Hebrew Names Version HNV
The Message Bible MSG
1 Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, who take counsel, but not of me; and who make a league, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin,
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"Doom, rebel children!" God's Decree. "You make plans, but not mine. You make deals, but not in my Spirit. You pile sin on sin, one sin on top of another,
2 that set out to go down into Mitzrayim, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Par`oh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Mitzrayim!
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Going off to Egypt without so much as asking me, Running off to Pharaoh for protection, expecting to hide out in Egypt.
3 Therefore shall the strength of Par`oh be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Mitzrayim your confusion.
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Well, some protection Pharaoh will be! Some hideout, Egypt!
4 For their princes are at Tzo`an, and their ambassadors are come to Hanes.
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They look big and important, true, with officials strategically established in Zoan in the north and Hanes in the south,
5 They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can't profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.
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but there's nothing to them. Anyone stupid enough to trust them will end up looking stupid - All show, no substance, an embarrassing farce."
6 The burden of the animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that shall not profit [them].
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And this note on the animals of the Negev encountered on the road to Egypt: A most dangerous, treacherous route, menaced by lions and deadly snakes. And you're going to lug all your stuff down there, your donkeys and camels loaded down with bribes, Thinking you can buy protection from that hollow farce of a nation?
7 For Mitzrayim helps in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I called her Rachav who sits still.
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Egypt is all show, no substance. My name for her is Toothless Dragon. This Is a Rebel Generation
8 Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever.
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So, go now and write all this down. Put it in a book So that the record will be there to instruct the coming generations,
9 For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of the LORD;
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Because this is a rebel generation, a people who lie, A people unwilling to listen to anything God tells them.
10 who tell the seers, "Don't see;" and to the prophets, "Don't prophesy to us right things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits,
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They tell their spiritual leaders, "Don't bother us with irrelevancies." They tell their preachers, "Don't waste our time on impracticalities. Tell us what makes us feel better.
11 get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Yisra'el to cease from before us.
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Don't bore us with obsolete religion. That stuff means nothing to us. Quit hounding us with The Holy of Israel."
12 Why thus says the Holy One of Yisra'el, Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely thereon;
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Therefore, The Holy of Israel says this: "Because you scorn this Message, Preferring to live by injustice and shape your lives on lies,
13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant.
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This perverse way of life will be like a towering, badly built wall That slowly, slowly tilts and shifts, and then one day, without warning, collapses -
14 He shall break it as a potter's vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing; so that there shall not be found among the pieces of it a broken piece with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.
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Smashed to bits like a piece of pottery, smashed beyond recognition or repair, Useless, a pile of debris to be swept up and thrown in the trash." God Takes the Time to Do Everything Right
15 For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Yisra'el, In returning and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. You would not:
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God, the Master, The Holy of Israel, has this solemn counsel: "Your salvation requires you to turn back to me and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves. Your strength will come from settling down in complete dependence on me - The very thing you've been unwilling to do.
16 but you said, No, for we will flee on horses; therefore shall you flee: and, We will ride on the swift; therefore shall those who pursue you be swift.
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You've said, 'Nothing doing! We'll rush off on horseback!' You'll rush off, all right! Just not far enough! You've said, 'We'll ride off on fast horses!' Do you think your pursuers ride old nags?
17 One thousand [shall flee] at the threat of one; at the threat of five shall you flee: until you be left as a beacon on the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on a hill.
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Think again: A thousand of you will scatter before one attacker. Before a mere five you'll all run off. There'll be nothing left of you - a flagpole on a hill with no flag, a signpost on a roadside with the sign torn off."
18 Therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy on you: for the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.
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But God's not finished. He's waiting around to be gracious to you. He's gathering strength to show mercy to you. God takes the time to do everything right - everything. Those who wait around for him are the lucky ones.
19 For the people shall dwell in Tziyon at Yerushalayim; you shall weep no more; he will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry; when he shall hear, he will answer you.
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Oh yes, people of Zion, citizens of Jerusalem, your time of tears is over. Cry for help and you'll find it's grace and more grace. The moment he hears, he'll answer.
20 Though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not your teachers be hidden anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers;
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Just as the Master kept you alive during the hard times, he'll keep your teacher alive and present among you. Your teacher will be right there, local and on the job,
21 and your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk you in it; when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left.
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urging you on whenever you wander left or right: "This is the right road. Walk down this road."
22 You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold: you shall cast them away as an unclean thing; you shall tell it, Get you hence.
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You'll scrap your expensive and fashionable god-images. You'll throw them in the trash as so much garbage, saying, "Good riddance!"
23 He will give the rain for your seed, with which you shall sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground, and it shall be fat and plenteous. In that day shall your cattle feed in large pastures;
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God will provide rain for the seeds you sow. The grain that grows will be abundant. Your cattle will range far and wide.
24 the oxen likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground shall eat savory provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork.
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Oblivious to war and earthquake, the oxen and donkeys you use for hauling and plowing will be fed well
25 There shall be on every lofty mountain, and on every high hill, brooks [and] streams of waters, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
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near running brooks that flow freely from mountains and hills.
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 the LORD binds up the hurt of his people, and heals the stroke of their wound.
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Better yet, on the Day God heals his people of the wounds and bruises from the time of punishment, moonlight will flare into sunlight, and sunlight, like a whole week of sunshine at once, will flood the land.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD comes from far, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire;
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ook, God's on his way, and from a long way off! Smoking with anger, immense as he comes into view, Words steaming from his mouth, searing, indicting words!
28 and his breath is as an overflowing stream, that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction: and a bridle that causes to err [shall be] in the jaws of the peoples.
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A torrent of words, a flash flood of words sweeping everyone into the vortex of his words. He'll shake down the nations in a sieve of destruction, herd them into a dead end.
29 You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a pipe to come to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Yisra'el.
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But you will sing, sing through an all-night holy feast! Your hearts will burst with song, make music like the sound of flutes on parade, En route to the mountain of God, on the way to the Rock of Israel.
30 The LORD will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of [his] anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, and tempest, and hailstones.
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God will sound out in grandiose thunder, display his hammering arm, Furiously angry, showering sparks - cloudburst, storm, hail!
31 For through the voice of the LORD shall the Ashshur be dismayed; with his rod will he strike [him].
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Oh yes, at God's thunder Assyria will cower under the clubbing.
32 Every stroke of the appointed staff, which the LORD shall lay on him, shall be with [the sound of] timbrels and harps; and in battles with the brandishing [of his arm] will he fight with them.
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Every blow God lands on them with his club is in time to the music of drums and pipes, God in all-out, two-fisted battle, fighting against them.
33 For a Tofet is prepared of old; yes, for the king it is made ready; he has made it deep and large; the pile of it is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of sulfur, does kindle it.
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Topheth's fierce fires are well prepared, ready for the Assyrian king. The Topheth furnace is deep and wide, well stoked with hot-burning wood. God's breath, like a river of burning pitch, starts the fire.
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.