King James Version · Under Assyria
Isaiah 30
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Woe to the rebellious children, saith , that take , but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of , that they may add to : That walk to go down into , and have not asked at my ; to strengthen themselves in the strength of , and to in the shadow of ! Therefore shall the strength of be your , and the in the shadow of your confusion. For his princes were at , and his ambassadors came to Hanes. They were all of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a , and also a . The burden of the of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and flying , they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them. For the shall help in , and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still. Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come : That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear of : Which say to the , See not; and to , not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, deceits: Get you out of , turn aside out of , cause the One of Israel to cease from before us. Wherefore thus saith the One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and in and perverseness, and stay thereon: Therefore this shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take from the hearth, or to take water withal out of . For thus saith , the One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be ; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not. But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift. One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill. And therefore will wait, that he may be unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for is a of : are all they that wait for him. For the people shall in at : thou shalt weep no more: he will be very unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee. And though give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is , walk ye in it, when ye turn to , and when ye turn to the left. Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven of silver, and the ornament of thy of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence. Then shall he give the of thy , that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures. The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. Moreover of the moon shall be as of the sun, and of the sun shall be sevenfold, as of seven days, in the day that bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound. Behold, the name of cometh from far, burning with his , and the burden thereof is heavy: his are full of , and his as a devouring : And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of : and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err. Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a solemnity is kept; and gladness of , as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of , to the mighty One of Israel. And shall cause his voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the of his , and with the flame of a devouring , with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. For through shall the be beaten down, which smote with a . And in every place where the grounded shall pass, which shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it. For is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is and much wood; the breath of , like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Under Assyria, 745 BC to 612 BC ›
Assyria at full stretch, deporting whole populations as policy. The northern kingdom is destroyed in 722 BC and Judah survives as a tribute-paying vassal.
- Assyria
- The first empire to run mass deportation as ordinary administration: move the leadership somewhere else, settle strangers in their place, and the province stops being a nation. It worked. Samaria fell in 722 BC and the northern tribes did not come back. Assyria also advertised its cruelty deliberately, carving flayings and impalements on palace walls where envoys would see them, because terror is cheaper than garrisons.
- Judah
- Survives by paying. Hezekiah rebels, Sennacherib takes forty-six Judean towns and besieges Jerusalem in 701 BC, and the city holds. The Assyrian account boasts of shutting Hezekiah up like a bird in a cage and pointedly does not claim to have taken the city, which is one of the more interesting silences in ancient records.
- Egypt
- The splintered reed of a staff that Assyria's field commander mocks Judah for leaning on. It promises help and cannot deliver, and Isaiah spends decades saying so. Assyria eventually invades and sacks Thebes.
- Further afield
- Greece is in its archaic period, founding colonies from Spain to the Black Sea. Rome is under kings. Assyria's own libraries are collecting the literature of Mesopotamia, which is how Gilgamesh survived to be read again in the nineteenth century.
All of Isaiah