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Isaiah 6-8
Christian Standard Bible
Isaiah 6-8
Christian Standard Bible
Isaiah’s Call and Mission
6 In the year that King Uzziah(A) died, I saw the Lord(B) seated on a high and lofty(C) throne,(D) and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphim[a] were standing above him; they each had six wings:(E) with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.(F) 3 And one called to another:
4 The foundations of the doorways shook(I) at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 Then I said:
Woe is me(J) for I am ruined[b]
because I am a man of unclean lips
and live among a people of unclean lips,(K)
and because my eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of Armies.
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken from the altar(L) with tongs. 7 He touched my mouth(M) with it and said:
Now that this has touched your lips,
your iniquity is removed
and your sin is atoned for.(N)
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord asking:
Who will I send?
Who will go for us?
I said:
Here I am. Send me.
9 And he replied:
Go! Say to these people:
Keep listening, but do not understand;(O)
keep looking, but do not perceive.
10 Make the minds[c] of these people dull;
deafen their ears and blind their eyes;
otherwise they might see with their eyes
and hear with their ears,
understand with their minds,
turn back, and be healed.(P)
11 Then I said, “Until when, Lord?” (Q) And he replied:
Until cities lie in ruins without inhabitants,(R)
houses are without people,
the land is ruined and desolate,
12 and the Lord drives the people far away,
leaving great emptiness in the land.
13 Though a tenth will remain in the land,
it will be burned again.
Like the terebinth or the oak
that leaves a stump when felled,
the holy seed(S) is the stump.(T)
The Message to Ahaz
7 This took place during the reign of Ahaz, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah king of Judah:(U) Aram’s King Rezin and Israel’s King Pekah son of Remaliah went to fight against Jerusalem,(V) but they were not able to conquer it.
2 When it became known to the house of David(W) that Aram had occupied Ephraim,(X) the heart of Ahaz[d] and the hearts of his people trembled like trees of a forest shaking in the wind.
3 The Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear-jashub[e](Y) to meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool,(Z) by the road to the Launderer’s Field. 4 Say to him: Calm down and be quiet. Don’t be afraid or cowardly(AA) because of these two smoldering sticks, the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram, and the son of Remaliah. 5 For Aram, along with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has plotted harm against you. They say, 6 ‘Let’s go up against Judah, terrorize it, and conquer it for ourselves. Then we can install Tabeel’s son as king in it.’”
7 This is what the Lord God says:
It will not happen; it will not occur.(AB)
8 The chief city of Aram is Damascus,
the chief of Damascus is Rezin
(within sixty-five years
Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people),
9 the chief city of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the chief of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you do not stand firm in your faith,
then you will not stand at all.
The Immanuel Prophecy
10 Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz: 11 “Ask for a sign(AC) from the Lord your God—it can be as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven.”
12 But Ahaz replied, “I will not ask. I will not test the Lord.”
13 Isaiah(AD) said, “Listen, house of David! Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men? Will you also try the patience of my God?(AE) 14 Therefore, the Lord himself will give you[f] a sign: See, the virgin will conceive,[g] have a son, and name him Immanuel.[h](AF) 15 By the time he learns to reject what is bad and choose what is good,(AG) he will be eating curds[i] and honey.(AH) 16 For before the boy knows to reject what is bad and choose what is good, the land of the two kings you dread will be abandoned. 17 The Lord will bring on you, your people, and your father’s house such a time as has never been since Ephraim separated from Judah:(AI) He will bring the king of Assyria.”(AJ)
18 On that day(AK)
the Lord will whistle(AL) to flies
at the farthest streams of the Nile
and to bees in the land of Assyria.
19 All of them will come and settle
in the steep ravines, in the clefts of the rocks,(AM)
in all the thornbushes, and in all the water holes.
20 On that day the Lord will use a razor(AN) hired from beyond the Euphrates River—the king of Assyria(AO)—to shave the hair on your heads, the hair on your legs, and even your beards.
