1 Woe to the sons that leave, saith the Lord, to make counsel, but not of me; to cover themselves with a covering, and not by my spirit, adding sin unto sin!
2 They leave to descend into Egypt and have not asked for a word from my mouth, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh and to place their hope in the shadow of Egypt.
3 But the strength of Pharaoh shall become your shame, and the hope in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
4 When his princes shall be in Zoan, and his ambassadors have come to Hanes,
5 all shall be ashamed of the people that shall not profit them, nor be a help, nor bring them increase, but a shame, and also a reproach.
6 The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent; they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.
7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose; therefore I have cried out concerning this that your strength should be to sit still.
8 Now go, write this vision before them on a tablet and note it in a book that it may remain unto the last day, for ever, unto all ages.
9 That this is a rebellious people, lying sons, sons that did not desire to hear the law of the Lord:
10 Who say to those that see, See not; and to the prophets, Do not prophesy right things unto us, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to leave our presence.
12 Therefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in violence and perversity and build upon this:
13 Therefore this sin shall be to you as an open wall ready to fall and as a breach in a high defence, whose breaking comes suddenly at an instant.
14 And your destruction shall be as the breaking of a potter’s vessel that without mercy is broken to pieces so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it even a shard to take fire from the hearth or to take water from the well.
15 For the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel has said; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.
16 But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be even more swift.
17 One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five ye shall all flee: until ye are left as a mast upon the top of a mountain and as a banner of example on a hill.
18 And therefore will the Lord wait for you, that he may have mercy on you, and therefore will he be exalted having mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all those that wait for him.
19 For the people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he who has mercy shall show mercy unto thee; at the voice of thy cry when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.
20 But the Lord shall give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction; thy rain shall never more be taken away, but thine eyes shall see thy rain:
21 Then thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, that ye not turn to the right hand and that ye not turn to the left hand.
22 Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver and the protection of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Go away from here.
23 Then he shall give the rain unto thy planting when thou shalt sow the ground; and bread of the fruit of the earth, and it shall be fat and fertile: in that day thy cattle shall feed in large pastures.
24 Thine oxen and thine asses that work the ground shall eat clean grain, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.
25 And there shall be upon every high mountain and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers shall fall.
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord binds up the breach of his people and heals the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar; his face is blazing and difficult to gaze upon: his lips are full of indignation and his tongue as a devouring fire:
28 And his Spirit, as an overflowing stream, shall break even unto the neck to sift the Gentiles with the sieve of vanity and to put a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.
29 Ye shall have a song, as in the night in which the Passover is kept and gladness of heart as when one goes with a flute to come into the mountain of the Lord to the mighty One of Israel.
30 And the Lord shall cause the power of his voice to be heard and shall cause the lighting down of his arm to be seen, with the indignation of his countenance and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering and tempest and hailstones.
31 For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.
32 And in every evil place there shall be a staff that the Lord shall cause to lay upon him with tambourines and harps: and with the strength of heaven he will fight against her.
33 For Tophet is ordained of yesterday for the king of Babylon, it is also prepared; he has deepened and enlarged the pile of her fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone kindles it.