1. “Oy , the rebellious children” —it is a declaration of Adonai— “Who carry out a plan, but not Mine, and make an alliance, but not of My Ruach, so they may add sin to sin,
2. who go down to Egypt, but did not consult Me, to take refuge in Pharaoh’s stronghold, to seek shelter in Egypt’s shadow.
3. Therefore Pharaoh’s stronghold will become your shame, and the shelter in Egypt’s shadow will become your disgrace.
4. For though their princes are at Zoan and their ambassadors reach Hanes,
5. they will all be ashamed of a people who cannot profit them. They are neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace.”
6. The burden concerning the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of trouble and anguish, in which are lioness and lion, viper and flying serpent, they are carrying their riches on the backs of young donkeys, their treasures on camel humps, to a people who cannot profit them.
7. Egypt’s help is futile and pointless. Therefore I have called her “Rahab who just sits.”
8. Now go, write it on a tablet for them and inscribe it in a scroll, so that it may be as a witness for the last day, forever.
9. For this is a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to obey the Torah of Adonai.
10. They say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right. Speak to us smooth words. Prophesy illusions.
11. Get out of the way! Turn away from the path! Let’s hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
12. Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel: “Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and rely on perversity,
13. therefore this sin will be to you like a crack bulging in a high wall, about to fall— its collapse comes suddenly, in an instant!
14. Its collapse is like smashing a clay jar, so ruthlessly shattered that a shard will not be found among the pieces to take fire from the hearth or scoop water from the cistern.”
15. For thus says Adonai Elohim, the Holy One of Israel: “By repentance and rest you are saved, in quietness and trust is your strength— but you were not willing.”
16. But you said, “No, we will flee on horses!” Therefore you will flee. And, “We will ride on swift horses!” Therefore your pursuers will be swift.