Isaiah 8–10

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.

CHAPTER 9

¹¹But there will be no more ^agloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He ^btreated the ^cland 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 ²Gentiles.

^21aThe people who walk in darkness

Will see a great light;

Those who live in the land of the shadow of death,

The light will shine on them.

^3aYou shall multiply the nation,

You ^bshall ¹make great ²their gladness;

They will be glad in Your presence

As with the gladness ³of harvest,

As ^4cmen rejoice when they divide the spoil.

⁴For ^aYou shall shatter the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders,

The rod of their ^btaskmaster, as ¹at the battle of ^cMidian.

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

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

⁶For a ^achild will be born to us, a ^bson will be given to us;

And the ^cgovernment will ¹rest ^don His shoulders;

And His name will be called ^eWonderful Counselor, ^fMighty God,

Eternal ^gFather, Prince of ^hPeace.

⁷There will be ^ano end to the increase of His government or of peace,

On the ^bthrone of David and over his kingdom,

To establish it and to uphold it with ^cjustice and righteousness

From then on and forevermore.

^dThe zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this.

Yahweh’s Anger with Israel’s Arrogance

⁸The Lord sends a ¹message against Jacob,

And it falls on Israel.

⁹And all the people know it,

That is, ^aEphraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,

Saying in lofty pride and in ^barrogance of heart:

¹⁰“The bricks have fallen down,

But we will ^arebuild with cut stones;

The sycamores have been cut in pieces,

But we will replace them with cedars.”

¹¹Therefore Yahweh exalts against them adversaries from ^aRezin

And incites their enemies,

¹²The Arameans on the east and the ^aPhilistines on the west;

And they ^bdevour Israel with ¹gaping jaws.

^cIn spite of all this, His anger does not turn back,

And His hand is still stretched out.

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

Nor do they ^bseek Yahweh of hosts.

¹⁴So Yahweh cuts off ^ahead and tail from Israel,

Both palm branch and bulrush ^bin a single day.

¹⁵The head is ^athe elder and the ¹highly respected man,

And the prophet who teaches ^bfalsehood is the tail.

^16aFor those who guide this people are leading them astray;

And those who are guided by them are ¹brought to confusion.

¹⁷Therefore the Lord ^ais not glad in their choice men,

^bNor does He have compassion on their ¹orphans or their widows;

For every one of them is ^cgodless and an ^devildoer,

And every ^emouth is speaking wicked foolishness.

^fIn spite of all this, His anger does not turn back,

And His hand is still stretched out.

^18aFor 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.

¹⁹By the ^afury of Yahweh of hosts the ^bland is burned up,

And the ^cpeople are like fuel for the fire;

No ^dman spares his brother.

²⁰¹They slice off what is on the right hand but still are ^ahungry,

And ²they eat what is on the left hand but they are not satisfied;

Each of them eats the ^bflesh of his own arm.

²¹Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,

^aAnd together they are against Judah.

^bIn spite of all this, His anger does not turn back,

And His hand is still stretched out.

CHAPTER 10

¹Woe to those who ^aenact evil statutes

And to those who constantly record ¹mischief,

²So as ^ato turn the poor away from their cause

And rob the afflicted of My people of their justice,

So ^bthat widows may be their spoil

And that they may plunder the ¹orphans.

³Now ^awhat will you do in the ^bday of visitation,

And in the devastation which will come ^cfrom afar?

^dTo whom will you flee for help?

And where will you leave your ¹glory?

⁴Nothing remains but to crouch ¹among the ^acaptives

Or fall ²among those ^bkilled.

^cIn spite of all this, His anger does not turn back

And His hand is still stretched out.

Yahweh’s Anger with Assyria’s Arrogance

⁵Woe to ^aAssyria, the ^brod of My anger

And the staff in whose hands is ^cMy indignation,

⁶I send it against a ^agodless nation

And command it against the ^bpeople of My fury

To capture spoil and ^cto seize plunder,

And to ¹trample them down like ^dmud in the streets.

⁷But it ^adoes not intend to act in this way,

And it does not think in its heart in this way,

Rather, what is in its heart is to destroy

And to cut off ¹many nations.

⁸For it says, “Are not my princes ¹all kings?

⁹“Is not ^aCalno like ^bCarchemish,

Or ^cHamath like Arpad,

Or ^dSamaria like ^eDamascus?

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

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

¹¹Shall I not ¹do to Jerusalem and her images

Just as I have done to Samaria and ^aher idols?”

¹²So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His ^awork on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will ¹punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and ^bthe pomp of his eyes which are raised high.”

¹³For ^ahe has said,

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

For I have understanding;

And I ^bremoved the boundaries of the peoples

And plundered their treasures,

And like a mighty man I brought down ¹their inhabitants,

¹⁴And my hand reached for the wealth of the peoples like a ^anest,

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.”

¹⁵Is the ^aaxe to ^bboast itself over the one who chops with it?

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

That would be like ^ca rod wielding those who lift it,

Or like ^da staff lifting him who is not wood.

¹⁶Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, will send a ^awasting disease among his ^bstout warriors;

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

¹⁷And the ^alight of Israel will become a fire and his ^bHoly One a flame,

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

¹⁸And He will ^abring to an end the glory of his forest and of his fruitful orchard, both soul and body,

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

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

That a child could write them down.

A Remnant Will Return

²⁰Now it will be in that day, that the ^aremnant of Israel and those of the house of Jacob ^bwho have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly ^crely on Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel.

²¹A ^aremnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the ^bmighty God.

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

Only a remnant within them will return;

A ^bdestructive end is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.

²³For a complete destruction, one that is decreed, ^aLord Yahweh of hosts will do in…