Chapter 8

Damascus and Samaria Fall

1 Then the Lord said to me, “Take for yourself a large tablet and awrite on it 1in ordinary letters: 2bSwift is the booty, speedy is the prey.

2 “And 1I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, aUriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.”

3 So I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Name him 1aMaher-shalal-hash-baz;

4 for abefore the boy knows how to cry out ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of bDamascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”

5 Again the Lord spoke to me further, saying,

6 “Inasmuch as these people have arejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah

And rejoice in bRezin and the son of Remaliah;

7 “Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the astrong and abundant waters of the 1bEuphrates,

Even the cking of Assyria and all his glory;

And it will drise up over all its channels and go over all its banks.

8 “Then ait will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through,

It will breach even to the neck;

And the spread of its wings will 1fill the breadth of 2your land, O cImmanuel.

A Believing Remnant

9 “aBe broken, O peoples, and be 1bshattered;

And give ear, all remote places of the earth.

Gird yourselves, yet be 1shattered;

Gird yourselves, yet be 1shattered.

10 “aDevise a plan, but it will be thwarted;

State a 1proposal, but bit will not stand,

For 2cGod is with us.”

11 For thus the Lord spoke to me 1with amighty power and instructed me bnot to walk in the way of this people, saying,

12 “You are not to say, ‘It is a aconspiracy!’

In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy,

And byou are not to fear 1what they fear or be in dread of it.

13 “It is the aLord of hosts bwhom you should regard as holy.

And He shall be your fear,

And He shall be your dread.

14 “Then He shall become a asanctuary;

But to both the houses of Israel, a bstone to strike and a rock to stumble over,

And a snare and a ctrap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

15 “Many awill stumble over them,

Then they will fall and be broken;

They will even be snared and caught.”

16 aBind up the testimony, bseal the 1law among cmy disciples.

17 And I will await for the Lord bwho is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; I will even look eagerly for Him.

18 aBehold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for bsigns and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who cdwells on Mount Zion.

19 When they say to you, “aConsult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,” should not a people bconsult their God? Should they cconsult the dead on behalf of the living?

20 To the 1alaw and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because bthey have no dawn.

21 They will pass through 1the land ahard-pressed and famished, and it will turn out that when they are hungry, they will be enraged and curse 2their king and their God as they face upward.

22 Then they will alook to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be bdriven away into darkness.

Chapter 9

Birth and Reign of the Prince of Peace

1 1But there will be no more agloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He btreated the cland of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the 2Gentiles.

2 1aThe people who walk in darkness

Will see a great light;

Those who live in a dark land,

The light will shine on them.

3 aYou shall multiply the nation,

You bshall 1increase 2their gladness;

They will be glad in Your presence

As with the gladness 3of harvest,

As 4cmen rejoice when they divide the spoil.

4 For aYou shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders,

The rod of their boppressor, as 1at the battle of cMidian.

5 For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult,

And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.

6 For a achild will be born to us, a bson will be given to us;

And the cgovernment will 1rest don His shoulders;

And His name will be called eWonderful Counselor, fMighty God,

Eternal gFather, Prince of hPeace.

7 There will be ano end to the increase of His government or of peace,

On the bthrone of David and over his kingdom,

To establish it and to uphold it with cjustice and righteousness

From then on and forevermore.

dThe zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.

God’s Anger with Israel’s Arrogance

8 The Lord sends a 1message against Jacob,

And it falls on Israel.

9 And all the people know it,

That is, aEphraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,

Asserting in pride and in barrogance of heart:

10 “The bricks have fallen down,

But we will arebuild with smooth stones;

The sycamores have been cut down,

But we will replace them with cedars.”

11 Therefore the Lord raises against them adversaries from aRezin

And spurs their enemies on,

12 The Arameans on the east and the aPhilistines on the west;

And they bdevour Israel with 1gaping jaws.

cIn spite of all this, His anger does not turn away

And His hand is still stretched out.

13 Yet the people ado not turn back to Him who struck them,

Nor do they bseek the Lord of hosts.

14 So the Lord cuts off ahead and tail from Israel,

Both palm branch and bulrush bin a single day.

15 The head is athe elder and honorable man,

And the prophet who teaches bfalsehood is the tail.

16 aFor those who guide this people are leading them astray;

And those who are guided by them are 1brought to confusion.

17 Therefore the Lord does anot take pleasure in their young men,

bNor does He have pity on their 1orphans or their widows;

For every one of them is cgodless and an devildoer,

And every emouth is speaking foolishness.

fIn spite of all this, His anger does not turn away

And His hand is still stretched out.

