23 Isaiah I(이사야) 1-15

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The Prophets

Isaiah * Jeremiah * Ezekiel * Daniel * Hosea * Joel * Amos * Obadiah * Jonah * Micah * Nahum * Habakkuk * Zephaniah * Haggai * Zechariah * Malachi

Prophets in Israel were persons who proclaimed and interpreted the actions of God in the events of history. They tried to keep alive the memory of the Exodus and reinterpret the meaning of the ancient faith for new times, to declare God’s will (based on the Sinai covenant) in national crises. After the national disasters of the fall of Israel (722 B.C.) and Judah (597–586 B.C.), they began to speak words of hope and comfort.

The written works of these men are called the Major and Minor Prophets. The terms “major” and “minor” have to do with the size of the books and not with the importance of the message. In the Hebrew canon (the list of books accepted as Holy Scripture), the Prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Book of the Twelve. Daniel is included among the Writings in the Jewish Scripture, but we list that book with the Prophets. (For more on “The Writings,” see “The Historical Books,”, and “Poetical and Wisdom Books")

In roughly chronological order, the prophets are:

AMOS preached in the northern kingdom of Israel around 760 B.C. His message included an emphasis on social justice as an expression‎ of the covenant, the idea of the coming Day of the Lord, and the hope of a remnant. He emphasized that the covenant with God carried obligations as well as promises.

HOSEA was active from about 755 to perhaps 710 B.C. He described the relationship between God and Israel as a marriage. His social themes were the danger of injustice at home and reliance on military alliances abroad. He talked about the compassion of God and of God’s tender longing for His people.

ISAIAH of Jerusalem was a counselor to kings from 740 to 680 B.C. During this time there were two major crises—the war with Syria in 734 and the Assyrian threats from 734 to 701. Isaiah saw those events as expressions of God’s rule over the nations. The cause of the wars, he said, is social injustice. God is working out punishment for His people in the international arena. Some of the best-known passages in this book are those dealing with the longing for a Messiah and Isaiah’s description of his own call.

The latter part of the Book of Isaiah is a collection of great hymns and poems about the hope of restoration at the end of the Exile. Included in the hymns are four about the Servant of God, who suffers for the sake of Israel.

MICAH preached in Jerusalem somewhere between 735 and 710 B.C. He cried out against the injustice practiced in both Samaria and Jerusalem but also lifted up the vision of a great day of peace and salvation, with Jerusalem as the center of God’s kingdom. Micah 6:8 is a good summary of the teachings of the prophets of the eighth century.

ZEPHANIAH—For sixty years after Micah the kings of Judah practiced idolatry and oppression. Zephaniah’s preaching began the great reform that culminated in the finding of Deuteronomy and national covenant-renewal. His message was one of condemnation of idolatry and injustice.

JEREMIAH preached from 627 to 580; and over so long a career, his message changed as world events changed and called forth new understandings of the work of God. It was a time of trouble for Judah and Jerusalem, ending with the destruction of the city and the temple. Jeremiah continued the great themes of the earlier prophets, calling for true piety, social justice, and loyalty to God rather than military alliances. His teaching deepened the idea of repentance, and he introduced the vision of a new covenant written on the heart. After 598, he began to preach the hope and new beginnings following a time of punishment.

JOEL lived in a time of a great locust plague, which he saw as the beginning of the judgment of God. His message is primarily a call to national repentance.

HABAKKUK preached between 626 and 605, a time when the Babylonians were on the march and overrunning all the little kingdoms of the Middle East. He questioned the justice of God in allowing the Babylonians to triumph, and finally received the answer that “the righteous live by their faith.”

NAHUM was written between 663 and the time of the fall of Nineveh in 612. His work includes a hymn about a God who is slow to anger but who will punish those who defy Him.

EZEKIEL was a priest taken to Babylon in 597. Before 586, he preached a message of judgment and doom. After 586 he focused on hope and salvation. The source of his hope is not in any of the political powers of his day but in God’s own nature and purpose. The temple is destroyed, but God is not bound by a temple and has moved into exile with His people. The sins of the past will not keep the present generation from choosing life and salvation. The book ends with a great vision of the future restoration of the people and the temple.

HAGGAI and ZECHARIAH preached in Jerusalem around 520 B.C., in the reign of Darius of Persia. Their message was that the temple was to be rebuilt and the people were to come together into a purified and faithful community. The source of hope was that God does keep His promises. When work on the temple is begun, then God will raise up the glory of the house of David in Zerubbabel, the last known prince of David’s line.

MALACHI told of the coming day of the Lord and accused the people and priests of indifference, doubt, and immorality.

Opinion is divided as to the chronological places of the following prophets:

OBADIAH is the shortest book in the Old Testament. It is a song of anger toward the Edomites for their part in the destruction of Jerusalem.

JONAH is the story of a prophet driven by God to proclaim salvation and mercy even to Israel’s enemies.

