Isaiah 5:12-7:11

New King James Version

¹²^(A)The harp and the strings,
The tambourine and flute,
And wine are in their feasts;
But ^(B)they do not regard the work of the Lord,
Nor consider the operation of His hands.

¹³^(C)Therefore my people have gone into captivity,
Because they have no ^(D)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,
^(E)Each man shall be humbled,
And the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.
¹⁶But the Lord of hosts shall be ^(F)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 ^(G)the ^[a]fat ones strangers shall eat.

¹⁸Woe to those who ^[b]draw iniquity with cords of ^[c]vanity,
And sin as if with a cart rope;
¹⁹^(H)That 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 ^(I)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 ^(J)justify the wicked for a bribe,
And take away justice from the righteous man!

²⁴Therefore, ^(K)as the ^[d]fire devours the stubble,
And the flame consumes the chaff,
So ^(L)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.
²⁵^(M)Therefore the anger of the Lord is aroused against His people;
He has stretched out His hand against them
And stricken them,
And ^(N)the hills trembled.
Their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets.

^(O)For all this His anger is not turned away,
But His hand is stretched out still.

²⁶^(P)He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar,
And will ^(Q)whistle to them from ^(R)the end of the earth;
Surely ^(S)they shall come with speed, swiftly.
²⁷No one will be weary or stumble among them,
No one will slumber or sleep;
Nor ^(T)will the belt on their loins be loosed,
Nor the strap of their sandals be broken;
²⁸^(U)Whose arrows are sharp,
And all their bows bent;
Their horses’ hooves will ^[e]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 ^(V)looks to the land,
Behold, darkness and ^[f]sorrow;
And the light is darkened by the clouds.

Isaiah Called to Be a Prophet^(W)

6 In the year that ^(X)King Uzziah died, I ^(Y)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, ^(Z)with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³And one cried to another and said:

^(AA)“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
^(AB)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 ^[g]undone!
Because I am a man of ^(AC)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 ^(AD)the altar. ⁷And he ^(AE)touched my mouth with it, and said:

“Behold, this has touched your lips;
Your iniquity is taken away,
And your sin ^[h]purged.”

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

“Whom shall I send,
And who will go for ^(AF)Us?”

Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

⁹And He said, “Go, and ^(AG)tell this people:

‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’

¹⁰“Make ^(AH)the heart of this people dull,
And their ears heavy,
And shut their eyes;
^(AI)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:

^(AJ)“Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant,
The houses are without a man,
The land is utterly desolate,
¹²^(AK)The 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 ^(AL)the holy seed shall be its stump.”

Isaiah Sent to King Ahaz^(AM)

7 Now it came to pass in the days of ^(AN)Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against ^(AO)it, but could not ^[i]prevail against it. ²And it was told to the house of David, saying, “Syria’s forces are ^[j]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 ^[k]Shear-Jashub your son, at the end of the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, ⁴and say to him: ^[l]‘Take heed, and ^[m]be ^(AP)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 ^[n]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:

^(AQ)“It shall not stand,
Nor shall it come to pass.
⁸^(AR)For the head of Syria is Damascus,
And the head of Damascus is Rezin.
Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be ^[o]broken,
So that it will not be a people.
⁹The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
And the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son.
^(AS)If you will not believe,
Surely you shall not be established.” ’ ”

The Immanuel Prophecy

¹⁰Moreover the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, ¹¹^(AT)“Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ^[p]ask it either in the depth or in the height above.”