Isaiah 7-8

New American Standard Bible

War against Jerusalem

7 Now it came about in the days of ^(A)Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that ^(B)Rezin the king of Aram and ^(C)Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but ^(D)could not ^[a]conquer it. ²When it was reported to the ^(E)house of David, saying, “The Arameans ^(F)have taken a stand by ^(G)Ephraim,” his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake from the wind.

³Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son ^[b]Shear-jashub, at the end of the ^(H)conduit of the upper pool, on the road to the ^[c]fuller’s field, ⁴and say to him, ‘Take care and be ^(I)calm, have no ^(J)fear and ^(K)do not be fainthearted because of these two stumps of smoldering ^(L)logs, on account of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the ^(M)son of Remaliah. ⁵Because ^(N)Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has planned evil against you, saying, ⁶“Let’s go up against Judah and ^[d]terrorize it, and take it for ourselves by assault and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” ⁷this is what the Lord ^[e]God says: “^(O)It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass. ⁸For the head of Aram is ^(P)Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin (now within another sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken to pieces, so that it is no longer a people), ⁹and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. ^(Q)If you will not believe, you certainly shall not ^[f]last.”’”

The Child Immanuel

¹⁰Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, ¹¹“Ask for a ^(R)sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ^[g]make it deep as Sheol or high as ^[h]heaven.” ¹²But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I put the Lord to the test!” ¹³Then he said, “Listen now, ^(S)house of David! Is it too trivial a thing for you to ^[i]try the patience of men, that you will ^[j]^(T)try the patience of ^(U)my God as well? ¹⁴Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, ^(V)the ^[k]virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name Him ^[l]^(W)Immanuel. ¹⁵He will eat ^[m]^(X)curds and honey ^[n]at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. ¹⁶^(Y)For before the boy knows enough to refuse evil and choose good, ^(Z)the land whose two kings you dread will be abandoned.

Trials to Come for Judah

¹⁷The Lord will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that ^(AA)Ephraim separated from Judah—the days of the ^(AB)king of Assyria.”

¹⁸On that day the Lord will ^(AC)whistle for the fly that is in the ^[o]^(AD)remotest part of the canals of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. ¹⁹They will all come and settle on the steep ^[p]ravines, on the ^(AE)ledges of the cliffs, ^(AF)on all the thorn bushes, and on all the watering places.

²⁰On that day the Lord will ^(AG)shave with a ^(AH)razor, ^(AI)hired from regions beyond ^(AJ)the Euphrates River (that is, with the king of Assyria), the head and the hair of the legs; and it will also remove the beard.

²¹Now on that day a person may keep alive only a ^(AK)heifer and a pair of sheep; ²²and because of the abundance of the milk produced he will eat ^[q]curds, for everyone who is left within the land will eat ^[r]^(AL)curds and honey.

²³And it will come about on that day, ^(AM)that every place where there used to be a thousand vines, valued at a thousand shekels of silver, will become ^(AN)briars and thorns. ²⁴People will come there with bows and arrows, because all the land will be briars and thorns. ²⁵As for all the hills which used to be cultivated with the plow, you will not go there for fear of briars and thorns; but they will become a place for ^[s]^(AO)pasturing oxen and for sheep to trample.

Damascus and Samaria Fall

8 Then the Lord said to me, “Take for yourself a large tablet and ^(AP)write on it ^[t]in ordinary letters: ^[u]^(AQ)Maher-shalal-hash-baz. ²And ^[v]I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, ^(AR)Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.” ³So I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Name him ^[w]^(AS)Maher-shalal-hash-baz; ⁴for ^(AT)before the boy knows how to cry out ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of ^(AU)Damascus and the spoils of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”

⁵Again the Lord spoke to me further, saying,

⁶“Inasmuch as these people have ^(AV)rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah
And rejoice in ^(AW)Rezin and the son of Remaliah;
⁷Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the ^(AX)strong and abundant waters of the ^(AY)Euphrates River,
That is, the ^(AZ)king of Assyria and all his glory;
And it will ^(BA)rise over all its channels and go over all its banks.
⁸Then ^(BB)it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through,
It will ^(BC)reach as far as the neck;
And the spread of its wings will ^[x]fill the expanse of ^[y]your land, ^(BD)Immanuel.