DANIEL was written to offer hope and consolation to Jews who were suffering persecution. The accounts of Daniel and his friends in the first half of the book show how loyalty to God brings victory over one’s persecutors. The second part of the book says, in a series of visions, that the fate of the righteous is in the hands of God and that God can be trusted to keep the future safe for His people.

The Book of Isaiah

Isaiah is like a miniature Bible. The first thirty-nine chapters (like the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament) are filled with judgment upon im moral and idolatrous men. Judah has sinned; the surrounding nations have sinned; the whole earth has sinned. Judgment must come, for God cannot allow such blatant sin to go unpunished forever. But the final twenty-seven chapters (like the twenty-seven books of the New Testament) declare a message of hope. The Messiah is coming as a Savior and a Sovereign to bear a cross and to wear a crown.

Isaiah’s prophetic ministry, spanning the reigns of four kings of Judah covers at least forty years.

Yesha ’yahu and its shortened form Yeshaiah mean “Yahweh Is Salvation.” This name is an excellent summary of the contents of the book. The Greek form in the Septuagint is Hesaias, and the Latin form is Esaias or Isaias.

Isaiah 1

¹The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

The Wickedness of Judah

²Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth!

For the LORD has spoken:

“I have nourished and brought up children,

And they have rebelled against Me;

³The ox knows its owner

And the donkey its master’s crib;

But Israel does not know,

My people do not consider.”

⁴Alas, sinful nation,

A people laden with iniquity,

A brood of evildoers,

Children who are corrupters!

They have forsaken the LORD,

They have provoked to anger

The Holy One of Israel,

They have turned away backward.

⁵Why should you be stricken again?

You will revolt more and more.

The whole head is sick,

And the whole heart faints.

⁶From the sole of the foot even to the head,

There is no soundness in it,

But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores;

They have not been closed or bound up,

Or soothed with ointment.

⁷Your country is desolate,

Your cities are burned with fire;

Strangers devour your land in your presence;

And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

⁸So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard,

As a hut in a garden of cucumbers,

As a besieged city.

⁹Unless the LORD of hosts

Had left to us a very small remnant,

We would have become like Sodom,

We would have been made like Gomorrah.

¹⁰Hear the word of the LORD,

You rulers of Sodom;

Give ear to the law of our God,

You people of Gomorrah:

¹¹“To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?”

Says the LORD.

“I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams

And the fat of fed cattle.

I do not delight in the blood of bulls,

Or of lambs or goats.

¹²“When you come to appear before Me,

Who has required this from your hand,

To trample My courts?

¹³Bring no more futile sacrifices;

Incense is an abomination to Me.

The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies—

I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.

¹⁴Your New Moons and your appointed feasts

My soul hates;

They are a trouble to Me,

I am weary of bearing them.

¹⁵When you spread out your hands,

I will hide My eyes from you;

Even though you make many prayers,

I will not hear.

Your hands are full of blood.

¹⁶“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;

Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.

Cease to do evil,

¹⁷Learn to do good;

Seek justice,

Rebuke the oppressor;^a

Defend the fatherless,

Plead for the widow.

¹⁸“Come now, and let us reason together,”

Says the LORD,

“Though your sins are like scarlet,

They shall be as white as snow;

Though they are red like crimson,

They shall be as wool.

¹⁹If you are willing and obedient,

You shall eat the good of the land;

²⁰But if you refuse and rebel,

You shall be devoured by the sword”;

For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

The Degenerate City

²¹How the faithful city has become a harlot!

It was full of justice;

Righteousness lodged in it,

But now murderers.

²²Your silver has become dross,

Your wine mixed with water.

²³Your princes are rebellious,

And companions of thieves;

Everyone loves bribes,

And follows after rewards.

They do not defend the fatherless,

Nor does the cause of the widow come before them.

²⁴Therefore the Lord says,

The LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel,

“Ah, I will rid Myself of My adversaries,

And take vengeance on My enemies.

²⁵I will turn My hand against you,

And thoroughly purge away your dross,

And take away all your alloy.

²⁶I will restore your judges as at the first,

And your counselors as at the beginning.

Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.”

²⁷Zion shall be redeemed with justice,

And her penitents with righteousness.

²⁸The destruction of transgressors and of sinners shall be together,

And those who forsake the LORD shall be consumed.

²⁹For they^a shall be ashamed of the terebinth trees

Which you have desired;

And you shall be embarrassed because of the gardens

Which you have chosen.

³⁰For you shall be as a terebinth whose leaf fades,

And as a garden that has no water.

³¹The strong shall be as tinder,

And the work of it as a spark;

Both will burn together,

And no one shall quench them.

Isaiah 2

The Future House of God

¹The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

²Now it shall come to pass in the latter days

That the mountain of the LORD’s house

Shall be established on the top of the mountains,

And shall be exalted above the hills;

And all nations shall flow to it.

³Many people shall come and say,

“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,

To the house of the God of Jacob;

He will teach us His ways,

And we shall walk in His paths.”

