Isaiah 8-9

New American Standard Bible

Damascus and Samaria Fall

8 Then the Lord said to me, “Take for yourself a large tablet and ^(A)write on it ^[a]in ordinary letters: ^[b]^(B)Maher-shalal-hash-baz. ²And ^[c]I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, ^(C)Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.” ³So I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Name him ^[d]^(D)Maher-shalal-hash-baz; ⁴for ^(E)before the boy knows how to cry out ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of ^(F)Damascus and the spoils of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”

⁵Again the Lord spoke to me further, saying,

⁶“Inasmuch as these people have ^(G)rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah
And rejoice in ^(H)Rezin and the son of Remaliah;
⁷Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the ^(I)strong and abundant waters of the ^(J)Euphrates River,
That is, the ^(K)king of Assyria and all his glory;
And it will ^(L)rise over all its channels and go over all its banks.
⁸Then ^(M)it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through,
It will ^(N)reach as far as the neck;
And the spread of its wings will ^[e]fill the expanse of ^[f]your land, ^(O)Immanuel.

A Believing Remnant

⁹“^(P)Be broken, you peoples, and be ^[g]^(Q)shattered;
And listen, all remote places of the earth.
^[h]Get ready, yet be ^[i]shattered;
^[j]Get ready, yet be ^[k]shattered.
¹⁰^(R)Devise a plan, but it will fail;
State a ^[l]proposal, but ^(S)it will not stand,
For ^[m]^(T)God is with us.”

¹¹For so the Lord spoke to me ^[n]with ^(U)mighty power and instructed me ^(V)not to walk in the way of this people, saying,

¹²“You are not to say, ‘It is a ^(W)conspiracy!’
Regarding everything that this people call a conspiracy,
And ^(X)you are not to fear ^[o]what they fear or be in dread of it.
¹³It is the ^(Y)Lord of armies ^(Z)whom you are to regard as holy.
And He shall be your fear,
And He shall be your dread.
¹⁴Then He will become a ^(AA)sanctuary;
But to both houses of Israel, He will be a ^(AB)stone of stumbling and a rock ^[p]of offense,
And a snare and a ^(AC)trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
¹⁵Many ^(AD)will stumble over them,
Then they will fall and be broken;
They will be snared and caught.”

¹⁶^(AE)Bind up the testimony, ^(AF)seal the ^[q]Law among ^(AG)my disciples. ¹⁷And I will ^(AH)wait for the Lord ^(AI)who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; I will wait eagerly for Him. ¹⁸^(AJ)Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for ^(AK)signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of armies, who ^(AL)dwells on Mount Zion.

¹⁹When they say to you, “^(AM)Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,” should a people not ^(AN)consult their God? Should they ^(AO)consult the dead in behalf of the living? ²⁰To the ^[r]^(AP)Law and to the testimony! If they do not speak in accordance with this word, it is because ^(AQ)they have no dawn. ²¹They will pass through ^[s]the land ^(AR)dejected and hungry, and it will turn out that when they are hungry, they will become enraged and curse ^[t]their king and their God as they face upward. ²²Then they will ^(AS)look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be ^(AT)driven away into darkness.

Birth and Reign of the Prince of Peace

9 ^[u]But there will be no more ^(AU)gloom for her who was in anguish. In earlier times He ^(AV)treated the ^(AW)land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He will make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of the Jordan, Galilee of the ^[v]Gentiles.

²^[w]^(AX)The people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them.
³^(AY)You will multiply the nation,
You ^(AZ)will ^[x]increase ^[y]their joy;
They will rejoice in Your presence
As with the joy ^[z]of harvest,
As people ^(BA)rejoice when they divide the spoils.
⁴For ^(BB)You will break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders,
The rod of their ^(BC)oppressor, as ^[aa]at the battle of ^(BD)Midian.
⁵For every boot of the marching warrior in the roar of battle,
And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.
⁶For a ^(BE)Child will be born to us, a ^(BF)Son will be given to us;
And the ^(BG)government will ^[ab]rest ^(BH)on His shoulders;
And His name will be called ^(BI)Wonderful Counselor, ^(BJ)Mighty God,
Eternal ^(BK)Father, Prince of ^(BL)Peace.
⁷There will be ^(BM)no end to the increase of His government or of peace
On the ^(BN)throne of David and over ^[ac]his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with ^(BO)justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore.
^(BP)The zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this.

God’s Anger with Israel’s Arrogance

⁸The Lord sends a ^[ad]message against Jacob,
And it falls on Israel.
⁹And all the people know it,
That is, ^(BQ)Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,
Asserting in pride and in ^(BR)arrogance of heart:
¹⁰“The bricks have fallen down,
But we will ^(BS)rebuild with smooth stones;
The sycamores have been cut down,
But we will replace them with cedars.”
¹¹Therefore the Lord raises superior adversaries against them from ^(BT)Rezin
And provokes their enemies,
¹²The Arameans from the east and the ^(BU)Philistines from the west;
And they ^(BV)devour Israel with ^[ae]gaping jaws.
^(BW)In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away,
And His hand is still stretched out.

¹³Yet the people ^(BX)do not turn back to Him who struck them,
Nor do they ^(BY)seek the Lord of armies.
¹⁴So the Lord cuts off ^(BZ)head and tail from Israel,
Both palm branch and bulrush ^(CA)in a single day.
¹⁵The head is ^(CB)the elder and esteemed man,
And the prophet who teaches ^(CC)falsehood is the tail.
¹⁶^(CD)For those who guide this people are leading them astray;
And those who are guided by them are ^[af]confused.
¹⁷Therefore the Lord does ^(CE)not rejoice over their young men,
^(CF)Nor does He have compassion on their ^[ag]orphans or their widows;
For every one of them is ^(CG)godless and an ^(CH)evildoer,
And every ^(CI)mouth is speaking foolishness.
^(CJ)In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away,
And His hand is still stretched out.

¹⁸^(CK)For wickedness burns like a fire;
It consumes briars and thorns;
It also sets the thickets of the forest aflame
And they roll upward in a column of smoke.
¹⁹By the ^(CL)wrath of the Lord of armies the ^(CM)land is burned,
And the ^(CN)people are like fuel for the fire;
No ^(CO)one spares his brother.
²⁰^[ah]They devour what is on the right hand but are still ^(CP)hungry,
And ^[ai]they eat what is on the left hand, but they are not satisfied;
Each of them eats the ^(CQ)flesh of his own arm.
²¹Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,
^(CR)And together they are against Judah.
^(CS)In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.