ISAIAH 30

[Yeshayah 30 Orthodox Jewish Bible (OJB)]

1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith Yahweh, 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 his ambassadors came to Hanes.

5 They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.

6 The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.

7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.

8 Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:



9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of Yahweh:

Faith comes through hearing the Word of God.‭

Faith is a matter of development.‭ ‬Let us not be utterly cast down at the small modicum of faith we may possess.‭ ‬It will certainly increase if we are diligent to cultivate it.‭ ‬Faith grows slowly but surely,‭ ‬provided we be‭ "‬swift to hear.‭" ‬Confidence in God is created in the same way as confidence is created in one another.‭ ‬If by experience we know a man to be kind,‭ ‬wise and upright,‭ ‬we trust him.‭ ‬On the same principle we require to know God in order to manifest that reliance which pleases Him.‭

This knowledge can only come through familiarity with His sayings and doings as revealed in the Bible.‭ ‬In this book,‭ ‬God has proved Himself to be faithful,‭ ‬loving,‭ ‬merciful,‭ ‬just,‭ ‬almighty,‭ ‬infallible.‭ ‬The Israelites were styled‭ "‬children in whom is no faith.‭" ‬The reason for this deficiency is given by Isaiah:‭

‭"‬This is a rebellious people,‭ ‬lying children,‭ ‬children that will not hear the law of the Lord.‭"

Let us profit by the lesson. 

Bro -AT Jannaway

The Christadelphian Oct 1887



10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

...to be spoken evil of for Christ's sake, is to be spoken evil of on account of the Gospel of the Kingdom which he preached. Men will bear with you in anything you teach, provided you maintain nothing offensive to their self-complacency.

TC Feb 1888



11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.

12 Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:

13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.

14 And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel 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 fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.

15 For thus saith Adonai Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.

16 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.

17 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.

18 And therefore will Yahweh wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for Yahweh is a Elohim of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.

19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.

20 And though Yahweh 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:



21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. 

We must get our joy and satisfaction in God and from God. It is not just wrong to get it elsewhere: it is impossible. The real thing doesn't exist anywhere else. God is Light, and the only Light. God is Love, and the only Love. God is Life, and the only Life. The disciples were often childish and limited as they followed Christ, but they had one thing perfectly straight in their minds, and it was the root of everything else: there's just nowhere else to go.

All other roads are at last dead ends. Most people spend their lives running away from reality, and seeking substance where there is only shadow; seeking permanence where there is only brevity and dissolution; seeking security in that which is inherently insecure; seeking peace and satisfaction down a seemingly pleasing road that must inevitably end in the dark swamp of sorrow and emptiness, and -- if there is enough mental capacity then left to comprehend the tragedy -- in bitter remorse and regret.

There is only one high, narrow, hard way out of it all, to eternity and peace and life: total dedication of this life to God, total swallowing up of this life in Christ. The vast majority go the wrong way. That's tragic. Many go TOWARD the right way, but not far enough. That's even more tragic. Let us realize the infinite bigness and glory of it. It must loom so large to us as to overwhelm and dominate our every thought and action -- or we haven't really gotten close enough to it yet for its mighty, irresistible gravity to draw us totally into itself. Why go just part way toward God and glory?

Bro Growcott - Search Me O God




22 Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.

23 Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, 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.

24 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.

25 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.

26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that Yahweh bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.

27 Behold, the name of Yahweh cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:

28 And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.

29 Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of Yahweh, to the mighty One of Israel.

30 And Yahweh shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.

31 For through the voice of Yahweh shall the Assyrian be beaten down [crushed], which smote [struck] with a rod [shevet].

32 And in every place where the grounded staff [matteh (rod) of punishment] shall pass, which Yahweh shall lay upon him [Ashur], it shall be with tabrets and harps [tambourines and kinnorot]: and in battles [milchamot] of shaking [brandishing] will he fight with it [against them].



33 For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large [wide]: the pile thereof is fire [eish] and much wood; the breath [nishmat] of Yahweh, like a stream of brimstone [of gofrit (burning sulfur)], doth kindle it.

Antiochus Epiphanes and Justinian represent "the king" as he will be manifested, when, as the king of the north, he appears upon the arena, standing up to contend with the Prince of princes, on the field of Armageddon, for he is to "prosper till the indignation be accomplished" against Israel.

Impious and cruel as Antiochus, and superstitious and fanatical as Justinian, with the arrogance, ambition, and profanity of the Roman Bishop in his halcyon days, this incarnation of the sin-power in the crisis of its fate, will fully answer to all that has been predicated of this king who does according to his will, and "for whom Tophet is ordained of old" (Isaiah 30:27-33; 31:8, 9).

At present he is represented by the Sultan, who "divides the land for gain." But when the Little Horn's sceptre is wrested from his feeble grasp by the Autocrat, we shall see in him a potentate, unrivalled in presumption and impiety by any of his fathers, not excepting Pharoah of the olden time.

Elpis Israel 3.4.

—"whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem"—31:9.

Gehenna will then be found to have been the place of retributive justice on three signal occasions, to say nothing of minor conflicts; first, where Jerusalem fell under the destroying hand of Nebuchadnezzar; second, under that of Titus; and thirdly, when the armies of the nations shall come against Jerusalem to battle, and meet their final discomfiture at the hand of the King of Israel when he shall be revealed from heaven.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Aug 1860