For out of Zion shall go forth the law,

And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

⁴He shall judge between the nations,

And rebuke many people;

They shall beat their swords into plowshares,

And their spears into pruning hooks;

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

Neither shall they learn war anymore.

The Day of the LORD

⁵O house of Jacob, come and let us walk

In the light of the LORD.

⁶For You have forsaken Your people, the house of Jacob,

Because they are filled with eastern ways;

They are soothsayers like the Philistines,

And they are pleased with the children of foreigners.

⁷Their land is also full of silver and gold,

And there is no end to their treasures;

Their land is also full of horses,

And there is no end to their chariots.

⁸Their land is also full of idols;

They worship the work of their own hands,

That which their own fingers have made.

⁹People bow down,

And each man humbles himself;

Therefore do not forgive them.

¹⁰Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust,

From the terror of the LORD

And the glory of His majesty.

¹¹The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,

The haughtiness of men shall be bowed down,

And the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.

¹²For the day of the LORD of hosts

Shall come upon everything proud and lofty,

Upon everything lifted up—

And it shall be brought low—

¹³Upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up,

And upon all the oaks of Bashan;

¹⁴Upon all the high mountains,

And upon all the hills that are lifted up;

¹⁵Upon every high tower,

And upon every fortified wall;

¹⁶Upon all the ships of Tarshish,

And upon all the beautiful sloops.

¹⁷The loftiness of man shall be bowed down,

And the haughtiness of men shall be brought low;

The LORD alone will be exalted in that day,

¹⁸But the idols He shall utterly abolish.

¹⁹They shall go into the holes of the rocks,

And into the caves of the earth,

From the terror of the LORD

And the glory of His majesty,

When He arises to shake the earth mightily.

²⁰In that day a man will cast away his idols of silver

And his idols of gold,

Which they made, each for himself to worship,

To the moles and bats,

²¹To go into the clefts of the rocks,

And into the crags of the rugged rocks,

From the terror of the LORD

And the glory of His majesty,

When He arises to shake the earth mightily.

²²Sever yourselves from such a man,

Whose breath is in his nostrils;

For of what account is he?

Isaiah 3

Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem

¹For behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts,

Takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah

The stock and the store,

The whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water;

²The mighty man and the man of war,

The judge and the prophet,

And the diviner and the elder;

³The captain of fifty and the honorable man,

The counselor and the skillful artisan,

And the expert enchanter.

⁴“I will give children to be their princes,

And babes shall rule over them.

⁵The people will be oppressed,

Every one by another and every one by his neighbor;

The child will be insolent toward the elder,

And the base toward the honorable.”

⁶When a man takes hold of his brother

In the house of his father, saying,

“You have clothing;

You be our ruler,

And let these ruins be under your power,”^a

⁷In that day he will protest, saying,

“I cannot cure your ills,

For in my house is neither food nor clothing;

Do not make me a ruler of the people.”

⁸For Jerusalem stumbled,

And Judah is fallen,

Because their tongue and their doings

Are against the LORD,

To provoke the eyes of His glory.

⁹The look on their countenance witnesses against them,

And they declare their sin as Sodom;

They do not hide it.

Woe to their soul!

For they have brought evil upon themselves.

¹⁰“Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them,

For they shall eat the fruit of their doings.

¹¹Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,

For the reward of his hands shall be given him.

¹²As for My people, children are their oppressors,

And women rule over them.

O My people! Those who lead you cause you to err,

And destroy the way of your paths.”

Oppression and Luxury Condemned

¹³The LORD stands up to plead,

And stands to judge the people.

¹⁴The LORD will enter into judgment

With the elders of His people

And His princes:

“For you have eaten up the vineyard;

The plunder of the poor is in your houses.

¹⁵What do you mean by crushing My people

And grinding the faces of the poor?”

Says the Lord GOD of hosts.

¹⁶Moreover the LORD says:

“Because the daughters of Zion are haughty,

And walk with outstretched necks

And wanton eyes,

Walking and mincing as they go,

Making a jingling with their feet,

¹⁷Therefore the Lord will strike with a scab

The crown of the head of the daughters of Zion,

And the LORD will uncover their secret parts.”

¹⁸In that day the Lord will take away the finery:

The jingling anklets, the scarves, and the crescents;

¹⁹The pendants, the bracelets, and the veils;

²⁰The headdresses, the leg ornaments, and the headbands;

The perfume boxes, the charms,

²¹and the rings;

The nose jewels,

²²the festal apparel, and the mantles;

The outer garments, the purses,

²³and the mirrors;

The fine linen, the turbans, and the robes.

²⁴And so it shall be:

Instead of a sweet smell there will be a stench;

Instead of a sash, a rope;

Instead of well-set hair, baldness;

Instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth;

And branding instead of beauty.

²⁵Your men shall fall by the sword,

And your mighty in the war.

²⁶Her gates shall lament and mourn,

And she being desolate shall sit on the ground.

