Chapters 28 through 35 give local prophecies that may be intended to support the accuracy of the more global prophecies of Isaiah. Israel's two enemies are the kingdoms of Assyria in the east and Egypt in the west. These play a prominent part thorughout Isaiah and especially in these chapters. Six sections will open with hoy, a cry often translated "Woe!" Three of those sections were in 28:1, 29:1, and 29:15. Here we begin a fourth.
Isaiah 30:1-5, No help from Pharaoh
“Woe to the obstinate children,”
declares the LORD,
“to those who carry out plans that are not mine,
forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit,
heaping sin upon sin;
who go down to Egypt
without consulting me;
who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection,
to Egypt’s shade for refuge.
But Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame,
Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace.
Though they have officials in Zoan
and their envoys have arrived in Hanes,
everyone will be put to shame
because of a people useless to them,
who bring neither help nor advantage,
but only shame and disgrace.”
Israel can reach out to Egypt for protection but this will fail. Isaiah sees the envoys traveling to the power centers of Egypt at Zoan and Hanes. Zoan was a city on the east side of the Nile delta of Egypt. It is mentioned in Numbers 13:22 and according to Psalm 78:12, 43 was the location of God's miracles before Pharaoh. Isaiah has already mentioned that city in 19:11-13 and Ezekiel will mention Zoan in a prophecy about the destruction of Egypt in Ezekiel 30:13-19. Hanes was another city in the Nile delta. It may have been the city called Heracleopalis Magma by the Romans.
Grogan sees allusions to Abram's trip to Egypt (Genesis 12) though the Negev.
Isaiah 30:6-7, Animals of the Negev
A prophecy concerning the animals of the Negev:
Through a land of hardship and distress,
of lions and lionesses,
of adders and darting snakes,
the envoys carry their riches on donkeys’ backs,
their treasures on the humps of camels,
to that unprofitable nation,
to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless.
Therefore I call her
Rahab the Do-Nothing.
The diplomatic and commercial caravans to Egypt cross through the hazardous Negev, a trip that is a waste of time, says Isaiah. (Motyer says a more standard trip to Egypt would have gone west into Philisitia before dropping down to Egypt; it is unclear why the envoys would have gone a different way. Grogan suggests such a route would have been less public, reflecting the secrecy of diplomatic proceedings.
Rahab is another name for Egypt (see Psalm 87:4 and Isaiah 51:9.)
Isaiah 30:8-11, Write to these rebellious children
Go now, write it on a tablet for them,
inscribe it on a scroll,
that for the days to come
it may be an everlasting witness.
For these are rebellious people, deceitful children,
children unwilling to listen to the LORD’s instruction.
They say to the seers,
“See no more visions!”
and to the prophets,
“Give us no more visions of what is right!
Tell us pleasant things,
prophesy illusions.
Leave this way,
get off this path,
and stop confronting us
with the Holy One of Israel!”
The rebellious children only want to hear good news. They say, "Stop confronting us!" The prophet Amos received a similar rebuke in Amos 7:12-13.
Isaiah 30:12-14, A falling wall
Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says:
“Because you have rejected this message,
relied on oppression
and depended on deceit,
this sin will become for you
like a high wall, cracked and bulging,
that collapses suddenly, in an instant.
It will break in pieces like pottery,
shattered so mercilessly
that among its pieces not a fragment will be found
for taking coals from a hearth
or scooping water out of a cistern.”
The attempts to create diplomatic safety will collapse in ruin. The passage has an excellent description of an object under pressure. The wall begins to bend and bulge. Cracks appear. Then suddenly it explodes unto thousands of pieces.
Isaiah 30:15-17, Salvation in repentance
“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.
You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’
Therefore you will flee!
You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’
Therefore your pursuers will be swift!
A thousand will flee
at the threat of one;
at the threat of five
you will all flee away,
till you are left
like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
like a banner on a hill.”
Safety lies in repentance and rest (trust) but instead the leaders of Israel trust in horses, fast horses. And so they will flee on fast horses from enemies who will also have fast horses. One attacker or five will lead a thousand to run away. One a few will be left, a remnant like flagstaff alone on a mountaintop.
Isaiah 30:18, Desire to be gracious
Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the LORD is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!
As is common in Isaiah's prophecies, there is a reminder of a YHWH's desire to care for His people.
Isaiah 30:19-26, A future healing
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!”
He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel.
In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.
A future time of healing will come, even in the day of slaughter, YHWH will heal the wounds of His people, after judgment.
In verse 20, the word "teachers" is plural. Motyer argues that this is a "royal plural"; the teachers are really YHWH Himself. In verse 9 (says Motyer), YHWH has been spurned as Teacher. But in this future time of healing, He will be visible and obvious.
The poverty of idol worship is made clear -- the gold and silver idols are just pieces of wood, overlaid with a thin sheen of metal. The prophet views idolatry as both sinful and stupid.
The future event will involve considerable light -- the moon like the sun and the sun much brighter!
Isaiah 30:27-28, Fire and smoke
See, the Name of the LORD comes from afar,
with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke;
his lips are full of wrath,
and his tongue is a consuming fire.
His breath is like a rushing torrent,
rising up to the neck.
He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction;
he places in the jaws of the peoples
a bit that leads them astray.
YHWH approaches in power, in images that harken back to the Exodus. In the days of judgment, He shakes up the nations.
Isaiah 30:29, A holy festival
And you will sing
as on the night you celebrate a holy festival;
your hearts will rejoice
as when people playing pipes go up
to the mountain of the LORD,
to the Rock of Israel.
As the nations are shaken up, people will head back to Israel, to the "mountain of YHWH", to the Rock of Israel.
Grogan suggests that the celebrated festival is Passover.
Isaiah 30:30-33, The Voice of YHWH
The LORD will cause people to hear his majestic voice
and will make them see his arm coming down
with raging anger and consuming fire,
with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail.
The voice of the LORD will shatter Assyria;
with his rod he will strike them down.
Every stroke the LORD lays on them
with his punishing club
will be to the music of timbrels and harps,
as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm.
Topheth has long been prepared;
it has been made ready for the king.
Its fire pit has been made deep and wide,
with an abundance of fire and wood;
the breath of the LORD,
like a stream of burning sulfur,
sets it ablaze.
The shattering of Assyria will be described in Isaiah 37, says Motyer.
The judgment of YHWH is a mixture of fear for the nations and a time of rejoicing for people who are returning to Him. The passage ends with a giant firepit prepared, apparently, for the nations.
Future promises of healing come on the heels of judgment; And in Isaiah future judgment is always a preliminary step to reconciliation and healing.
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