Isaiah 7–12

THE MESSAGE TO AHAZ

7This took place during the reign of Ahaz, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah king of Judah:^c Aram’s King Rezin and Israel’s King Pekah son of Remaliah went to fight against Jerusalem,^d but they were not able to conquer it.

²When it became known to the house of David^e that Aram had occupied Ephraim,^f the heart of Ahaz^A and the hearts of his people trembled like trees of a forest shaking in the wind.

³The Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear-jashub^Bg to meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool,^h by the road to the Launderer’s Field. ⁴Say to him: Calm down and be quiet. Don’t be afraid or cowardlyⁱ because of these two smoldering sticks, the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram, and the son of Remaliah. ⁵For Aram, along with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has plotted harm against you. They say, ⁶‘Let’s go up against Judah, terrorize it, and conquer it for ourselves. Then we can install Tabeel’s son as king in it.’ ”

⁷This is what the Lord God says:

It will not happen; it will not occur.^j

⁸The chief city of Aram is Damascus,

the chief of Damascus is Rezin

(within sixty-five years

Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people),

⁹the chief city of Ephraim is Samaria,

and the chief of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.

If you do not stand firm in your faith,

then you will not stand at all.

THE IMMANUEL PROPHECY

¹⁰Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz: ¹¹“Ask for a sign^k from the Lord your God—it can be as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven.”

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

¹³Isaiah^l said, “Listen, house of David! Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men? Will you also try the patience of my God?^{m 14}Therefore, the Lord himself will give you^C a sign: See, the virgin will conceive,^D have a son, and name him Immanuel.^{En 15}By the time he learns to reject what is bad and choose what is good,^o he will be eating curds^F and honey.^{p 16}For before the boy knows to reject what is bad and choose what is good, the land of the two kings you dread will be abandoned. ¹⁷The Lord will bring on you, your people, and your father’s house such a time as has never been since Ephraim separated from Judah:^q He will bring the king of Assyria.”^r

¹⁸On that day^s

the Lord will whistle^t to flies

at the farthest streams of the Nile

and to bees in the land of Assyria.

¹⁹All of them will come and settle

in the steep ravines, in the clefts of the rocks,^u

in all the thornbushes, and in all the water holes.

²⁰On that day the Lord will use a razor^v hired from beyond the Euphrates River—the king of Assyria^w—to shave the hair on your heads, the hair on your legs, and even your beards.

²¹On that day

a man will raise a young cow and two sheep,

²²and from the abundant milk they give

he will eat curds,

for every survivor in the land will eat curds and honey.^x

²³And on that day

every place where there were a thousand vines,

worth a thousand pieces of silver,

will become thorns and briers.^y

²⁴A man will go there with bow and arrows

because the whole land will be thorns and briers.

²⁵You will not go to all the hills

that were once tilled with a hoe,

for fear of the thorns and briers.

Those hills will be places for oxen to graze

and for sheep to trample.

THE COMING ASSYRIAN INVASION

8Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large piece of parchment^A and write on it with an ordinary pen:^Ba Maher-shalal-hash-baz.^{C 2}I have appointed^D trustworthy witnesses—the priest Uriah and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.”^b

³I was then intimate 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 call ‘Father,’ or ‘Mother,’^c the wealth of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria will be carried off to the king of Assyria.”^d

⁵The Lord spoke to me again:

⁶Because these people rejected

the slowly flowing water of Shiloah

and rejoiced with^E Rezin

and the son of Remaliah,^e

⁷the Lord will certainly bring against them

the mighty rushing water of the Euphrates River—

the king of Assyria and all his glory.

It will overflow its channels

and spill over all its banks.

⁸It will pour into Judah,

flood over it, and sweep through,

reaching up to the neck;^f

and its flooded banks^F

will fill your entire land, Immanuel!^g

⁹Band together,^G peoples, and be broken;

pay attention, all you distant lands;

prepare for war, and be broken;

prepare for war, and be broken.

¹⁰Devise a plan; it will fail.^h

Make a prediction; it will not happen.

For God is with us.^Hi

THE LORD OF ARMIES, THE ONLY REFUGE

¹¹For this is what the Lord said to me with great power, to keep^I me from going the way of this people:^j

¹²Do not call everything a conspiracy

that these people say is a conspiracy.^k

Do not fear what they fear;^l

do not be terrified.

¹³You are to regard only the Lord of Armies as holy.^m

Only he should be feared;ⁿ

only he should be held in awe.