Isaiah 4

¹And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying,

“We will eat our own food and wear our own apparel;

Only let us be called by your name,

To take away our reproach.”

The Renewal of Zion

²In that day the Branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious;

And the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing

For those of Israel who have escaped.

³And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy—everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem. ⁴When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning, ⁵then the LORD will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering. ⁶And there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain.

Isaiah 5

God’s Disappointing Vineyard

¹Now let me sing to my Well-beloved

A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard:

My Well-beloved has a vineyard

On a very fruitful hill.

²He dug it up and cleared out its stones,

And planted it with the choicest vine.

He built a tower in its midst,

And also made a winepress in it;

So He expected it to bring forth good grapes,

But it brought forth wild grapes.

³“And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,

Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.

⁴What more could have been done to My vineyard

That I have not done in it?

Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes,

Did it bring forth wild grapes?

⁵And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard:

I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned;

And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.

⁶I will lay it waste;

It shall not be pruned or dug,

But there shall come up briers and thorns.

I will also command the clouds

That they rain no rain on it.”

⁷For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel,

And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant.

He looked for justice, but behold, oppression;

For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.

Impending Judgment on Excesses

⁸Woe to those who join house to house;

They add field to field,

Till there is no place

Where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!

⁹In my hearing the LORD of hosts said,

“Truly, many houses shall be desolate,

Great and beautiful ones, without inhabitant.

¹⁰For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath,

And a homer of seed shall yield one ephah.”

¹¹Woe to those who rise early in the morning,

That they may follow intoxicating drink;

Who continue until night, till wine inflames them!

¹²The harp and the strings,

The tambourine and flute,

And wine are in their feasts;

But they do not regard the work of the LORD,

Nor consider the operation of His hands.

¹³Therefore my people have gone into captivity,

Because they have no knowledge;

Their honorable men are famished,

And their multitude dried up with thirst.

¹⁴Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself

And opened its mouth beyond measure;

Their glory and their multitude and their pomp,

And he who is jubilant, shall descend into it.

¹⁵People shall be brought down,

Each man shall be humbled,

And the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.

¹⁶But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment,

And God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.

¹⁷Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture,

And in the waste places of the fat ones strangers shall eat.

¹⁸Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity,

And sin as if with a cart rope;

¹⁹That say, “Let Him make speed and hasten His work,

That we may see it;

And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come,

That we may know it.”

²⁰Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;

Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;

Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

²¹Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,

And prudent in their own sight!

²²Woe to men mighty at drinking wine,

Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink,

²³Who justify the wicked for a bribe,

And take away justice from the righteous man!

²⁴Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble,

And the flame consumes the chaff,

So their root will be as rottenness,

And their blossom will ascend like dust;

Because they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts,

And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

²⁵Therefore the anger of the LORD is aroused against His people;

He has stretched out His hand against them

And stricken them,

And the hills trembled.

Their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets.

For all this His anger is not turned away,

But His hand is stretched out still.

²⁶He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar,

And will whistle to them from the end of the earth;

Surely they shall come with speed, swiftly.

²⁷No one will be weary or stumble among them,

No one will slumber or sleep;

Nor will the belt on their loins be loosed,

Nor the strap of their sandals be broken;

²⁸Whose arrows are sharp,

And all their bows bent;

Their horses’ hooves will seem like flint,

And their wheels like a whirlwind.

²⁹Their roaring will be like a lion,

They will roar like young lions;

Yes, they will roar

And lay hold of the prey;

They will carry it away safely,

And no one will deliver.

³⁰In that day they will roar against them

Like the roaring of the sea.

And if one looks to the land,

Behold, darkness and sorrow;

And the light is darkened by the clouds.

Isaiah 6

Isaiah Called to Be a Prophet

¹In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. ²Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³And one cried to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;

The whole earth is full of His glory!”

⁴And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.

⁵So I said:

“Woe is me, for I am undone!

Because I am a man of unclean lips,

And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;

For my eyes have seen the King,

The LORD of hosts.”

⁶Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. ⁷And he touched my mouth with it, and said:

“Behold, this has touched your lips;

Your iniquity is taken away,

And your sin purged.”

⁸Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:

“Whom shall I send,

And who will go for Us?”

Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

⁹And He said, “Go, and tell this people:

‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;

Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’

¹⁰“Make the heart of this people dull,

And their ears heavy,

And shut their eyes;

Lest they see with their eyes,

And hear with their ears,

And understand with their heart,

And return and be healed.”

¹¹Then I said, “Lord, how long?”

And He answered:

“Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant,

The houses are without a man,

The land is utterly desolate,

¹²The LORD has removed men far away,

And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

¹³But yet a tenth will be in it,

And will return and be for consuming,

As a terebinth tree or as an oak,

Whose stump remains when it is cut down.

So the holy seed shall be its stump.”

Isaiah 7

Isaiah Sent to King Ahaz

¹Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, thatRezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but could not prevail against it. ²And it was told to the house of David, saying, “Syria’s forces are deployed in Ephraim.” So his heart and the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind.

³Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-Jashub^a your son, at the end of the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, ⁴and say to him: ‘Take heed, and be quiet; do not fear or be fainthearted for these two stubs of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and the son of Remaliah. ⁵Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying, ⁶“Let us go up against Judah and trouble it, and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves, and set a king over them, the son of Tabel”—⁷thus says the Lord GOD:

“It shall not stand,

Nor shall it come to pass.

⁸For the head of Syria is Damascus,

And the head of Damascus is Rezin.

Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken,

So that it will not be a people.

⁹The head of Ephraim is Samaria,

And the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son.

If you will not believe,

Surely you shall not be established.” ’ ”

The Immanuel Prophecy

¹⁰Moreover the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying, ¹¹“Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.”

¹²But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the LORD!”

¹³Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? ¹⁴Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.^a 15Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. ¹⁶For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings. ¹⁷The LORDwill bring the king of Assyria upon you and your people and your father’s house—days that have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah.”

¹⁸And it shall come to pass in that day

That the LORD will whistle for the fly

That is in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt,

And for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

¹⁹They will come, and all of them will rest

In the desolate valleys and in the clefts of the rocks,

And on all thorns and in all pastures.

²⁰In the same day the Lord will shave with a hired razor,

With those from beyond the River,^a with the king of Assyria,

The head and the hair of the legs,

And will also remove the beard.

²¹It shall be in that day

That a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep;

²²So it shall be, from the abundance of milk they give,

That he will eat curds;

For curds and honey everyone will eat who is left in the land.

²³It shall happen in that day,

That wherever there could be a thousand vines

Worth a thousand shekels of silver,

It will be for briers and thorns.

²⁴With arrows and bows men will come there,

Because all the land will become briers and thorns.

²⁵And to any hill which could be dug with the hoe,

You will not go there for fear of briers and thorns;

But it will become a range for oxen

And a place for sheep to roam.

Isaiah 8

Assyria Will Invade the Land

¹Moreover the LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll, and write on it with a man’s pen concerning Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.^a 2And I will take for Myself faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.”

³Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the LORD said to me, “Call his name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz; ⁴for before the child shall have knowledge to cry ‘My father’ and ‘My mother,’ the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be taken away before the king of Assyria.”

⁵The LORD also spoke to me again, saying:

⁶“Inasmuch as these people refused

The waters of Shiloah that flow softly,

And rejoice in Rezin and in Remaliah’s son;

⁷Now therefore, behold, the Lord brings up over them

The waters of the River,^a strong and mighty—

The king of Assyria and all his glory;

He will go up over all his channels

And go over all his banks.

⁸He will pass through Judah,

He will overflow and pass over,

He will reach up to the neck;

And the stretching out of his wings

Will fill the breadth of Your land, O Immanuel.^a

⁹“Be shattered, O you peoples, and be broken in pieces!

Give ear, all you from far countries.

Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces;

Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces.

¹⁰Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing;

Speak the word, but it will not stand,

For God is with us.”^a

Fear God, Heed His Word

¹¹For the LORD spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying:

¹²“Do not say, ‘A conspiracy,’

Concerning all that this people call a conspiracy,

Nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.

¹³The LORD of hosts, Him you shall hallow;

Let Him be your fear,

And let Him be your dread.

¹⁴He will be as a sanctuary,

But a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense

To both the houses of Israel,

As a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁵And many among them shall stumble;

They shall fall and be broken,

Be snared and taken.”

¹⁶Bind up the testimony,

Seal the law among my disciples.

¹⁷And I will wait on the LORD,

Who hides His face from the house of Jacob;

And I will hope in Him.

¹⁸Here am I and the children whom the LORD has given me!

We are for signs and wonders in Israel

From the LORD of hosts,

Who dwells in Mount Zion.

¹⁹And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? ²⁰To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

²¹They will pass through it hard-pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward. ²²Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness.

Isaiah 9

The Government of the Promised Son

¹Nevertheless the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed,

As when at first He lightly esteemed

The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,

And afterward more heavily oppressed her,

By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan,

In Galilee of the Gentiles.

²The people who walked in darkness

Have seen a great light;

Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,

Upon them a light has shined.

³You have multiplied the nation

And increased its joy;^a

They rejoice before You

According to the joy of harvest,

As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

⁴For You have 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 warrior’s sandal from the noisy battle,

And garments rolled in blood,

Will be used for burning and fuel of fire.

⁶For unto us a Child is born,

Unto 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 peace

There will be no end,

Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,

To order it and establish it with judgment and justice

From that time forward, even forever.

The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

The Punishment of Samaria

⁸The Lord sent a word against Jacob,

And it has fallen on Israel.

⁹All the people will know—

Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria—

Who say in pride and arrogance of heart:

¹⁰“The bricks have fallen down,

But we will rebuild with hewn stones;

The sycamores are cut down,

But we will replace them with cedars.”

