Isaiah 30

The LORD says: "Trouble is coming to my rebellious children. They make plans, but the plans do not come from me. They make alliances, but not by my Spirit, and so they pile sin on top of sin.

1Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:

NoteThe setting is late-eighth-century BC Judah. Assyria, the great military power of the day, was overrunning the smaller kingdoms of the region, and Judah's government was negotiating a military alliance with Egypt to resist it. The whole chapter is aimed at that policy.

2They set out for Egypt without asking me a thing. They want the power of Pharaoh, Egypt's king, to keep them safe. They want to hide in Egypt's shade.

2That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!

Note"Shade" is a standard image for protection in a place where the sun is dangerous; to sit in someone's shadow is to be under their power and their shelter at once. Pharaoh was the title of Egypt's king, not a personal name.

3So Pharaoh's protection will turn into your shame, and hiding in Egypt's shade will turn into your disgrace.

3Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.

4Their officials have already gone as far as Zoan, and their messengers have arrived at Hanes.

4For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.

NoteZoan (also called Tanis) lay in the Nile delta, near Egypt's northern border; Hanes was well to the south. The detail means the envoys had not merely crossed the frontier: they had traveled deep into Egypt, and the negotiations were far advanced.

5Every one of them will be put to shame, because these people can do nothing for them. Egypt will be no help and no gain, only shame and insult."

5They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.

6This is the message about the pack animals crossing the dry southern country. They travel through a land of hardship and pain, where lions live, and vipers, and darting snakes. They carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a nation that will do them no good.

6The 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.

NoteThe "south" is the Negev, the dry country between Judah and Egypt. The animals are a diplomatic caravan carrying tribute, the payment that bought an alliance. "Darting snakes" translates a Hebrew word (saraph, "burning one") for a serpent whose bite burned; the older English "fiery flying serpent" reflects a puzzling term rather than an actual flying animal.

7Egypt's help is useless and empty. That is why I have said of her: her strength is to sit still.

7For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.

NoteThe Hebrew here gives Egypt a mocking nickname that the King James wording hides: Rahab, the name of a sea monster of ancient story, used elsewhere as a byword for Egypt. The joke is that the great thrashing dragon does nothing at all, "Rahab who sits still."

8Now go and write this on a tablet where they can see it. Carve it into a scroll, so it will stand for the days ahead, as a witness forever and ever.

8Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:

9Write that these are rebellious people, children who lie, children who refuse to listen to the LORD's teaching.

9That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:

10They say to the seers, "Stop seeing visions." They say to the prophets, "Do not tell us what is true. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy illusions.

10Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

NoteA "seer" was a prophet, named for the visions he saw. The demand is not for silence but for a different message: the prophets are being asked to work to order.

11Get off this road. Turn aside from this path. Stop putting the Holy One of Israel in front of us."

11Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.

Note"The Holy One of Israel" is Isaiah's characteristic title for God, used in this book far more than anywhere else. The complaint in this verse is that the prophet keeps putting that name in the people's way.

12So this is what the Holy One of Israel says: "You have rejected this message. You trust in crushing others and in twisted dealing, and you lean on that.

12Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:

13So this guilt of yours will be like a crack in a high wall, a bulge that is ready to give way. The wall will collapse suddenly, in a moment.

13Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.

NoteCity walls were built of mud brick on a stone footing. Water working into the brick makes a section swell outward, and a bulging wall can stand for a long time and then drop all at once without further warning. That is the point of the image.

14It will shatter the way a clay jar shatters, smashed without mercy. Among the pieces there will not be one shard big enough to carry coals from a fireplace or to scoop water from a cistern."

14And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.

NoteBroken pottery was the everyday disposable material of the ancient world: a curved shard served to carry live coals from one hearth to another, or to dip water. A jar smashed so finely that not one usable piece survives is destruction beyond any salvage. A cistern was a pit cut in rock to store rainwater.

15This is what the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, said: "If you turn back to me and rest, you will be saved. Your strength will come from staying quiet and trusting. But you were not willing.

15For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.

Note"Returning" translates a Hebrew word meaning to turn back or go back the way you came, used both of physically returning home and of changing course after going wrong. The advice is political as well as moral: cancel the embassy to Egypt.

16You said, "No. We will get away on horses." So you will have to run. You said, "We will ride fast horses." So the ones chasing you will be faster.

16But 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 swift.

NoteEgypt's chief military export was horses and chariots, the heavy armament Judah lacked. The reply turns the purchase into a curse: the horses bought for war will be used for running away.

17A thousand of you will run from the threat of one man. At the threat of five, all of you will run. In the end you will be left like a bare pole on a mountaintop, like a flag standing alone on a hill.

17One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.

NoteThe image is of a single stripped pole left on a hilltop after an army has gone, a flagstaff with no army under it. The numbers reverse the promise of Deuteronomy 32:30, where one man of Israel was to chase a thousand.

