Chronological

27 ¶ Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jerushah, the daughter of Zadok.

² And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Uzziah did; however, he did not enter into the temple of the LORD. But the people corrupted themselves yet.

³ He built the high gate of the house of the LORD, and on the wall of Ophel he built much.

⁴ Moreover, he built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers.

⁵ He fought also with the king of the Ammonites and prevailed against them. And the sons of Ammon gave him the same year one hundred talents of silver and ten thousand measures of wheat and ten thousand of barley. So much did the sons of Ammon pay unto him, both the second year and the third.

⁶ So Jotham became mighty because he prepared his ways before the LORD his God.

⁷ Now the rest of the acts of Jotham and all his wars and his ways, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

⁸ He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem.

⁹ And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David; and Ahaz, his son, reigned in his stead.

9 ¶ Nevertheless this darkness shall not be the same as the affliction that came upon her when they lightly touched the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, nor afterward when they more grievously afflicted her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the Gentiles.

² The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; those that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shined.

³ As thou hast multiplied the nation, thou hast not increased the joy. They shall rejoice before thee as they rejoice in the harvest and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

⁴ For thou hast broken his heavy yoke and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.

⁵ For every battle of him who fights is with shaking of the earth and the rolling of garments in blood; but this shall be with burning and consuming of fire.

⁶ For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government is placed upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called The Wonderful One, The Counsellor, The God, The Mighty One, The Eternal Father, The Prince of Peace.

⁷ The multitude of his dominion and the peace shall have no end upon the throne of David and upon his Kingdom, ordering it and confirming it in judgment and in righteousness from now on even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of the hosts will perform this.

⁸ ¶ The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it has lighted upon Israel.

⁹ And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in pride and arrogance of heart,

¹⁰ The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones; the wild fig trees are cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.

¹¹ Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him and join his enemies together,

¹² the Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

¹³ But the people did not turn unto him that smote them, neither did they seek the LORD of the hosts.

¹⁴ Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.

¹⁵ The ancient and venerable to look upon is the head; the prophet that teaches lies, he is the tail.

¹⁶ For the governors of this people are deceivers, and those who are governed by them are lost.

¹⁷ Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall he have mercy on their fatherless and widows, for every one is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

¹⁸ For wickedness burns as the fire, it shall devour the briers and thorns and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.

¹⁹ Through the wrath of the LORD of the hosts the land is darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire; no man shall spare his brother.

²⁰ And he shall snatch on the right hand and be hungry, and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied; they shall eat each man the flesh of his own arm:

²¹ Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh; and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

10 ¶ Woe unto those that establish unrighteous laws and that wilfully prescribe tyranny

² to turn aside the poor from right judgment and to take away the right from the afflicted of my people that widows may be their prey and that they may rob the fatherless!

³ And what will ye do in the day of visitation and in the desolation which shall come from far? To whom will ye flee for help and where will ye leave your glory?

⁴ They shall bow down among the prisoners, and they shall fall among the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

⁵ ¶ O Assyrian, rod and staff of my anger, in thy hand have I placed my indignation.

⁶ I will send him against a hypocritical nation, and upon the people of my wrath will I send him to take spoil and to take prey and to ready them that they might be tread down like the mire of the streets.

⁷ Howbeit he shall not think like this; not even in his heart shall he imagine this way of doing things, but his thought shall be to destroy and cut off nations not a few.

⁸ For he shall say, Are not my princes altogether kings?

⁹ Is not Calno as Carchemish? Is not Hamath as Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus?

¹⁰ As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel those of Jerusalem and of Samaria;

¹¹ shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

¹² Therefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord has performed his whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will come upon the fruit of the pride of the heart of the king of Assyria, and upon the glory of his high looks.

¹³ For he said, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I have been prudent: and I have removed the boundaries of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures, and I have cast down as valiant ones those who were seated:

¹⁴ And my hand has found as a nest the riches of the peoples: and as one gathers eggs that are left, I have taken control over all the earth; and there was no one that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.

¹⁵ Shall the axe boast itself against him that hews with it? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that moves it? as if the rod should rise up against those that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift itself up. Is it not wood?

¹⁶ Therefore shall the Lord, the LORD of the hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.

¹⁷ And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day;

¹⁸ and shall consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, from the soul unto the flesh; and they shall come to be as a standard-bearer in defeat.

¹⁹ And the trees that shall remain in his forest shall be in number such that a child may count them.

²⁰ ¶ And it shall come to pass in that day that those who shall be left of Israel and those who shall be left of the house of Jacob shall no more again stay upon him that smote them, but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

²¹ The remnant shall become converted, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.

²² For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet the remnant of them shall become converted; when the consumption comes to an end, righteousness shall overflow.

²³ For the Lord GOD of the hosts shall make a consumption and an end in the midst of all the land.

²⁴ ¶ Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD of the hosts, O my people, dweller of Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian; he shall smite thee with a rod and shall lift up his stick against thee by the way of Egypt;

²⁵ yet from now until a very little while the indignation and my anger shall cease, to make an end of them.

²⁶ And the LORD of the hosts shall raise up a scourge against him as the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb and shall raise up his rod upon the sea, by the way of Egypt.

²⁷ And it shall come to pass in that day that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be consumed in the presence of the anointing.

²⁸ He is come to Aiath; he is passed unto Migron; in Michmash he shall number his army:

²⁹ They are gone over the fords; they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled.

³⁰ Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim; Laish cause poor Anathoth to hear thee.

³¹ Madmenah is in upheaval; the inhabitants of Gebim shall gather themselves together.

³² Even yet shall come a day when he shall rest at Nob; he shall raise his hand unto the mountain of the daughter of Zion unto the hill of Jerusalem.

³³ Behold, the Lord, the LORD of the hosts, shall lop the bough with force, and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled.

³⁴ And he shall cut down the thickness of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by force.

11 ¶ And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:

² And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD,

³ and shall make him of quick olfaction in the fear of the LORD; and he shall not judge according to the sight of his eyes, neither reprove according to the hearing of his ears:

⁴ But with righteousness shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the spirit of his lips he shall slay the wicked.

⁵ And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faith the girdle of his kidneys.

⁶ The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a child shall shepherd them.

⁷ The cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

⁸ And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.

⁹ They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

¹⁰ ¶ And it shall be in that day that the Root of Jesse, who shall be lifted up as a banner, as an example to the Gentiles shall be sought by the Gentiles; and his Kingdom of peace shall be glorious.

¹¹ And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall return to set his hand again to possess the remnant of his people which were left from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathros and from Cush and from Elam and from Shinar and from Hamath and from the islands of the sea.

¹² And he shall raise up a banner, as an example for the Gentiles and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

¹³ The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.

¹⁴ But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil those of the east together; they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the sons of Ammon shall obey them.

¹⁵ And the LORD shall utterly dry up the tongue of the Egyptian sea and shall raise his hand in the strength of his spirit upon the river and shall smite it into seven streams and make men go over dryshod.

¹⁶ And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria like as it was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

12 ¶ And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will sing unto thee; though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou hast comforted me.

² Behold, O God my saving health, I will trust and not be afraid for JAH, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he also is become saving health unto me.

³ Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of saving health.

⁴ ¶ And in that day ye shall say, Sing unto the LORD, call upon his name, declare his doings among the peoples, remember how his name is exalted.

⁵ Sing psalms unto the LORD; for he has done excellent things; let this be known in all the earth.

⁶ Rejoice and sing, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.