¹¹Therefore the LORD shall set up

The adversaries of Rezin against him,

And spur his enemies on,

¹²The Syrians before and the Philistines behind;

And they shall devour Israel with an open mouth.

For all this His anger is not turned away,

But His hand is stretched out still.

¹³For the people do not turn to Him who strikes them,

Nor do they seek the LORD of hosts.

¹⁴Therefore the LORD will cut off head and tail from Israel,

Palm branch and bulrush in one day.

¹⁵The elder and honorable, he is the head;

The prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail.

¹⁶For the leaders of this people cause them to err,

And those who are led by them are destroyed.

¹⁷Therefore the Lord will have no joy in their young men,

Nor have mercy on their fatherless and widows;

For everyone is a hypocrite and an evildoer,

And every mouth speaks folly.

For all this His anger is not turned away,

But His hand is stretched out still.

¹⁸For wickedness burns as the fire;

It shall devour the briers and thorns,

And kindle in the thickets of the forest;

They shall mount up like rising smoke.

¹⁹Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts

The land is burned up,

And the people shall be as fuel for the fire;

No man shall spare his brother.

²⁰And he shall snatch on the right hand

And be hungry;

He shall devour on the left hand

And not be satisfied;

Every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm.

²¹Manasseh shall devour Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh;

Together they shall be against Judah.

For all this His anger is not turned away,

But His hand is stretched out still.

Isaiah 10

¹“Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees,

Who write misfortune,

Which they have prescribed

²To rob the needy of justice,

And to take what is right from the poor of My people,

That widows may be their prey,

And that they may rob the fatherless.

³What will you do in the day of punishment,

And in the desolation which will come from afar?

To whom will you flee for help?

And where will you leave your glory?

⁴Without Me they shall bow down among the prisoners,

And they shall fall among the slain.”

For all this His anger is not turned away,

But His hand is stretched out still.

Arrogant Assyria Also Judged

⁵“Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger

And the staff in whose hand is My indignation.

⁶I will send him against an ungodly nation,

And against the people of My wrath

I will give him charge,

To seize the spoil, to take the prey,

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

⁷Yet he does not mean so,

Nor does his heart think so;

But it is in his heart to destroy,

And cut off not a few nations.

⁸For he says,

‘Are not my princes altogether kings?

⁹Is not Calno like Carchemish?

Is not Hamath like Arpad?

Is not Samaria like Damascus?

¹⁰As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols,

Whose carved images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

¹¹As I have done to Samaria and her idols,

Shall I not do also to Jerusalem and her idols?’ ”

¹²Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Lord has performed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his haughty looks.”

¹³For he says:

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

And by my wisdom, for I am prudent;

Also I have removed the boundaries of the people,

And have robbed their treasuries;

So I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man.

¹⁴My hand has found like a nest the riches of the people,

And as one gathers eggs that are left,

I have gathered all the earth;

And there was no one who moved his wing,

Nor opened his mouth with even a peep.”

¹⁵Shall the ax boast itself against him who chops with it?

Or shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it?

As if a rod could wield itself against those who lift it up,

Or as if a staff could lift up, as if it were not wood!

¹⁶Therefore the Lord, the Lord^a of hosts,

Will send leanness among his fat ones;

And under his glory

He will kindle a burning

Like the burning of a fire.

¹⁷So the Light of Israel will be for a fire,

And his Holy One for a flame;

It will burn and devour

His thorns and his briers in one day.

¹⁸And it will consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field,

Both soul and body;

And they will be as when a sick man wastes away.

¹⁹Then the rest of the trees of his forest

Will be so few in number

That a child may write them.

The Returning Remnant of Israel

²⁰And it shall come to pass in that day

That the remnant of Israel,

And such as have escaped of the house of Jacob,

Will never again depend on him who defeated them,

But will depend on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

²¹The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob,

To the Mighty God.

²²For though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea,

A remnant of them will return;

The destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness.

²³For the Lord GOD of hosts

Will make a determined end

In the midst of all the land.

²⁴Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: “O My people, who dwell in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrian. He shall strike you with a rod and lift up his staff against you, in the manner of Egypt.²⁵For yet a very little while and the indignation will cease, as will My anger in their destruction.”²⁶And the LORD of hosts will stir up a scourge for him like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; as His rod was on the sea, so will He lift it up in the manner of Egypt.

²⁷It shall come to pass in that day

That his burden will be taken away from your shoulder,

And his yoke from your neck,

And the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil.

²⁸He has come to Aiath,

He has passed Migron;

At Michmash he has attended to his equipment.

²⁹They have gone along the ridge,

They have taken up lodging at Geba.

Ramah is afraid,

Gibeah of Saul has fled.

³⁰Lift up your voice,

O daughter of Gallim!

Cause it to be heard as far as Laish—

O poor Anathoth!^a

³¹Madmenah has fled,

The inhabitants of Gebim seek refuge.