21 On that day
a man will raise a young cow and two sheep,
22 and from the abundant milk they give
he will eat curds,
for every survivor in the land will eat curds and honey.(AP)
23 And on that day
every place where there were a thousand vines,
worth a thousand pieces of silver,
will become thorns and briers.(AQ)
24 A man will go there with bow and arrows
because the whole land will be thorns and briers.
25 You will not go to all the hills
that were once tilled with a hoe,
for fear of the thorns and briers.
Those hills will be places for oxen to graze
and for sheep to trample.
The Coming Assyrian Invasion
8 Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large piece of parchment[j] and write on it with an ordinary pen:[k](AR) Maher-shalal-hash-baz.[l] 2 I have appointed[m] trustworthy witnesses—the priest Uriah and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.”(AS)
3 I was then intimate with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. The Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz, 4 for before the boy knows how to call ‘Father,’ or ‘Mother,’(AT) the wealth of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria will be carried off to the king of Assyria.”(AU)
5 The Lord spoke to me again:
6 Because these people rejected
the slowly flowing water of Shiloah
and rejoiced with[n] Rezin
and the son of Remaliah,(AV)
7 the Lord will certainly bring against them
the mighty rushing water of the Euphrates River—
the king of Assyria and all his glory.
It will overflow its channels
and spill over all its banks.
8 It will pour into Judah,
flood over it, and sweep through,
reaching up to the neck;(AW)
and its flooded banks[o]
will fill your entire land, Immanuel!(AX)
9 Band together,[p] peoples, and be broken;
pay attention, all you distant lands;
prepare for war, and be broken;
prepare for war, and be broken.
10 Devise a plan; it will fail.(AY)
Make a prediction; it will not happen.
For God is with us.[q](AZ)
The Lord of Armies, the Only Refuge
11 For this is what the Lord said to me with great power, to keep[r] me from going the way of this people:(BA)
12 Do not call everything a conspiracy
that these people say is a conspiracy.(BB)
Do not fear what they fear;(BC)
do not be terrified.
13 You are to regard only the Lord of Armies as holy.(BD)
Only he should be feared;(BE)
only he should be held in awe.
14 He will be a sanctuary;(BF)
but for the two houses of Israel,
he will be a stone(BG) to stumble over
and a rock to trip over,(BH)
and a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 Many will stumble over these;(BI)
they will fall and be broken;
they will be snared and captured.
16 Bind up the testimony.(BJ)
Seal up the instruction(BK) among my disciples.
17 I will wait for the Lord,(BL)
who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob.(BM)
I will wait for him.
18 Here I am with the children the Lord has given me(BN) to be signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of Armies who dwells on Mount Zion. 19 When they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the spiritists who chirp and mutter,”(BO) shouldn’t a people inquire of their God?[s] Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?(BP) 20 Go to God’s instruction and testimony!(BQ) If they do not speak according to this word, there will be no dawn for them.
21 They will wander through the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged, and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. 22 They will look toward the earth(BR) and see only distress, darkness, and the gloom of affliction, and they will be driven into thick darkness.
