ISAIAH 7-10

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War against Jerusalem  7:1 Now it came about in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not conquer it. 2 When it was reported to the house of David, saying, “The Arameans have camped in Ephraim,” his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake with the wind.
    3 Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the fuller’s field, 4 and say to him, ‘Take care and be calm, have no fear and do not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands, on account of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah. 5 Because Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has planned evil against you, saying, 6 “Let us go up against Judah and terrorize it, and make for ourselves a breach in its walls and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” 7 thus says the Lord GOD: “It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass. 8 For the head of Aram is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin (now within another 65 years Ephraim will be shattered, so that it is no longer a people), 9 and the head of Ephraim is Samaria and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, you surely shall not last.”’”
The Child Immanuel    10 Then the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying, 11 “Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the LORD!” 13 Then he said, “Listen now, O house of David! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well? 14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. 15 He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. 16 For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.
Trials to Come for Judah17 The LORD will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house such days as have never come since the day that Ephraim separated from Judah, the king of Assyria.”
    18 In that day the LORD will whistle for the fly that is in the remotest part of the rivers of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19 They will all come and settle on the steep ravines, on the ledges of the cliffs, on all the thorn bushes and on all the watering places.
    20 In that day the Lord will shave with a razor, hired from regions beyond the Euphrates (that is, with the king of Assyria), the head and the hair of the legs; and it will also remove the beard.
    21 Now in that day a man may keep alive a heifer and a pair of sheep; 22 and because of the abundance of the milk produced he will eat curds, for everyone that is left within the land will eat curds and honey.
    23 And it will come about in that day, that every place where there used to be a thousand vines, valued at a thousand shekels of silver, will become briars and thorns. 24 People will come there with bows and arrows because all the land will be briars and thorns. 25 As for all the hills which used to be cultivated with the hoe, you will not go there for fear of briars and thorns; but they will become a place for pasturing oxen and for sheep to trample.
Damascus and Samaria Fall  8:1 Then the LORD said to me, “Take for yourself a large tablet and write on it in ordinary letters: Swift is the booty, speedy is the prey. 2 And I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.” 3 So I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Then the LORD said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz; 4 for before the boy knows how to cry out ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”
    5 Again the LORD spoke to me further, saying,

6 “Inasmuch as these people have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah

And rejoice in Rezin and the son of Remaliah;

7 “Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the strong and abundant waters of the Euphrates,

Even the king of Assyria and all his glory;

And it will rise up over all its channels and go over all its banks.

8 “Then it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through,

It will reach even to the neck;

And the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.

A Believing Remnant9 “Be broken, O peoples, and be shattered;

And give ear, all remote places of the earth.

Gird yourselves, yet be shattered;

Gird yourselves, yet be shattered.

10 “Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted;

State a proposal, but it will not stand,

For God is with us.”

    11 For thus the LORD spoke to me with mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying,

12 “You are not to say, ‘It is a conspiracy!’

In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy,

And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it.

13 “It is the LORD of hosts whom you should regard as holy.

And He shall be your fear,

And He shall be your dread.

14 “Then He shall become a sanctuary;

But to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over,

And a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

15 “Many will stumble over them,

Then they will fall and be broken;

They will even be snared and caught.”

    16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. 17 And I will wait for the LORD who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; I will even look eagerly for Him. 18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.
    19 When they say to you, “Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,” should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. 21 They will pass through the land hard-pressed and famished, and it will turn out that when they are hungry, they will be enraged and curse their king and their God as they face upward. 22 Then they will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness.
Birth and Reign of the Prince of Peace  9:1 But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

2 The people who walk in darkness

Will see a great light;

Those who live in a dark land,

The light will shine on them.

3 You shall multiply the nation,

You shall increase their gladness;

They will be glad in Your presence

As with the gladness of harvest,

As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

4 For You shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders,

The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian.

5 For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult,

And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.

6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;

And the government will rest on His shoulders;

And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,

On the throne of David and over his kingdom,

To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness

From then on and forevermore.

The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.

God’s Anger with Israel’s Arrogance8 The Lord sends a message against Jacob,

And it falls on Israel.

9 And all the people know it,

That is, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,

Asserting in pride and in arrogance of heart:

10 “The bricks have fallen down,

But we will rebuild with smooth stones;

The sycamores have been cut down,

But we will replace them with cedars.”

11 Therefore the LORD raises against them adversaries from Rezin

And spurs their enemies on,

12 The Arameans on the east and the Philistines on the west;

And they devour Israel with gaping jaws.

