A Rebellious People (ISA 30:8-17)

[30:8] And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever.

[30:9] For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord;

[30:10] who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions,

[30:11] leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”

[30:12] Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them,

[30:13] therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;

[30:14] and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.”

[30:15] For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling,

[30:16] and you said, “No! We will flee upon horses”; therefore you shall flee away; and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”; therefore your pursuers shall be swift.

[30:17] A thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill.