Isaiah 30:6-17 - Oracle Regarding The Negev

⁶ An oracle about the animals of the Negev: "Through a land of trouble, dryness, and distress, of lionesses and roaring lions, where there is no water, a land of vipers and darting snakes, he carries their riches on donkeys' backs, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a nation that cannot benefit them, ⁷ to Egypt, which gives help that is worthless and useless. Therefore I call her, "Rahab, who just sits still.'"

⁸ "Go now, and write it down on a tablet in their presence, inscribing it in a book, so that for times to come it may be an everlasting witness. ⁹ For they are a rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to hear the LORD's instruction. ¹⁰ They say to the seers, "Don't see visions,' and to the prophets, "Don't give us visions of what is right! Instead, tell us welcome things, prophesy illusions, ¹¹ get out of the way, turn aside from the path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel." ¹² Therefore, this is what the Holy One of Israel says: "Because you reject this message, and put your trust in oppression and enjoy it, and since you rely on it, ¹³ therefore, for you this sin will become like a breach in a high wall that is about to collapse, bulging out, and whose crash comes suddenly in an instant. ¹⁴ Its breaking will be like when potters' vessels are broken, shattered so ruthlessly that among its fragments not even a broken sliver will be found for taking fire from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern." ¹⁵ For this is what the LORD GOD, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In repentance and rest you will be saved; in staying calm and trusting will be your strength. But you refused. ¹⁶ Instead, you said, "No! We'll escape on horses!' Therefore, you'll flee away. And you said, "We'll ride off on swift steeds!' Therefore your pursuers will be swift. ¹⁷ A thousand will flee at the threat of one; and run away, pursued by five, until you are left like a flagpole on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill."