15. Woe unto them that hide plans deep from Jehovah, and their doing occurs in a dark place, and they say, Who saw us then, and who know about us? 16. Oh for your perversity! It is to be regarded as potter’s clay; that a work could say to its maker, He has not made me; and an image to its sculptor, He does not understand it!
17. Is it not yet a very little, and Lebanon is turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field esteemed as a forest? 18. And in that day the deaf hear scripture words, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness. 19. And the joy of the humble increases in Jehovah, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. 20. For tyrants are gone, and it is over with scoffers; and all who think evil are rooted out, 21. who condemn a man for a word, and lay snares for him that is free-spoken in the gate, and overthrow the righteous through shameful lies.
22. Therefore thus saith Jehovah of the house of Jacob, He who redeemed Abraham: Jacob shall not henceforth be ashamed, nor shall his face turn pale any more. 23. For when he, when his children see the work of My hands in the midst of him, they will sanctify My name and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shudder before the God of Israel. 24. And those who were of an erring spirit discern understanding, and murmurers accept instruction.
The Third Woe.—The Momentous Result of the Alliance with Egypt.—Chap. xxx.
1. Woe to the stubborn children, saith Jehovah, to drive plans, and not by My impulse, and to plait alliance, and not according to My spirit, to heap sin upon sin; 2. that go away to travel down to Egypt, without having asked My mouth, to fly to Pharaoh’s shelter, and to conceal themselves under the shadow of Egypt. 3. And Pharaoh’s shelter becomes a shame to them, and the concealment under the shadow of Egypt is a disgrace. 4. For Judah’s princes have appeared in Zoan, and his ambassadors arrive in Haran. 5. They will all have to be ashamed of a people useless to them, that brings no help and no use, but shame, and also reproach.
6. Oracle concerning the water-oxen of the south: Through a land of distress and confinement, whence the lioness and lion, adders and flying dragons; they carry their possessions on the shoulders of asses’ foals, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a nation that profits nothing. 7. And Egypt, worthlessly and hollowly will they help; therefore I call this Egypt, Great-mouth sits still.
8. Now go, write it on a table with them, and note it in a book, and let it stand there for future days, for ever, to eternity.
9. For it is a refractory people, lying children, children who do not like to hear the instruction of Jehovah; 10. who say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things! Speak flatteries to us! 11. Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, remove from our face the Holy One of Israel.
12. Therefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye dislike this word, and put your trust in force and shufflings, and rely upon this; 13. therefore will this iniquity be to like a falling breach, bent forwards in a high-towering wall, which falls to ruin suddenly, very suddenly. 14. And He smites it to pieces, as a potter’s vessel falls to pieces when they smash it without sparing, and of which, when it lies smashed to pieces there, you cannot find a sherd to fetch fire with from the hearth, or to take water with out of a cistern.
15. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, Through turning and rest ye would be helped; your strength would show itself in quietness and confidence; but ye would not. 16. And ye said, No, but we will fly upon horses; therefore ye shall flee: and, We will ride upon race-horses; therefore your pursuers will race. 17. A thousand, ye will flee from the threatening of one, from the threatening of five, until ye are reduced to a remnant, like a pine upon the top of the mountain, and like a banner upon the hill.