Isaiah 7-9

Darby Translation

7 And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, [that] Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but they were not able to fight against it.

² And it was told the house of David saying, Syria is allied with Ephraim. Then his heart and the heart of his people shook, as the trees of the forest are shaken with the wind.

³ And Jehovah said to Isaiah, Go out now to meet Ahaz, thou and thy son Shear-jashub, at the end of the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller's field;

⁴ and thou shalt say unto him, Take heed and be quiet; fear not, and let not thy heart faint before these two ends of smoking firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.

⁵ Inasmuch as Syria hath taken evil counsel against thee, Ephraim [also] and the son of Remaliah, saying,

⁶ Let us go up against Judah, and harass it, and make a breach therein for us, and set up a king therein—the son of Tabeal;

⁷ thus saith the Lord Jehovah: It shall not stand, nor come to pass;

⁸ for the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty-five years shall Ephraim be broken, so as to be no [more a] people;

⁹ and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If ye believe not, surely ye shall not be established.

¹⁰ And Jehovah spoke again to Ahaz, saying,

¹¹ Ask for thee a sign from Jehovah thy God; ask for it in the deep, or in the height above.

¹² And Ahaz said, I will not ask, and will not tempt Jehovah.

¹³ And he said, Hear then, house of David: Is it a small matter for you to weary men, that ye weary also my God?

¹⁴ Therefore will the Lord himself give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth a son, and call his name Immanuel.

¹⁵ Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good.

¹⁶ For before the child knoweth to refuse the evil and to choose the good, the land whose two kings thou fearest shall be forsaken.

¹⁷ Jehovah will bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days which have not come since the day when Ephraim turned away from Judah—[even] the king of Assyria.

¹⁸ And it shall come to pass in that day, that Jehovah will hiss for the fly which is at the extremity of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee which is in the land of Assyria;

¹⁹ and they shall come and settle all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and on all thorn-bushes, and on all the pastures.

²⁰ In that day will the Lord, with a razor which is hired beyond the river, with the king of Assyria, shave the head and the hair of the feet, yea, the beard also will it take away.

²¹ And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep,

²² and it shall come to pass, from the abundance of milk they shall give, [that] he shall eat butter; for every one that remaineth in the midst of the land shall eat butter and honey.

²³ And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] every place, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silver pieces, shall become briars and thorns:

²⁴ with arrows and with the bow shall they come thither, for the whole land shall become briars and thorns.

²⁵ And all mountains that have been dug up with the hoe—thither will they not come, from fear of briars and thorns; and they shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of small cattle.

8 And Jehovah said to me, Take thee a great tablet, and write thereon with a man's style, concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

² And I took unto me to witness, sure witnesses, Urijah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.

³ And I came near to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son; and Jehovah said unto me, Call his name, Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

⁴ For before the lad knoweth to cry, My father! and, My mother! the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.

⁵ And Jehovah spoke again to me, saying,

⁶ Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah which flow softly, and rejoiceth in Rezin and in the son of Remaliah,

⁷ therefore behold, the Lord will bring up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory; and he shall mount up over all his channels, and go over all his banks:

⁸ and he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow it and go further, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel!

⁹ Rage, ye peoples, and be broken in pieces! And give ear, all ye distant parts of the earth: Gird yourselves, and be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and be broken in pieces!

¹⁰ Settle a plan, and it shall come to nought; speak a word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.

¹¹ For Jehovah spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and he instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying,

¹² Ye shall not say, Conspiracy, of everything of which this people saith, Conspiracy; and fear ye not their fear, and be not in dread.

¹³ Jehovah of hosts, him shall ye sanctify; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

¹⁴ And he will be for a sanctuary; and for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁵ And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

¹⁶ Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.

¹⁷ And I will wait for Jehovah, who hideth his face from the house of Jacob; and I will look for him.

¹⁸ Behold, I and the children that Jehovah hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel, from Jehovah of hosts, who dwelleth in mount Zion.

¹⁹ And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto the necromancers and unto the soothsayers, who chirp and who mutter, [say,] Shall not a people seek unto their God? [Will they go] for the living unto the dead?

²⁰ To the law and the testimony! If they speak not according to this word, for them there is no daybreak.

²¹ And they shall pass through it, hard pressed and hungry; and it shall come to pass when they are hungry, they will fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and will gaze upward:

²² and they will look to the earth; and behold, trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they shall be driven into thick darkness.

9 Nevertheless the darkness shall not be as when the distress was in the [land], at the time he at first lightly, and afterwards heavily, visited the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,—the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations:

² the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them light hath shone.

³ Thou hast multiplied the nation, hast increased its joy: they joy before thee like to the joy in harvest; as [men] rejoice when they divide the spoil.

⁴ For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.

⁵ For every boot of him that is shod for the tumult, and the garment rolled in blood, shall be for burning, fuel for fire.

⁶ For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name is called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace.

⁷ Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with judgment and with righteousness, from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this.

⁸ The Lord sent a word unto Jacob, and it lighteth upon Israel.

⁹ And all the people shall know [it], Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in pride and stoutness of heart,

¹⁰ The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones; the sycamore trees are cut down, but we will replace them with cedars.

¹¹ And Jehovah will set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and arm his enemies,

¹² the Syrians on the east, and the Philistines on the west; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.

¹³ But the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, and they do not seek Jehovah of hosts.

¹⁴ And Jehovah will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm-branch and rush, in one day:

¹⁵ the ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.

¹⁶ For the guides of this people mislead [them]; and they that are guided by them are swallowed up.

¹⁷ Therefore the Lord will not rejoice in their young men, neither will he have mercy on their fatherless and on their widows; for every one is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.

¹⁸ For wickedness burneth as a fire: it devoureth briars and thorns, and kindleth in the thickets of the forest, and they go rolling up like a pillar of smoke.

¹⁹ Through the wrath of Jehovah of hosts is the land burned up, and the people is as fuel for fire: a man spareth not his brother;

²⁰ and he snatcheth on the right hand, and is hungry, and eateth on the left hand; and they are not satisfied. They eat every man the flesh of his own arm:

²¹ Manasseh, Ephraim, and Ephraim, Manasseh; [and] they together are against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.