1-5. “Doom, rebel children!”God’s Decree.“You make plans, but not mine.You make deals, but not in my Spirit.You pile sin on sin,one sin on top of another,Going off to Egyptwithout so much as asking me,Running off to Pharaoh for protection,expecting to hide out in Egypt.Well, some protection Pharaoh will be!Some hideout, Egypt!They look big and important, true,with officials strategically established inZoan in the north and Hanes in the south,but there’s nothing to them.Anyone stupid enough to trust themwill end up looking stupid—All show, no substance,an embarrassing farce.”
6-7. And this note on the animals of the Negevencountered on the road to Egypt:A most dangerous, treacherous route,menaced by lions and deadly snakes.And you’re going to lug all your stuff down there,your donkeys and camels loaded down with bribes,Thinking you can buy protectionfrom that hollow farce of a nation?Egypt is all show, no substance.My name for her is Toothless Dragon.
8-11. So, go now and write all this down.Put it in a bookSo that the record will be thereto instruct the coming generations,Because this is a rebel generation,a people who lie,A people unwilling to listento anything God tells them.They tell their spiritual leaders,“Don’t bother us with irrelevancies.”They tell their preachers,“Don’t waste our time on impracticalities.Tell us what makes us feel better.Don’t bore us with obsolete religion.That stuff means nothing to us.Quit hounding us with The Holy of Israel.”
12-14. Therefore, The Holy of Israel says this:“Because you scorn this Message,Preferring to live by injusticeand shape your lives on lies,This perverse way of lifewill be like a towering, badly built wallThat slowly, slowly tilts and shifts,and then one day, without warning, collapses—Smashed to bits like a piece of pottery,smashed beyond recognition or repair,Useless, a pile of debristo be swept up and thrown in the trash.”
15-17. God, the Master, The Holy of Israel,has this solemn counsel:“Your salvation requires you to turn back to meand stop your silly efforts to save yourselves.Your strength will come from settling downin complete dependence on me—The very thingyou’ve been unwilling to do.You’ve said, ‘Nothing doing! We’ll rush off on horseback!’You’ll rush off, all right! Just not far enough!You’ve said, ‘We’ll ride off on fast horses!’Do you think your pursuers ride old nags?Think again: A thousand of you will scatter before one attacker.Before a mere five you’ll all run off.There’ll be nothing left of you—a flagpole on a hill with no flag,a signpost on a roadside with the sign torn off.”