18So the LORD waits, wanting to be kind to you. He rises up to show you mercy, for the LORD is a God who judges rightly. Happy are all who wait for him.

18And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.

19You people in Zion, living in Jerusalem, you will not weep any longer. He will be very kind to you when you cry out for help. The moment he hears you, he will answer.

19For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.

NoteZion was originally the fortified ridge of Jerusalem and came to stand for the city as a whole, and especially for the temple hill.

20The Lord may give you bread of hardship and water of suffering. Even so, your teacher will not be hidden away in a corner any longer. You will see your teacher with your own eyes.

20And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers:

Note"Bread of hardship and water of suffering" is the ration of a prisoner, the bare minimum, and no more. In the second half, the Hebrew word for "teacher" can be read either as a plural (your teachers, the prophets, no longer driven into hiding) or as a singular referring to God himself; translations divide, and the verse can carry either sense.

21Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, "This is the way. Walk in it."

21And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

22Then you will treat your idols as filthy things: the silver plating on your carved images and the gold covering on your cast images. You will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, "Get out."

22Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.

NoteIdols were typically wooden cores plated with precious metal. A menstrual cloth was ritually unclean and untouchable, something you disposed of without a second look; the comparison is about revulsion and permanent discard, not about women.

23Then he will send rain for the seed you plant in the ground, and the food your land produces will be rich and plentiful. On that day your cattle will graze in wide pastures.

23Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.

24The oxen and the young donkeys that plow the ground will eat seasoned feed, cleaned with the shovel and the winnowing fork.

24The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.

Note"Seasoned feed" is fodder mixed with salt or sour herbs, better food than working animals normally got. Winnowing means tossing threshed grain into the air with a shovel or fork so the wind carries off the chaff; grain treated this way was clean enough for people. Even the plow oxen eat at human standard.

25On the day of the great killing, when the towers fall, streams of water will run down every high mountain and every raised hill.

25And 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 fall.

NoteThe towers are fortified strongholds and siege towers, the hardware of the empire that is falling.

26The moon will shine as brightly as the sun, and the sun will shine seven times brighter, like the light of seven days at once. That is the day the LORD bandages the break in his people and heals the wound he struck them with.

26Moreover 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 bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.

27Look, the name of the LORD comes from far away, burning with his anger, and the weight of it is heavy. His lips are full of fury. His tongue is like a fire that eats up everything.

27Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:

Note"The name of the LORD" stands for the LORD himself arriving in person; in Hebrew a name carries the presence and character of its bearer. The phrase behind "the weight of it is heavy" is obscure: it may mean a heavy burden of anger, or the dense smoke rising with him.

28His breath is like a flooding river that rises as high as the neck. He comes to shake the nations in a sieve that leaves nothing, and to put a bit in the mouths of the peoples that drags them off course.

28And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.

NoteGrain was sifted to separate what was kept from what was thrown out; a sieve "of destruction" or "of nothingness" keeps back nothing at all. A bit and bridle were what you put in an animal's mouth to steer it where it did not want to go, and the Assyrians were known for leading prisoners of war on cords fastened to the face.

29But you will have a song, like the song on the night of a holy festival. Your heart will be glad, like someone walking to the sound of a flute, going up to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.

29Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.

NoteThe night-time festival is most likely Passover, kept overnight with singing. Pilgrims traveled up to the temple in Jerusalem to the sound of pipes; the celebration described is the ordinary joy of that journey, not a special vision.

30The LORD will make his majestic voice heard. He will show his arm coming down, with furious anger, with flames of fire that eat up everything, with a cloudburst, a storm, and hailstones.

30And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.

31At the voice of the LORD, Assyria will be beaten down, Assyria who used to strike others with a rod.

31For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.

NoteAssyria was the empire, centered in what is now northern Iraq, that dominated the Near East in Isaiah's lifetime and had already destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel. The "rod" is the stick of a master beating a slave, Assyria had done to others exactly what is now done to it.

32Every time the appointed rod comes down on Assyria, the LORD's own blow, it will fall to the sound of tambourines and harps, while he fights against them with weapons raised high.

32And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.

NoteThe "appointed rod" is a punishment fixed in advance. Tambourines and harps were festival instruments; the strange picture is of blows falling in time to music, as though the defeat were a religious celebration. "Weapons raised high" renders a phrase about brandishing or shaking, of uncertain exact force.

33Tophet has been made ready long ago. Yes, it is prepared for the king. It has been dug deep and wide, and the fire pile there has plenty of wood. The LORD's breath, like a river of burning sulfur, sets it on fire.

33For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

NoteTophet was a burning-place in the valley just outside Jerusalem where children had been sacrificed by fire. Here it is pictured instead as a vast fire pit prepared for a king, and the Hebrew word for "king" (melek) is only a vowel away from Molech, the god associated with those sacrifices, so the line may be a deliberate play on both. "Burning sulfur" is the substance older translations call brimstone.