Isaiah 31

Isaiah 31

Alliance with Egypt Is Futile

1Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help[#Ps 20.7; Isa 2.7; 10.17; 30.2; Ezek 17.15; Dan 9.13]

and who rely on horses,

who trust in chariots because they are many

and in horsemen because they are very strong,

but do not look to the Holy One of Israel

or consult the Lord !

2Yet he is wise and can bring disaster;[#Num 23.19; Isa 14.20; 22.14; 28.29; 45.7; Rom 16.27]

he does not depart from his words

but will rise against the house of the evildoers

and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.

3The Egyptians are human and not God;[#Isa 9.17; 30.5, 7; 36.9; Ezek 28.9]

their horses are flesh and not spirit.

When the Lord stretches out his hand,

the helper will stumble, and the one helped will fall,

and they will all perish together.

4For thus the Lord said to me,[#Isa 42.13; Hos 11.10; Am 3.8]

“As a lion or a young lion growls over its prey

and, when a band of shepherds is called out against it,

is not terrified by their shouting

or daunted at their noise,

so the Lord of hosts will come down

to fight upon Mount Zion and upon its hill.

5Like birds hovering overhead, so the Lord of hosts[#Ps 91.4; Isa 17.13]

will protect Jerusalem;

he will protect and deliver it;

he will spare and rescue it.”

6Turn back to him whom you have deeply betrayed, O people of Israel.[#Isa 1.2, 5; 44.22; #31.6 Heb they]

7For on that day all of you shall throw away your idols of silver and idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.[#Isa 2.20]

8“Then the Assyrian shall fall by a sword not of mortals,[#Isa 10.12; 14.2; 21.15; 66.16]

and a sword not of humans shall devour him;

he shall flee from the sword,

and his young men shall be put to forced labor.

9His rock shall pass away in terror,[#Deut 32.31, 37; Isa 5.26; 10.16]

and his officers desert the standard in panic,”

says the Lord , whose fire is in Zion

and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, copyright © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Published by: National Council of the Churches of Christ