1 Woe to the apostate children, says the Lord: you have framed counsel, not by me, and covenants not by my Spirit, to add sins to sins: 2 even they that proceed to go down into Egypt, but they have not inquired of me, that they might be helped by Pharaoh, and protected by the Egyptians. 3 For the protection of Pharaoh shall be to you a disgrace, and there shall be a reproach to those who trust in Egypt. 4 For there are princes in Tanis, evil messengers. In vain they will labor 5 in seeking to a people, which shall not profit them for help, nor for profit, but shall be for a shame and reproach. 6 THE VISION OF THE QUADRUPEDS IN THE DESERT. In affliction and distress, where are the lion and lion's cub, from there come also asps, and the young of flying asps, there shall be those who bore their wealth on donkeys and camels to a nation which shall not profit them for help, but for a shame and reproach. 7 The Egyptians shall help you utterly in vain: tell them, This your consolation is vain. 8 Now then sit down and write these words on a tablet, and in a book; for these things shall be for many long days, and even for ever. 9 For the people is disobedient, false children, who would not hear the law of God: 10 who say to the prophets, Do not report to us; and to those who see visions, Do not speak them to us, but speak and report to us another error; 11 and turn us aside from this way; remove from us this path, and remove from us the Holy One of Israel. 12 Therefore thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, Because you have refused to obey these words, and have trusted in falsehood; and because you have murmured, and been confident in this respect: 13 therefore shall this sin be to you as a wall suddenly falling when a strong city has been taken, of which the fall is very near at hand. 14 And its fall shall be as the breaking of an earthen vessel, as small fragments of a pitcher, so that you should not find among them a sherd, with which you might take up fire, and with which you should draw a little water. 15 Thus says the Lord, the Holy Lord of Israel; When you shall turn and groan, then you shall be saved;⁠a and you shall know where you were, when you trusted in vanities: then your strength became vain, yet you would not listen: 16 but you said, We will flee upon horses; therefore you will flee: and, We will be aided by swift riders; therefore they will that pursue you be swift. 17 A thousand shall flee because of the voice of one, and many shall flee on account of the voice of five; until you are left as a signal-post upon a mountain, and as one bearing an ensign upon a hill. 18 And God will again wait, that he may pity you, and will therefore be exalted that he may have mercy upon you: because the Lord our God is a judge: and where will you leave your glory? those who remain in him are blessed. 19 For the holy people shall dwell in Zion: and whereas Jerusalem has wept bitterly, saying, Pity me; he shall pity you: when he perceived the voice of your cry, he listened to you. 20 And though the Lord shall give you the bread of affliction and scant water, yet they that cause you to err shall no more at all draw near to you; for your eyes shall see those that cause you to err,⁠b 21 and your ears shall hear the words of those who went after you to lead you astray, who say, This is the way, let us walk in it, whether to the right or to the left. 22 And you shall remove the plated idols, and you shall grind to powder the gilt ones, and shall scatter them as the water of a removed woman, and you shall thrust them forth as dung. 23 Then shall there be rain to the seed of your land; and the bread of the fruit of your land shall be plentiful and rich: and your cattle shall feed in that day in a fertile and spacious place. 24 Your bulls and your oxen that till the ground, shall eat chaff mixed with winnowed barley. 25 And there shall be upon every lofty mountain and upon every high hill, water running in that day, when many shall perish, and when the towers shall fall. 26 And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold in the day when the Lord shall heal the breach of his people, and shall heal the pain of your wound. 27 Look, the name of the Lord comes after a long time, burning fierce anger: the word of his lips is with glory, a word full of anger, and the anger of his fury shall devour as fire. 28 And his breath, as rushing water in a valley, shall reach as far as the neck, and be divided, to confound the nations for their vain error: error also shall pursue them, and overtake them before their face. 29 Must you always rejoice, and go into my holy places continually, as they that keep a feast? and must you go with a pipe, as those that rejoice, into the mountain of the Lord, to the God of Israel? 30 And God shall make his glorious voice to be heard, and the fierce anger of his arm, to make a display with fierce anger and anger and devouring flame: he shall lighten terribly, and his fierce anger shall be as water and violent hail. 31 For by the voice of the Lord the Assyrians shall be overcome, even by the stroke with which he shall strike them. 32 And it shall happen to him from every side, that they from whom their hope of assistance was, in which he trusted, themselves shall war against him in turn with pipes and with harp. 33 For you shall be required before your time: has it been prepared for you also to reign? A deep trench, wood piled, fire and much wood: the fierce anger of the Lord shall be as a trench kindled with sulfur.