³²As yet he will remain at Nob that day;

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 off the bough with terror;

Those of high stature will be hewn down,

And the haughty will be humbled.

³⁴He will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron,

And Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.

Isaiah 11

The Reign of Jesse’s Offspring

¹There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse,

And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.

²The Spirit of the LORD 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 the LORD.

³His delight is in the fear of the LORD,

And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes,

Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;

⁴But with righteousness He shall judge the poor,

And decide with equity for the meek of the earth;

He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,

And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.

⁵Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins,

And faithfulness the belt of His waist.

⁶“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,

The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,

The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;

And a little child shall lead them.

⁷The cow and the bear shall graze;

Their young ones shall lie down together;

And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

⁸The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole,

And the weaned child shall put his hand in 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 the LORD

As the waters cover the sea.

¹⁰“And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse,

Who shall stand as a banner to the people;

For the Gentiles shall seek Him,

And His resting place shall be glorious.”

¹¹It shall come to pass in that day

That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time

To recover the remnant of His people who are left,

From Assyria and Egypt,

From Pathros and Cush,

From Elam and Shinar,

From Hamath and the islands of the sea.

¹²He will set up a banner for the nations,

And will assemble the outcasts of Israel,

And gather together the dispersed of Judah

From the four corners of the earth.

¹³Also the envy of Ephraim shall depart,

And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off;

Ephraim shall not envy Judah,

And Judah shall not harass Ephraim.

¹⁴But they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the west;

Together they shall plunder the people of the East;

They shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab;

And the people of Ammon shall obey them.

¹⁵The LORD will utterly destroy^a the tongue of the Sea of Egypt;

With His mighty wind He will shake His fist over the River,^b

And strike it in the seven streams,

And make men cross over dry-shod.

¹⁶There will be a highway for the remnant of His people

Who will be left from Assyria,

As it was for Israel

In the day that he came up from the land of Egypt.

Isaiah 12

A Hymn of Praise

¹And in that day you will say:

“O LORD, I will praise You;

Though You were angry with me,

Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me.

²Behold, God is my salvation,

I will trust and not be afraid;

‘For YAH, the LORD, is my strength and song;

He also has become my salvation.’ ”^a

³Therefore with joy you will draw water

From the wells of salvation.

⁴And in that day you will say:

“Praise the LORD, call upon His name;

Declare His deeds among the peoples,

Make mention that His name is exalted.

⁵Sing to the LORD,

For He has done excellent things;

This is known in all the earth.

⁶Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion,

For great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst!”

Isaiah 13

Proclamation Against Babylon

¹The burden against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

²“Lift up a banner on the high mountain,

Raise your voice to them;

Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.

³I have commanded My sanctified ones;

I have also called My mighty ones for My anger—

Those who rejoice in My exaltation.”

⁴The noise of a multitude in the mountains,

Like that of many people!

A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together!

The LORD of hosts musters

The army for battle.

⁵They come from a far country,

From the end of heaven—

The LORD and His weapons of indignation,

To destroy the whole land.

⁶Wail, for the day of the LORD is at hand!

It will come as destruction from the Almighty.

⁷Therefore all hands will be limp,

Every man’s heart will melt,

⁸And they will be afraid.

Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them;

They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth;

They will be amazed at one another;

Their faces will be like flames.

⁹Behold, the day of the LORD comes,

Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger,

To lay the land desolate;

And He will destroy its sinners from it.

¹⁰For the stars of heaven and their constellations

Will not give their light;

The sun will be darkened in its going forth,

And the moon will not cause its light to shine.

¹¹“I will punish the world for its evil,

And the wicked for their iniquity;

I will halt the arrogance of the proud,

And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

¹²I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold,

A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.

¹³Therefore I will shake the heavens,

And the earth will move out of her place,

In the wrath of the LORD of hosts

And in the day of His fierce anger.

¹⁴It shall be as the hunted gazelle,

And as a sheep that no man takes up;

Every man will turn to his own people,

And everyone will flee to his own land.

¹⁵Everyone who is found will be thrust through,

And everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.

¹⁶Their children also will be dashed to pieces before their eyes;

Their houses will be plundered

And their wives ravished.

¹⁷“Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them,

Who will not regard silver;

And as for gold, they will not delight in it.

¹⁸Also their bows will dash the young men to pieces,

And they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb;

Their eye will not spare children.

¹⁹And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,

The beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride,

Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

²⁰It will never be inhabited,

Nor will it be settled from generation to generation;

Nor will the Arabian pitch tents there,

Nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there.

²¹But wild beasts of the desert will lie there,

And their houses will be full of owls;

Ostriches will dwell there,

And wild goats will caper there.

²²The hyenas will howl in their citadels,

And jackals in their pleasant palaces.

Her time is near to come,

And her days will not be prolonged.”

Isaiah 14

Mercy on Jacob

¹For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land. The strangers will be joined with them, and they will cling to the house of Jacob. ²Then people will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them for servants and maids in the land of the LORD; they will take them captive whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors.

