Bible Strands
Isaiah 30:2
They 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.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The LORD addresses rebellious Judahite leaders who are mobilizing to travel to Egypt while actively avoiding divine consultation. This occurs during a crisis when they are forming a political alliance against Assyria without God's authorization.
The words — הֹלְכִים (ho.le.khim) translates literally as "those who go," and שָׁאָלוּ (sha.'a.lu) means "they have consulted" or "asked counsel."
The thread — The tension between relying on human political alliances and seeking God's guidance recurs in Numbers 27:21 and Isaiah 36:6, where trust in Egypt is explicitly contrasted with divine direction.
Why it lands — The text states that the leaders are pursuing Egyptian protection instead of divine advice, and it demands that readers recognize political maneuvering apart from God's counsel yields shame rather than security.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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!
Cross-references
- Isaiah 36:6 Look now, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.
- Numbers 27:21 He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who will seek counsel for him before the LORD by the judgment of the Urim. At his command, he and all the Israelites with him—the entire congregation—will go out and come in.”
- Deuteronomy 28:68 The LORD will return you to Egypt in ships by a route that I said you should never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
- Jeremiah 42:20 For you have deceived yourselves by sending me to the LORD your God, saying, ‘Pray to the LORD our God on our behalf, and as for all that the LORD our God says, tell it to us and we will do it.’
- Jeremiah 43:7 So they entered the land of Egypt because they did not obey the voice of the LORD, and they went as far as Tahpanhes.
- Lamentations 4:20 The LORD’s anointed, the breath of our life, was captured in their pits. We had said of him, “Under his shadow we will live among the nations.”
- Ezekiel 29:6 Then all the people of Egypt will know that I am the LORD. For you were only a staff of reeds to the house of Israel.
- Joshua 9:14 Then the men of Israel sampled their provisions but did not seek the counsel of the LORD.
- Judges 9:15 But the thornbush replied, ‘If you really are anointing me as king over you, come and find refuge in my shade. But if not, may fire come out of the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon.’
- 1 Kings 22:7 But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there not still a prophet of the LORD here of whom we can inquire?”