1“Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine, who form an alliance, but against My will, heaping up sin upon sin.
2They set out to go down to Egypt without asking My advice, to seek shelter under Pharaoh’s protection and take refuge in Egypt’s shade.
3But Pharaoh’s protection will become your shame, and the refuge of Egypt’s shade your disgrace.
4For though their princes are at Zoan and their envoys have arrived in Hanes,
5everyone will be put to shame because of a people useless to them. They bring neither help nor benefit, but only shame and disgrace.”
6This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people of no profit to them.
7Egypt’s help is futile and empty; therefore I have called her Rahab Who Sits Still.