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Signs of the Assyrian Invasion
8 Then Yahweh said to me, “Take yourself a large tablet and write on it with a common stylus pen: Maher-Halal-Hash-Baz. 2 And I will require reliable witnesses as a witness for me: Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah.” 3 And I approached the prophetess, and she conceived, and she gave birth to a son. And Yahweh said to me, “Call his name Maher-Halal-Hash-Baz. 4 For before the boy knows to call ‘my father’ and ‘my mother,’ one will carry away the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria in the presence of the king of Assyria.”
Shiloah Waters and Euphrates Flood
5 And Yahweh continued to speak to me again, saying,
6 “Because this people has refused the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoices over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, 7 therefore look! The Lord is bringing up the waters of the great and mighty river against them, the king of Assyria and all his glory.
And he will rise above all his channels,
and he will flow over all his banks.
8 And he will sweep into Judah;
he will overflow and he will flood up to the neck.
He will reach, and he will spread his wings out over your entire land,[a] God with us.”
9 Be broken, you peoples, and be dismayed.
And listen, all distant parts of the earth;
gird yourselves and be dismayed;
gird yourselves and be dismayed!
10 Make a plan,[b] but it will be frustrated!
Speak a word, but it will not stand,
for God is with us!
Wait for Yahweh
11 For Yahweh said this to me while his hand weighed heavily on me,[c]
and he warned me not to walk[d] in the way of this people, saying,
12 “You must not call conspiracy everything that this people calls conspiracy,
and you must not share its fear,[e] and you must not be in dread.
13 You shall regard Yahweh of hosts as holy,
and he is your[f] fear, and he is your dread.
14 And he will become like a sanctuary and a stumbling-stone,
and like a stumbling-rock for the two houses of Israel,
like a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 And many shall stumble among them,
and they shall fall and they shall be broken,
and they shall be ensnared and they shall be caught.”
16 Bind up the testimony;
seal the teaching among my disciples.
17 And I will wait for Yahweh,
who hides his face from the house of Jacob,
and I will await him.
18 Look! I and the children whom Yahweh has given to me are like signs and portents in Israel from Yahweh of hosts, the one who dwells on the mountain of Zion. 19 Now if they tell you, “Consult the ghosts and the spirits, those who chirp and those who mutter. Should not a people consult its gods, the dead on behalf of the living, 20 for teaching and for testimony?” surely they who speak like this have no dawn.[g]
21 And it[h] will pass through it[i] distressed and hungry, and this shall happen: when it is hungry, it will be enraged, and it will curse its king and its gods,[j] and it will face upwar 22 or look to the earth. But look! Distress and darkness, the gloom of affliction! And it will be thrust into darkness!
New Light: The Birth of a King
9 [k] But there will be no gloom for those who were in distress.[l]
In former times he[m] 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[n] 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[o] the day of Midian.
5 For every boot that marches and shakes the earth[p]
and garment rolled in blood
will[q] 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[r]
on[s] the throne of David and over[t] his kingdom,
to establish it[u] 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[v] against him,
and he provoked his enemies—
12 Aram from the east
and Philistines[w] 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,[x]
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[y] and the respectable[z] are the head,
and prophets[aa] who teach lies[ab] 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.[ac]
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.
A Vision of Paradise
12 It is necessary to boast; it is not profitable, but I will proceed to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or outside the body I do not know, God knows—such a man was caught up to the third heaven, 3 and I know this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows— 4 that he was caught up to paradise and heard words not to be spoken, which it is not permitted for a person to speak. 5 On behalf of such a person I will boast, but on behalf of myself I will not boast, except in my weaknesses. 6 For if I want to boast, I will not be foolish, because I will be telling the truth, but I am refraining, so that no one can credit to me more than what he sees in me or hears anything from me, 7 even because of the extraordinary degree of the revelations. Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan, in order that it would torment me so that I would not exalt myself. 8 Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would depart from me. 9 And he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, because the[a] power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore rather I will boast most gladly in my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may reside in me. 10 Therefore I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in calamities, in persecutions and difficulties for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.
Betrayal of a Friend and Trust in God
For the music director, with stringed instruments.
A maskil of David.[a]
55 Give ear, O God, to my prayer,
and do not hide yourself from my plea.
2 Attend to me and answer me.
I am restless in my lamenting and I groan,
3 because of the voice of an enemy,
because of the oppression of the wicked,
because they bring down evil on me,
and in anger they hold a grudge against me.
4 My heart trembles within me,
and deathly terrors fall on me.
5 Fear and trembling come on me,
and horror overwhelms me.
6 So I say, “Oh, that[b] I had wings like a dove.
I would fly away and be at rest.
7 Look, I would flee far away.
I would dwell in the wilderness. Selah
8 I would hurry to my refuge
from the raging wind and storm.”
9 Confuse, O Lord; divide their speech,
because I see violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they go around it on its walls,
and iniquity and trouble are in its midst.
11 Destruction is within it,
and oppression and deceit
do not depart from its public square.
12 For it is not an enemy that taunts me,
or I could bear it.
It is not one who hates me that magnifies himself over me,
or I could hide myself from him.
13 But it is you, a man my equal,
my friend and confidant.
14 We who would take sweet counsel together;
in the house[c] of God
we would walk with the throng.
15 Let death deceive them. May they descend to Sheol alive,
because evil is in their home and heart.[d]
16 As for me, I will call to God,
and Yahweh will save me.
17 Morning, noon and night[e] I will lament and groan loudly,
and he will hear my voice.
18 He safely redeems my life from the battle against me,[f]
because those standing against me are among many.
19 God will hear and answer them,[g]
he who is enthroned from of old, Selah
Because they do not change,
and they do not fear God.
20 He has put forth his hands against his friends;[h]
he has defiled his covenant.
21 The buttery words[i] of his mouth were smooth,
but there was battle in his heart.
His words were smoother than oil,
but they were drawn swords.
22 Cast your burden on Yahweh,
and he will sustain you.
He will never allow the righteous to be moved.[j]
23 But you, O God, you will bring them down to the pit of corruption.
The men of bloodshed and deceit will not live half their days,
but I will trust you.
4 Do not tire in order to become rich;
out of your understanding, may you desist.
5 Your eyes will alight[a] on it, but there is nothing to it,
for suddenly it will make for itself wings
like an eagle and it will be exhausted in the heavens.
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