A Believing Remnant

⁹“^(BE)Be broken, you peoples, and be ^[z]^(BF)shattered;
And listen, all remote places of the earth.
^[aa]Get ready, yet be ^[ab]shattered;
^[ac]Get ready, yet be ^[ad]shattered.
¹⁰^(BG)Devise a plan, but it will fail;
State a ^[ae]proposal, but ^(BH)it will not stand,
For ^[af]^(BI)God is with us.”

¹¹For so the Lord spoke to me ^[ag]with ^(BJ)mighty power and instructed me ^(BK)not to walk in the way of this people, saying,

¹²“You are not to say, ‘It is a ^(BL)conspiracy!’
Regarding everything that this people call a conspiracy,
And ^(BM)you are not to fear ^[ah]what they fear or be in dread of it.
¹³It is the ^(BN)Lord of armies ^(BO)whom you are to regard as holy.
And He shall be your fear,
And He shall be your dread.
¹⁴Then He will become a ^(BP)sanctuary;
But to both houses of Israel, He will be a ^(BQ)stone of stumbling and a rock ^[ai]of offense,
And a snare and a ^(BR)trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
¹⁵Many ^(BS)will stumble over them,
Then they will fall and be broken;
They will be snared and caught.”

¹⁶^(BT)Bind up the testimony, ^(BU)seal the ^[aj]Law among ^(BV)my disciples. ¹⁷And I will ^(BW)wait for the Lord ^(BX)who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; I will wait eagerly for Him. ¹⁸^(BY)Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for ^(BZ)signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of armies, who ^(CA)dwells on Mount Zion.

¹⁹When they say to you, “^(CB)Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,” should a people not ^(CC)consult their God? Should they ^(CD)consult the dead in behalf of the living? ²⁰To the ^[ak]^(CE)Law and to the testimony! If they do not speak in accordance with this word, it is because ^(CF)they have no dawn. ²¹They will pass through ^[al]the land ^(CG)dejected and hungry, and it will turn out that when they are hungry, they will become enraged and curse ^[am]their king and their God as they face upward. ²²Then they will ^(CH)look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be ^(CI)driven away into darkness.

Footnotes

Isaiah 7:1 Lit fight against
Isaiah 7:3 I.e., a remnant shall return
Isaiah 7:3 I.e., launderer’s
Isaiah 7:6 Or demolish
Isaiah 7:7 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Isaiah 7:9 Or endure
Isaiah 7:11 As in most ancient versions; MT make the request deep or high
Isaiah 7:11 Lit heights
Isaiah 7:13 Lit make men weary
Isaiah 7:13 Lit make my God weary
Isaiah 7:14 As in LXX; MT young unmarried woman
Isaiah 7:14 I.e., God is with us
Isaiah 7:15 Possibly butter
Isaiah 7:15 Lit with respect to his knowing
Isaiah 7:18 Or mouth of the rivers; i.e., the Nile Delta
Isaiah 7:19 Or wadis
Isaiah 7:22 Possibly butter
Isaiah 7:22 Possibly butter
Isaiah 7:25 Lit pastureland of
Isaiah 8:1 Lit with the stylus of man
Isaiah 8:1 I.e., swift is the plunder, speedy is the prey
Isaiah 8:2 Another reading is take for me
Isaiah 8:3 I.e., swift is the plunder, speedy is the prey
Isaiah 8:8 Lit be the fullness of
Isaiah 8:8 Or Your
Isaiah 8:9 Or dismayed
Isaiah 8:9 Lit Belt up your waist
Isaiah 8:9 Or dismayed
Isaiah 8:9 Lit Belt up your waist
Isaiah 8:9 Or dismayed
Isaiah 8:10 Lit word
Isaiah 8:10 Heb Immanu-el
Isaiah 8:11 Lit according to the strength of hand
Isaiah 8:12 Lit their fear
Isaiah 8:14 Or to trip on
Isaiah 8:16 Or teaching
Isaiah 8:20 Or teaching
Isaiah 8:21 Lit it
Isaiah 8:21 Or by their king

