Isaiah 7–12

Chapter 7

A Message for Ahaz

When Ahaz, son of Jotham and grandson of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, set out to attack Jerusalem. However, they were unable to carry out their plan.

²The news had come to the royal court of Judah: “Syria is allied with Israel against us!” So the hearts of the king and his people trembled with fear, like trees shaking in a storm.

³Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Take your son Shear-jashub and go out to meet King Ahaz. You will find him at the end of the aqueduct that feeds water into the upper pool, near the road leading to the field where cloth is washed. ⁴Tell him to stop worrying. Tell him he doesn’t need to fear the fierce anger of those two burned-out embers, King Rezin of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah. ⁵Yes, the kings of Syria and Israel are plotting against him, saying, ⁶‘We will attack Judah and capture it for ourselves. Then we will install the son of Tabeel as Judah’s king.’ ⁷But this is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“This invasion will never happen;

it will never take place;

⁸for Syria is no stronger than its capital, Damascus,

and Damascus is no stronger than its king, Rezin.

As for Israel, within sixty-five years

it will be crushed and completely destroyed.

⁹Israel is no stronger than its capital, Samaria,

and Samaria is no stronger than its king, Pekah son of Remaliah.

Unless your faith is firm,

I cannot make you stand firm.”

The Sign of Immanuel

¹⁰Later, the Lord sent this message to King Ahaz: ¹¹“Ask the Lord your God for a sign of confirmation, Ahaz. Make it as difficult as you want—as high as heaven or as deep as the place of the dead.”

¹²But the king refused. “No,” he said, “I will not test the Lord like that.”

¹³Then Isaiah said, “Listen well, you royal family of David! Isn’t it enough to exhaust human patience? Must you exhaust the patience of my God as well? ¹⁴All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’). ¹⁵By the time this child is old enough to choose what is right and reject what is wrong, he will be eating yogurt and honey. ¹⁶For before the child is that old, the lands of the two kings you fear so much will both be deserted.

¹⁷“Then the Lord will bring things on you, your nation, and your family unlike anything since Israel broke away from Judah. He will bring the king of Assyria upon you!”

¹⁸In that day the Lord will whistle for the army of southern Egypt and for the army of Assyria. They will swarm around you like flies and bees. ¹⁹They will come in vast hordes and settle in the fertile areas and also in the desolate valleys, caves, and thorny places. ²⁰In that day the Lord will hire a “razor” from beyond the Euphrates River—the king of Assyria—and use it to shave off everything: your land, your crops, and your people.

²¹In that day a farmer will be fortunate to have a cow and two sheep or goats left. ²²Nevertheless, there will be enough milk for everyone because so few people will be left in the land. They will eat their fill of yogurt and honey. ²³In that day the lush vineyards, now worth 1,000 pieces of silver, will become patches of briers and thorns. ²⁴The entire land will become a vast expanse of briers and thorns, a hunting ground overrun by wildlife. ²⁵No one will go to the fertile hillsides where the gardens once grew, for briers and thorns will cover them. Cattle, sheep, and goats will graze there.

Chapter 8

The Coming Assyrian Invasion

Then the Lord said to me, “Make a large signboard and clearly write this name on it: Maher-shalal-hash-baz.” ²I asked Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah, both known as honest men, to witness my doing this.

³Then I slept with my wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said, “Call him Maher-shalal-hash-baz. ⁴For before this child is old enough to say ‘Papa’ or ‘Mama,’ the king of Assyria will carry away both the abundance of Damascus and the riches of Samaria.”

⁵Then the Lord spoke to me again and said, ⁶“My care for the people of Judah is like the gently flowing waters of Shiloah, but they have rejected it. They are rejoicing over what will happen to King Rezin and King Pekah. ⁷Therefore, the Lord will overwhelm them with a mighty flood from the Euphrates River—the king of Assyria and all his glory. This flood will overflow all its channels ⁸and sweep into Judah until it is chin deep. It will spread its wings, submerging your land from one end to the other, O Immanuel.

⁹“Huddle together, you nations, and be terrified.

Listen, all you distant lands.

Prepare for battle, but you will be crushed!

Yes, prepare for battle, but you will be crushed!

¹⁰Call your councils of war, but they will be worthless.

Develop your strategies, but they will not succeed.

For God is with us!”

