The Message - Isaiah 31

Impressed by Military Mathematics

1 Doom to those who go off to Egypt

thinking that horses can help them,

Impressed by military mathematics,

awed by sheer numbers of chariots and riders--

And to The Holy of Israel, not even a glance,

not so much as a prayer to GOD.

2 Still, he must be reckoned with,

a most wise God who knows what he's doing.

He can call down catastrophe.

He's a God who does what he says.

He intervenes in the work of those who do wrong,

stands up against interfering evildoers.

3 Egyptians are mortal, not God,

and their horses are flesh, not Spirit.

When GOD gives the signal, helpers and helped alike

will fall in a heap and share the same dirt grave.

4 This is what GOD told me:

"Like a lion, king of the beasts,

that gnaws and chews and worries its prey,

Not fazed in the least by a bunch of shepherds

who arrive to chase it off,

So GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies comes down

to fight on Mount Zion, to make war from its heights.

5 And like a huge eagle hovering in the sky,

GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies protects Jerusalem.

I'll protect and rescue it.

Yes, I'll hover and deliver."