Footnotes
- 6:2 = heavenly beings
- 6:5 Or I must be silent
- 6:10 Lit heart
- 7:2 Lit Aram has rested upon Ephraim, his heart
- 7:3 = A Remnant Will Return
- 7:14 In Hb, the word you is pl
- 7:14 Or virgin is pregnant, will
- 7:14 = God With Us
- 7:15 Or sour milk
- 8:1 Hb obscure
- 8:1 Lit with the pen of a man
- 8:1 = Speeding to the Plunder, Hurrying to the Spoil
- 8:2 Vg; MT, one DSS ms read I will appoint; one DSS ms, LXX, Syr, Tg read Appoint
- 8:6 Or and rejoiced over
- 8:8 Lit its outspread wings
- 8:9 Or Raise the war cry, or Be shattered
- 8:10 Hb Immanuel
- 8:11 DSS; MT reads instruct
- 8:19 Or gods
Isaiah 6-8
New International Version
Isaiah 6-8
New International Version
Isaiah’s Commission
6 In the year that King Uzziah(A) died,(B) I saw the Lord,(C) high and exalted,(D) seated on a throne;(E) and the train of his robe(F) filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim,(G) each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet,(H) and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.(M)
5 “Woe(N) to me!” I cried. “I am ruined!(O) For I am a man of unclean lips,(P) and I live among a people of unclean lips,(Q) and my eyes have seen(R) the King,(S) the Lord Almighty.”(T)
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal(U) in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips;(V) your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.(W)”
8 Then I heard the voice(X) of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send?(Y) And who will go for us?(Z)”
And I said, “Here am I.(AA) Send me!”
9 He said, “Go(AB) and tell this people:
“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’(AC)
10 Make the heart of this people calloused;(AD)
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.[a](AE)
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,(AF)
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”(AG)
11 Then I said, “For how long, Lord?”(AH)
And he answered:
“Until the cities lie ruined(AI)
and without inhabitant,
until the houses are left deserted(AJ)
and the fields ruined and ravaged,(AK)
12 until the Lord has sent everyone far away(AL)
and the land is utterly forsaken.(AM)
13 And though a tenth remains(AN) in the land,
it will again be laid waste.(AO)
But as the terebinth and oak
leave stumps(AP) when they are cut down,
so the holy(AQ) seed will be the stump in the land.”(AR)
The Sign of Immanuel
7 When Ahaz(AS) son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin(AT) of Aram(AU) and Pekah(AV) son of Remaliah(AW) king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it.
2 Now the house of David(AX) was told, “Aram has allied itself with[b] Ephraim(AY)”; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken,(AZ) as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.
3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub,[c](BA) to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field.(BB) 4 Say to him, ‘Be careful, keep calm(BC) and don’t be afraid.(BD) Do not lose heart(BE) because of these two smoldering stubs(BF) of firewood—because of the fierce anger(BG) of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah.(BH) 5 Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s(BI) son have plotted(BJ) your ruin, saying, 6 “Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it.” 7 Yet this is what the Sovereign Lord says:(BK)
“‘It will not take place,
it will not happen,(BL)
8 for the head of Aram is Damascus,(BM)
and the head of Damascus is only Rezin.(BN)
Within sixty-five years
Ephraim will be too shattered(BO) to be a people.
9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria,(BP)
and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah’s son.
If you do not stand(BQ) firm in your faith,(BR)
you will not stand at all.’”(BS)
10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask the Lord your God for a sign,(BT) whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.(BU)”
12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test.(BV)”
13 Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David!(BW) Is it not enough(BX) to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience(BY) of my God(BZ) also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you[d] a sign:(CA) The virgin[e](CB) will conceive and give birth to a son,(CC) and[f] will call him Immanuel.[g](CD) 15 He will be eating curds(CE) and honey(CF) when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, 16 for before the boy knows(CG) enough to reject the wrong and choose the right,(CH) the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.(CI) 17 The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away(CJ) from Judah—he will bring the king of Assyria.(CK)”
Assyria, the Lord’s Instrument
18 In that day(CL) the Lord will whistle(CM) for flies from the Nile delta in Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria.(CN) 19 They will all come and settle in the steep ravines and in the crevices(CO) in the rocks, on all the thornbushes(CP) and at all the water holes. 20 In that day(CQ) the Lord will use(CR) a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates River(CS)—the king of Assyria(CT)—to shave your head and private parts, and to cut off your beard(CU) also.(CV) 21 In that day,(CW) a person will keep alive a young cow and two goats.(CX) 22 And because of the abundance of the milk they give, there will be curds to eat. All who remain in the land will eat curds(CY) and honey.(CZ) 23 In that day,(DA) in every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels,[h](DB) there will be only briers and thorns.(DC) 24 Hunters will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be covered with briers(DD) and thorns. 25 As for all the hills(DE) once cultivated by the hoe, you will no longer go there for fear of the briers and thorns;(DF) they will become places where cattle are turned loose and where sheep run.(DG)
Isaiah and His Children as Signs
8 The Lord said to me, “Take a large scroll(DH) and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.”[i](DI) 2 So I called in Uriah(DJ) the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses(DK) for me. 3 Then I made love to the prophetess,(DL) and she conceived and gave birth to a son.(DM) And the Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.(DN) 4 For before the boy knows(DO) how to say ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus(DP) and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.(DQ)”
5 The Lord spoke to me again:
6 “Because this people has rejected(DR)
the gently flowing waters of Shiloah(DS)
and rejoices over Rezin
and the son of Remaliah,(DT)
7 therefore the Lord is about to bring against them
the mighty floodwaters(DU) of the Euphrates—
the king of Assyria(DV) with all his pomp.(DW)
It will overflow all its channels,
run over all its banks(DX)
8 and sweep on into Judah, swirling over it,(DY)
passing through it and reaching up to the neck.
