Isaiah 8–10

Assyria Will Invade the Land

8Moreover the Lord said to me, “Take a large scroll, and ^awrite on it with a man’s pen concerning ¹Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. ²And I will take for Myself faithful witnesses to record, ^bUriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.”

³Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Call his name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz; ^4cfor before the child ²shall have knowledge to cry ‘My father’ and ‘My mother,’ ^dthe riches of Damascus and the ³spoil of Samaria will be taken away before the king of Assyria.”

⁵The Lord also spoke to me again, saying:

⁶“Inasmuch as these people refused

The waters of ^eShiloah that flow softly,

And rejoice ^fin Rezin and in Remaliah’s son;

⁷Now therefore, behold, the Lord brings up over them

The waters of ⁴the River, strong and mighty—

The king of Assyria and all his glory;

He will ⁵go up over all his channels

And go over all his banks.

⁸He will pass through Judah,

He will overflow and pass over,

^gHe will reach up to the neck;

And the stretching out of his wings

Will ⁶fill the breadth of Your land, O ^hImmanuel. ⁷

⁹“Be ⁱshattered, O you peoples, and be broken in pieces!

Give ear, all you from far countries.

Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces;

Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces.

^10jTake counsel together, but it will come to nothing;

Speak the word, ^kbut it will not stand,

^lFor ⁸God is with us.”

Fear God, Heed His Word

¹¹For the Lord spoke thus to me with ⁹a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying:

¹²“Do not say, ‘A conspiracy,’

Concerning all that this people call a conspiracy,

Nor be afraid of their ¹threats, nor be ²troubled.

¹³The Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow;

Let Him be your fear,

And let Him be your dread.

^14mHe will be as a ³sanctuary,

But ⁿa stone of stumbling and a rock of ⁴offense

To both the houses of Israel,

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

¹⁵And many among them shall ^ostumble;

They shall fall and be broken,

Be snared and ⁵taken.”

¹⁶Bind up the testimony,

Seal the law among my disciples.

¹⁷And I will wait on the Lord,

Who ^phides His face from the house of Jacob;

And I ^qwill hope in Him.

^18rHere am I and the children whom the Lord has given me!

We ^sare for signs and wonders in Israel

From the Lord of hosts,

Who dwells in Mount Zion.

¹⁹And when they say to you, ^t“Seek those who are mediums and wizards, ^uwho whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they ^vseek the dead on behalf of the living? ^20wTo the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because ^xthere ⁶is no light in them.

²¹They will pass through it hard-pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and ^ycurse ⁷their king and their God, and look upward. ²²Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness.

The Government of the Promised Son

9Nevertheless ^athe gloom will not be upon her who is distressed,

As when at ^bfirst He lightly esteemed

The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,

And ^cafterward more heavily oppressed her,

By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan,

In Galilee of the Gentiles.

^2dThe people who walked in darkness

Have seen a great light;

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

Upon them a light has shined.

³You have multiplied the nation

And ¹increased its joy;

They rejoice before You

According to the joy of harvest,

As men rejoice ^ewhen they divide the spoil.

⁴For You have broken the yoke of his burden

And the staff of his shoulder,

The rod of his oppressor,

As in the day of ^fMidian.

⁵For every warrior’s ²sandal from the noisy battle,

And garments rolled in blood,

^gWill be used for burning and fuel ³of fire.

^6hFor unto us a Child is born,

Unto us a ⁱSon is given;

And ^jthe government will be upon His shoulder.

And His name will be called

^kWonderful, Counselor, ^lMighty God,

Everlasting Father, ^mPrince of Peace.

⁷Of the increase of His government and peace

ⁿThere will be no end,

Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,

To order it and establish it with judgment and justice

From that time forward, even forever.

The ^ozeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

The Punishment of Samaria

⁸The Lord sent a word against ^pJacob,

And it has fallen on Israel.

⁹All the people will know—

Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria—

Who say in pride and arrogance of heart:

¹⁰“The bricks have fallen down,

But we will rebuild with hewn stones;

The sycamores are cut down,

But we will replace them with cedars.”

¹¹Therefore the Lord shall set up

The adversaries of Rezin against him,

And spur his enemies on,

¹²The Syrians before and the Philistines behind;

And they shall devour Israel with an open mouth.

For all this His anger is not turned away,

But His hand is ⁴stretched out still.

¹³For the people do not turn to Him who strikes them,

Nor do they seek the Lord of hosts.

¹⁴Therefore the Lord will cut off head and tail from Israel,

Palm branch and bulrush ^qin one day.

¹⁵The elder and honorable, he is the head;

The prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail.

