Isaiah, Chapter 31

1. Ha! Those who go down to Egypt for help And rely upon horses! They have put their trust in abundance of chariots, In vast numbers of riders, And they have not turned to the Holy One of Israel, They have not sought the LORD.    2. But He too is wise! He has brought on misfortune, And has not canceled His word. So He shall rise against the house of evildoers, And the allies of the workers of iniquity.    3. For the Egyptians are man, not God, And their horses are flesh, not spirit; And when the LORD stretches out His arm, The helper shall trip And the helped one shall fall, And both shall perish together.    4. For thus the LORD has said to me: As a lion -- a great beast -- Growls over its prey And, when the shepherds gather In force against him, Is not dismayed by their cries Nor cowed by their noise -- So the LORD of Hosts will descend to make war Against the mount and the hill of Zion.    5. Like the birds that fly, even so will the LORD of Hosts shield Jerusalem, shielding and saving, protecting and rescuing.    6. Return, O children of Israel, to Him to whom they have been so shamefully false;    7. for in that day everyone will reject his idols of silver and idols of gold, which your hands have made for your guilt.    8. Then Assyria shall fall, Not by the sword of man; A sword not of humans shall devour him. He shall shrivel before the sword, And his young men pine away.    9. His rock shall melt with terror, And his officers shall collapse from weakness -- Declares the LORD, who has a fire in Zion, Who has an oven in Jerusalem.