Beginning
When God’s people haven’t seen a hint of light or hope of day, God will do something new.
9 But there will be no more gloom for those who knew such hardship. In times past, God humbled the land of Zebulun and Naphtali; later, He will restore the honor and glory to the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee, home of the nations.
2 The people who had been living in darkness
have seen a great light.
The light of life has shined on those who dwelt
in the shadowy darkness of death.
3 And You, God, will make it happen. You bolstered the nation,
making it great again. You have saturated it with joy.
Everyone in it is full of delight in Your presence,
like the joy they experience at the harvest,
like the thrill of dividing up the spoils of war.
4 For as You did back in the day when Midian oppressed us,
You will shatter the yoke that burdens them,
You will lift the load that weighs them down,
You will break the rod of their oppressor.
5 It’s true. All the fabric of war will go up in flames:
the troops’ heavy boots that stamped us down and their blood-soaked garb
Will all be burned beyond recognition or use.
There will be a new time, a fresh start.
6 Hope of all hopes, dream of our dreams,
a child is born, sweet-breathed; a son is given to us: a living gift.
And even now, with tiny features and dewy hair, He is great.
The power of leadership, and the weight of authority, will rest on His shoulders.
His name? His name we’ll know in many ways—
He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Dear Father everlasting, ever-present never-failing,
Master of Wholeness, Prince of Peace.
7 His leadership will bring such prosperity as you’ve never seen before—
sustainable peace for all time.
This child: God’s promise to David—a throne forever, among us,
to restore sound leadership that cannot be perverted or shaken.
He will ensure justice without fail and absolute equity. Always.
The intense passion of the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies,
will carry this to completion.
8 The Lord has dispatched a word against Jacob;
it will come down hard on Israel.
9 All the people of Ephraim and the citizens of its capital Samaria will know.
In their pride and arrogance they say:
10 “Hey! The walls have collapsed, but this gives us a chance to rebuild
better than it was before with the best stones instead of brick.
The invaders may have chopped down the sycamores,
but we will plant cedars in their place.”
11 But the Eternal stirs up Rezin’s enemies to move against Israel
and arouses all their foes to join them.
12 They come, these enemies, from both sides (Syrians on the east and Philistines on the west)
and consume Israel, swallowing it whole.
Still, God’s anger smolders.
His hand is raised; there’s more to come.
13 But the people don’t return to God after all His punishment.
They don’t change their ways and right their paths
To seek the Eternal, the Commander of heavenly armies.
14 Therefore, He will take them to task.
In a single day He’ll cut off from Israel the head and the tail;
He’ll cut down the noble palm and lowly reed.
15 The head are those charged with leadership—political and religious—
who used their power in the worst possible ways;
And the tail are the prophets who slur their lies.
16 These misguided leaders have misled this people;
and those who follow have become swallowed up in their deceit.
17-18 Even now the Lord takes no joy in a single one, not even the young.
Mercy has run out for even those without power—the widows and orphans.
For every single person is at fault and behaves badly.
No one thinks or acts as God would have them do.
Every mouth utters foolishness like a wildfire, out of control;
wickedness rages, leveling and clearing briars and thorns;
Forests and thickets burn, leaving the whole a smoking heap.
Still, God’s anger smolders. His hand is raised; there’s more to come.
19 The Eternal, the Commander of heavenly armies,
sets our world on fire in His fury.
The rotten people become kindling for the fire,
turning against one another until no one is spared.
20 They slice off what’s on the right and are still hungry;
they eat what’s on the left and still aren’t satisfied.
And in their voracity, they consume their own.
Ravenous in their greed, no one is spared—not brothers or sisters, not allies or kin.
21 Manasseh and Ephraim devour each other
and turn their covetous eye south, toward Judah.
Still, God’s anger smolders. His hand is raised; there’s more to come.
Manasseh and Ephraim are family; they have a common language and common culture, and they come from common stock. In every way that matters they are brothers, but they are at war with each other. And they don’t stop there. They turn against Judah, their southern relative. Amazingly, God has chosen them all to be His people, a nation of promise and destiny. How sad that it’s come to this! What is God to do with His children? God will not abandon them, yet neither will God put up with their destructive consumption, their greed and injustices. Indeed, their wrongdoing takes its own course of self-destruction, and God will not stop it. Sometimes God’s judgment consists of Him stepping back and leaving people to their devices—letting their will be done.
10 1-2 How awful it will be for those who mandate wickedness
and legalize oppression, denying justice to the needy,
Taking away the rights of the poor among My people.
Such leaders intend to make helpless widows and orphans their prey.
3 How will you opportunists handle the day of reckoning?
What will you do when trouble comes from far away?
