Woe to Those Who Go Down to Egypt
1 Woe31:1 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 fight31:4 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 people31:6 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.