Isaiah 7-9
Holman Christian Standard Bible
The Message to Ahaz
7 This took place during the reign of Ahaz, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah king of Judah:(A) Rezin king of Aram, along with Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel, waged war against Jerusalem,(B) but he could not succeed. 2 When it became known to the house of David(C) that Aram had occupied Ephraim,(D) the heart of Ahaz[a] and the hearts of his people trembled like trees of a forest shaking in the wind.
3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear-jashub(E) to meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool,(F) by the road to the Fuller’s Field. 4 Say to him: Calm down and be quiet. Don’t be afraid or cowardly(G) because of these two smoldering stubs of firebrands, the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram, and the son of Remaliah. 5 For Aram, along with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has plotted harm against you. They say, 6 ‘Let us go up against Judah, terrorize it, and conquer it for ourselves. Then we can install Tabeel’s son as king in it.’”
7 This is what the Lord God says:
It will not happen; it will not occur.(H)
8 The[b] head of Aram is Damascus,
the head of Damascus is Rezin
(within 65 years
Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people),
9 the head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you do not stand firm in your faith,
then you will not stand at all.
The Immanuel Prophecy
10 Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz: 11 “Ask for a sign(I) from the Lord your God—from the depths of Sheol to the heights of heaven.”
12 But Ahaz replied, “I will not ask. I will not test the Lord.”
13 Isaiah(J) said, “Listen, house of David! Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men? Will you also try the patience of my God?(K) 14 Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you[c] a sign: The virgin will conceive,[d] have a son, and name him Immanuel.[e](L) 15 By the time he learns to reject what is bad and choose what is good,(M) he will be eating butter[f] and honey.(N) 16 For before the boy knows to reject what is bad and choose what is good, the land of the two kings you dread will be abandoned. 17 The Lord will bring on you, your people, and the house of your father, such a time as has never been since Ephraim separated from Judah(O)—the king of Assyria(P) is coming.”
18 On that day(Q)
the Lord will whistle(R) to the fly
that is at the farthest streams of the Nile
and to the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
19 All of them will come and settle
in the steep ravines, in the clefts of the rocks,(S)
in all the thornbushes, and in all the water holes.
20 On that day the Lord will use a razor(T) hired from beyond the Euphrates River—the king of Assyria(U)—to shave the head, the hair on the legs, and to remove the beard as well.
21 On that day
a man will raise a young cow and two sheep,
22 and from the abundant milk they give
he will eat butter,
for every survivor in the land will eat butter and honey.(V)
23 And on that day
every place where there were 1,000 vines,
worth 1,000 pieces of silver,
will become thorns and briers.(W)
24 A man will go there with bow and arrows
because the whole land will be thorns and briers.
25 You will not go to all the hills
that were once tilled with a hoe,
for fear of the thorns and briers.
Those hills will be places for oxen to graze
and for sheep to trample.
The Coming Assyrian Invasion
8 Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large piece of parchment[g] and write on it with an ordinary pen:[h](X) Maher-shalal-hash-baz.[i] 2 I have appointed[j] trustworthy witnesses—Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.”(Y)
3 I was then intimate with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. The Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz, 4 for before the boy knows how to call out father or mother,(Z) the wealth of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria will be carried off to the king of Assyria.”(AA)
5 The Lord spoke to me again:
6 Because these people rejected
the slowly flowing waters of Shiloah
and rejoiced with[k] Rezin
and the son of Remaliah,(AB)
7 the Lord will certainly bring against them
the mighty rushing waters of the Euphrates River—
the king of Assyria and all his glory.
It will overflow its channels
and spill over all its banks.
8 It will pour into Judah,
flood over it, and sweep through,
reaching up to the neck;(AC)
and its spreading streams[l]
will fill your entire land, Immanuel!(AD)
9 Band together, peoples, and be broken;
pay attention, all you distant lands;
prepare for war, and be broken;
prepare for war, and be broken.
10 Devise a plan; it will fail.(AE)
Make a prediction; it will not happen.
For God is with us.[m](AF)
The Lord of Hosts, the Only Refuge
11 For this is what the Lord said to me with great power, to keep[n] me from going the way of this people:(AG)
12 Do not call everything an alliance
these people say is an alliance.(AH)
Do not fear what they fear;(AI)
do not be terrified.
13 You are to regard only the Lord of Hosts as holy.(AJ)
Only He should be feared;(AK)
only He should be held in awe.
14 He will be a sanctuary;(AL)
but for the two houses of Israel,
He will be a stone(AM) to stumble over
and a rock to trip over,(AN)
and a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 Many will stumble over these;(AO)
they will fall and be broken;
they will be snared and captured.
16 Bind up the testimony.(AP)
Seal up the instruction(AQ) among my disciples.