Fall of the King of Babylon

³It shall come to pass in the day the LORD gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear and the hard bondage in which you were made to serve, ⁴that you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say:

“How the oppressor has ceased,

The golden^a city ceased!

⁵The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked,

The scepter of the rulers;

⁶He who struck the people in wrath with a continual stroke,

He who ruled the nations in anger,

Is persecuted and no one hinders.

⁷The whole earth is at rest and quiet;

They break forth into singing.

⁸Indeed the cypress trees rejoice over you,

And the cedars of Lebanon,

Saying, ‘Since you were cut down,

No woodsman has come up against us.’

⁹“Hell from beneath is excited about you,

To meet you at your coming;

It stirs up the dead for you,

All the chief ones of the earth;

It has raised up from their thrones

All the kings of the nations.

¹⁰They all shall speak and say to you:

‘Have you also become as weak as we?

Have you become like us?

¹¹Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,

And the sound of your stringed instruments;

The maggot is spread under you,

And worms cover you.’

The Fall of Lucifer

¹²“How you are fallen from heaven,

O Lucifer,^a son of the morning!

How you are cut down to the ground,

You who weakened the nations!

¹³For you have said in your heart:

‘I will ascend into heaven,

I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;

I will also sit on the mount of the congregation

On the farthest sides of the north;

¹⁴I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,

I will be like the Most High.’

¹⁵Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,

To the lowest depths of the Pit.

¹⁶“Those who see you will gaze at you,

And consider you, saying:

‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,

Who shook kingdoms,

¹⁷Who made the world as a wilderness

And destroyed its cities,

Who did not open the house of his prisoners?’

¹⁸“All the kings of the nations,

All of them, sleep in glory,

Everyone in his own house;

¹⁹But you are cast out of your grave

Like an abominable branch,

Like the garment of those who are slain,

Thrust through with a sword,

Who go down to the stones of the pit,

Like a corpse trodden underfoot.

²⁰You will not be joined with them in burial,

Because you have destroyed your land

And slain your people.

The brood of evildoers shall never be named.

²¹Prepare slaughter for his children

Because of the iniquity of their fathers,

Lest they rise up and possess the land,

And fill the face of the world with cities.”

Babylon Destroyed

²²“For I will rise up against them,” says the LORD of hosts,

“And cut off from Babylon the name and remnant,

And offspring and posterity,” says the LORD.

²³“I will also make it a possession for the porcupine,

And marshes of muddy water;

I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says the LORD of hosts.

Assyria Destroyed

²⁴The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying,

“Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass,

And as I have purposed, so it shall stand:

²⁵That I will break the Assyrian in My land,

And on My mountains tread him underfoot.

Then his yoke shall be removed from them,

And his burden removed from their shoulders.

²⁶This is the purpose that is purposed against the whole earth,

And this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.

²⁷For the LORD of hosts has purposed,

And who will annul it?

His hand is stretched out,

And who will turn it back?”

Philistia Destroyed

²⁸This is the burden which came in the year that King Ahaz died.

²⁹“Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia,

Because the rod that struck you is broken;

For out of the serpent’s roots will come forth a viper,

And its offspring will be a fiery flying serpent.

³⁰The firstborn of the poor will feed,

And the needy will lie down in safety;

I will kill your roots with famine,

And it will slay your remnant.

³¹Wail, O gate! Cry, O city!

All you of Philistia are dissolved;

For smoke will come from the north,

And no one will be alone in his appointed times.”

³²What will they answer the messengers of the nation?

That the LORD has founded Zion,

And the poor of His people shall take refuge in it.

Isaiah 15

Proclamation Against Moab

¹The burden against Moab.

Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste

And destroyed,

Because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste

And destroyed,

²He has gone up to the temple^a and Dibon,

To the high places to weep.

Moab will wail over Nebo and over Medeba;

On all their heads will be baldness,

And every beard cut off.

³In their streets they will clothe themselves with sackcloth;

On the tops of their houses

And in their streets

Everyone will wail, weeping bitterly.

⁴Heshbon and Elealeh will cry out,

Their voice shall be heard as far as Jahaz;

Therefore the armed soldiers^a of Moab will cry out;

His life will be burdensome to him.

⁵“My heart will cry out for Moab;

His fugitives shall flee to Zoar,

Like a three-year-old heifer.^a

For by the Ascent of Luhith

They will go up with weeping;

For in the way of Horonaim

They will raise up a cry of destruction,

⁶For the waters of Nimrim will be desolate,

For the green grass has withered away;

The grass fails, there is nothing green.

⁷Therefore the abundance they have gained,

And what they have laid up,

They will carry away to the Brook of the Willows.

⁸For the cry has gone all around the borders of Moab,

Its wailing to Eglaim

And its wailing to Beer Elim.

⁹For the waters of Dimon^a will be full of blood;

Because I will bring more upon Dimon,^b

Lions upon him who escapes from Moab,

And on the remnant of the land.”

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