Woe to the rebellious children, says the Lord, who take counsel, but not from Me, and make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, in order to add sin to sin;
Now, behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will enter his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.
Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves; everyone loves a bribe and follows after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, nor does the cause of the widow come before them.
Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they are estranged and backward.
because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we are in agreement. The overflowing scourge shall not come to us when it passes through, for we have made lies our refuge and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.”
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 do not look to the Holy One of Israel nor seek the Lord!
A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a shelter from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
then the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory shall be a covering.
When they say to you, “Seek after the mediums and the wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek after their God? Should they consult the dead for the living?
And now what are you doing in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what are you doing in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?
Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Thus you shall say to the king of Judah who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: Behold, Pharaoh’s army which has come out to help you shall return to Egypt, to its own land.
And He said to me: Son of man, I send you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me. They and their fathers have transgressed against Me even to this very day.
It shall be the confidence of the house of Israel no more, bringing to mind the iniquity of their having turned to Egypt. But they shall know that I am the Lord God.
And now they continue sinning and have made a cast image for themselves, idols of their silver, according to their understanding; all of them the work of craftsmen. They say of them, “Those who sacrifice are kissing calves!”
Woe to them, for they have fled from Me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against Me! Though I would redeem them, yet they speak lies against Me.
But because of your hardness and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself on the day of wrath when the righteous judgment of God will be revealed,
and it happens that, when he hears the words of this covenant, he blesses himself in his heart, saying, “I shall have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart,” thus destroying the watered ground with the dry.
Remember, and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you departed out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord.