Isaiah 30:2

You went to Egypt to ask their rulers for help, without asking for my advice. You have trusted in the army of the king of Egypt to protect you; you have trusted in them like people sit in the shade to protect themselves from the sun [MET].

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!

In Context

1Yahweh says, “Terrible things will happen to you, my people who rebel against me. You make plans, but what you plan is not what I want. You have made an alliance with the rulers of Egypt, but you did not ask my Spirit if that was what you should do. By doing that, you have increased the number of your sins.

3But the result of your trusting in the king of Egypt is that you will be disappointed and disgraced; because of trusting in him, you will be humiliated.

Read all of Isaiah 30

Cross References

Deuteronomy 28:68Yahweh will send some of you back to Egypt in ships, even though he promised that you would never be forced to go there again. There in Egypt you will try to sell yourselves to become slaves of your enemies in order to have food to eat, but no one will buy you. All those things will happen to you if you do not obey the laws that Yahweh is giving to you.”

Judges 9:15“The thornbush replied, ‘If you truly want to appoint me to be your king, come into the shade of my tiny branches. But if you do not want to do that, I hope/desire that fire will come out from me and burn up all the huge cedar trees in Lebanon country!’”

2 Kings 17:4But several years later, Hoshea secretly planned to rebel against the rulers of Assyria. He sent messengers to So/Osorkon, the king of Egypt, asking if his army could help the Israelis fight against the army of Assyria. Hoshea also stopped paying the tribute/taxes that he had been paying to Assyria every year. But the king of Assyria found out about those things, so he told his officers to put Hoshea in prison.

Isaiah 16:3They will cry out, ‘Help us! Tell us what we should do! Protect us completely [MET], we who are running away from our enemies, and do not ◄betray us/tell our enemies where we are►.

Isaiah 20:5Then the people of other countries who trusted that the armies of Egypt and Ethiopia would be able to help them will be very dismayed/confused and afraid/disappointed.

Isaiah 36:6Listen to me! You are relying on the army of Egypt. But that will be like [MET] using a broken reed for a walking stick on which you could lean. But it would pierce the hand of anyone who would lean on it! That is what the King of Egypt would be like for anyone who relied on him for help.

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 30:2-8

The Foolish Confidence of Judah. ( b. c. 720.) 1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord , that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: 2 That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! 3 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. 4 For his princes were at Zoan, and… Read the whole commentary →

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