Will you run away from the disaster you caused?
Who will help you? Where will you leave all your wealth?
4 You, too, must cower among the captives
or fall among the dead.
Still, God’s anger smolders. His hand is raised; there’s more to come.
5 Hah! God has determined to let loose a punishing disaster like you’ve never seen.
Eternal One: How awful it will be for Assyria, the rod of My anger,
as they come crashing in on you; the club they bear is My fury.
6 I am sending Assyria against a nation that refuses to act rightly,
delegating it to humble a people who have frustrated
and infuriated Me by their blithe dismissal.
Assyria will snatch their wealth, seize their treasures,
and trample over them like mud in the streets.
7 But they will get cocky. Assyria has its own intentions for destruction,
to move against other people and other places to cut them down.
8-9 The victories make them think they’re invincible:
The king of Assyria says:
“Aren’t all of my princes destined to be kings?
Calno fell just like Carchemish.
I took Hamath as easily as Arpad. Samaria, too, fell like Damascus.
10 My powerful hand has reached out to subdue kingdom after kingdom
whose idols were more famous and respected than those in Jerusalem and Samaria.
11 Now I will move in and take over Jerusalem and her idols
as easily as I did in Samaria.”
The Assyrians imagine that it is by their initiative and power that they gain control of these great cities and their populations. They are mistaken.
12 God will punish Assyria and its king for their blasphemous rants and arrogant self-satisfaction once my Lord has finished using them to accomplish His purposes here on Zion and in Jerusalem.
13 Assyrian King: I am so smart, so strong, so knowledgeable.
I am clearly superior to everyone else,
Moving easily into other countries and using them to suit my needs,
taking their treasures at will and humbling their citizens.
14 I just reach out and take the land and the riches I want—
from all over the earth—as easily as one gathers eggs from a nest.
They don’t flap their wings;
they don’t make a sound, while they look on helplessly.
15 But wow, are they ever mistaken! Assyria seems to think it has used God.
Can an ax take credit instead of the one who swings it?
Is a saw better than the one who uses it?
Only if a club or rod can move on its own.
16 So the Lord, the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies,
will afflict Assyria’s brawny soldiers with disease,
And they will waste away to nothing.
God will kindle a roaring fire beneath Assyria’s fleeting glory.
17-18 The light of God’s people will be like a fire that burns up
the thorns and briars in a single day.
The Holy One will become a flame and make an end of all of Assyria’s schemes.
God will consume the grandeur of his forest and fruitful fields;
He will consume both body and soul,
as when the sick grow weak and waste away.
19 So few trees will remain of his glorious forest
that a child could count them.
20 Then, the few that remain of Israel,
that handful of Jacob’s people who escape,
Will finally quit depending on the power of others
(others who abuse and take advantage of them)
And will instead lean on the Eternal One, the Holy One of Israel.
21 This remnant of Jacob’s people who endure and escape the great destruction
will come back to the Mighty One, to the embrace of God.
22 But don’t doubt—though the number of the people of Israel
are like the sand of the sea,
Only a remnant of them will be rescued and return to survive.
For destruction is sure—the matter settled—God is absolutely right to do so.
23 For the Lord, the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies,
will carry out His destructive decree over the whole land.[a]
24 But as for the Holy City, Zion, the Lord, the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, has this to say:
Eternal One: Listen, My people living in Zion. Don’t be afraid of Assyria even though that great and terrible nation batters and wounds you, presses its weight and might against you as Egypt once did. 25 Don’t worry. It won’t be long until My anger against you will be over, and I’ll turn it instead in Assyria’s direction.
26 The Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, will lash Assyria with His whip; and Assyria will feel the crushing power of God’s judgment just as the Midianites did at the rock of Oreb,[b] just as the Egyptians did when Moses raised his staff and drowned Pharaoh’s army in the sea.[c] 27 When that time comes, all the weight of Assyria will be lifted off of your shoulders; its yoke will be removed from your neck, and the burden of their assault and demands will evaporate, and you’ll be free.
Isaiah describes the southern march of the Assyrian army. Village after village falls until the enemy is so close the clamor of its forces shakes the streets of Jerusalem.
28 Oh, sure, first you’ll feel that terrible force coming on you from the north
through Aiath and then Migron; at Michmash, they store their gear;
29 They take the mountain pass, and camp at Geba for the night;
closer they come as Ramah trembles;
Saul’s town Gibeah flees before them.
30 Cry out, Gallim! Heed the warning, Laishah!
Poor Anathoth!
31 Madmenah is on the run.
So, too, are the citizens of Gebim.
32 But today, they will stop their march at Nob
and shake their fists at beautiful Mount Zion, the mountain of Jerusalem.
