Beginning
Good news for God's people
9 But the darkness will not continue for ever. Those who had no hope will no longer be afraid. In past times, God let trouble happen to the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.[a] But in future years, he will cause the people of that region to be great. Those are the places near the sea, and those beyond the Jordan River, and Galilee region where people from other nations live.
2 The people who walk in the dark now see a bright light! Light is shining on those people who live in a land of complete darkness.
3 You, Lord, will make your nation stronger. You will cause your people to be very happy. They will be happy because you are with them. They will be like people who are happy at the time of harvest. They will be happy like soldiers who have won a battle, and who share their enemy's valuable things among themselves.
4 They are happy because you have removed the power of their cruel enemies. They no longer have to carry a heavy load, as slaves. You have rescued them from their enemies, in the same way that you won against Midian's army.[b]
5 Fire will destroy every shoe that the soldiers wore to march into the battle. Their clothes which have the blood of war on them will also go into the fire.
6 Yes, your people are happy! A child has been born for us. We now have a son with the authority to rule. His names will be:
Wonderful Advisor,
Mighty God,
Father for Ever,
Ruler who brings Peace.
7 His authority to rule will be very great. The peace that he brings will never have an end. He will rule as king over David's kingdom. He will make it strong and safe, because he will do what is right and fair. He will rule like that now and for ever. The Lord Almighty will make those things happen, because he loves his people.
The Lord punishes Israel
8 The Lord God has spoken a message to warn Jacob's descendants, the kingdom of Israel. 9 All the people who live in Ephraim and in the city of Samaria know about it. But they are proud and they boast, 10 ‘We built houses with bricks and they fell down. But we will build them again with strong stones. People have cut down our fig trees, but we will plant great cedar trees instead.’
11 But the Lord caused Rezin's enemies, and other nations to attack Israel. 12 Syria's army came from the east. The Philistines' army came from the west. They destroyed Israel's land, like a hungry animal.
But the Lord is still angry. His hand is ready to hit them again.[c]
13 The people did not turn back to the Lord Almighty, who had punished them. They did not ask for his help. 14 So, in one day, the Lord will destroy Israel, both its head and its tail. He will cut down both palm branch and reed. 15 The head is their leaders and important people. The tail is the prophets who teach lies.
16 The leaders of this nation lead them away from what is true. They confuse the people that they are leading. 17 So the Lord God is not pleased with their young men. He will not help their widows or their children who have no family. Nobody respects God and they all do evil things. They only speak about foolish things.
But the Lord is still angry. His hand is ready to hit them again.
18 The evil things that the people do destroy everything. They are like a fire that destroys thorn bushes. They burn up all the bushes in the forest. Clouds of smoke rise up from a great fire. 19 The Lord Almighty is very angry. He punishes the land of Israel, like a fire that burns everything. The people are like wood that makes the fire burn well. None of them try to help each other. 20 People eat whatever food they can get, on their right side or their left side. But they are still hungry. They even eat their own family!
21 Manasseh's tribe and Ephraim's tribe fight against each other. Then they join together to attack Judah.
But the Lord is still angry. His hand is ready to hit them again.
10 It will be very bad for people who make cruel laws that are not fair.
2 They stop poor people from receiving what they should have.
They do not let helpless people receive justice.
They rob widows of all their things.
They take things that belong to children who have no family.
3 It will be bad for you on the day when God comes to judge people. You will not escape the punishment that he will bring from far away. There will be nobody to help you. There will be no safe place to hide your valuable things. 4 You will have to join the people who are in prison. Or you will die with those that the enemy kills in war.
But the Lord is still angry. His hand is ready to hit his people again.
Then God will punish Assyria
5 It will be very bad for Assyria! I will use its army to punish my people, because I am angry with them. Assyria will be like a stick that I use to beat my people. That is how I will show them my anger.
6 I send Assyria's army against a nation that does not serve God. I command them to attack the people with whom I am angry. I tell them to take that nation's valuable things for themselves. I tell them to walk all over them, as if they were walking on dirt in the streets.
7 But Assyria's ruler has other ideas. He does not understand that he is my weapon. He wants his army to destroy many nations, so that they have no power. 8 He boasts, ‘All my army's officers are like kings! 9 We destroyed Calno as we destroyed Carchemish. We destroyed Hamath as well as Arpad. We destroyed Samaria as well as Damascus.
10 The idols of those cities were greater than those in Jerusalem or Samaria. But we won against them all! 11 So I will destroy Jerusalem and its idols, in the same way that I did to Samaria and its idols.’
12 The Lord God will come to punish Mount Zion and Jerusalem. But when he has done that, he says, ‘Now I will punish the king of Assyria. He boasts in his mind and his eyes show how proud he is.’
13 The king of Assyria says this:
‘I have won these battles because of my own strength.
I have been very wise and clever.
I have marched into nations as if they had no borders.
I have taken their valuable things for myself.
Like a wild bull, I have removed kings from their thrones.
14 I robbed them of their riches,
like a person who takes eggs from a bird's nest.
I was able to bring all the nations under my power.
None of them could stop me.
No bird could shake its wing at me,
or open its mouth to cry at me!’
15 The Lord says this:
‘The axe has no more power than the person who uses it.
A saw is not more important than the person who cuts with it.
A stick cannot lift up the man who holds it.
No, it is the man that lifts up the stick!’
16 So the Lord, the Almighty Lord, will punish Assyria's soldiers. They are now fat and healthy, but they will become thin! It will be like a fire that burns them, with all their proud strength. 17 The holy God, who is the Light of Israel, will become like a fire. Assyria's soldiers will be like weeds and thorn bushes and the fire will destroy them in one day.
