Woe to Those Who Go Down to Egypt
Woe to athose who go down to Egypt for help
and rely on horses,
who btrust in chariots because they are many
and in horsemen because they are very strong,
but cdo not look to the Holy One of Israel
or consult the Lord!
2 And ayet he is wise and brings disaster;
bhe does not call back his words,
but cwill arise against the house of the evildoers
and against the helpers of dthose who work iniquity.
3 The Egyptians are man, and not God,
and their horses aare 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,
a“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,
bso the Lord of hosts will come down
to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill.
5 aLike birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts
will protect Jerusalem;
he will protect and deliver it;
he will spare and rescue it.”
6 aTurn to him from whom people have bdeeply revolted, O children of Israel. 7 For in that day aeveryone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.
8 a“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 bput to forced labor.
9 aHis rock shall pass away in terror,
and his officers desert the standard in panic,”
declares the Lord, whose bfire is in Zion,
and whose cfurnace is in Jerusalem.