Ahaz Reigns in Judah

16 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. ² Ahaz was ^(A)twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done, ³ but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. ^(B)He even burned his son as an offering,^{[a] (C)}according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. ^4 (D)And he sacrificed and made offerings ^(E)on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

^5 (F)Then Rezin king of Syria and ^(G)Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to wage war on Jerusalem, and they besieged Ahaz ^(H)but could not conquer him. ⁶ At that time Rezin the king of Syria recovered ^(I)Elath for Syria and drove the men of Judah from ^(J)Elath, and the Edomites came to Elath, where they dwell to this day. ^7 (K)So Ahaz sent messengers to ^(L)Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.” ⁸ Ahaz also ^(M)took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king's house and sent a present to the king of Assyria. ^9 (N)And the king of Assyria listened to him. The king of Assyria marched up against Damascus ^(O)and took it, carrying its people captive to ^(P)Kir, and he killed Rezin.

¹⁰ When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet ^(Q)Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, he saw the altar that was at Damascus. And King Ahaz sent to ^(R)Uriah the priest a model of the altar, and its pattern, exact in all its details. ¹¹ And Uriah the priest built the altar; in accordance with all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so Uriah the priest made it, before King Ahaz arrived from Damascus. ¹² And when the king came from Damascus, the king viewed the altar. ^(S)Then the king drew near to the altar and went up on it ¹³ and burned his burnt offering and his grain offering and poured his drink offering and threw the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. ¹⁴ And ^(T)the bronze altar that was before the Lord he removed ^(U)from the front of the house, from the place between ^(V)his altar and the house of the Lord, and put it on the north side of ^(W)his altar. ¹⁵ And King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, saying, “On the great altar burn ^(X)the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering and the king's burnt offering and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their grain offering and their drink offering. And throw on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice, but ^(Y)the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.” ¹⁶ Uriah the priest did all this, as King Ahaz commanded.

¹⁷ And King Ahaz cut off the frames of the stands and removed the basin from them, and he took down ^(Z)the sea^[b] from off the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone pedestal. ¹⁸ And the covered way for the Sabbath that had been built inside the house and the outer entrance for the king he caused to go around the house of the Lord, because of the king of Assyria. ¹⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz that he did, are they not written ^(AA)in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁰ And Ahaz slept with his fathers and ^(AB)was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.

Isaiah Sent to King Ahaz

7 In the days of ^(A)Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, ^(B)Rezin the king of Syria and ^(C)Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. ² When the house of David was told, ^(D)“Syria is in league with^{[a] (E)}Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz^[b] and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

³ And the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and ^(F)Shear-jashub^[c] your son, at the end of ^(G)the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field. ⁴ And say to him, ^(H)‘Be careful, ^(I)be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two ^(J)smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and ^(K)the son of Remaliah. ⁵ Because Syria, with Ephraim and ^(L)the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying, ⁶ “Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it^[d] for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” ⁷ thus says the Lord God:

The Sign of Immanuel

¹⁰ Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: ¹¹ “Ask ^(Q)a sign of the Lord your^[f] God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” ¹² But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” ¹³ And he^[g] said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you ^(R)weary my God also? ¹⁴ Therefore the ^(S)Lord himself will give you a sign. ^(T)Behold, the ^(U)virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name ^(V)Immanuel.^{[h] 15} He shall eat ^(W)curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. ^16 (X)For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be ^(Y)deserted. ^17 (Z)The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come since the day that ^(AA)Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria!”

¹⁸ In that day the Lord will ^(AB)whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. ¹⁹ And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and ^(AC)in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures.^[i]

²⁰ In that day ^(AD)the Lord will ^(AE)shave with a razor that is ^(AF)hired beyond ^(AG)the River^[j]—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also.

^21 (AH)In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep, ²² and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he will eat curds, for everyone who is left in the land will eat ^(AI)curds and honey.

²³ In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels^[k] of silver, will become ^(AJ)briers and thorns. ^24 (AK)With bow and arrows a man will come there, for all the land will be briers and thorns. ^25 (AL)And as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not come there for fear ^(AM)of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.

The Coming Assyrian Invasion

8 Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large tablet ^(AN)and write on it in common characters,^[l] ‘Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’^{[m] 2} And ^(AO)I will get reliable witnesses, ^(AP)Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, to attest for me.”

³ And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, ^(AQ)“Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz; ^4 (AR)for before the boy knows how to cry ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the ^(AS)wealth of ^(AT)Damascus and the spoil of ^(AU)Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”

⁵ The Lord spoke to me again: ⁶ “Because this people has refused the waters of ^(AV)Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over ^(AW)Rezin and the son of Remaliah, ⁷ therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them ^(AX)the waters of ^(AY)the River,^[n] mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it ^(AZ)will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks, ⁸ and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, ^(BA)reaching even to the neck, and its ^(BB)outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, ^(BC)O Immanuel.”

Fear God, Wait for the Lord

¹¹ For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and ^(BG)warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: ¹² “Do not call ^(BH)conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and ^(BI)do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. ¹³ But the Lord of hosts, ^(BJ)him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. ¹⁴ And he will become a ^(BK)sanctuary and ^(BL)a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁵ And many ^(BM)shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”

¹⁶ Bind up ^(BN)the testimony; ^(BO)seal the teaching^[r] among my disciples. ¹⁷ I will ^(BP)wait for the Lord, who is ^(BQ)hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. ^18 (BR)Behold, I and ^(BS)the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. ¹⁹ And when they say to you, “Inquire of the ^(BT)mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of ^(BU)the dead on behalf of the living? ^20 (BV)To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no ^(BW)dawn. ²¹ They will pass through the land,^[s] greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against^[t] their king and their God, and turn their faces upward. ^22 (BX)And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into ^(BY)thick darkness.