Its outspread wings(DZ) will cover the breadth of your land,
Immanuel[j]!”(EA)
9 Raise the war cry,[k](EB) you nations, and be shattered!(EC)
Listen, all you distant lands.
Prepare(ED) for battle, and be shattered!
Prepare for battle, and be shattered!
10 Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted;(EE)
propose your plan, but it will not stand,(EF)
for God is with us.[l](EG)
11 This is what the Lord says to me with his strong hand upon me,(EH) warning me not to follow(EI) the way of this people:
12 “Do not call conspiracy(EJ)
everything this people calls a conspiracy;
do not fear what they fear,(EK)
and do not dread it.(EL)
13 The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy,(EM)
he is the one you are to fear,(EN)
he is the one you are to dread.(EO)
14 He will be a holy place;(EP)
for both Israel and Judah he will be
a stone(EQ) that causes people to stumble(ER)
and a rock that makes them fall.(ES)
And for the people of Jerusalem he will be
a trap and a snare.(ET)
15 Many of them will stumble;(EU)
they will fall and be broken,
they will be snared and captured.”
16 Bind up this testimony of warning(EV)
and seal(EW) up God’s instruction among my disciples.
17 I will wait(EX) for the Lord,
who is hiding(EY) his face from the descendants of Jacob.
I will put my trust in him.(EZ)
18 Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me.(FA) We are signs(FB) and symbols(FC) in Israel from the Lord Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.(FD)
The Darkness Turns to Light
19 When someone tells you to consult(FE) mediums and spiritists,(FF) who whisper and mutter,(FG) should not a people inquire(FH) of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? 20 Consult God’s instruction(FI) and the testimony of warning.(FJ) If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light(FK) of dawn. 21 Distressed and hungry,(FL) they will roam through the land;(FM) when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse(FN) their king and their God. 22 Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom,(FO) and they will be thrust into utter darkness.(FP)
Footnotes
- Isaiah 6:10 Hebrew; Septuagint ‘You will be ever hearing, but never understanding; / you will be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ / 10 This people’s heart has become calloused; / they hardly hear with their ears, / and they have closed their eyes
- Isaiah 7:2 Or has set up camp in
- Isaiah 7:3 Shear-Jashub means a remnant will return.
- Isaiah 7:14 The Hebrew is plural.
- Isaiah 7:14 Or young woman
- Isaiah 7:14 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls son, and he or son, and they
- Isaiah 7:14 Immanuel means God with us.
- Isaiah 7:23 That is, about 25 pounds or about 12 kilograms
- Isaiah 8:1 Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz means quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil; also in verse 3.
- Isaiah 8:8 Immanuel means God with us.
- Isaiah 8:9 Or Do your worst
- Isaiah 8:10 Hebrew Immanuel
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