18 The Lord will completely destroy Assyria's great forests and its good fields. It will seem like a bad disease is taking away their life. 19 Only a few trees will remain in the forests. Even a child will be able to count them!
Some people will return
20 At that time, only a few people will remain in Israel. Only a few descendants of Jacob will still be alive. They will no longer expect to receive help from a foreign ruler who is cruel to them. Instead, they will trust the Lord, the Holy God of Israel, to help them.
21 A few of Jacob's descendants will remain, and they will return to serve the mighty God. 22 Israel's people are now very many, as many as the sand on the shore of the sea. But only a few will remain to return. The Lord has decided to destroy you, people of Israel. His punishment is fair and right. 23 The Lord Almighty will destroy the whole land. He is ready to do that, as he has promised.
24 So this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrian army. They will hurt you, like someone who hits you with a heavy stick. They will be cruel to you like the people in Egypt were long ago. 25 But soon I will be angry with you no longer. Instead, I will be angry with the Assyrians, and I will be ready to destroy them.’
26 Yes, the Lord Almighty will punish the Assyrians, like someone who uses a whip to beat them. That is how he destroyed the Midianites at the Rock of Oreb.[d] He will hold his stick over the sea. He will lift it up as he did in Egypt.
27 At that time, the Lord will remove the heavy load that is on your shoulders. He will destroy the yoke that is on your neck. You will no longer be their slaves. The Lord will bless you and make you fat.
28 Assyria's army attacks Aiath! It marches through Migron. They store their things at Michmash. 29 They go across the hills. They stay at Geba for a night. The people in Ramah are afraid! The people in Gibeah of Saul run away.
30 People in Gallim, shout for help! Listen carefully, people in Laishah. Answer them, people in Anathoth. 31 The people in Madmenah run away. Those who live in Gebim run to a safe place.
32 Today, the enemy has reached Nob and it stops there. He shakes his fist angrily at the people who live on Mount Zion in the city of Jerusalem.
33 But look! The Lord Almighty is ready to use his great power to destroy Assyria's strong army. He will cut it down, like a tall tree. He will cut off all the branches and knock all the trees down to the ground. 34 The Lord will take his axe and he will cut down the trees of that great forest. Even the best trees of Lebanon must fall down![e]
The King who brings peace
11 A descendant of Jesse will appear, like a new branch that grows from a tree stump. The roots of the tree will give new fruit![f]
2 The Spirit of the Lord will be with him.
The Spirit will make him wise,
so that he understands things.
The Spirit will show him what is right,
and he will have the power to do it.
The Spirit will cause him to know the Lord
and to serve him truly.
3 To obey the Lord will make him very happy. He will not judge people because of what he sees with his eyes. He will not judge them because of what he hears about them with his ears.
4 But he will judge poor people with true justice. He will decide to do what is right for all the helpless people. He will have authority everywhere in the land. The words that he speaks will bring death to wicked people. 5 He will wear justice like a belt round his clothes. He will always be honest and true.
6 When he is king, wolves will live beside lambs! Leopards will lie down with young goats! Young cows and lions will feed together, and a young child will take care of them!
7 Cows and bears will feed together. Even their children will lie down side by side. Lions will eat grass, as cows do.
8 If a baby plays near the hole where a snake lives, he will be safe. A young child may even put his hand into the hole of a dangerous snake.
9 Nothing will hurt or destroy anything else anywhere on my holy mountain. Instead, people will know the Lord all over the earth, as water fills the whole sea.
10 On that day, King David's descendant, the root of Jesse, will appear. He will be like a clear sign to all nations. They will come to him, so that he leads them. The place where he lives as king will be wonderful.
11 And on that day, the Lord God will bring his people back once again. He will lift up his powerful hand to rescue his people who are still alive. He will bring them back from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Babylonia, Hamath and from countries near the sea.
12 The Lord will lift up a clear sign for the nations to see. He will bring together Israel's people that their enemies took away. Yes, he will bring back Judah's exiles from all over the earth. 13 Ephraim will no longer be jealous of Judah. Judah will no longer be Ephraim's enemy.[g] 14 But they will join together to attack the Philistines in the west. They will also attack the nations to the east of Israel. They will take their valuable things for themselves. They will win against the people of Edom and Moab. They will rule over the Ammonites.
15 The Lord will make the Sea of Egypt become dry. He will lift up his hand and he will send a strong wind to divide the Euphrates river. The river will become seven small streams. Then people can walk across it easily.
16 There will be a good road that comes from Assyria. The Lord's people who remain will travel back home on it. It will be like the road that Israel's people travelled on when they left Egypt.
Isaiah's song
12 At that time, you will say,
‘I praise you, Lord.
You were angry with me. But now, you are no longer angry.
Now you have been kind to me.
2 Listen! God is the one who saves me!
I will continue to trust him.
I will not be afraid because the Lord himself makes me strong.
He keeps me safe. He rescues us from our enemies.’
3 When God does that, it will make you very happy.
You will be safe, like someone who gets plenty of good water from a well to drink.
4 At that time, you will say, ‘Praise the Lord!
Thank him for his help!
Tell all the nations about the great things that God has done.
Tell them that he is very great!
5 Sing songs to praise the Lord,
because he has done wonderful things!
Cause everyone in the world to know it!
6 Everyone who lives in Zion,
shout aloud and sing with joy!
The Holy God of Israel is great,
and he lives among you.’
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.