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Isaiah 30

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Condemnation of the Egyptian Alliance 1–7

1
Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: ​
2
That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! ​
3
Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. ​
4
For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes. ​
5
They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.
6
The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them. ​
7
For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still. ​

The People Reject God's Word 8–17

8
Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever: ​
9
That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: ​
10
Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: ​
11
Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. ​
12
Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon: ​
13
Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. ​
14
And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.
15
For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not. ​
16
But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift. ​
17
One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill. ​

The Lord Promises Mercy and Restoration 18–26

18
And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him. ​
19
For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.
20
And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: ​
21
And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. ​
22
Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence. ​
23
Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures. ​
24
The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.
25
And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. ​
26
Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound. ​

God's Fiery Judgment on Assyria 27–33

27
Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire: ​
28
And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err. ​
29
Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel. ​
30
And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.
31
For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod. ​
32
And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.
33
For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Isaiah 30

Verse 1

cover with a covering — Massekah is a poured covering, and in v.22 the same noun is 'molten images'. The 'counsel' they take is not the LORD's, and the 'covering' is not 'of my spirit': a league of their own making. 'Rebellious' is sorer, stubborn, and the sin is added to sin. Isa 31:1 repeats the woe against those who 'go down to Egypt for help'.

Verse 2

have not asked at my mouth — Counsel was to be asked 'before the LORD' (Num 27:21), and Israel's men failed in it with the Gibeonites when they 'asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD' (Josh 9:14). The king was forbidden to send the people back to Egypt for horses (Deut 17:16). The 'shadow' (tsel) Egypt offers is set against the shadow of God's wings (Ps 36:7).

Verse 3

the strength of Pharaoh be your shame — The two outcomes are named by the same words that had named the hope: 'strength' and 'trust in the shadow' become 'shame' (boshet) and 'confusion' (kelimmah). The Assyrian commander made the same charge: 'Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt' (Isa 36:6); Jeremiah's word is, 'Cursed be the man that trusteth in man' (Jer 17:5).

Verse 4

Zoan… Hanes — Both are in Egypt. Zoan is the city 'Hebron was built seven years before' (Num 13:22), and Isa 19:11 calls its princes fools. Hanes is found only here. The verse reports the embassy as already there: the 'princes' at Zoan and the 'ambassadors' (malak, messengers) arrived at Hanes.

Verse 6

The burden of the beasts of the south — A 'burden' (massa) is both a load and an oracle: the beasts carry treasure through 'the land of trouble and anguish' to Egypt, past the 'viper and fiery flying serpent' (saraph; compare Deut 8:15). Isa 14:29 uses the same phrase. The cargo is for 'a people that shall not profit them', as v.5 says: 'a people that could not profit them'.

Verse 7

Their strength is to sit still — 'Strength' is rahab, bluster; Rahab is also a name by which Scripture speaks of Egypt (Ps 87:4). The meaning is that Egypt's promises are loud and her help idle: 'help in vain' (hebel, a breath). At the sea Israel had been told to 'stand still' and see the LORD's salvation (Ex 14:13); here the help is a blusterer that sits still.

Verse 8

write it before them in a table — The word is to be set down as a witness: a 'table' (luach, tablet) and 'a book' (sepher), as Isaiah had earlier written on 'a great roll' (Isa 8:1). Chaqaq, 'note it', is to engrave. 'For the time to come for ever and ever' makes it a testimony for later days; Habakkuk is told likewise to 'Write the vision' (Hab 2:2).

Verse 9

lying children — 'Rebellious' here is meri (bitterness, rebellion), a different word from the sorer of v.1. 'Lying' (kachash) is false dealing, and the ones who 'will not hear' (abah, to be willing) are the ones of v.15, 'ye would not', where the same verb is used. The 'law' is the torah, from the verb that gives 'teachers' in v.20.

Verse 10

speak unto us smooth things — The people tell the seers (roeh) 'See not' and the prophets (chozeh) 'Prophesy not unto us right things'. 'Smooth things' (chalaqqot) is flattery, the message Jer 23:17 describes: 'Ye shall have peace'. Paul foretells the same demand: 'after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears' (2 Tim 4:3).

Verse 11

cause the Holy One of Israel to cease — Their request is to be rid of the Holy One himself. The title stands in Isa 30:11, 12 and 15, and in 25 verses of Isaiah in all. 'Cease' (shabath) is the verb of the Sabbath rest. 'Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path' is their word to the prophets of v.10. Compare Job 21:14, 'Depart from us'.

Verse 12

trust in oppression and perverseness — The word they 'despise' (maas) is the word of the LORD; the same verb stands in Isa 5:24, 'cast away the law of the LORD of hosts'. 'Oppression' (osheq) and 'perverseness' (neloz, twistedness) are what they lean (shaan) on instead; Isa 31:1 uses the same verb of those who 'stay on horses'.

Verse 13

a breach ready to fall — The 'breaking' (sheber) comes 'suddenly at an instant', as of a bulging wall; the same word is the 'breach' that the LORD binds up in v.26. Ps 62:3 uses the same image of the doomed, 'as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence'; Ezek 13:10 speaks of a wall daubed with 'untempered morter' by those who cry 'Peace'.

