1Woe to rebellious children, declares YHWH, who carry out a counsel, but not from me, and who pour out a covering, but not of my spirit (ruach), so as to add sin upon sin;
2who walk to go down to Egypt, but my mouth they have not asked, to take refuge in the stronghold of Pharaoh, and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
3And the stronghold of Pharaoh shall become for you a shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt a disgrace.
4For his princes are at Zoan, and his messengers reach Hanes.
5All are put to shame because of a people who cannot profit them, who are no help and no profit, but a shame and also a reproach.
6The burden of the beasts of the Negev. Through a land of trouble and anguish, from which come the lioness and the lion, the viper and the flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people who cannot profit.
7And Egypt, vanity and emptiness they help; therefore I have called this one, "Rahab they are, a sitting still."
8Now go, write it on a tablet before them, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for a latter day, forever, to eternity.
9For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who are not willing to hear the Torah of YHWH;
10who say to the seers, "You shall not see," and to the visionaries, "You shall not envision for us right things; speak to us smooth things, envision illusions;
11turn aside from the way, swerve from the path; cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us."
12Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel: Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and crookedness, and lean on it,
13therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach about to fall, bulging out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant.
14And he shall break it like the breaking of a potter's vessel, shattered without sparing, so that there shall not be found among its fragments a shard to scoop fire from the hearth, or to skim water from a cistern.
15For thus said my Lord (Adonai) YHWH, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest you shall be saved (yasha); in quietness and in trust shall be your strength; but you were not willing.
16And you said, "No, for on horses we will flee"—therefore you shall flee; and, "On swift ones we will ride"—therefore your pursuers shall be swift.
17One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five you shall flee, until you are left like a pole on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.
18And therefore YHWH waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he is exalted to have compassion on you; for YHWH is a God of judgment (mishpat); happy are all who wait for him.
19For a people in Zion shall dwell in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more; he will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he answers you.
20And my Lord (Adonai) will give you bread of adversity and water of affliction, but your Teacher shall no longer hide himself, and your eyes shall see your Teacher.
21And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right and when you turn to the left.
22And you shall defile the overlay of your silver graven images, and the covering of your golden molten image; you shall scatter them like a menstruous thing; "Out!" you shall say to it.
23And he shall give the rain of your seed with which you sow the ground (adamah), and bread, the produce of the ground (adamah); and it shall be rich and fat; in that day your cattle shall graze in a wide pasture.
24And the oxen and the young donkeys that work (avad) the ground (adamah) shall eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork.
25And there shall be on every high mountain, and on every lofty hill, streams, channels of water, in the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall.
26And the light of the moon shall be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, like the light of seven days, in the day that YHWH binds up the fracture of his people and heals the wound of his blow.
27Behold, the name of YHWH comes from afar, his anger burning and heavy with rising smoke; his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is like a devouring fire,
28and his spirit (ruach) is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of futility; and a bridle leading astray is on the jaws of the peoples.
29The song shall be for you as in the night when a feast (chag) is sanctified, and gladness of heart, like one who walks with the flute to come to the mountain of YHWH, to the Rock of Israel.
30And YHWH shall cause the majesty of his voice to be heard, and the descent of his arm to be seen, in raging anger and a flame of devouring fire, with cloudburst and storm and hailstone.
31For at the voice of YHWH Asshur shall be shattered; with the rod he strikes.
32And every passing of the staff of doom, which YHWH brings to rest upon him, shall be with timbrels and harps; and with battles of brandishing he fights against them.
33For a Topheth is arranged from yesterday; indeed, for the king it is prepared; he has made it deep and wide; its pyre is fire and much wood; the breath (neshamah) of YHWH, like a stream of brimstone, kindles it.