Isaiah 7–10

1Now in the days that Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, Rezin king of Aram marched up to wage war against Jerusalem. He was accompanied by Pekah son of Remaliah the king of Israel, but he could not overpower the city.

2When it was reported to the house of David that Aram was in league with Ephraim, the hearts of Ahaz and his people trembled like trees in the forest shaken by the wind.

3Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear-jashub to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct that feeds the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field,

4and say to him: Calm down and be quiet. Do not be afraid or disheartened over these two smoldering stubs of firewood—over the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah.

5For Aram, along with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has plotted your ruin, saying:

6‘Let us invade Judah, terrorize it, and divide it among ourselves. Then we can install the son of Tabeal over it as king.’

7But this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘It will not arise; it will not happen.

8For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered as a people.

9The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you do not stand firm in your faith, then you will not stand at all.’”

10Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying,

11“Ask for a sign from the LORD your God, whether from the depths of Sheol or the heights of heaven.”

12But Ahaz replied, “I will not ask; I will not test the LORD.”

13Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God as well?

14Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel.

15By the time He knows enough to reject evil and choose good, He will be eating curds and honey.

16For before the boy knows enough to reject evil and choose good, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.

17The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since the day Ephraim separated from Judah—He will bring the king of Assyria.”

18On that day the LORD will whistle to the flies at the farthest streams of the Nile and to the bees in the land of Assyria.

19And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines and clefts of the rocks, in all the thornbushes and watering holes.

20On that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates —the king of Assyria—to shave your head and the hair of your legs, and to remove your beard as well.

21On that day a man will raise a young cow and two sheep,

22and from the abundance of milk they give, he will eat curds; for all who remain in the land will eat curds and honey.

23And on that day, in every place that had a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver, only briers and thorns will be found.

24Men will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be covered with briers and thorns.

25For fear of the briers and thorns, you will no longer traverse the hills once tilled by the hoe; they will become places for oxen to graze and sheep to trample.

1Then the LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary stylus: Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

2And I will appoint for Myself trustworthy witnesses—Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah.”

3And I had relations with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. The LORD said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

4For before the boy knows how to cry ‘Father’ or ‘Mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.”

5And the LORD spoke to me further:

6“Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoiced in Rezin and the son of Remaliah,

7the Lord will surely bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates — the king of Assyria and all his pomp. It will overflow its channels and overrun its banks.

8It will pour into Judah, swirling and sweeping over it, reaching up to the neck; its spreading streams will cover your entire land, O Immanuel!

9Huddle together, O peoples, and be shattered; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for battle, and be shattered; prepare for battle, and be shattered!

10Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted; state a proposal, but it will not happen. For God is with us.”

11For this is what the LORD has spoken to me with a strong hand, instructing me not to walk in the way of this people:

12“Do not call conspiracy everything these people regard as conspiracy. Do not fear what they fear; do not live in dread.

13The LORD of Hosts is the One you shall regard as holy. Only He should be feared; only He should be dreaded.

14And He will be a sanctuary— but to both houses of Israel a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, to the dwellers of Jerusalem a trap and a snare.

15Many will stumble over these; they will fall and be broken; they will be ensnared and captured.”

16Bind up the testimony and seal the law among my disciples.

17I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in Him.

18Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me as signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD of Hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

19When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists who whisper and mutter, shouldn’t a people consult their God instead? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?

20To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.

21They will roam the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged; and looking upward, they will curse their king and their God.

22Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.

1Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those in distress. In the past He humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future He will honor the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations:

2The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.

3You have enlarged the nation and increased its joy. The people rejoice before You as they rejoice at harvest time, as men rejoice in dividing the plunder.

4For as in the day of Midian You have shattered the yoke of their burden, the bar across their shoulders, and the rod of their oppressor.

5For every trampling boot of battle and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

6For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

7Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from that time and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.

8The Lord has sent a message against Jacob, and it has fallen upon Israel.

9All the people will know it— Ephraim and the dwellers of Samaria. With pride and arrogance of heart they will say:

10“The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with finished stone; the sycamores have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.”

11The LORD has raised up the foes of Rezin against him and joined his enemies together.

12Aram from the east and Philistia from the west have devoured Israel with open mouths. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.

13But the people did not return to Him who struck them; they did not seek the LORD of Hosts.

14So the LORD will cut off Israel’s head and tail, both palm branch and reed in a single day.

15The head is the elder and honorable man, and the tail is the prophet who teaches lies.

16For those who guide this people mislead them, and those they mislead are swallowed up.

17Therefore the Lord takes no pleasure in their young men; He has no compassion on their fatherless and widows. For every one of them is godless and wicked, and every mouth speaks folly. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.

18For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes the thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets, which roll upward in billows of smoke.

19By the wrath of the LORD of Hosts the land is scorched, and the people are fuel for the fire. No man even spares his brother.

20They carve out what is on the right, but they are still hungry; they eat what is on the left, but they are still not satisfied. Each one devours the flesh of his own offspring.

21Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh; together they turn against Judah. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.

1Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and issue oppressive decrees,

2to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder.

3What will you do on the day of reckoning when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?

4Nothing will remain but to crouch among the captives or fall among the slain. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.

5Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger; the staff in their hands is My wrath.

6I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.

7But this is not his intention; this is not his plan. For it is in his heart to destroy and cut off many nations.

8“Are not all my commanders kings?” he says.

9“Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?

10As my hand seized the idolatrous kingdoms whose images surpassed those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

11and as I have done to Samaria and its idols, will I not also do to Jerusalem and her idols?”

12So when the Lord has completed all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the fruit of his arrogant heart and the proud look in his eyes.

13For he says: ‘By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, for I am clever. I have removed the boundaries of nations and plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their rulers.

14My hand reached as into a nest to seize the wealth of the nations. Like one gathering abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth. No wing fluttered, no beak opened or chirped.’”

15Does an axe raise itself above the one who swings it? Does a saw boast over him who saws with it? It would be like a rod waving the one who lifts it, or a staff lifting him who is not wood!

16Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts will send a wasting disease among Assyria’s stout warriors, and under his pomp will be kindled a fire like a burning flame.

17And the Light of Israel will become a fire, and its Holy One a flame. In a single day it will burn and devour Assyria’s thorns and thistles.

18The splendor of its forests and orchards, both soul and body, it will completely destroy, as a sickness consumes a man.

19The remaining trees of its forests will be so few that a child could count them.

20On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer depend on him who struck them, but they will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.

21A remnant will return —a remnant of Jacob— to the Mighty God.

22Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overflowing with righteousness.

23For the Lord GOD of Hosts will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land.

24Therefore this is what the Lord GOD of Hosts says: “O My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear Assyria, who strikes you with a rod and lifts his staff against you as the Egyptians did.

25For in just a little while My fury against you will subside, and My anger will turn to their destruction.”

26And the LORD of Hosts will brandish a whip against them, as when He struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. He will raise His staff over the sea, as He did in Egypt.

27On that day the burden will be lifted from your shoulders, and the yoke from your neck. The yoke will be broken because your neck will be too large.

28Assyria has entered Aiath and passed through Migron, storing their supplies at Michmash.

29They have crossed at the ford: “We will spend the night at Geba.” Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul flees.

30Cry aloud, O Daughter of Gallim! Listen, O Laishah! O wretched Anathoth!

31Madmenah flees; the people of Gebim take refuge.

32Yet today they will halt at Nob, shaking a fist at the mount of Daughter Zion, at the hill of Jerusalem.

33Behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts will lop off the branches with terrifying power. The tall trees will be cut down, the lofty ones will be felled.

34He will clear the forest thickets with an axe, and Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.