Isaiah 9:2–10:34

²Before those people lived in darkness,

but now they have seen a great light.

They lived in a dark land,

but a light has shined on them.

³God, you have caused the nation to grow

and made the people happy.

And they have shown their happiness to you,

like the joy during harvest time,

like the joy of people

taking what they have won in war.

⁴Like the time you defeated Midian,

you have taken away their heavy load

and the heavy pole from their backs

and the rod the enemy used to punish them.

⁵Every boot that marched in battle

and every uniform stained with blood

has been thrown into the fire.

⁶A child has been born to us;

God has given a son to us.

He will be responsible for leading the people.

His name will be Wonderful Counselor, Powerful God,

Father Who Lives Forever, Prince of Peace.

⁷Power and peace will be in his kingdom

and will continue to grow forever.

He will rule as king on David’s throne

and over David’s kingdom.

He will make it strong

by ruling with justice and goodness

from now on and forever.

The Lord All-Powerful will do this

because of his strong love for his people.

God Will Punish Israel

8The Lord sent a message against the people of Jacob;

it says that God will judge Israel.

⁹Then everyone in Israel, even the leaders in Samaria,

will know that God has sent it.

Those people are proud and brag by saying,

¹⁰“These bricks have fallen,

but we will build again with cut stones.

These small trees have been chopped down,

but we will put great cedars there.”

¹¹But the Lord has brought the enemies of Rezin against them;

he has stirred up their enemies against them.

¹²The Arameans came from the east

and the Philistines from the west,

and they ate up Israel with their armies.

But the Lord was still angry;

his hand was still raised to punish the people.

¹³But the people did not return to the one who had struck them;

they did not follow the Lord All-Powerful.

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

taking away both the branch and stalk in one day.

¹⁵The elders and important men were the head,

and the prophets who speak lies were the tail.

¹⁶Those who led the people led them in the wrong direction,

and those who followed them were destroyed.

¹⁷So the Lord is not happy with the young people,

nor will he show mercy to the orphans and widows.

All the people are separated from God and are very evil;

they all speak lies.

But the Lord is still angry;

his hand is still raised to strike down the people.

¹⁸Evil is like a small fire.

First, it burns weeds and thorns.

Next, it burns the larger bushes in the forest,

and they all go up in a column of smoke.

¹⁹The Lord All-Powerful is angry,

so the land will be burned.

The people are like fuel for the fire;

no one will try to save his brother or sister.

²⁰People will grab something on the right,

but they will still be hungry.

They will eat something on the left,

but they will not be filled.

Then they will each turn and eat their own children.

²¹The people of Manasseh will fight against the people of Ephraim,

and Ephraim will fight against Manasseh.

Then both of them will turn against Judah.

But the Lord is still angry;

his hand is still raised to strike down the people.

10How terrible it will be for those who make unfair laws,

and those who write laws that make life hard for people.

²They are not fair to the poor,

and they rob my people of their rights.

They allow people to steal from widows

and to take from orphans what really belongs to them.

³How will you explain the things you have done?

What will you do when your destruction comes from far away?

Where will you run for help?

Where will you hide your riches then?

⁴You will have to bow down among the captives

or fall down among the dead bodies.

But the Lord is still angry;

his hand is still raised to strike down the people.

God Will Punish Assyria

⁵God says, “How terrible it will be for the king of Assyria.

I use him like a rod to show my anger;

in anger I use Assyria like a club.

⁶I send it to fight against a nation that is separated from God.

I am angry with those people,

so I command Assyria to fight against them,

to take their wealth from them,

to trample them down like dirt in the streets.

⁷But Assyria’s king doesn’t understand that I am using him;

he doesn’t know he is a tool for me.

He only wants to destroy other people

and to defeat many nations.

⁸The king of Assyria says to himself,

‘All of my commanders are like kings.

⁹The city Calno is like the city Carchemish.

The city Hamath is like the city Arpad.

The city Samaria is like the city Damascus.

¹⁰I defeated those kingdoms that worship idols,

and those idols were more than the idols of Jerusalem and Samaria.

¹¹As I defeated Samaria and her idols,

I will also defeat Jerusalem and her idols.’ ”

¹²When the Lord finishes doing what he planned to Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will punish Assyria. The king of Assyria is very proud, and his pride has made him do these evil things, so God will punish him. ¹³The king of Assyria says this:

“By my own power I have done these things;

by my wisdom I have defeated many nations.

I have taken their wealth,

and, like a mighty one, I have taken their people.

¹⁴I have taken the riches of all these people,

like a person reaching into a bird’s nest.

I have taken these nations,

like a person taking eggs.

Not one raised a hand

or opened its mouth to stop me.”

¹⁵An ax is not better than the person who swings it.

A saw is not better than the one who uses it.

A stick cannot control the person who picks it up.

A club cannot pick up the person!

¹⁶So the Lord God All-Powerful

will send a terrible disease upon Assyria’s soldiers.

The strength of Assyria will be burned up

like a fire burning until everything is gone.

¹⁷God, the Light of Israel, will be like a fire;

the Holy One will be like a flame.

He will be like a fire

that suddenly burns the weeds and thorns.

¹⁸The fire burns away the great trees and rich farmlands,

destroying everything.

It will be like a sick person who wastes away.

¹⁹The trees left standing will be so few

that even a child could count them.

²⁰At that time some people will be left alive in Israel

from the family of Jacob.

They will not continue to depend

on the person who defeated them.

They will learn truly to depend on the Lord,

the Holy One of Israel.

²¹Those who are left alive in Jacob’s family

will again follow the powerful God.

²²Israel, your people are many,

like the grains of sand by the sea.

But only a few of them will be left alive to return to the Lord.

God has announced that he will destroy the land

completely and fairly.

²³The Lord God All-Powerful will certainly destroy this land,

as he has announced.

²⁴This is what the Lord God All-Powerful says:

“My people living in Jerusalem,

don’t be afraid of the Assyrians,

who beat you with a rod

and raise a stick against you, as Egypt did.

²⁵After a short time my anger against you will stop,

and then I will turn my anger to destroying them.”

²⁶Then the Lord All-Powerful will beat the Assyrians with a whip

as he defeated Midian at the rock of Oreb.

He will raise his stick over the waters

as he did in Egypt.

²⁷Then the troubles that Assyria puts on you

will be removed,

and the load they make you carry

will be taken away.

Assyria Invades Israel

²⁸The army of Assyria will enter near Aiath.

Its soldiers will walk through Migron.

They will store their food in Micmash.

²⁹The army will go over the pass.

The soldiers will sleep at Geba.

The people of Ramah will be afraid,

and the people at Gibeah of Saul will run away.

³⁰Cry out, Bath Gallim!

Laishah, listen!

Poor Anathoth!

³¹The people of Madmenah are running away;

the people of Gebim are hiding.

³²This day the army will stop at Nob.

They will shake their fist at Mount Zion,

at the hill of Jerusalem.

³³Watch! The Lord God All-Powerful

with his great power will chop them down like a great tree.

Those who are great will be cut down;

those who are important will fall to the ground.

³⁴He will cut them down

as a forest is cut down with an ax.

And the great trees of Lebanon

will fall by the power of the Mighty One.