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