Isaiah 7–12

7And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. ²And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest tremble with the wind.

³Then said Jehovah unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shear-jashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fuller’s field; ⁴and say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither let thy heart be faint, because of these two tails of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. ⁵Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have purposed evil against thee, saying, ⁶Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set up a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeel; ⁷thus saith the Lord Jehovah, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. ⁸For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken in pieces, so that it shall not be a people: ⁹and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.

¹⁰And Jehovah spake again unto Ahaz, saying, ¹¹Ask thee a sign of Jehovah thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. ¹²But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt Jehovah. ¹³And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David: Is it a small thing for you to weary men, that ye will weary my God also? ¹⁴Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. ¹⁵Butter and honey shall he eat, when he knoweth to refuse the evil, and choose the good. ¹⁶For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two kings thou abhorrest shall be forsaken. ¹⁷Jehovah will bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—even the king of Assyria.

¹⁸And it shall come to pass in that day, that Jehovah will hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. ¹⁹And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the clefts of the rocks, and upon all thorn-hedges, and upon all pastures.

²⁰In that day will the Lord shave with a razor that is hired in the parts beyond the River, even with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard.

²¹And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall keep alive a young cow, and two sheep; ²²and it shall come to pass, that because of the abundance of milk which they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the midst of the land.

²³And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, shall be for briers and thorns. ²⁴With arrows and with bow shall one come thither, because all the land shall be briers and thorns. ²⁵And all the hills that were digged with the mattock, thou shalt not come thither for fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of sheep.

8And Jehovah said unto me, Take thee a great tablet, and write upon it with the pen of a man, For Maher-shalal-hash-baz; ²and I will take unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah. ³And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said Jehovah unto me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz. ⁴For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and, My mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be carried away before the king of Assyria.

⁵And Jehovah spake unto me yet again, saying, ⁶Forasmuch as this people have refused the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son; ⁷now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the River, strong and many, even the king of Assyria and all his glory: and it shall come up over all its channels, and go over all its banks; ⁸and it shall sweep onward into Judah; it shall overflow and pass through; it shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of its wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.

⁹Make an uproar, O ye peoples, and be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and be broken in pieces. ¹⁰Take counsel together, and it shall be brought to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us. ¹¹For Jehovah spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, ¹²Say ye not, A conspiracy, concerning all whereof this people shall say, A conspiracy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be in dread thereof. ¹³Jehovah of hosts, him shall ye sanctify; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. ¹⁴And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁵And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.

¹⁶Bind thou up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. ¹⁷And I will wait for Jehovah, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. ¹⁸Behold, I and the children whom Jehovah hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from Jehovah of hosts, who dwelleth in mount Zion.

¹⁹And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits and unto the wizards, that chirp and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? on behalf of the living should they seek unto the dead? ²⁰To the law and to the testimony! if they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning for them. ²¹And they shall pass through it, sore distressed and hungry; and it shall come to pass that, when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse by their king and by their God, and turn their faces upward: ²²and they shall look unto the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and into thick darkness they shall be driven away.

9But there shall be no gloom to her that was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the latter time hath he made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. ²The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. ³Thou hast multiplied the nation, thou hast increased their joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. ⁴For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, thou hast broken as in the day of Midian. ⁵For all the armor of the armed man in the tumult, and the garments rolled in blood, shall be for burning, for fuel of fire. ⁶For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this.

⁸The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel. ⁹And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in pride and in stoutness of heart, ¹⁰The bricks are fallen, but we will build with hewn stone; the sycomores are cut down, but we will put cedars in their place. ¹¹Therefore Jehovah will set up on high against him the adversaries of Rezin, and will stir up his enemies, ¹²the Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

¹³Yet the people have not turned unto him that smote them, neither have they sought Jehovah of hosts. ¹⁴Therefore Jehovah will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm-branch and rush, in one day. ¹⁵The elder and the honorable man, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail. ¹⁶For they that lead this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed. ¹⁷Therefore the Lord will not rejoice over their young men, neither will he have compassion on their fatherless and widows; for every one is profane and an evil-doer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

¹⁸For wickedness burneth as the fire; it devoureth the briers and thorns; yea, it kindleth in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke. ¹⁹Through the wrath of Jehovah of hosts is the land burnt up; and the people are as the fuel of fire: no man spareth his brother. ²⁰And one shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm: ²¹Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh; and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

10Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers that write perverseness; ²to turn aside the needy from justice, and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows…