Isaiah 31
Woe to Those Who Rely on Egypt
1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,
who rely on horses,
1 who trust in their abundance of chariots
and in their multitude of horsemen.
1 They do not look to the Holy One of Israel;
they do not seek the LORD.
2 Yet He too is wise and brings disaster;
He does not call back His words.
2 He will rise up against the house of the wicked
and against the allies of evildoers.
3 But the Egyptians are men, not God;
their horses are flesh, not spirit.
3 When the LORD stretches out His hand,
the helper will stumble,
3 and the one he helps will fall;
both will perish together.
4 For this is what the LORD has said to me:
“Like a lion roaring
4 or a young lion over its prey—
and though a band of shepherds is called out against it,
4 it is not terrified by their shouting
or subdued by their clamor—
4 so the LORD of Hosts will come down
to do battle on Mount Zion and its heights.
5 Like birds hovering overhead,
so the LORD of Hosts will protect Jerusalem.
5 He will shield it and deliver it;
He will pass over it and preserve it.”
6 Return to the One against whom you have so blatantly rebelled, O children of Israel.7 For on that day, every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold that your own hands have sinfully made.
8 “Then Assyria will fall,
but not by the sword of man;
8 a sword will devour them,
but not one made by mortals.
8 They will flee before the sword,
and their young men will be put to forced labor.
9 Their rock will pass away for fear,
and their princes will panic at the sight of the battle standard,”
9 declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion,
whose furnace is in Jerusalem.