Isaiah 7-11

Isaiah 7

¹And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but they were not able to fight against it.

²And it was told the house of David saying, Syria is allied with Ephraim. Then his heart and the heart of his people shook, as the trees of the forest are shaken with the wind.

³And Jehovah said to Isaiah, Go out now to meet Ahaz, thou and thy son Shear-jashub, at the end of the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller's field;

⁴and thou shalt say unto him, Take heed and be quiet; fear not, and let not thy heart faint before these two ends of smoking firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.

⁵Inasmuch as Syria hath taken evil counsel against thee, Ephraim also and the son of Remaliah, saying,

⁶Let us go up against Judah, and harass it, and make a breach therein for us, and set up a king therein -- the son of Tabeal;

⁷thus saith the Lord Jehovah: It shall not stand, nor come to pass;

⁸for the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty-five years shall Ephraim be broken, so as to be no more a people;

⁹and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If ye believe not, surely ye shall not be established.

¹⁰And Jehovah spoke again to Ahaz, saying,

¹¹Ask for thee a sign from Jehovah thy God; ask for it in the deep, or in the height above.

¹²And Ahaz said, I will not ask, and will not tempt Jehovah.

¹³And he said, Hear then, house of David: Is it a small matter for you to weary men, that ye weary also my God?

¹⁴Therefore will the Lord himself give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth a son, and call his name Immanuel.

¹⁵Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good.

¹⁶For before the child knoweth to refuse the evil and to choose the good, the land whose two kings thou fearest shall be forsaken.

¹⁷Jehovah will bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days which have not come since the day when Ephraim turned away from Judah -- even the king of Assyria.

¹⁸And it shall come to pass in that day, that Jehovah will hiss for the fly which is at the extremity of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee which is in the land of Assyria;

¹⁹and they shall come and settle all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and on all thorn-bushes, and on all the pastures.

²⁰In that day will the Lord, with a razor which is hired beyond the river, with the king of Assyria, shave the head and the hair of the feet, yea, the beard also will it take away.

²¹And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep,

²²and it shall come to pass, from the abundance of milk they shall give, that he shall eat butter; for every one that remaineth in the midst of the land shall eat butter and honey.

²³And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silver pieces, shall become briars and thorns:

²⁴with arrows and with the bow shall they come thither, for the whole land shall become briars and thorns.

²⁵And all mountains that have been dug up with the hoe -- thither will they not come, from fear of briars and thorns; and they shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of small cattle.

Isaiah 8

¹And Jehovah said to me, Take thee a great tablet, and write thereon with a man's style, concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

²And I took unto me to witness, sure witnesses, Urijah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.

³And I came near to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son; and Jehovah said unto me, Call his name, Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

⁴For before the lad knoweth to cry, My father! and, My mother! the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.

⁵And Jehovah spoke again to me, saying,

⁶Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah which flow softly, and rejoiceth in Rezin and in the son of Remaliah,

⁷therefore behold, the Lord will bring up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory; and he shall mount up over all his channels, and go over all his banks:

⁸and he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow it and go further, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel!

⁹Rage, ye peoples, and be broken in pieces! And give ear, all ye distant parts of the earth: Gird yourselves, and be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and be broken in pieces!

¹⁰Settle a plan, and it shall come to nought; speak a word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.

¹¹For Jehovah spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and he instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying,

¹²Ye shall not say, Conspiracy, of everything of which this people saith, Conspiracy; and fear ye not their fear, and be not in dread.

¹³Jehovah of hosts, him shall ye sanctify; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

¹⁴And he will be for a sanctuary; and for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁵And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

¹⁶Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.

¹⁷And I will wait for Jehovah, who hideth his face from the house of Jacob; and I will look for him.

¹⁸Behold, I and the children that Jehovah hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel, from Jehovah of hosts, who dwelleth in mount Zion.

¹⁹And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto the necromancers and unto the soothsayers, who chirp and who mutter, say, Shall not a people seek unto their God? Will they go for the living unto the dead?

²⁰To the law and the testimony! If they speak not according to this word, for them there is no daybreak.

²¹And they shall pass through it, hard pressed and hungry; and it shall come to pass when they are hungry, they will fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and will gaze upward:

²²and they will look to the earth; and behold, trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they shall be driven into thick darkness.

Isaiah 9

¹Nevertheless the darkness shall not be as when the distress was in the land, at the time he at first lightly, and afterwards heavily, visited the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, -- the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations:

²the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them light hath shone.

³Thou hast multiplied the nation, hast increased its joy: they joy before thee like to the joy in harvest; as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

⁴For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.

⁵For every boot of him that is shod for the tumult, and the garment rolled in blood, shall be for burning, fuel for fire.

⁶For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name is called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace.

⁷Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with judgment and with righteousness, from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this.

⁸The Lord sent a word unto Jacob, and it lighteth upon Israel.