¹⁶For ^rthe leaders of this people cause them to err,

And those who are led by them are destroyed.

¹⁷Therefore the Lord ^swill have no joy in their young men,

Nor have mercy on their fatherless and widows;

For everyone is a hypocrite and an evildoer,

And every mouth speaks ⁵folly.

^tFor all this His anger is not turned away,

But His hand is stretched out still.

¹⁸For wickedness ^uburns as the fire;

It shall devour the briers and thorns,

And kindle in the thickets of the forest;

They shall mount up like rising smoke.

¹⁹Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts

^vThe land is burned up,

And the people shall be as fuel for the fire;

^wNo man shall spare his brother.

²⁰And he shall ⁶snatch on the right hand

And be hungry;

He shall devour on the left hand

^xAnd not be satisfied;

^yEvery man shall eat the flesh of his own arm.

²¹Manasseh shall devour Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh;

Together they shall be ^zagainst Judah.

^aFor all this His anger is not turned away,

But His hand is stretched out still.

10“Woe to those who ^adecree unrighteous decrees,

Who write misfortune,

Which they have prescribed

²To rob the needy of justice,

And to take what is right from the poor of My people,

That widows may be their prey,

And that they may rob the fatherless.

^3bWhat will you do in ^cthe day of punishment,

And in the desolation which will come from ^dafar?

To whom will you flee for help?

And where will you leave your glory?

⁴Without Me they shall bow down among the ^eprisoners,

And they shall fall ¹among the slain.”

^fFor all this His anger is not turned away,

But His hand is stretched out still.

Arrogant Assyria Also Judged

⁵“Woe to Assyria, ^gthe rod of My anger

And the staff in whose hand is My indignation.

⁶I will send him against ^han ungodly nation,

And against the people of My wrath

I will ⁱgive him charge,

To seize the spoil, to take the prey,

And to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

^7jYet he does not mean so,

Nor does his heart think so;

But it is in his heart to destroy,

And cut off not a few nations.

^8kFor he says,

‘Are not my princes altogether kings?

⁹Is not ^lCalno ^mlike Carchemish?

Is not Hamath like Arpad?

Is not Samaria ⁿlike Damascus?

¹⁰As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols,

Whose carved images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

¹¹As I have done to Samaria and her idols,

Shall I not do also to Jerusalem and her idols?’ ”

¹²Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Lord has ²performed all His work ^oon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that He will say, ^p“I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his haughty looks.”

^13qFor he says:

“By the strength of my hand I have done it,

And by my wisdom, for I am prudent;

Also I have removed the boundaries of the people,

And have robbed their treasuries;

So I have put down the inhabitants like a ³valiant man.

^14rMy hand has found like a nest the riches of the people,

And as one gathers eggs that are left,

I have gathered all the earth;

And there was no one who moved his wing,

Nor opened his mouth with even a peep.”

¹⁵Shall ^sthe ax boast itself against him who chops with it?

Or shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it?

As if a rod could wield itself against those who lift it up,

Or as if a staff could lift up, as if it were not wood!

¹⁶Therefore the Lord, the ⁴Lord of hosts,

Will send leanness among his fat ones;

And under his glory

He will kindle a burning

Like the burning of a fire.

¹⁷So the Light of Israel will be for a fire,

And his Holy One for a flame;

^tIt will burn and devour

His thorns and his briers in one day.

¹⁸And it will consume the glory of his forest and of ^uhis fruitful field,

Both soul and body;

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

¹⁹Then the rest of the trees of his forest

Will be so few in number

That a child may write them.

The Returning Remnant of Israel

²⁰And it shall come to pass in that day

That the remnant of Israel,

And such as have escaped of the house of Jacob,

^vWill never again depend on him who ⁵defeated them,

But will depend on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

²¹The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob,

To the ^wMighty God.

^22xFor though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea,

^yA remnant of them will return;

The destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness.

^23zFor the Lord God of hosts

Will make a determined end

In the midst of all the land.

²⁴Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: “O My people, who dwell in Zion, ^ado not be afraid of the Assyrian. He shall strike you with a rod and lift up his staff against you, in the manner of ^bEgypt. ²⁵For yet a very little while ^cand the indignation will cease, as will My anger in their destruction.” ²⁶And the Lord of hosts will ⁶stir up ^da scourge for him like the slaughter of ^eMidian at the rock of Oreb; ^fas His rod was on the sea, so will He lift it up in the manner of Egypt.

²⁷It shall come to pass in that day

That his burden will be taken away from your shoulder,

And his yoke from your neck,

And the yoke will be destroyed…