A Call to Trust the Lord

¹¹The Lord has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does. He said,

¹²“Don’t call everything a conspiracy, like they do,

and don’t live in dread of what frightens them.

¹³Make the Lord of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life.

He is the one you should fear.

He is the one who should make you tremble.

¹⁴He will keep you safe.

But to Israel and Judah

he will be a stone that makes people stumble,

a rock that makes them fall.

And for the people of Jerusalem

he will be a trap and a snare.

¹⁵Many will stumble and fall,

never to rise again.

They will be snared and captured.”

¹⁶Preserve the teaching of God;

entrust his instructions to those who follow me.

¹⁷I will wait for the Lord,

who has turned away from the descendants of Jacob.

I will put my hope in him.

¹⁸I and the children the Lord has given me serve as signs and warnings to Israel from the Lord of Heaven’s Armies who dwells in his Temple on Mount Zion.

¹⁹Someone may say to you, “Let’s ask the mediums and those who consult the spirits of the dead. With their whisperings and mutterings, they will tell us what to do.” But shouldn’t people ask God for guidance? Should the living seek guidance from the dead?

²⁰Look to God’s instructions and teachings! People who contradict his word are completely in the dark. ²¹They will go from one place to another, weary and hungry. And because they are hungry, they will rage and curse their king and their God. They will look up to heaven ²²and down at the earth, but wherever they look, there will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. They will be thrown out into the darkness.

Chapter 9

Hope in the Messiah

¹Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever. The land of Zebulun and Naphtali will be humbled, but there will be a time in the future when Galilee of the Gentiles, which lies along the road that runs between the Jordan and the sea, will be filled with glory.

² The people who walk in darkness

will see a great light.

For those who live in a land of deep darkness,

a light will shine.

³You will enlarge the nation of Israel,

and its people will rejoice.

They will rejoice before you

as people rejoice at the harvest

and like warriors dividing the plunder.

⁴For you will break the yoke of their slavery

and lift the heavy burden from their shoulders.

You will break the oppressor’s rod,

just as you did when you destroyed the army of Midian.

⁵The boots of the warrior

and the uniforms bloodstained by war

will all be burned.

They will be fuel for the fire.

⁶For a child is born to us,

a son is given to us.

The government will rest on his shoulders.

And he will be called:

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

⁷His government and its peace

will never end.

He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David

for all eternity.

The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies

will make this happen!

The Lord’s Anger against Israel

⁸The Lord has spoken out against Jacob;

his judgment has fallen upon Israel.

⁹And the people of Israel and Samaria,

who spoke with such pride and arrogance,

will soon know it.

¹⁰They said, “We will replace the broken bricks of our ruins with finished stone,

and replant the felled sycamore-fig trees with cedars.”

¹¹But the Lord will bring Rezin’s enemies against Israel

and stir up all their foes.

¹²The Syrians from the east and the Philistines from the west

will bare their fangs and devour Israel.

But even then the Lord’s anger will not be satisfied.

His fist is still poised to strike.

¹³For after all this punishment, the people will still not repent.

They will not seek the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

¹⁴Therefore, in a single day the Lord will destroy both the head and the tail,

the noble palm branch and the lowly reed.

¹⁵The leaders of Israel are the head,

and the lying prophets are the tail.

¹⁶For the leaders of the people have misled them.

They have led them down the path of destruction.

¹⁷That is why the Lord takes no pleasure in the young men

and shows no mercy even to the widows and orphans.

For they are all wicked hypocrites,

and they all speak foolishness.

But even then the Lord’s anger will not be satisfied.

His fist is still poised to strike.

¹⁸This wickedness is like a brushfire.

It burns not only briers and thorns

but also sets the forests ablaze.

Its burning sends up clouds of smoke.

¹⁹The land will be blackened

by the fury of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

The people will be fuel for the fire,

and no one will spare even his own brother.

²⁰They will attack their neighbor on the right

but will still be hungry.

They will devour their neighbor on the left

but will not be satisfied.

In the end they will even eat their own children.

²¹Manasseh will feed on Ephraim,

Ephraim will feed on Manasseh,

and both will devour Judah.

But even then the Lord’s anger will not be satisfied.

His fist is still poised to strike.

Chapter 10

¹What sorrow awaits the unjust judges

and those who issue unfair laws.

²They deprive the poor of justice …