Isaiah 9:8-19

English Standard Version

Judgment on Arrogance and Oppression

⁸The Lord has sent a word against Jacob,
    and it will fall on Israel;
⁹and all the people will know,
    ^(A)Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,
    who say in pride and in arrogance of heart:
¹⁰“The bricks have fallen,
    but we will build with dressed stones;
the sycamores have been cut down,
    but we will put cedars in their place.”
¹¹But the Lord raises the adversaries of Rezin against him,
    and stirs up his enemies.
¹²^(B)The Syrians on the east and ^(C)the Philistines on the west
    devour Israel with open mouth.
^(D)For all this his anger has not turned away,
    and his hand is stretched out still.

¹³The people ^(E)did not turn to him who struck them,
    nor inquire of the Lord of hosts.
¹⁴So the Lord cut off from Israel ^(F)head and tail,
    palm branch and reed in one day—
¹⁵^(G)the elder and honored man is the head,
    and ^(H)the prophet who teaches lies is the tail;
¹⁶for those who guide this people have been leading them astray,
    and those who are guided by them are swallowed up.
¹⁷Therefore the Lord does not ^(I)rejoice over their young men,
    and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows;
for everyone is ^(J)godless and an evildoer,
    and every mouth speaks ^(K)folly.^[a]
^(L)For all this his anger has not turned away,
    and his hand is stretched out still.

¹⁸For wickedness burns like ^(M)a fire;
    it consumes briers and thorns;
it kindles the thickets of the forest,
    and they roll upward in a column of smoke.
¹⁹Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts
    the land is scorched,
and ^(N)the people are like fuel for the fire;
    ^(O)no one spares another.