🕊️WEB · Isaiah 30:5
What does Isaiah 30:5 mean?
"They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can’t profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.”"
— Isaiah 30:5 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
who set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked my advice; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!
Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors have come to Hanes.
They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can’t profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.”
The burden of the animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, of the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to an unprofitable people.
For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose; therefore I have called her Rahab who sits still.
Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever.
Explanation
Isaiah 30:5 says that everyone who relies on this particular "people" — Egypt — will end up ashamed, because Egypt cannot help them, cannot benefit them, and will instead bring only shame and disgrace. In plain language, the verse is a warning: the very nation Judah is counting on for rescue will turn out to be worthless, and trusting in it will backfire painfully.
The context is found in Isaiah 30 as a whole, which opens with "Woe to the rebellious children" who make plans "but not of me" and who go down to Egypt for help without consulting God (Isaiah 30:1-2). The prophet Isaiah delivered this message to the kingdom of Judah during a period when the Assyrian Empire threatened the nation. Rather than trusting the Lord for deliverance, Judah's leaders sought a political and military alliance with Egypt, hoping Pharaoh's army and resources would shield them from Assyrian aggression. Isaiah condemns this strategy as an act of unbelief — Judah was seeking human strength instead of divine protection, and doing so through diplomatic channels
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