¹⁸ “In those days ^(A)the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of ^(B)the north to ^(C)the land that I have given as an inheritance to your fathers.

¹⁶ “As for you, son of man, ^(A)take a stick for yourself and write on it: ‘For Judah and for ^(B)the children of Israel, his companions.’ Then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions.’ ¹⁷ Then ^(C)join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand.

¹⁸ “And when the children of your people speak to you, saying, ^(D)‘Will you not show us what you mean by these?’— ^19 (E)say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Surely I will take ^(F)the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will join them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.” ’ ²⁰ And the sticks on which you write will be in your hand ^(G)before their eyes.

²¹ “Then say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Surely ^(H)I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; ²² and ^(I)I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and ^(J)one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again. ^23 (K)They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but ^(L)I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

^24 (M)“David My servant shall be king over them, and ^(N)they shall all have one shepherd; ^(O)they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them.

Isaiah Sent to King Ahaz^(A)

7 Now it came to pass in the days of ^(B)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 ^(C)it, but could not ^[a]prevail against it. ² And it was told to the house of David, saying, “Syria’s forces are ^[b]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.

³ Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and ^[c]Shear-Jashub your son, at the end of the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, ⁴ and say to him: ^[d]‘Take heed, and ^[e]be ^(D)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. ⁵ Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying, ⁶ “Let us go up against Judah and ^[f]trouble it, and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves, and set a king over them, the son of Tabel”—