Isa 31 | ESV | STEP | Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses , who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong , but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the Lord !

‏ Isaiah 31

Woe to Those Who Go Down to Egypt

1 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 ^dyet he is wise and brings disaster;
^ehe does not call back his words,
but ^fwill arise against the house of the evildoers
and against the helpers of ^gthose who work iniquity.
3 The Egyptians are man, and not God,
and their horses ^hare 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,
ⁱ“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,
^jso the Lord of hosts will come down
to fight ^{▼▼The Hebrew words for hosts and to fight sound alike} on Mount Zion and on its hill.
5 ^lLike birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts
will protect Jerusalem;
he will protect and deliver it;
he will spare and rescue it.”

6 ^mTurn to him from whom people ^{▼▼Hebrew they} have ^odeeply revolted, O children of Israel. 7 For in that day ^peveryone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.

8 ^q“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 ^rput to forced labor.
9 ^sHis rock shall pass away in terror,
and his officers desert the standard in panic,”
declares the Lord, whose ^tfire is in Zion,
and whose ^ufurnace is in Jerusalem.