Bible Strands
Isaiah 30:3
But Pharaoh’s protection will become your shame, and the refuge of Egypt’s shade your disgrace.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet Isaiah addresses Judah’s leadership who are secretly negotiating a military alliance with Egypt while deliberately refusing to consult God.
The words — The text hinges on מָעוֹז (ma'oz, "refuge") and בֹּשֶׁת (boshet, "shame"), contrasting the promised safety of human power with the inevitable disgrace it produces.
The thread — This warning echoes Isaiah 20:5, where relying on Egypt turns to dismay, and Jeremiah 17:5, which curses those who make flesh their strength, while standing in direct contrast to the promise in Romans 10:11 that faith in God prevents shame.
Why it lands — The verse demands a reader to abandon reliance on political or human security and to accept that substituting divine guidance for earthly alliances guarantees future humiliation.
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
Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 20:5 Those who made Cush their hope and Egypt their boast will be dismayed and ashamed.
- Jeremiah 17:5 This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes mere flesh his strength and turns his heart from the LORD.
- Romans 10:11 It is just as the Scripture says: “Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”
- Romans 5:5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.
- Isaiah 30:5 everyone will be put to shame because of a people useless to them. They bring neither help nor benefit, but only shame and disgrace.”
- 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.
- Isaiah 45:16 They will all be put to shame and humiliated; the makers of idols will depart together in disgrace.
- Jeremiah 37:5 Pharaoh’s army had left Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard the report, they withdrew from Jerusalem.