18 aFor wickedness burns like a fire;

It consumes briars and thorns;

It even sets the thickets of the forest aflame

And they roll upward in a column of smoke.

19 By the afury of the Lord of hosts the bland is burned up,

And the cpeople are like fuel for the fire;

No dman spares his brother.

20 1They slice off what is on the right hand but still are ahungry,

And 2they eat what is on the left hand but they are not satisfied;

Each of them eats the bflesh of his own arm.

21 Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,

aAnd together they are against Judah.

bIn spite of all this, His anger does not turn away

And His hand is still stretched out.

Chapter 10

Assyria Is God’s Instrument

1 Woe to those who aenact evil statutes

And to those who constantly record 1unjust decisions,

2 So as ato 1deprive the needy of justice

And rob the poor of My people of their rights,

So bthat widows may be their spoil

And that they may plunder the 2orphans.

3 Now awhat will you do in the bday of punishment,

And in the devastation which will come cfrom afar?

dTo whom will you flee for help?

And where will you leave your 1wealth?

4 Nothing remains but to crouch 1among the acaptives

Or fall 1among the bslain.

cIn spite of all this, His anger does not turn away

And His hand is still stretched out.

5 Woe to aAssyria, the brod of My anger

And the staff in whose hands is cMy indignation,

6 I send it against a agodless nation

And commission it against the bpeople of My fury

To capture booty and cto seize plunder,

And to 1trample them down like dmud in the streets.

7 Yet it adoes not so intend,

Nor does 1it plan so in its heart,

But rather it is 2its purpose to destroy

And to cut off 3many nations.

8 For it says, “Are not my princes 1all kings?

9 “Is not aCalno like bCarchemish,

Or cHamath like Arpad,

Or dSamaria like eDamascus?

10 “As my hand has reached to the akingdoms of the idols,

Whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

11 Shall I not 1do to Jerusalem and her images

Just as I have done to Samaria and aher idols?”

12 So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His awork on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will 1punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and bthe pomp of 2his haughtiness.”

13 For ahe has said,

“By the power of my hand and by my wisdom I did this,

For I have understanding;

And I bremoved the boundaries of the peoples

And plundered their treasures,

And like a mighty man I brought down 1their inhabitants,

14 And my hand reached to the riches of the peoples like a anest,

And as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth;

And there was not one that flapped its wing or opened its beak or chirped.”

15 Is the aaxe to bboast itself over the one who chops with it?

Is the saw to exalt itself over the one who wields it?

That would be like ca 1club wielding those who lift it,

Or like ca rod lifting him who is not wood.

16 Therefore the Lord, the 1God of hosts, will send a awasting disease among his bstout warriors;

And under his cglory a fire will be kindled like a burning flame.

17 And the alight of Israel will become a fire and his bHoly One a flame,

And it will cburn and devour his thorns and his briars in a single day.

18 And He will adestroy the glory of his forest and of his fruitful garden, both soul and body,

And it will be as when a sick man wastes away.

19 And the arest of the trees of his forest will be so small in number

That a child could write them down.

A Remnant Will Return

20 Now in that day the aremnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob bwho have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly crely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.

21 A aremnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the bmighty God.

22 For athough your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea,

Only a remnant within them will return;

A bdestruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.

23 For a complete destruction, one that is decreed, athe Lord 1God of hosts will execute in the midst of the whole land.

24 Therefore thus says the Lord 1God of hosts, “O My people who dwell in aZion, bdo not fear the Assyrian 2who cstrikes you with the rod and lifts up his staff against you, the way Egypt did.

25 “For in a very alittle while bMy indignation against you will be spent and My anger will be directed to their destruction.”

26 The Lord of hosts will aarouse a scourge against him like the slaughter of bMidian at the rock of Oreb; and His cstaff will be over the sea and He will lift it up dthe way He did in Egypt.

27 So it will be in that day, that 1his aburden will be removed from your shoulders and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be broken because bof fatness.

28 He has come against Aiath,

He has passed through aMigron;

At bMichmash he deposited his cbaggage.

29 They have gone through athe pass, saying,

“bGeba will be our lodging place.”

cRamah is terrified, and dGibeah of Saul has fled away.

30 Cry aloud with your voice, O daughter of aGallim!

Pay attention, Laishah and 1wretched bAnathoth!

31 Madmenah has fled.

The inhabitants of Gebim have sought refuge.

32 Yet today he will halt at aNob;

He bshakes his fist at the mountain of the 1cdaughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

33 Behold, the Lord, the 1God of hosts, will lop off the boughs with a terrible crash;

Those also who are atall in stature will be cut down

And those who are lofty will be abased.

34 He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe,

And aLebanon will fall 1by the Mighty One.