War against Jerusalem

7 Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of ^[a]Aram (Syria) and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but they could not conquer it. ² When the house of David (Judah) was told, “Aram is allied with Ephraim (Israel),” the hearts of Ahaz and his people trembled as the trees of the forest tremble in the wind.

³ Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz [king of Judah], you and your son ^[b]Shear-jashub, at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the highway to the ^[c]Fuller’s Field; ⁴ and say to him, ‘Take care and be calm, do not fear and be weak-hearted because of these two stumps of smoldering logs, on account of the fierce anger of [King] Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah (Pekah, usurper of the throne of Israel). ⁵ Because Aram, along with Ephraim (Israel) and the son of Remaliah, have planned evil against you (Judah), saying, ⁶ “Let us go up against Judah and terrorize it; and let us breach its wall and tear it apart [each of us taking a portion] and set up the son of Tabeel over it as its [puppet] king,” ⁷ for this is what the Lord God says, “It shall not stand nor shall it happen. ⁸ For the head (capital) of Aram is Damascus and the head of Damascus is [King] Rezin (now within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken to pieces and will no longer be a people). ⁹ And the head (capital) of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son [King Pekah]. If you will not ^[d]believe [and trust in God and His message], be assured that you will not be established.”’”

The Child Immanuel

¹⁰ Then the Lord spoke again to [King] Ahaz, saying, ¹¹ “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God [one that will convince you that God has spoken and will keep His word]; make your request as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven.” ¹² But Ahaz said, “^[e]I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!” ¹³ Then Isaiah said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too small a thing for you to try the patience of men, but will you try the patience of my God as well? ¹⁴ Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Listen carefully, the ^[f]virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will call his name Immanuel (God with us).^{(A) 15} He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. ¹⁶ For before the child will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land (Canaan) whose two kings you dread will be deserted [both Ephraim and Aram].^(B)

Trials to Come for Judah

¹⁷ The Lord will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim (the ten northern tribes) separated from Judah—[He will call for] the king of Assyria.”

¹⁸ In that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is in the ^[g]mouth of the rivers and canals of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. ¹⁹ These [armies, like flies and bees] will all come and settle on the steep and rugged ravines and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thorn bushes and in all the watering places.

²⁰ In that day [when foreign armies swarm the land] the Lord will shave with a razor, hired from the regions beyond the Euphrates (that is, with the king of Assyria), [that razor will shave] the head and the hair of the legs; and it will also remove the beard [leaving Judah stripped, shamed and scorned].^(C)

²¹ Now in that day [because of the poverty caused by the invaders] a man will keep alive only a young milk cow and two sheep; ²² and because of the abundance of milk produced he will eat curds, for everyone that is left in the land will eat [only] curds and [wild] honey.

²³ And it will come to pass in that day, in every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand silver shekels, there will be briars and thorns. ²⁴ People will come there [to hunt] with arrows and with bows because all the land will be briars and thorns. ²⁵ As for all the hills which used to be cultivated with the pick and the hoe, you will no longer go there for fear of briars and thorns; but they will become a place where oxen are pastured and where sheep tread.

Damascus and Samaria Fall

8 Then the Lord said to me, “Take for yourself a large tablet [for public display] and write on it in ordinary characters: Belonging to ^[h]Maher-shalal-hash-baz. ² And I will get faithful witnesses to attest [to this prophecy] for me, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.” ³ So I approached [my wife] the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz [to remind the people of the prophecy]; ⁴ for before the boy knows how to say, ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the riches of Damascus (Aram’s capital) and the spoil of Samaria (Israel’s capital) ^[i]will be carried away by the king of Assyria.”

