Peace through the One from the Family of Jesse

11 Then One will come from the family of Jesse. A branch will grow out of his roots. ² And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of wise words and strength, the spirit of much learning and the fear of the Lord. ³ He will be glad in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what His eyes see, or decide by what His ears hear. ⁴ But He will judge the poor in a right and good way. He will be fair in what He decides for the people of the earth who have much trouble. He will punish the earth with His powerful mouth, and kill the sinful with the breath of His lips. ⁵ He will wear a belt of what is right and good and faithful around His body.

⁶ The wolf will live with the lamb. The leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the young lion and the young fat animal will lie down together. And a little boy will lead them. ⁷ The cow and the bear will eat side by side. And their young will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. ⁸ The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra. And another child will put his hand in the hole of a snake whose bite is poison. ⁹ They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain. For the earth will be as full of much learning from the Lord as the seas are full of water.

The People of Israel and Judah Return

¹⁰ In that day the nations will turn to the One from the family of Jesse. He will be honored by the people as someone special to see. And His place of rest will be full of His shining-greatness. ¹¹ In that day the Lord will put out His hand a second time to bring back His people who are left. He will bring them back from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. ¹² He will lift up flags for the nations, and will gather together the people of Israel and of Judah who had been sent away. He will bring them back from the four corners of the earth. ¹³ Ephraim will not be jealous. Those who made it hard for Judah will be cut off. Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, and Judah will not make it hard for Ephraim. ¹⁴ But they will go down against the Philistines in the west. Together they will take what belongs to the sons of the east. They will go against Edom and Moab. And they will rule the sons of Ammon. ¹⁵ The Lord will dry up all the tongue of the Sea of Egypt. He will wave His hand over the Euphrates River with His burning wind, and will break it into seven rivers. Men will be able to walk over it with dry feet. ¹⁶ And there will be a road from Assyria for those of His people who will be left just as it was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

Assyria Will Take the Land

8 Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large piece of stone and write on it in easy-to-read letters: ‘They hurry to get what they can. They run to pick up what is left.’” ² And I took men who could be trusted to watch the writing, Uriah the religious leader and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah. ³ Then I went to the woman who spoke for God, and she was able to have a child, and gave birth to a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hashbaz. ⁴ For before the boy knows how to cry out ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the riches of Damascus and everything of any worth in Samaria will be carried away by the king of Assyria.”

⁵ The Lord spoke to me again, saying, ⁶ “These people have turned away from the gentle, flowing waters of Shiloah, and find joy in Rezin and the son of Remaliah. ⁷ So now, see, the Lord is ready to bring on them the strong and powerful waters of the Euphrates, the king of Assyria and all his greatness. It will rise up high and cause a flood. ⁸ Then it will flow into Judah. It will flood and pass through, and come up even to the neck. And the spread of its wings will cover the width of your land, O Immanuel.

⁹ “Be broken, O people, and be afraid. Listen, all you far places of the earth. Get ready, yet be afraid. Get ready, yet be afraid. ¹⁰ Make a plan, but it will come to nothing. Give your plan, but it will not be done. For God is with us.”

The People Are Told to Obey

¹¹ For the Lord said this to me with great power, and told me not to walk in the way of these people. He said, ¹² “Do not call holy all that these people call holy. Do not fear what they fear, or be afraid of it. ¹³ It is the Lord of All Whom you should think of as holy. Let Him be the One you fear. He is the One to be afraid of. ¹⁴ Then He will become a holy place. But He will be a stone of trouble and a rock to fall over for both houses of Israel. He will be a net and a trap for the people of Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Many will fall over them. They will fall and be broken. They will be trapped and caught.”

¹⁶ Put together what I have said. Hold to my teachings among my followers. ¹⁷ I will wait for the Lord Who is hiding His face from the family of Jacob. I trust Him and hope in Him. ¹⁸ See, I and the children the Lord has given me are something special to see and a wonder in Israel from the Lord of All, Who lives on Mount Zion.

¹⁹ When they say to you, “Ask those who speak in secret with the spirits of the dead and who use their secret ways,” should not a people ask their God? Should they speak to the dead for the living? ²⁰ Tell them to put their faith in the teaching and the Law. If they do not speak what this word says, it is because they have no light in them. ²¹ They will pass through the land troubled and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be angry and curse their king and their God as they look up. ²² Then they will look to the earth and see trouble and darkness and suffering and will be driven out into darkness.