¹⁴He will be a sanctuary;^o

but for the two houses of Israel,

he will be a stone^p to stumble over

and a rock to trip over,^q

and a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁵Many will stumble over these;^r

they will fall and be broken;

they will be snared and captured.

¹⁶Bind up the testimony.^s

Seal up the instruction^t among my disciples.

¹⁷I will wait for the Lord,^u

who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob.^v

I will wait for him.

¹⁸Here I am with the children the Lord has given me^w to be signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of Armies who dwells on Mount Zion. ¹⁹When they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the spiritists who chirp and mutter,”^x shouldn’t a people inquire of their God?^A Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?^{y 20}Go to God’s instruction and testimony!^z If they do not speak according to this word, there will be no dawn for them.

²¹They will wander through the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged, and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. ²²They will look toward the earth^aa and see only distress, darkness, and the gloom of affliction, and they will be driven into thick darkness.

BIRTH OF THE PRINCE OF PEACE

9Nevertheless, the gloom of the distressed land will not be like that of the former times when he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.^ab But in the future he will bring honor to the way of the sea, to the land east of the Jordan, and to Galilee of the nations.

²The people walking in darkness

have seen a great light;^ac

a light has dawned

on those living in the land of darkness.^ad

³You have enlarged the nation

and increased its joy.^Bae

The people have rejoiced before you

as they rejoice at harvest time

and as they rejoice when dividing spoils.^a

⁴For you have shattered their oppressive yoke^b

and the rod on their shoulders,

the staff of their oppressor,

just as you did on the day of Midian.^c

⁵For every trampling boot of battle

and the bloodied garments of war

will be burned as fuel for the fire.

⁶For a child will be born for us,

a son will be given to us,^d

and the government will be on his shoulders.^e

He will be named

Wonderful Counselor,^f Mighty God,^g

Eternal Father,^h Prince of Peace.ⁱ

⁷The dominion will be vast,

and its prosperity will never end.^j

He will reign on the throne of David

and over his kingdom,

to establish and sustain it

with justice and righteousness from now on and forever.

The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.^k

THE HAND RAISED AGAINST ISRAEL

⁸The Lord sent a message against Jacob;

it came against Israel.

⁹All the people—

Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria^l—will know it.

They will say with pride and arrogance,

¹⁰“The bricks have fallen,

but we will rebuild with cut stones;

the sycamores have been cut down,

but we will replace them with cedars.”

¹¹The Lord has raised up Rezin’s adversaries against him

and stirred up his enemies.

¹²Aram from the east and Philistia from the west

have consumed Israel with open mouths.

In all this, his anger has not turned away,

and his hand is still raised to strike.^m

¹³The people did not turn to him who struck them;

they did not seek the Lord of Armies.

¹⁴So the Lord cut off Israel’s head and tail,ⁿ

palm branch and reed in a single day.

¹⁵The head is the elder, the honored one;^o

the tail is the prophet, the one teaching lies.^p

¹⁶The leaders of the people mislead them,

and those they mislead are swallowed up.^A

¹⁷Therefore the Lord does not rejoice

over^B Israel’s young men

and has no compassion

on its fatherless and widows,

for everyone is a godless evildoer,^q

and every mouth speaks folly.

In all this, his anger has not turned away,

and his hand is still raised to strike.

¹⁸For wickedness burns like a fire^r

that consumes thorns and briers

and kindles the forest thickets

so that they go up in a column of smoke.

¹⁹The land is scorched

by the wrath of the Lord of Armies,

and the people are like fuel for the fire.^s

No one has compassion on his brother.^t

²⁰They carve meat on the right,

but they are still hungry;^u

they have eaten on the left,

but they are still not satisfied.

Each one eats the flesh of his arm.^v

²¹Manasseh eats Ephraim,

and Ephraim, Manasseh;

together, both are against Judah.^w

In all this, his anger has not turned away,

and his hand is still raised to strike.^x

10Woe^y to those enacting crooked statutes

and writing oppressive laws

²to keep the poor from getting a fair trial

and to deprive the needy among my people of justice,^z

so that widows can be their spoil

and they can plunder the fatherless.^aa

³What will you do on the day of punishment

when devastation comes from far away?

Who will you run to for help?

Where will you leave your wealth?

⁴There will be nothing to do

except crouch among the prisoners

or fall among the slain.

In all this, his anger has not turned away,

and his hand is still raised to strike.^a

ASSYRIA, THE INSTRUMENT OF WRATH

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…