Isaiah 31
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 31
Forbidden Alliance with Egypt
1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help
and who rely on horses,
who place their trust in a large number of chariots
and in the great strength of their horsemen,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel
or seek the Lord’s guidance.
2 Yet he, too, is wise and can bring disaster,
and he does not take back his threats.
He will rise up against the house of the wicked
and against those who come to the support of evildoers.
3 The Egyptians are mortal, not divine;
their horses are flesh, not spirit.
When the Lord stretches out his hand,
the helper will stumble and the one helped will fall;
all of them will perish together.
4 This is what the Lord said to me:
As a lion or a lion cub
growls over its prey,
and when a band of shepherds
gather together to drive it off,
it is not frightened by their shouting
or daunted by their clamor,
so the Lord of hosts will come down
to do battle on the heights of Mount Zion.
5 Like a hovering bird
the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem;
he will protect and deliver it,
he will spare and rescue it.
6 Come back to the one
whom you have completely deserted,
O children of Israel.
7 For on that day
all of you will cast away
your idols of silver and your false gods of gold
which your own sinful hands have made.
Destruction of Assyria
8 Then Assyria will fall by a sword not brandished by a man
and be devoured by a sword that no human yields;
he will flee before the sword,
and his young warriors will endure forced labor.
9 His stronghold will be abandoned in terror,
and his commanders will panic and desert him.
Thus says the Lord whose fire is in Zion
and whose furnace burns in Jerusalem.