17 I will wait for the Lord,(AR)
who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob.(AS)
I will wait for Him.
18 Here I am with the children the Lord has given me(AT) to be signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts who dwells on Mount Zion. 19 When they say to you, “Consult the spirits of the dead and the spiritists who chirp and mutter,”(AU) shouldn’t a people consult their God?[o] Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?(AV) 20 To the law and to the testimony!(AW) If they do not speak according to this word, there will be no dawn for them.
21 They will wander through the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged, and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. 22 They will look toward the earth(AX) and see only distress, darkness, and the gloom of affliction, and they will be driven into thick darkness.
Birth of the Prince of Peace
9 [p]Nevertheless, the gloom of the distressed land will not be like that of the former times when He humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.(AY) But in the future He will bring honor to the Way of the Sea, to the land east of the Jordan, and to Galilee of the nations.
2 [q]The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;(AZ)
a light has dawned
on those living in the land of darkness.(BA)
3 You have enlarged the nation
and increased its joy.[r](BB)
The people have rejoiced before You
as they rejoice at harvest time
and as they rejoice when dividing spoils.(BC)
4 For You have shattered their oppressive yoke(BD)
and the rod on their shoulders,
the staff of their oppressor,
just as You did on the day of Midian.(BE)
5 For the trampling boot of battle
and the bloodied garments of war
will be burned as fuel for the fire.
6 For a child will be born for us,
a son will be given to us,(BF)
and the government will be on His shoulders.(BG)
He will be named
Wonderful Counselor,(BH) Mighty God,(BI)
Eternal Father,(BJ) Prince of Peace.(BK)
7 The dominion will be vast,
and its prosperity will never end.(BL)
He will reign on the throne of David
and over his kingdom,
to establish and sustain it
with justice and righteousness from now on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.(BM)
The Hand Raised against Israel
8 The Lord sent a message against Jacob;
it came against Israel.
9 All the people—
Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria(BN)—will know it.
They will say with pride and arrogance:
10 “The bricks have fallen,
but we will rebuild with cut stones;
the sycamores have been cut down,
but we will replace them with cedars.”
11 The Lord has raised up Rezin’s adversaries against him
and stirred up his enemies.
12 Aram from the east and Philistia from the west
have consumed Israel with open mouths.
In all this, His anger is not removed,
and His hand is still raised to strike.(BO)
13 The people did not turn to Him who struck them;
they did not seek the Lord of Hosts.
14 So the Lord cut off Israel’s head and tail,(BP)
palm branch and reed in a single day.
15 The head is the elder, the honored one;(BQ)
the tail is the prophet, the lying teacher.(BR)
16 The leaders of the people mislead them,
and those they mislead are swallowed up.[s]
17 Therefore the Lord does not rejoice
over[t] Israel’s young men
and has no compassion
on its fatherless and widows,
for everyone is a godless evildoer,(BS)
and every mouth speaks folly.
In all this, His anger is not removed,
and His hand is still raised to strike.
18 For wickedness burns like a fire(BT)
that consumes thorns and briers
and kindles the forest thickets
so that they go up in a column of smoke.
19 The land is scorched
by the wrath of the Lord of Hosts,
and the people are like fuel for the fire.(BU)
No one has compassion on his brother.(BV)
20 They carve meat on the right,
but they are still hungry;(BW)
they have eaten on the left,
but they are still not satisfied.
Each one eats the flesh of his own arm.(BX)
21 Manasseh is with Ephraim,
and Ephraim with Manasseh;
together, both are against Judah.(BY)
In all this, His anger is not removed,
and His hand is still raised to strike.(BZ)
Footnotes
- Isaiah 7:2 Lit Aram has rested upon Ephraim, his heart
- Isaiah 7:8 Lit For the
- Isaiah 7:14 In Hb, the word you is pl
- Isaiah 7:14 Or virgin is pregnant, will
- Isaiah 7:14 = God With Us
- Isaiah 7:15 Or sour milk
- Isaiah 8:1 Hb obscure
- Isaiah 8:1 Lit with the pen of a man
- Isaiah 8:1 = Speeding to the Plunder, Hurrying to the Spoil
- Isaiah 8:2 Vg; MT, one DSS ms read I will appoint; one DSS ms, LXX, Syr, Tg read Appoint
- Isaiah 8:6 Or and rejoiced over
- Isaiah 8:8 Or wings
- Isaiah 8:10 Or For Immanuel
- Isaiah 8:11 DSS; MT reads instruct
- Isaiah 8:19 Or gods
- Isaiah 9:1 Is 8:23 in Hb
- Isaiah 9:2 Is 9:1 in Hb
- Isaiah 9:3 Alt Hb tradition reads have not increased joy
- Isaiah 9:16 Or are confused
- Isaiah 9:17 DSS read not spare
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