Isaiah 9:2–10:34

^2qThe people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light;

those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,

on them has light shined.

³Thou hast multiplied the nation,

thou hast increased its joy;

they rejoice before thee

as with joy at the harvest,

as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

⁴For the yoke of his burden,

and the staff for his shoulder,

the rod of his oppressor,

thou hast broken as on the day of Midian.

⁵For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult

and every garment rolled in blood

will be burned as fuel for the fire.

⁶For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

and the government will be upon his shoulder,

and his name will be called

“Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

⁷Of the increase of his government and of peace

there will be no end,

upon the throne of David,

and over his kingdom,

to establish it, and to uphold it

with justice and with righteousness

from this time forth and for evermore.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

⁸The Lord has sent a word against Jacob,

and it will light upon Israel;

⁹and all the people will know,

Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,

who say in pride and in arrogance of heart:

¹⁰“The bricks have fallen,

but we will build with dressed stones;

the sycamores have been cut down,

but we will put cedars in their place.”

¹¹So the Lord raises adversaries against them,

and stirs up their enemies.

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

devour Israel with open mouth.

For all this his anger is not turned away

and his hand is stretched out still.

¹³The people did not turn to him who smote them,

nor seek the Lord of hosts.

¹⁴So the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail,

palm branch and reed in one day—

¹⁵the elder and honored man is the head,

and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail;

¹⁶for those who lead this people lead them astray,

and those who are led by them are swallowed up.

¹⁷Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men,

and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows;

for every one is godless and an evildoer,

and every mouth speaks folly.

For all this his anger is not turned away

and his hand is stretched out still.

¹⁸For wickedness burns like a fire,

it consumes briers and thorns;

it kindles the thickets of the forest,

and they roll upward in a column of smoke.

¹⁹Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts

the land is burned,

and the people are like fuel for the fire;

no man spares his brother.

²⁰They snatch on the right, but are still hungry,

and they devour on the left, but are not satisfied;

each devours his neighbor’s^s flesh,

²¹Manasseh Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,

and together they are against Judah.

For all this his anger is not turned away

and his hand is stretched out still.

Chapter 10

¹Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees,

and the writers who keep writing oppression,

²to turn aside the needy from justice

and to rob the poor of my people of their right,

that widows may be their spoil,

and that they may make the fatherless their prey!

³What will you do on the day of punishment,

in the storm which will come from afar?

To whom will you flee for help,

and where will you leave your wealth?

⁴Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners

or fall among the slain.

For all this his anger is not turned away

and his hand is stretched out still.

⁵Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger,

the staff of my fury!^t

⁶Against a godless nation I send him,

and against the people of my wrath I command him,

to take spoil and seize plunder,

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

⁷But he does not so intend,

and his mind does not so think;

but it is in his mind to destroy,

and to cut off nations not a few;

⁸for he says:

“Are not my commanders all kings?

⁹Is not Calno like Carchemish?

Is not Hamath like Arpad?

Is not Samaria like Damascus?

¹⁰As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols

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

¹¹shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols

as I have done to Samaria and her images?”

¹²When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem he will punish the arrogant boasting of the king of Assyria and his haughty pride. ¹³For he says:

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

and by my wisdom, for I have understanding;

I have removed the boundaries of peoples,

and have plundered their treasures;

like a bull I have brought down those who sat on thrones.

¹⁴My hand has found like a nest

the wealth of the peoples;

and as men gather eggs that have been forsaken

so I have gathered all the earth;

and there was none that moved a wing,

or opened the mouth, or chirped.”

¹⁵Shall the axe vaunt itself over him who hews with it,

or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?

As if a rod should wield him who lifts it,

or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood!

¹⁶Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts,

will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors,

and under his glory a burning will be kindled,

like the burning of fire.

¹⁷The light of Israel will become a fire,

and his Holy One a flame;

and it will burn and devour

his thorns and briers in one day.

¹⁸The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land

the Lord will destroy, both soul and body,

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

¹⁹The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few

that a child can write them down.

²⁰In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean upon him that smote them, but will lean upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. ²¹A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. ²²For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness. ²³For the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth.

²⁴Therefore thus says the Lord, the Lord of hosts: “O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they smite with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did. ²⁵For in a very little while my indignation will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction. ²⁶And the Lord of hosts will wield against them a scourge, as when he smote Midian at the rock of Oreb; and his rod will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt. ²⁷And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke will be destroyed from your neck.”

He has gone up from Rimmon,

²⁸he has come to Aiath;

he has passed through Migron,

at Michmash he stores his baggage;

²⁹they have crossed over the pass,

at Geba they lodge for the night;

Ramah trembles,

Gibe-ah of Saul has fled.

³⁰Cry aloud, O daughter of Gallim!

Hearken, O Laishah!

Answer her, O Anathoth!

³¹Madmenah is in flight,

the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.

³²This very day he will halt at Nob,

he will shake his fist

at the mount of the daughter of Zion,

the hill of Jerusalem.

³³Behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts

will lop the boughs with terrifying power;

the great in height will be hewn down,

and the lofty will be brought low.

³⁴He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe,

and Lebanon with its majestic trees will fall.