33 But wait, look! The Lord, the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, will protect you;
He will cut the arrogant and self-serving down to size.
With terrifying power He will prune Assyria’s branches,
hack down the high and mighty, and humble all those who think they’re so great.
34 He will wield the ax and cut down the brushy undergrowth of the forest;
even the cedars of Lebanon fall before the Mighty One’s blow.
11 But on this humbled ground, a tiny shoot, hopeful and promising,
will sprout from Jesse’s stump;
A branch will emerge from his roots to bear fruit.
2 And on this child from David’s line, the Spirit of the Eternal One will alight and rest.
By the Spirit of wisdom and discernment
He will shine like the dew.
By the Spirit of counsel and strength
He will judge fairly and act courageously.
By the Spirit of knowledge and reverence of the Eternal One,
3 He will take pleasure in honoring the Eternal.
He will determine fairness and equity;
He will consider more than what meets the eye,
And weigh in more than what he’s told.
4 So that even those who can’t afford a good defense
will nevertheless get a fair and equitable judgment.
With just a word, He will end wickedness and abolish oppression.
With nothing more than the breath of His mouth, He will destroy evil.
5 He will clothe himself with righteousness and truth;
the impulse to right wrongs will be in his blood.
With unwavering steps and integrity uncompromised, He will establish peace.
6 A day will come when the wolf will live peacefully beside the wobbly-kneed lamb,
and the leopard will lie down with the young goat;
The calf and yearling, newborn and slow, will rest secure with the lion;
and a little child will tend them all.
7 Bears will graze with the cows they used to attack;
even their young will rest together,
and the lion will eat hay, like gentle oxen.
8-9 Neither will a baby who plays next to a cobra’s hole
nor a toddler who sticks his hand into a nest of vipers suffer harm.
All my holy mountain will be free of anything hurtful or destructive,
for as the waters fill the sea,
The entire earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Eternal.
10 Then on that day, that root from Jesse’s line
will stand as a signal for the peoples of the world
Who will come to Him seeking guidance and direction;
and glory will be restored to the land where He resides.[d]
11 At that time, my Lord will reach out and gather in the remnant of His scattered people a second time. God’s people, those who had been defeated and exiled, will make their way back from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the islands of the sea.
12 When God raises a signal, the whole world will hear the news
of how He is assembling the people He had banished,
Gathering those scattered from Judah from across the whole wide earth.
There are no capricious acts with God. God, and no one else, is the undoing of Israel. He may use Assyria as His agent to chastise the people of Judah for their wrongdoing, but judgment is never God’s last move. When God judges—when God punishes—He does so for a reason. His judgment is always measured, finite, and based on His covenant loyalty. God takes no delight in His people’s suffering; but sometimes, tragically, it is necessary. Willful ignorance and blatant disregard for God and others cannot be ignored. In the end, God’s purpose is to repair a world deeply injured by sin and its consequences. So His next move is to rescue and restore His covenant partners. Reconciliation and grace always follow destruction.
13 At that time Ephraim will no longer envy Judah,
those who afflict Judah will be brought down,
For those groups who had been at odds with each other—
envy and hostility will end.
14 But they will join forces against those who threaten them,
swooping down on the slopes of Philistia in the west,
Plundering and prevailing over the nations in the east who oppressed them:
Edom, Moab, and Ammon.
15 And the Eternal will make it easy,
so easy for God’s people to return from Egypt and Assyria.
He will create a swath of dry land through the gulf of Egypt’s sea;
with a wave of His hand, He will blow a scorching wind
Over the Euphrates—breaking it up into seven streams—
so the people can cross it in their sandals.
16 He will build a highway for the remnant of His people as they leave Assyria behind,
just as He did for the Israelites when they left the land of Egypt.[e]
12 In the face of such grace that day, you will thank God.
People: Thank you, thank you, thank you, Eternal One,
God of our people, of our promise
For establishing an end to our punishment,
for taking me back with kindness, and comforting me.
2 See, God has come to rescue me;
I will trust in Him and not be afraid,
For the Eternal, indeed, the Eternal is my strength and my song.
My very own God has rescued me.
God has given His people a new surety and confidence, a new sense of purpose, strength, and determination.
3 With joy in each step, you will drink deeply from the springs of salvation.
4 You’ll want to sing out that day,
People: Give thanks to the Eternal; call on His name.
Spread the news throughout the world of what He has done
and how great is His name!
5 Sing praises to the Eternal!
Everyone, everywhere should know that God acts in amazing ways.
6 You who live in this God-blessed place, this Zion, shout out and sing for joy!
For God is great, and God is here—with us and around us—the Holy One of Israel.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.