Ephesians 2

New American Standard Bible

Made Alive in Christ

2 And ^[a]you ^[b]were ^(A)dead ^[c]in your offenses and sins, ²in which you ^(B)previously walked according to the ^[d]course of ^(C)this world, according to ^(D)the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in ^(E)the ^[e]sons of disobedience. ³Among them ^[f]we too all ^(F)previously lived in ^(G)the lusts of our flesh, ^[g]indulging the desires of the flesh and of the ^[h]mind, and were ^(H)by nature ^(I)children of wrath, ^(J)just as the rest. ⁴But God, being ^(K)rich in mercy, because of ^(L)His great love with which He loved us, ⁵even when we were ^(M)dead ^[i]in our wrongdoings, made us alive together ^[j]with Christ (^(N)by grace you have been saved), ⁶and ^(O)raised us up with Him, and ^(P)seated us with Him in ^(Q)the heavenly places in ^(R)Christ Jesus, ⁷so that in the ages to come He might show the ^[k]boundless ^(S)riches of His grace in ^(T)kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For ^(U)by grace you have been saved ^(V)through faith; and ^[l]this is not of yourselves, it is ^(W)the gift of God; ⁹^(X)not a result of works, so that ^(Y)no one may boast. ¹⁰For we are His workmanship, ^(Z)created in ^(AA)Christ Jesus for ^(AB)good works, which God ^(AC)prepared beforehand so that we would ^(AD)walk in them.

¹¹Therefore remember that ^(AE)previously ^(AF)you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “^(AG)Uncircumcision” by the so-called “^(AH)Circumcision” which is performed in the flesh by human hands— ¹²remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, ^[m]^(AI)excluded from ^[n]the people of Israel, and strangers to ^(AJ)the covenants of the promise, having ^(AK)no hope and ^(AL)without God in the world. ¹³But now in ^(AM)Christ Jesus you who ^(AN)previously were ^(AO)far away ^[o]have ^(AP)been brought near ^[p]^(AQ)by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴For He Himself is ^(AR)our peace, ^(AS)who made both groups into one and broke down the ^[q]barrier of the dividing wall, ¹⁵^[r]by ^(AT)abolishing ^[s]in His flesh the hostility, which is ^(AU)the Law composed of commandments expressed in ordinances, so that in Himself He might ^[t]^(AV)make the two ^(AW)one new person, in this way establishing ^(AX)peace; ¹⁶and that He might ^(AY)reconcile them both in ^(AZ)one body to God through the cross, ^[u]by it having ^(BA)put to death the hostility. ¹⁷And ^(BB)He came and preached ^(BC)peace to you who were ^(BD)far away, and peace to those who were ^(BE)near; ¹⁸for through Him we both have ^(BF)our access in ^(BG)one Spirit to ^(BH)the Father. ¹⁹So then you are no longer ^(BI)strangers and foreigners, but you are ^(BJ)fellow citizens with the ^[v]saints, and are of ^(BK)God’s household, ²⁰having been ^(BL)built on ^(BM)the foundation of ^(BN)the apostles and prophets, ^(BO)Christ Jesus Himself being the ^(BP)cornerstone, ²¹^(BQ)in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into ^(BR)a holy ^[w]temple in the Lord, ²²in whom you also are being ^(BS)built together into a ^(BT)dwelling of God in the Spirit.