Beginning
New Light: The Birth of a King
9 [a] But there will be no gloom for those who were in distress.[b]
In former times he[c] treated the land of Zebulun and Naphtali with contempt, but in the future he will honor the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
light has shined on those who lived in a land of darkness.
3 You have made the nation numerous;
you have not[d] made the joy great.
They rejoice in your presence as with joy at the harvest,
as they rejoice when they divide plunder.
4 For you have shattered the yoke of its burden
and the stick of its shoulder,
the rod of its oppressor, on[e] the day of Midian.
5 For every boot that marches and shakes the earth[f]
and garment rolled in blood
will[g] be for burning—fire fuel.
6 For a child has been born for us;
a son has been given to us.
And the dominion will be on his shoulder,
and his name is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 His dominion will grow continually,
and to peace there will be no end[h]
on[i] the throne of David and over[j] his kingdom,
to establish it[k] and sustain it
with justice and righteousness
now and forever.
The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.
Yahweh’s Anger against Arrogance
8 The Lord has sent out a word against Jacob,
and it fell on Israel.
9 And all of the people knew it,
Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria
in pride and arrogance of heart, saying,
10 “The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stone.
The sycamore-fig trees were felled, but we will replace them with cedars.”
11 So Yahweh strengthened the adversaries of Rezin[l] against him,
and he provoked his enemies—
12 Aram from the east
and Philistines[m] from the west—
and they devoured Israel with the whole mouth.
He has not turned away his anger in all of this,
and his hand is still stretched out.
13 And the people did not turn to the one who struck it,[n]
and they did not seek Yahweh of hosts.
14 So Yahweh cut off head and tail from Israel,
palm branch and reed in one day.
15 Elders[o] and the respectable[p] are the head,
and prophets[q] who teach lies[r] are the tail.
16 And the leaders of this people were misleading them,
and those who were led were confused.
17 Therefore the Lord did not rejoice over its young men,
and he did not have compassion on its orphans and widows,
for everyone was godless and an evildoer,
and every mouth was speaking folly.
In all of this his anger did not turn away,
and still his hand is stretched out.
18 For wickedness burned like fire;
it consumed brier and thorn.
And it kindled the thickets of the forest,
and they swirled upward in a column of smoke.
19 The land was burned through the wrath of Yahweh of hosts,
and the people became like fire fuel.
People had no compassion toward each other.[s]
20 They devoured on the right but still were hungry
and devoured on the left but they were not satisfied.
Each one devoured the flesh of his arm,
21 Manasseh devoured Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh;
together they were against Judah.
In all of this his anger has not turned away,
and still his hand is stretched out.
Woes on the Wicked
10 Ah! Those who decree decrees of evil,
and writers who have written harm,
2 to guide the needy away from legal claims,[t]
and to rob the justice from the poor of my people,
to make widows their spoil;
and they plunder orphans.
3 And what will you do at the day of punishment,
and at calamity? It comes from afar!
To whom will you flee for help,
and where will you leave your wealth,
4 save that they bow down under the prisoners
and fall under the slain?[u]
In all of this his anger has not turned away,
and still his hand is stretched out.
Judgment on Assyria’s Arrogance
5 Ah! Assyria, the rod of my anger,
and a staff is in their hand: my wrath!
6 I send him against a godless nation,
and I command him against the people of my wrath,
to capture spoil
and to carry off plunder,
and to make them[v] a trampling place,
like the clay of the streets.
7 But he does not think this,[w]
and his heart does not plan this.
For it is in his heart to destroy
and to cut off not a few nations.
8 For he says, “Are not my commanders altogether kings?
9 Is not Calno like Carchemish?
Is not Hamath like Arpad?
Is not Samaria like Damascus?
10 As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols[x]
—and their images were greater than those of[y] Jerusalem and Samaria—
11 shall I not do to Jerusalem and its idols
what I have done to Samaria and her idols?”
12 And this shall happen: when the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion[z] and Jerusalem, “I will punish the arrogance[aa] of the king of Assyria and his haughtiness.”[ab]
13 For he says,
“I have done it by the strength of my hand
and by my wisdom, for I have understanding,
and I have removed the boundaries of peoples,
and I have plundered their stores,
and like a bull I have brought down the inhabitants.[ac]
14 And my hand has found, like a nest, the wealth of the peoples,
and like the gathering of forsaken eggs, I myself have gathered all the earth.
And there was no fluttering wing or open mouth or chirp.”
15 Does the ax boast against the one who cuts with it,
or the saw magnify itself against the one who moves it to and fro?
As if a rod should move the one who lifts it![ad]
As if a staff should lift up that which is not wood![ae]
16 Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, will send leanness among his sturdy warriors,
and a burning like the burning of fire will burn under his glory.
17 And the light of Israel will become like a fire,
and his holy one like a flame,
and it will burn and devour his thorns[af] and briers[ag] in one day.
18 And he will destroy the glory of his forest and orchard completely,[ah]
and it will be like the wasting away of one who is sick.
