Lord will give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, but your Teacher will no longer hide Himself—with your own eyes you will see Him.
21 ARST And you will hear him speak to you to guide you. Right behind you he will say,“This is the road on which you should walk; walk on this road!” BSB BSB: And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.”
22 ARST When that happens, you will destroy all your idols that are covered with silver or gold. You will throw them away like you throw away a filthy rag, and you will say to them,“We do not need you anymore!” BSB BSB: So you will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, saying to them, “Be gone!”
23 ARST If you do that, Yahweh will bless you by giving you good rain at the time that you plant your crops. You will have good harvests and plenty of big fields with grass for your cattle to eat. BSB BSB: Then He will send rain for the seed that you have sown in the ground, and the food that comes from your land will be rich and plentiful. On that day your cattle will graze in open pastures.
24 ARST After the wind blows away the chaff, the oxen and donkeys that pull the plow over your ground will have good grain to eat. BSB BSB: The oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat salted fodder, winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.
25 ARST At that time, when your enemies have been slaughtered and their towers have collapsed, there will be streams flowing down every hill and mountain in Judah. BSB BSB: And from every high mountain and every raised hill, streams of water will flow in the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall.
26 ARST The moon will seem to shine as brightly as the sun, and the sun will seem to shine seven times as brightly as previously. That is what it will be like when Yahweh causes the suffering of his people to cease; it will be as though he is putting bandages on their wounds and healing them. BSB BSB: The light of the moon will be as bright as the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter—like the light of seven days—on the day that the LORD binds up the brokenness of His people and heals the wounds He has inflicted.
27 ARST It is as though we see Yahweh coming from far away; he is extremely angry, and there are thick clouds of smoke around him. By what he says he shows that he is angry; what he says is like a devastating fire. BSB BSB: Behold, the Name of the LORD comes from afar, with burning anger and dense smoke. His lips are full of fury, and His tongue is like a consuming fire.
28 ARST His breath is like a flood that covers his enemies up to their necks. He will separate the nations in order to destroy some of them; it is as though he will put horses’ bridles on them so he can lead them away to destruction. BSB BSB: His breath is like a rushing torrent that rises to the neck. He comes to sift the nations in a sieve of destruction; He bridles the jaws of the peoples to lead them astray.
29 ARST But his people will sing joyfully like they sing during the nights when they celebrate a holy festival. They will be very joyful, like a large group of his people are joyful when they go up to Mount Zion in Jerusalem, along with men playing flutes when they are all going there to worship Yahweh. He is like a huge rock on top of which we Israelite people are safe. BSB BSB: You will sing as on the night of a holy festival, and your heart will rejoice like one who walks to the music of a flute, going up to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.
30 ARST And Yahweh will enable us to hear him speaking powerfully. He will show us that he is very powerful. We will see him smash his enemies. Being very angry, he will descend with a big rainstorm and thunder and hail to punish them. BSB BSB: And the LORD will cause His majestic voice to be heard and His mighty arm to be revealed, striking in angry wrath with a flame of consuming fire, and with cloudburst, storm, and hailstones.
31 ARST The soldiers of Assyria will be terrified when they hear the voice of Yahweh and when he strikes them with his rod. BSB BSB: For Assyria will be shattered at the voice of the LORD; He will strike them with His scepter.
32 ARST And while Yahweh strikes them to punish them, his people will celebrate by playing tambourines and harps. It will be as though Yahweh will lift up his powerful hand and defeat the Assyrian army in battle. BSB BSB: And with every stroke of the rod of punishment that the LORD brings down on them, the tambourines and lyres will sound as He battles with weapons brandished.
33 ARST The Valley of Topheth outside Jerusalem has been prepared for a long time; it is ready for the king of Assyria; the funeral pyre for burning his body is wide and high, and it will be as though Yahweh will light the fire with his breath, which will come out like a stream of burning sulfur. BSB BSB: For Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its funeral pyre is deep and wide, with plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.
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