Isaiah 7:1–8:22

War against Jerusalem

¹Now it came about 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 reported to the ^ahouse of David, saying, “The Arameans ^1bhave camped in ^cEphraim,” his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake ²with the wind.

³Then the Lord 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, on the highway to the ²fuller’s field,

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

⁵‘Because ^aAram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has planned 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 the Lord ¹God: “^aIt shall not stand nor shall it come to pass.

⁸“For the head of Aram is ^aDamascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin (now within another 65 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 will not believe, you surely shall not ¹last.” ’ ”

The Child Immanuel

¹⁰Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying,

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

¹²But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!”

¹³Then he said, “Listen 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, ^aa ¹virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name ^2bImmanuel.

¹⁵“He will eat ^acurds and honey ¹at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good.

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

Trials to Come for Judah

¹⁷“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 ^aEphraim separated from Judah, the ^bking of Assyria.”

¹⁸In that day the Lord 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.

¹⁹They will all come and settle on the steep ¹ravines, on the ^aledges of the cliffs, ^bon all the thorn bushes and on all the ²watering places.

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

²¹Now in that day 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 come about in that day, ^athat every place where there used to be a thousand vines, valued at a 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

Damascus and Samaria Fall

¹Then the Lord said to me, “Take for yourself a large tablet and ^awrite on it ¹in ordinary letters: ^2bSwift is the booty, speedy is the prey.

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

³So I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Name him ^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 the Lord 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;

⁷“Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the ^astrong and abundant waters of the ^1bEuphrates,

Even 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.

A Believing Remnant

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

And give ear, all remote places of the earth.

Gird yourselves, yet be shattered;

Gird yourselves, yet be shattered.

¹⁰“^aDevise a plan, but it will be thwarted;

State a ¹proposal, but ^bit will not stand,

For ^2cGod is with us.”

¹¹For thus the Lord spoke to me ¹with ^amighty power and instructed 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 or be in dread of it.

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

And He shall be your fear,

And He shall be your dread.

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“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 the Lord ^bwho is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; I will even look eagerly for Him.

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

¹⁹When they say to you, “^aConsult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,” should not a people ^bconsult their God? Should they ^cconsult 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.

²¹They will pass through ¹the land ^ahard-pressed and famished, and it will turn out that when they are hungry, they will be enraged 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 ^bdriven away into darkness.