Isaiah 31

Help Not in Egypt but in God

1Woe to those who go down to 1Egypt for help And 2rely on horses, And trust in chariots because they are many And in horsemen because they are very strong, But they do not 3look to the 4Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord!2Yet He also is 5wise and will 6bring disaster And does 7not retract His words, But will arise against the house of 8evildoers And against the help of the 9workers of iniquity.3Now the Egyptians are 10men and not God, And their 11horses are flesh and not spirit; So the Lord will 12stretch out His hand, And 13he who helps will stumble And he who is helped will fall, And all of them will come to an end together.

4For thus says the Lord to me, “As the 14lion or the young lion growls over his prey, Against which a band of shepherds is called out, And he will not be terrified at their voice nor disturbed at their noise, So will the Lord of hosts come down to wage 15war on Mount Zion and on its hill.”5Like 16flying 17birds so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will 18protect and deliver it; He will pass over and rescue it.

619Return to Him from whom 20you have 21deeply defected, O sons of Israel. 7For in that day every man will 22cast away his silver idols and his gold idols, which your 23sinful hands have made for you as 24a sin.8And the 25Assyrian will fall by a sword not of man, And a 26sword not of man will devour him. So he will 2728not escape the sword, And his young men will become 29forced laborers.9“His 30rock will pass away because of panic, And his princes will be terrified at the 31standard,” Declares the Lord, whose 32fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.