Isaiah 6-7

English Standard Version

Isaiah's Vision of the Lord

6 In the year that ^(A)King Uzziah died I ^(B)saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train^[a] of his robe filled the temple. ²Above him stood the seraphim. Each had ^(C)six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³And one called to another and said:

^(D)“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
^(E)the whole earth is full of his glory!”^[b]

⁴And ^(F)the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and ^(G)the house was filled with smoke. ⁵And I said: “Woe is me! ^(H)For I am lost; ^(I)for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the ^(J)King, the Lord of hosts!”

⁶Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷And he ^(K)touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Isaiah's Commission from the Lord

⁸And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for ^(L)us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” ⁹And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

^(M)“‘Keep on hearing,^[c] but do not understand;
keep on seeing,^[d] but do not perceive.’
¹⁰^(N)Make the heart of this people ^(O)dull,^[e]
    and their ears heavy,
    and blind their eyes;
^(P)lest they see with their eyes,
    and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
    and turn and be healed.”
¹¹Then I said, ^(Q)“How long, O Lord?”
And he said:
“Until ^(R)cities lie waste
    without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
    and the land is a desolate waste,
¹²and the Lord removes people far away,
    and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
¹³^(S)And though a tenth remain in it,
    it will be burned^[f] again,
like a terebinth or an oak,
    whose stump ^(T)remains
    when it is felled.”
^(U)The holy seed^[g] is its stump.

Isaiah Sent to King Ahaz

7 In the days of ^(V)Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, ^(W)Rezin the king of Syria and ^(X)Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. ²When the house of David was told, ^(Y)“Syria is in league with^[h] ^(Z)Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz^[i] and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

³And the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and ^(AA)Shear-jashub^[j] your son, at the end of ^(AB)the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field. ⁴And say to him, ^(AC)‘Be careful, ^(AD)be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two ^(AE)smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and ^(AF)the son of Remaliah. ⁵Because Syria, with Ephraim and ^(AG)the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying, ⁶“Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it^[k] for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” ⁷thus says the Lord God:

^(AH)“‘It shall not stand,
    and it shall not come to pass.
⁸For the head of Syria is ^(AI)Damascus,
    and the head of Damascus is Rezin.
And within sixty-five years
    Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.
⁹And the head of Ephraim is Samaria,
    and the head of Samaria is ^(AJ)the son of Remaliah.
^(AK)If you^[l] are not firm in faith,
    you will not be firm at all.’”

The Sign of Immanuel

¹⁰Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: ¹¹“Ask ^(AL)a sign of the Lord your^[m] God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” ¹²But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” ¹³And he^[n] said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you ^(AM)weary my God also? ¹⁴Therefore the ^(AN)Lord himself will give you a sign. ^(AO)Behold, the ^(AP)virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name ^(AQ)Immanuel.^[o] ¹⁵He shall eat ^(AR)curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. ¹⁶^(AS)For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be ^(AT)deserted. ¹⁷^(AU)The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come since the day that ^(AV)Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria!”

¹⁸In that day the Lord will ^(AW)whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. ¹⁹And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and ^(AX)in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures.^[p]

²⁰In that day ^(AY)the Lord will ^(AZ)shave with a razor that is ^(BA)hired beyond ^(BB)the River^[q]—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also.

²¹^(BC)In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep, ²²and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he will eat curds, for everyone who is left in the land will eat ^(BD)curds and honey.

²³In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels^[r] of silver, will become ^(BE)briers and thorns. ²⁴^(BF)With bow and arrows a man will come there, for all the land will be briers and thorns. ²⁵^(BG)And as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not come there for fear ^(BH)of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.