19 And the rest of the trees[ai] of his forest will be a small number,
and a boy can write them down.
The Return of the Remnant
20 And this shall happen: on that day, the remnant of Israel and the survivors[aj] of the house of Jacob will not continue to lean on the one who struck it
but will lean on Yahweh, the holy one of Israel, in truth.
21 A remnant will return—
the remnant of Jacob—to the mighty God.
22 For though your people Israel was like the sand of the sea,
only a remnant of it will return.
Annihilation is determined,
overflowing with righteousness.
23 For the Lord Yahweh of hosts is about to make a complete destruction
and a determined end in the midst of all the earth.
24 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh of hosts:
“My people who live in Zion,
you must not be afraid of Assyria.
It beats you with the rod,
and it lifts up its staff against you as the Egyptians did.[ak]
25 My indignation will come to an end in just a very little while,[al]
and my anger will be directed to their destruction.”
26 And Yahweh of hosts is going to swing a whip against him,
as when Midian was defeated at the rock of Oreb;
and his staff will be over the sea,
and he will lift him up as he did in Egypt.[am]
27 And this shall happen: on that day,
he will remove his burden from your shoulder
and his yoke from your neck,
and a yoke will be destroyed because of fat.[an]
28 He has come to Aiath,
he has passed through Migron;
at Micmash he deposited his baggage.
29 They crossed over the pass;
Geba is a place of overnight lodging for us.
Ramah trembles;
Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30 Daughter of Gallim, cry out with your voice;
Laishah, listen!
Anathoth is poor.[ao]
31 Madmenah flees!
The inhabitants of Gebim bring themselves into safety!
32 This day[ap] taking a stand[aq] at Nob,
he will shake his fist at the mountain of the daughter[ar] of Zion,
at the hill of Jerusalem.
33 Look! The Lord Yahweh of hosts is about to lop off the branches[as] with great power,
and the towering trees[at] will be felled,
and the tall trees[au] will be brought low.
34 And he will cut down the thickets of the forest with the axe,
and Lebanon will fall by the mighty one.
The Branch’s Righteous Reign
11 And a shoot will come out from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from its roots will bear fruit.
2 And the spirit of Yahweh shall rest on him—
a spirit of wisdom and understanding,
a spirit of counsel and might,
a spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh.
3 And his breath[av] is in the fear of Yahweh.
And he shall judge not by his eyesight,
and he shall rebuke not by what he hears with[aw] his ears.
4 But he shall judge the poor with righteousness,
and he shall decide for the needy of the earth with rectitude.
And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and he shall kill the wicked person with the breath of his lips.
5 And righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
and faithfulness the belt around his loins.
6 And a wolf shall stay[ax] with a lamb,
and a leopard shall lie down with a kid,
and a calf and a lion and a fatling together
as a small boy leads[ay] them.
7 And a cow and a bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together.
And a lion shall eat straw like the cattle.
8 And an infant[az] shall play over a serpent’s hole,
and a toddler[ba] shall put his hand on a viper’s hole.
9 They will not injure and they will not destroy on all of my holy mountain,[bb]
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of Yahweh,
as the waters cover the sea.
10 And this shall happen on that day:
the nations shall inquire of the root of Jesse,
which shall be standing as a signal to the peoples,
and his resting place shall be glorious.
The Regathered Remnant
11 And this shall happen on that day:
The Lord will again extend his hand a second time
to acquire the remnant of his people that is left,
from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coastlands of the sea,
12 and he will raise a signal for the nations.
And he will gather the outcasts of Israel,
and he will gather the scattered ones of Judah together from the four corners[bc] of the earth.
13 And the jealousy of Ephraim shall depart,
and the enemies of Judah shall be cut off.
Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah,
and Judah shall not be an enemy of Ephraim.
14 But they shall swoop[bd] upon the Philistine shoulder,[be] westward.[bf]
Together they shall plunder the sons of the east.
Edom and Moab will be under their command,[bg]
and the sons of Ammon will be their subjugated people.
15 And Yahweh will divide[bh] the tongue[bi] of the sea of Egypt,[bj]
and he will wave his hand over the river[bk] with his scorching wind;
and he will strike it into seven streams,
and he will make it passable by foot.[bl]
16 So there shall be a highway from Assyria for the remnant of his people that remains,
as there was for Israel when[bm] it went up from the land of Egypt.
A Song of Thanksgiving
12 And you will say on that day,
“I will give you thanks, Yahweh,
for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
and you comforted me.
2 Look! God is my salvation;
I will trust, and I will not be afraid,
for my strength and might is Yah, Yahweh;
and he has become salvation for me.”
3 And you will draw water from the wells of salvation in joy. 4 And you will say on that day,
“Give thanks to Yahweh;
call on his name.
Make his deeds known among the peoples;
bring to remembrance that his name is exalted.
5 Sing praises to Yahweh, for he has done a glorious thing;
this is known in all the earth.
6 Inhabitant of Zion, shout out and sing for joy,
for the holy one of Israel is great in your midst.”
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