Isaiah 31

¹ Woe to those who go down to Egypt to seek help there, who build their hopes on cavalry, who rely on the number of chariots and on the strength of mounted men, but never look to the Holy One of Israel nor consult Yahweh.

² Yet he too is skilled in working disaster, and he has not gone back on his word; he will rise against the house of the wicked, and against the protectors of evil men.

³ The Egyptian is a man, not a god, his horses are flesh, not spirit; Yahweh will stretch out his hand to make the protector stumble; the protected will fall and all will perish together.

⁴ Yes, this is what Yahweh has said to me: As a lion or lion cub growls over its prey, and even when a whole band of shepherds gathers against him, he is not frightened by their shouting or alarmed by the noise they make, just so will Yahweh Sabaoth descend to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill.

⁵ Like hovering birds so will Yahweh Sabaoth protect Jerusalem, he will protect it, rescue it, spare it and save it.

⁶ Come back to the one you have so wickedly betrayed, sons of Israel.

⁷ Yes, that day, every one of you will throw away the silver idols and gold idols which you have made with your guilty hands.

⁸ Assyria will fall by a sword that is not man’s, will be devoured by a sword that is more than human, he will flee before the sword and his young warriors will be enslaved.

⁹ In his terror he will abandon his rock, and his panic-stricken leaders desert their standard. It is Yahweh who speaks, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.