⁹And all the people shall know it, Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in pride and stoutness of heart,

¹⁰The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones; the sycamore trees are cut down, but we will replace them with cedars.

¹¹And Jehovah will set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and arm his enemies,

¹²the Syrians on the east, and the Philistines on the west; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.

¹³But the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, and they do not seek Jehovah of hosts.

¹⁴And Jehovah will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm-branch and rush, in one day:

¹⁵the ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.

¹⁶For the guides of this people mislead them; and they that are guided by them are swallowed up.

¹⁷Therefore the Lord will not rejoice in their young men, neither will he have mercy on their fatherless and on their widows; for every one is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.

¹⁸For wickedness burneth as a fire: it devoureth briars and thorns, and kindleth in the thickets of the forest, and they go rolling up like a pillar of smoke.

¹⁹Through the wrath of Jehovah of hosts is the land burned up, and the people is as fuel for fire: a man spareth not his brother;

²⁰and he snatcheth on the right hand, and is hungry, and eateth on the left hand; and they are not satisfied. They eat every man the flesh of his own arm:

²¹Manasseh, Ephraim, and Ephraim, Manasseh; and they together are against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.

Isaiah 10

¹Woe unto them that decree iniquitous decrees, and to the writers that prescribe oppression,

²to turn away the poor from judgment, and to take away the right from the afflicted of my people; that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!

³And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the sudden destruction which shall come from far? To whom will ye flee for help, and where will ye leave your glory?

⁴They can but crouch under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.

⁵Ah! the Assyrian! the rod of mine anger! and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.

⁶I will send him against a hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge; to take the spoil, and to seize the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

⁷But he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; for it is in his heart to extirpate and cut off nations not a few.

⁸For he saith, Are not my princes all kings?

⁹Is not Calno as Karkemish? Is not Hamath as Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus?

¹⁰As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, -- and their graven images exceeded those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

¹¹-- shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her images?

¹²And it shall come to pass, when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and upon Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stoutness of heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.

¹³For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am intelligent; and I have removed the bounds of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures, and, like a valiant man, I have brought down them that sit on thrones;

¹⁴and my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the peoples, and as one gathereth forsaken eggs, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or chirped.

¹⁵-- Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? shall the saw magnify itself against him that wieldeth it? As if the rod should wield them that lift it up; as if the staff should lift up him who is not wood!

¹⁶Therefore shall the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness, and under his glory he shall kindle a burning, like the burning of a fire:

¹⁷and the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame; and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briars in one day,

¹⁸and it shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body; and they shall be as when a sick man fainteth.

¹⁹And the remainder of the trees of his forest shall be few: yea, a child might write them.

²⁰And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob shall no more again rely upon him that smote them; but they shall rely upon Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

²¹The remnant shall return, the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.

²²For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them shall return: the consumption determined shall overflow in righteousness.

²³For a consumption, and one determined, will the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, accomplish in the midst of all the land.

²⁴Therefore thus saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts: O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian; he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt:

²⁵for yet a very little while, and the indignation shall be accomplished, and mine anger, in their destruction.

²⁶And Jehovah of hosts will stir up a scourge against him, according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and his rod shall be upon the sea, and he will lift it up after the manner of Egypt.

²⁷And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck; and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing. ...

²⁸He is come to Aiath, he hath passed through Migron; at Michmash he layeth up his baggage.

²⁹They are gone through the pass; they make their lodging at Geba: Ramah trembleth, Gibeah of Saul is fled.

³⁰Lift up thy voice, daughter of Gallim! Hearken, O Laish! -- Poor Anathoth!

³¹Madmenah is fugitive; the inhabitants of Gebim take to flight.

³²Still a day of halting at Nob; he shaketh his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. ...

³³Behold the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, shall lop the boughs with violence; and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be brought low;

³⁴and he shall make clearings in the thickets of the forest with iron; and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.

Isaiah 11

¹And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots shall be fruitful;

²and the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah.

³And his delight will be in the fear of Jehovah; and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears;

⁴but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.

⁵And righteousness shall be the girdle of his reins, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins.

⁶The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatted beast together, and a little child shall lead them.

⁷And the cow and the she-bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

⁸And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the adder, and the weaned child shall put forth its hand to the viper's den.

⁹They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.

¹⁰And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, standing as a banner of the peoples: the nations shall seek it; and his resting-place shall be glory.

¹¹And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to acquire the remnant of his people which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

¹²And he shall lift up a banner to the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

¹³And the envy of Ephraim shall depart, and the troublers of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim will not envy Judah, and Judah will not trouble Ephraim:

¹⁴but they shall fly upon the shoulder of the Philistines towards the west; together shall they spoil the sons of the east; they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon shall obey them.

¹⁵And Jehovah will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind will he shake his hand over the river, and will smite it into seven streams, and make men go over dryshod.

¹⁶And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people which will be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day when he went up out of the land of Egypt.