Isaiah 7:1–8:22

Isaiah Sent to King Ahaz

¹Now it happened in the days of ^aAhaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that ^bRezin the king of Aram and ^cPekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but ^dcould not ¹conquer it.

²When it was told to the ^ahouse of David, saying, “¹The Arameans ^bhave camped in ^cEphraim,” his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

³Then Yahweh said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son ¹Shear-jashub, at the end of the ^aconduit of the upper pool, to the highway of the ²fuller’s field,

⁴and say to him, ‘Take care and stay ^aquiet, have no ^bfear and ^cdo not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering ^dfirebrands, on account of the burning anger of Rezin and Aram and the ^eson of Remaliah.

⁵‘Because ^aAram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has counseled evil against you, saying,

⁶“Let us go up against Judah and ¹terrorize it, and make for ourselves a breach in ²its walls and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,”

⁷thus says Lord Yahweh: “^aIt shall not stand, nor shall it happen.

⁸“For the head of Aram is ^aDamascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin (now within another sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered, so that it is no longer a people),

⁹and the head of Ephraim is Samaria and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. ^aIf you do not ¹establish your faith in Yahweh, you surely shall not ²be established.” ’ ”

The Sign of Immanuel

¹⁰Then Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz, saying,

¹¹“Ask a ^asign for yourself from Yahweh your God; ¹make it deep as Sheol or high as ²heaven.”

¹²But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not test Yahweh!”

¹³Then he said, “¹Listen now, O ^ahouse of David! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will ^btry the patience of ^cmy God as well?

¹⁴“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, ^athe ¹virgin ²will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name ^3bImmanuel.

¹⁵“He will eat ^acurds and honey ¹in order that He will know to refuse evil and choose good.

¹⁶“^aFor before the boy will know to refuse evil and choose good, ^bthe land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.

¹⁷“Yahweh will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house days which have never come since the day that ^aEphraim separated from Judah—the ^bking of Assyria!”

Trials to Come for Judah

¹⁸And it will be in that day, that Yahweh will ^awhistle for the fly that is in the ^1bremotest part of the rivers of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

¹⁹And they will all come and rest upon the steep ¹ravines, on the ^acrevices of the cliffs, ^bon all the thorn bushes, and on all the ²watering places.

²⁰In that day, the Lord will ^ashave with a ^brazor—one ^chired from regions beyond ^dthe ¹River (that is, the king of Assyria)—the head and the hair of the legs; and it will also remove the beard.

²¹And it will be in that day, that a man may keep alive a ^aheifer and a pair of sheep;

²²and because of the abundance of the milk produced, he will eat curds, for everyone that is left within the land will eat ^acurds and honey.

²³And it will be in that day, ^athat every place where there used to be one thousand vines, valued at ¹one thousand shekels of silver, will become ^bbriars and thorns.

²⁴People will come there with bows and arrows because all the land will be briars and thorns.

²⁵As 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 ^1apasturing oxen and for sheep to trample.

CHAPTER 8

The Coming Assyrian Invasion

¹Then Yahweh said to me, “Take for yourself a large tablet and ^awrite on it ¹in ordinary letters: ^bConcerning ²Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

²“And ¹I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, ^aUriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.”

³Then I drew near to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then Yahweh said to me, “Call his name ^1aMaher-shalal-hash-baz,

⁴for ^abefore the boy knows how to cry out ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of ^bDamascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”

⁵Again Yahweh spoke to me further, saying,

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

And rejoice in ^bRezin and the son of Remaliah;

⁷Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the ^amighty and abundant waters of the ^1bRiver—

The ^cking of Assyria and all his glory;

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

⁸“Then ^ait will sweep on into Judah; it will overflow and pass through;

It will ^breach even to the neck;

And the spread of its wings will ¹fill the breadth of ²Your land, O ^cImmanuel.

Yahweh, a Sanctuary and a Stumbling Stone

⁹“^aBe broken, O peoples, and be ^1bshattered;

And give ear, all remote places of the earth.

Gird yourselves, yet be ²shattered;

Gird yourselves, yet be ³shattered.

¹⁰“^aDevise counsel, but it will be thwarted;

Speak a word, but ^bit will not stand,

For ^1cGod is with us.”

¹¹For thus Yahweh spoke to me with a ^astrong hand and disciplined me ^bnot to walk in the way of this people, saying,

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

In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy;

And ^byou are not to fear ¹what they fear, and you shall not tremble.

¹³“It is ^aYahweh of hosts ^bwhom you should regard as holy.

And He shall be your fear,

And He shall be your cause of trembling.

¹⁴“Then He shall become a ^asanctuary;

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

And a snare and a ^ctrap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁵“And many ^awill stumble over them;

Then they will fall and be broken;

They will even be snared and caught.”

^16aBind up the testimony, ^bseal the ¹law among ^cmy disciples.

¹⁷And I will ^await for Yahweh ^bwho is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; and I will hope for Him.

^18aBehold, I and the children whom Yahweh has given me are for ^bsigns and wonders in Israel from Yahweh of hosts, who ^cdwells on Mount Zion.

Darkness to Light Through the Prince of Peace

¹⁹Now when they say to you, “^aInquire of the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,” should not a people ^binquire of their God? Should they ^cinquire of the dead on behalf of the living?

²⁰To the ^1alaw and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because ^bthey have no dawn.

²¹And they will pass through ¹the land ^ahard-pressed and hungry, and it will be that when they are hungry, they will be angry and curse ²their king and their God as they face upward.

²²Then they will ^alook to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be ^bbanished into thick darkness.