but you said, “No, for we will flee on horses”; therefore you will flee; and, “We will ride on the swift”; therefore those who pursue you will be swift.
Parallel translations
- KJV 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.
- BSB “No,” you say, “we will flee on horses.” Therefore you will flee! “We will ride swift horses,” but your pursuers will be faster.
- NKJV And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses”— Therefore you shall flee! And, “We will ride on swift horses”— Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift!
- NASB And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses!” Therefore you shall flee! “And we will ride on swift horses!” Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.
- NLT You said, ‘No, we will get our help from Egypt. They will give us swift horses for riding into battle.’ But the only swiftness you are going to see is the swiftness of your enemies chasing you!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
They insist on fleeing by horses and swift mounts, so God says their pursuers will be swifter still. It matters because self-chosen escape from God leads only to faster defeat.
Overview
Rejecting God's call to rest, the people choose to rely on speed and cavalry. God turns their own words against them: they will indeed flee, and their enemies will overtake them. The verse shows the futility of trusting human means to escape consequences, contrasting sharply with the security of trusting the LORD.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Isa 31:1Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they don’t look to the Holy One of Israel, and they don’t seek Yahweh!
- Jer 4:13Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! For we are ruined.
- Isa 31:3Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When Yahweh stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together.
- Ps 33:17A horse is a vain thing for safety, neither does he deliver any by his great power.
- Deut 28:25Yahweh will cause you to be struck before your enemies. You will go out one way against them, and will flee seven ways before them. You will be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth.
- Amos 9:1I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said, “Strike the tops of the pillars, that the thresholds may shake; and break them in pieces on the head of all of them; and I will kill the last of them with the sword: there shall not one of them flee away, and there shall not one of them escape.
- Deut 28:49Yahweh will bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies; a nation whose language you will not understand;
- Isa 5:26–30He will lift up a banner to the nations from far, and he will whistle for them from the end of the earth. Behold, they will come speedily and swiftly.
- Ps 147:10He doesn’t delight in the strength of the horse. He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.
- Lam 4:19Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky: They chased us on the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
- Isa 10:28–32He has come to Aiath. He has passed through Migron. At Michmash he stores his baggage.
- Hab 1:8Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen press proudly on. Yes, their horsemen come from afar. They fly as an eagle that hurries to devour.
- Mic 1:13Harness the chariot to the swift steed, inhabitant of Lachish. She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; For the transgressions of Israel were found in you.
- Amos 2:14–16Flight will perish from the swift; and the strong won’t strengthen his force; neither shall the mighty deliver himself;
- Jer 52:7Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden. Now the Chaldeans were against the city all around. The men of war went toward the Arabah,
- 2 Kgs 25:5But the Chaldean army pursued the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 30:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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