Bible-Reading.comIsaiah 9
1Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those in distress. In the past He humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future He will honor the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations:
2The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.
3You have enlarged the nation and increased its joy. The people rejoice before You as they rejoice at harvest time, as men rejoice in dividing the plunder.
4For as in the day of Midian You have shattered the yoke of their burden, the bar across their shoulders, and the rod of their oppressor.
5For every trampling boot of battle and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.
6For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from that time and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.
8The Lord has sent a message against Jacob, and it has fallen upon Israel.
9All the people will know it— Ephraim and the dwellers of Samaria. With pride and arrogance of heart they will say:
10“The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with finished stone; the sycamores have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.”
11The LORD has raised up the foes of Rezin against him and joined his enemies together.
12Aram from the east and Philistia from the west have devoured Israel with open mouths. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.
13But the people did not return to Him who struck them; they did not seek the LORD of Hosts.
14So the LORD will cut off Israel’s head and tail, both palm branch and reed in a single day.
15The head is the elder and honorable man, and the tail is the prophet who teaches lies.
16For those who guide this people mislead them, and those they mislead are swallowed up.
17Therefore the Lord takes no pleasure in their young men; He has no compassion on their fatherless and widows. For every one of them is godless and wicked, and every mouth speaks folly. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.
18For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes the thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets which roll upward in billows of smoke.
19By the wrath of the LORD of Hosts the land is scorched, and the people are fuel for the fire. No man even spares his brother.
20They carve out what is on the right, but they are still hungry; they eat what is on the left, but they are still not satisfied. Each one devours the flesh of his own offspring.
21Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh; together they turn against Judah. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.
Isaiah 10
1Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and issue oppressive decrees,
2to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder.
3What will you do on the day of reckoning when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?
4Nothing will remain but to crouch among the captives or fall among the slain. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.
5Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger; the staff in their hands is My wrath.
6I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.
7But this is not his intention; this is not his plan. For it is in his heart to destroy and cut off many nations.
8“Are not all my commanders kings?” he says.
9“Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?
10As my hand seized the idolatrous kingdoms whose images surpassed those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
11and as I have done to Samaria and its idols, will I not also do to Jerusalem and her idols?”
12So when the Lord has completed all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the fruit of his arrogant heart and the proud look in his eyes.
13For he says: ‘By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, for I am clever. I have removed the boundaries of nations and plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their rulers.
14My hand reached as into a nest to seize the wealth of the nations. Like one gathering abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth. No wing fluttered, no beak opened or chirped.’”
15Does an axe raise itself above the one who swings it? Does a saw boast over him who saws with it? It would be like a rod waving the one who lifts it, or a staff lifting him who is not wood!
16Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts will send a wasting disease among Assyria’s stout warriors, and under his pomp will be kindled a fire like a burning flame.
17And the Light of Israel will become a fire, and its Holy One a flame. In a single day it will burn and devour Assyria’s thorns and thistles.
18The splendor of its forests and orchards, both soul and body, it will completely destroy, as a sickness consumes a man.
19The remaining trees of its forests will be so few that a child could count them.
20On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer depend on him who struck them, but they will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.
21A remnant will return —a remnant of Jacob— to the Mighty God.
22Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overflowing with righteousness.
23For the Lord GOD of Hosts will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land.
24Therefore this is what the Lord GOD of Hosts says: “O My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear Assyria, who strikes you with a rod and lifts his staff against you as the Egyptians did.
25For in just a little while My fury against you will subside, and My anger will turn to their destruction.”
26And the LORD of Hosts will brandish a whip against them, as when He struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. He will raise His staff over the sea, as He did in Egypt.
27On that day the burden will be lifted from your shoulders, and the yoke from your neck. The yoke will be broken because your neck will be too large.
28Assyria has entered Aiath and passed through Migron, storing their supplies at Michmash.
29They have crossed at the ford: “We will spend the night at Geba.” Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul flees.
30Cry aloud, O Daughter of Gallim! Listen, O Laishah! O wretched Anathoth!
31Madmenah flees; the people of Gebim take refuge.
32Yet today they will halt at Nob, shaking a fist at the mount of Daughter Zion, at the hill of Jerusalem.
33Behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts will lop off the branches with terrifying power. The tall trees will be cut down, the lofty ones will be felled.
34He will clear the forest thickets with an axe, and Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.