⁵ Again the Lord spoke to me, saying,

A Believing Remnant

¹¹ For in this way the Lord spoke to me with His strong hand [upon me] and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people [behaving as they do], saying,

¹⁶ Bind up the testimony, seal the law and the teaching among my (Isaiah’s) disciples. ¹⁷ And I will wait for the Lord who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; and I will look eagerly for Him. ¹⁸ Listen carefully, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are ^[l]for signs and wonders [that will occur] in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

¹⁹ When the people [instead of trusting God] say to you, “Consult the mediums [who try to talk to the dead] and the soothsayers who chirp and whisper and mutter,” should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? ²⁰ [Direct those people] to the law and to the testimony! If their teachings are not in accord with this word, it is because they have no dawn. ²¹ They [who consult mediums and soothsayers] will pass through the land deeply distressed and hungry, and when they are hungry, they will become enraged and will curse their king and their God as they look upward. ²² Then they will look to the earth, they will see only distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness and overwhelming night.

Made Alive in Christ

2 And you [He made alive when you] were [spiritually] dead and separated from Him because of your transgressions and sins, ² in which you once walked. You were following the ways of this world [influenced by this present age], in accordance with the prince of the power of the air (Satan), the spirit who is now at work in the disobedient [the unbelieving, who fight against the purposes of God]. ³ Among these [unbelievers] we all once lived in the passions of our flesh [our behavior governed by the sinful self], indulging the desires of ^[a]human nature [without the Holy Spirit] and [the impulses] of the [sinful] mind. We were, by nature, children [under the sentence] of [God’s] wrath, just like the rest [of mankind]. ⁴ But God, being [so very] rich in mercy, because of His great and wonderful love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were [spiritually] dead and separated from Him because of our sins, He made us [spiritually] alive together with Christ (for by His grace—His undeserved favor and mercy—you have been saved from God’s judgment).^{(A) 6} And He raised us up together with Him [when we believed], and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, [because we are] in Christ Jesus, ⁷ [and He did this] so that in the ages to come He might [clearly] show the immeasurable and unsurpassed riches of His grace in [His] kindness toward us in Christ Jesus [by providing for our redemption]. ⁸ For it is by grace [God’s remarkable compassion and favor drawing you to Christ] that you have been saved [actually delivered from judgment and given eternal life] through faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [not through your own effort], but it is the [undeserved, gracious] gift of God; ⁹ not as a result of [your] works [nor your attempts to keep the Law], so that no one will [be able to] boast or take credit in any way [for his salvation]. ¹⁰ For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set], so that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us].^(B)

¹¹ Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, who are called “Uncircumcision” by those who called themselves “Circumcision,” [itself a mere mark] which is made in the flesh by human hands— ¹² remember that at that time you were separated from Christ [excluded from any relationship with Him], alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise [with no share in the sacred Messianic promise and without knowledge of God’s agreements], having no hope [in His promise] and [living] in the world without God. ¹³ But now [at this very moment] in Christ Jesus you who once were [so very] far away [from God] have been brought near ^[b]by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For He Himself is our peace and our bond of unity. He who made both groups—[Jews and Gentiles]—into one body and broke down the barrier, the dividing wall [of spiritual antagonism between us], ¹⁵ by abolishing in His [own crucified] flesh the hostility caused by the Law with its commandments contained in ordinances [which He satisfied]; so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thereby establishing peace. ¹⁶ And [that He] might reconcile them both [Jew and Gentile, united] in one body to God through the cross, thereby putting to death the hostility. ¹⁷ And He came and preached the good news of peace to you [Gentiles] who were far away, and peace to those [Jews] who were near.^{(C) 18} For it is through Him that we both have a [direct] way of approach in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹ So then you are no longer strangers and aliens [outsiders without rights of citizenship], but you are fellow citizens with the saints (God’s people), and are [members] of God’s household, ²⁰ having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the [chief] Cornerstone, ²¹ in whom the whole structure is joined together, and it continues [to increase] growing into a holy temple in the Lord [a sanctuary dedicated, set apart, and sacred to the presence of the Lord]. ²² In Him [and in fellowship with one another] you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.