1. Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, that take counsel, but not from me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
2. That 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!
3. Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
4. For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.
5. They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.
6. The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from which come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures upon the humps of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.
7. For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried out concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.
8. Now go, write it before them in a tablet, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
9. That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
10. Who say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Do not prophesy right things to us, speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
11. Go off the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
12. Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on them:
13. Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a broken place ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant.
14. And he shall break it like 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 shard to take fire from the hearth, or to take water with out of the pit.
15. For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and you would not.
16. But you said, No; for we will flee on horses; therefore shall you flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall those who pursue you be swift.
17. One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall you flee: till you be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as a banner on a hill.
18. And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious to you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy on you: for the LORD is a God of justice: blessed are all those who wait for him.
19. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: you shall weep no more: he will be very gracious to you at the voice of your cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer you.
20. And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet your teachers shall not be removed into a corner any more, but your eyes shall see your teachers:
21. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk in it, when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left.
22. You shall defile also the covering of your sculptured images of silver, and the coating of your molten images of gold: you shall throw them away as a menstruous cloth; you shall say to it, Get thee away.
23. Then shall he give the rain for your seed, that you shall sow the ground with; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plentiful: in that day shall your cattle feed in large pastures.
24. The oxen likewise and the young donkeys that plow the ground shall eat clean feed, 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 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 broken place of his people, and heals the stroke of their wound.
27. Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
28. And 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.
29. You shall have a song, as in the night when a holy festival is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.
30. And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the downward stroke of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, 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 struck with a rod.
32. And in every place where the firmly fixed staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in tumultuous battles will he fight with it.
33. For Tophet is ordained from of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he has made it deep and large: there is a pile of fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, kindles it.
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