Verse 15

In returning and rest shall ye be saved — Shubah, returning, is found only here: the turn back to the LORD. 'Rest' (nachath), 'quietness' (hashqet) and 'confidence' (bitchah) are the opposite of the flight of v.16. Isa 32:17 states the result, 'the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever'. The verse ends with the same verb as v.9: 'ye would not'.

Verse 16

we will flee upon horses — Their choice of horses is the one Isa 31:1 condemns, 'stay on horses'. The wordplay is exact: those who ride the 'swift' (qal) will find their pursuers 'swift' (qalal, the same root). 'Flee' (nus) appears twice here and again in v.17: they choose flight, and flight is what they get.

Verse 17

One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one — The covenant reversed. The promise was 'One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the LORD your God, he it is that fighteth for you' (Josh 23:10), and the warning, 'How should one chase a thousand… except their Rock had sold them' (Deut 32:30). The survivors are left as a solitary 'beacon' (toren, a mast or pole) on a mountain top.

Verse 18

will the LORD wait — Chakah, to wait, is said first of the LORD and then of those who wait for him: 'blessed are all they that wait for him'. The delay of judgment is also the time for grace, 'that he may be gracious'. 'Therefore' stands twice, taking the sentence of vv.16–17 and turning it. Compare Isa 8:17 and Lam 3:25, 'The LORD is good unto them that wait for him'.

Verse 20

the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction — The words recall Micaiah's prison fare, 'bread of affliction and… water of affliction' (1 Kings 22:27). The 'teachers' (moreh, from the verb that gives torah) will no more be 'removed into a corner', which answers the silencing of the seers in v.10. The opposite threat is a famine 'of hearing the words of the LORD' (Amos 8:11).

Verse 21

This is the way, walk ye in it — The word comes from 'behind thee', and the teacher is no longer hidden. It answers the command not to 'turn aside to the right hand or to the left' (Deut 5:32), and the LORD's promise, 'I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go' (Ps 32:8). Isa 35:8 calls the road 'The way of holiness'.

Verse 22

Get thee hence — The silver and gold 'covering' (tsippuy) of the idols is made unclean (tame), and they are cast away 'as a menstruous cloth' (daveh); 'Get thee hence' is literally 'go out'. 'Molten images' is massekah, the noun behind the 'covering' of v.1. Isa 31:7 has the same casting away of idols 'of silver' and 'of gold'.

Verse 23

the rain of thy seed — The LORD's gifts of rain follow the old promise: 'I will give you the rain of your land in his due season' (Deut 11:14). The 'increase of the earth' is 'fat and plenteous', and the cattle feed in 'large' pastures (rachab), the same verb as the 'large' Tophet in v.33. Zech 8:12 says likewise, 'the seed shall be prosperous'.

Verse 25

rivers and streams of waters — 'Rivers' (pelag) and 'streams' (yuval) flow on the high mountain, the very heights that Isa 2:14–15 names for the day of the LORD on the proud: 'all the high mountains' and 'every high tower'. The fall of the towers in the 'great slaughter' is the same day that opens the waters. Isa 35:6–7 sets such springs in the wilderness.

Verse 26

the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun — The 'breach' (sheber) of the people is bound up on that day, the same word as the 'breaking' of the wall in v.13. 'Healeth' the 'stroke of their wound' echoes Deut 32:39, 'I wound, and I heal'. Isa 60:19 says 'the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light'; Rev 22:5, 'the Lord God giveth them light'.

Verse 27

the name of the LORD cometh from far — The 'name' stands for the LORD himself, who comes in person; the 'burden' (massaah) is the rising smoke of his burning anger. Fire from his mouth is also the image of Ps 18:8, 'fire out of his mouth devoured'. Paul uses the figure of the end: 'whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth' (2 Thess 2:8).

Verse 28

his breath, as an overflowing stream — The Assyrian was the flood that 'shall reach even to the neck' of Judah (Isa 8:8); now the LORD's breath is the flood that reaches the neck. The 'sieve of vanity' shakes (nuph) the nations, as in Amos 9:9, 'I will sift the house of Israel… like as corn is sifted in a sieve'. A bridle is what he put on Sennacherib: 'my bridle in thy lips' (Isa 37:29).

Verse 29

to the mighty One of Israel — The Hebrew is tsur, the Rock: 'He is the Rock' (Deut 32:4). The pilgrims go up 'to the mountain of the LORD' with a pipe (chalil), as in Ps 42:4, 'with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday'. 'Holy solemnity' is chag, a feast, and the song is the song 'in the night' when it is kept.

Verse 31

the Assyrian be beaten down — The LORD's voice is the weapon, and the Assyrian 'smote with a rod'; the LORD had called him 'the rod of mine anger' (Isa 10:5). The rod that now strikes is the LORD's: 'he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth' (Isa 11:4). The fulfilment is told in Isa 37:36, when the angel of the LORD 'smote in the camp of the Assyrians'.

Verse 33

Tophet is ordained of old — Tophet lay 'in the valley of the children of Hinnom' (2 Kings 23:10), where children were once sent through the fire to Molech; the LORD turns the place to his own judgment. The pile is deep and 'large' (rachab), kindled by 'the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone', as in Gen 19:24, when the LORD rained brimstone on Sodom.