Isaiah 31

Woe to Those Who Go Down to Egypt

1 Woe*31:1 Or Ah, to *ch. 30:2;36:6those who go down to Egypt for help

and rely on horses,

who *Ps. 20:7;[ch. 30:16;36:9] trust in chariots because they are many

and in horsemen because they are very strong,

but *[ch. 22:11]do not look to the Holy One of Israel

or consult the Lord!

2 And *[Ps. 94:8-10] yet he is wise and brings disaster;

*[Num. 23:19] he does not call back his words,

but *[ch. 22:14] will arise against the house of the evildoers

and against the helpers of *Ps. 94:4those who work iniquity.

3 The Egyptians are man, and not God,

and their horses *Jer. 17:5are flesh, and not spirit.

When the Lord stretches out his hand,

the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall,

and they will all perish together.

4 For thus the Lord said to me,

*Hos. 11:10;Amos 1:2;3:8"As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey,

and when a band of shepherds is called out against him

he is not terrified by their shouting

or daunted at their noise,

*[ch. 42:13]so the Lord of hosts will come down

to fight*31:4 The Hebrew words for hosts and to fight sound alike on Mount Zion and on its hill.

5 *Deut. 32:11;[Ps. 91:4]Like birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts

will protect Jerusalem;

he will protect and deliver it;

he will spare and rescue it."

6 *[ch. 30:15] Turn to him from whom people*31:6 Hebrew they have *ch. 1:5deeply revolted, O children of Israel. 7 For in that day *ch. 2:20;30:22everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.

8 *ch. 37:36"And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man;

and a sword, not of man, shall devour him;

and he shall flee from the sword,

and his young men shall be *[Gen. 49:15;Prov. 12:24]put to forced labor.

9 *Deut. 32:31;See ch. 30:29His rock shall pass away in terror,

and his officers desert the standard in panic,"

declares the Lord, whose *ch. 30:33fire is in Zion,

and whose *Ps. 21:9;Mal. 4:1furnace is in Jerusalem.