*Woe to the rebellious children,* says the LORD, *who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin,
Now, behold, you trust on the staff of this bruised reed, even on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Par`oh king of Egypt to all who trust on him.
Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards. They don't judge the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.
Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD. They have despised the Holy One of Yisra'el. They are estranged and backward.
*Because you have said, 'We have made a covenant with death, and with She'ol are we in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won't come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.'*
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they don't look to the Holy One of Yisra'el, and they don't seek the LORD!
A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a large rock in a weary land.
The LORD will create over the whole habitation of Mount Tziyon, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy.
When they tell you, *Consult with those who have familiar spirits and with the wizards, who chirp and who mutter:* shouldn't a people consult with their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?
Now what have you to do in the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shichor? or what have you to do in the way to Ashur, to drink the waters of the River?
Thus says the LORD, the God of Yisra'el, Thus shall you tell the king of Yehudah, who sent you to me to inquire of me: Behold, Par`oh's army, which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land.
He said to me, Son of man, I send you to the children of Yisra'el, to nations that are rebellious, which have rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me even to this very day.
It shall be no more the confidence of the house of Yisra'el, bringing iniquity to memory, when they turn to look after them: and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.*'*
As an adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead: don't be afraid of them, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.
Now they sin more and more, and have made themselves molten images of their silver, even idols according to their own understanding, all of them the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, 'They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves.'
Woe to them! For they have wandered from me. Destruction to them! For they have trespassed against me. Though I would redeem them, yet they have spoken lies against me.
Then he answered and spoke to me, saying, *This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbavel, saying, 'Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD of Armies.
But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God;
and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have shalom, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to destroy the moist with the dry.
Remember, don't forget, how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that you went forth out of the land of Egypt, until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.