What does it mean that they take counsel but not of God?

The people were making plans in a time of danger, but they were not asking God what to do. They were listening to their own wisdom and to foreign rulers instead of seeking God’s word through his prophets. To “take counsel, but not of me” means they were deciding their path without prayer, without waiting on God, and without caring what he had already said. This added sin to sin, because they ignored the One who had made them his children and had promised to care for them.

Why was going down to Egypt for help called adding sin to sin?

Going to Egypt for help was not just a neutral political move. God had already told them not to trust in that nation. By choosing Egypt, they showed they did not believe God would protect them. So they were piling one wrong choice on top of another: first, not trusting God; second, seeking help from those he had warned them about; third, doing it without even asking him. This is why the passage says they were adding sin to sin by this alliance.

What is meant by in returning and rest shall ye be saved?

“In returning and rest” is God’s simple offer to his people. Returning means turning back from their own plans and sins and coming to him again. Rest means stopping their frantic efforts to save themselves and quietly trusting his promise. Salvation here is not earned by effort, but given as they come back to God with a settled heart. Instead of clever schemes and fast horses, God says their real safety would be found in calm trust and dependence on him.

Why do the people ask prophets to speak smooth things and not right things?

The people did not want to hear hard truth about their sin or their wrong trust in Egypt. They asked the seers and prophets to stop seeing and speaking what God showed them. They wanted “smooth things,” words that felt pleasant and safe, even if they were lies. This shows hearts that would rather be comforted by error than corrected by God. It warns us how easy it is to avoid God’s word when it challenges the way we are living.

What does the breaking of the potter’s vessel picture in this passage?

The picture of a potter’s vessel smashed so badly that not even a small piece can be used shows how complete the coming judgment would be. God says their sin and false trust will lead to a fall like a wall that suddenly collapses, then like a pot smashed beyond repair. There will not even be a shard left useful for carrying a coal or a little water. This image teaches that turning from God’s word can lead to a ruin that people themselves cannot fix.

How does this passage show both God’s judgment and his mercy?

The passage speaks strongly about judgment: shame for trusting Egypt, walls breaking, the pot shattered, and a place of burning prepared for the proud enemy. Yet in the middle of this, God says he waits to be gracious, promises that those who wait for him are blessed, and speaks of healing his people’s wounds. He offers guidance, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” and promises rich blessing after idols are thrown away. Judgment comes, but God’s heart still turns toward mercy for those who turn back to him.

What is the meaning of casting away idols as a polluted cloth?

When God restores his people, they will see their idols the way he sees them: filthy and offensive. The passage says they will defile the silver and gold coverings of their images and throw them away like a stained cloth from which a person recoils. They will even say to these idols, “Get thee hence.” This shows real repentance. They will not only stop bowing to them but will hate and reject them, because they finally see that only God deserves their trust and worship.

What does this teach about quietness and confidence as strength?

Here strength is not in armies, fast horses, or clever plans. God says their strength would be in quietness and confidence. Quietness means a heart that is not tossed about by fear, because it rests in God’s promises. Confidence means steady trust in who God is and what he has said. When the people refused this and chose their own way, they ended up running in panic. The passage teaches that real inner strength comes from trusting God, not from the things we gather or the power we see.

Who are the teachers and the voice saying, This is the way, walk ye in it?

God promises that after the time of hardship, their teachers will no longer be hidden. The people will clearly hear God’s instruction through those he sends. The “word behind thee” is a picture of God’s guiding voice, correcting them when they wander to the right or to the left. It shows God’s care to lead his people step by step. He does not only forgive; he also directs, making the right path clear as they are willing to listen and obey.

What was happening around Judah when this message was given?

The people of Judah were facing strong enemies from the north and felt afraid. Instead of turning to God, their leaders secretly sent princes and gifts down through a dangerous desert to Egypt, hoping to buy military help. They thought this alliance would save them. God sent this message to expose that plan, to warn that Egypt would fail them, and to call them back to trust him alone. At the same time, he promised that he himself would deal with the Assyrian and heal his people afterward.

Isa.30.1

Isaiah 30:1

KJV GOD Holy Spirit

Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, 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:

The Worthless Treaty with Egypt

1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, 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 the Lord:

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:

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 the Lord God, 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.

God Will Be Gracious

18 ¶ And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God 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 the Lord 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.

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 the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.

27 ¶ Behold, the name of the Lord 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 the Lord, to the mighty One of Israel.

30 And the Lord 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 the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.

32 And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the Lord shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.

33 For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

Cross References

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