In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away

And His hand is still stretched out.

13 Yet the people do not turn back to Him who struck them,

Nor do they seek the LORD of hosts.

14 So the LORD cuts off head and tail from Israel,

Both palm branch and bulrush in a single day.

15 The head is the elder and honorable man,

And the prophet who teaches falsehood is the tail.

16 For those who guide this people are leading them astray;

And those who are guided by them are brought to confusion.

17 Therefore the Lord does not take pleasure in their young men,

Nor does He have pity on their orphans or their widows;

For every one of them is godless and an evildoer,

And every mouth is speaking foolishness.

In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away

And His hand is still stretched out.

18 For wickedness burns like a fire;

It consumes briars and thorns;

It even sets the thickets of the forest aflame

And they roll upward in a column of smoke.

19 By the fury of the LORD of hosts the land is burned up,

And the people are like fuel for the fire;

No man spares his brother.

20 They slice off what is on the right hand but still are hungry,

And they eat what is on the left hand but they are not satisfied;

Each of them eats the flesh of his own arm.

21 Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,

And together they are against Judah.

In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away

And His hand is still stretched out.

Assyria Is God’s Instrument10:1 Woe to those who enact evil statutes

And to those who constantly record unjust decisions,

2 So as to deprive the needy of justice

And rob the poor of My people of their rights,

So that widows may be their spoil

And that they may plunder the orphans.

3 Now what will you do in the day of punishment,

And in the devastation which will come from afar?

To whom will you flee for help?

And where will you leave your wealth?

4 Nothing remains but to crouch among the captives

Or fall among the slain.

In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away

And His hand is still stretched out.

5 Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger

And the staff in whose hands is My indignation,

6 I send it against a godless nation

And commission it against the people of My fury

To capture booty and to seize plunder,

And to trample them down like mud in the streets.

7 Yet it does not so intend,

Nor does it plan so in its heart,

But rather it is its purpose to destroy

And to cut off many nations.

8 For it says, “Are not my princes all kings?

9 “Is not Calno like Carchemish,

Or Hamath like Arpad,

Or Samaria like Damascus?

10 “As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols,

Whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

11 Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her images

Just as I have done to Samaria and her idols?”

    12 So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pomp of his haughtiness.” 13 For he has said,

“By the power of my hand and by my wisdom I did this,

For I have understanding;

And I removed the boundaries of the peoples

And plundered their treasures,

And like a mighty man I brought down their inhabitants,

14 And my hand reached to the riches of the peoples like a nest,

And as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth;

And there was not one that flapped its wing or opened its beak or chirped.”

15 Is the axe to boast itself over the one who chops with it?

Is the saw to exalt itself over the one who wields it?

That would be like a club wielding those who lift it,

Or like a rod lifting him who is not wood.

16 Therefore the Lord, the GOD of hosts, will send a wasting disease among his stout warriors;

And under his glory a fire will be kindled like a burning flame.

17 And the light of Israel will become a fire and his Holy One a flame,

And it will burn and devour his thorns and his briars in a single day.

18 And He will destroy the glory of his forest and of his fruitful garden, both soul and body,

And it will be as when a sick man wastes away.

19 And the rest of the trees of his forest will be so small in number

That a child could write them down.

A Remnant Will Return    20 Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.

21 A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.

22 For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea,

Only a remnant within them will return;

A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.

23 For a complete destruction, one that is decreed, the Lord GOD of hosts will execute in the midst of the whole land.
    24 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “O My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian who strikes you with the rod and lifts up his staff against you, the way Egypt did. 25 For in a very little while My indignation against you will be spent and My anger will be directed to their destruction.” 26 The LORD of hosts will arouse a scourge against him like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and His staff will be over the sea and He will lift it up the way He did in Egypt. 27 So it will be in that day, that his burden will be removed from your shoulders and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be broken because of fatness.
28 He has come against Aiath,

He has passed through Migron;

At Michmash he deposited his baggage.

29 They have gone through the pass, saying,

“Geba will be our lodging place.”

Ramah is terrified, and Gibeah of Saul has fled away.

30 Cry aloud with your voice, O daughter of Gallim!

Pay attention, Laishah and wretched Anathoth!

31 Madmenah has fled.

The inhabitants of Gebim have sought refuge.

32 Yet today he will halt at Nob;

He shakes his fist at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

33 Behold, the Lord, the GOD of hosts, will lop off the boughs with a terrible crash;

Those also who are tall in stature will be cut down

And those who are lofty will be abased.

34 He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe,

And Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.

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