9 For to Us a Child Is Born

9:1 [1] But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.^[2]² [3] The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. ³You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. ⁴For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. ⁵For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. ⁶For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon[4] his shoulder, and his name shall be called^[5]Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Judgment on Arrogance and Oppression

⁸The Lord has sent a word against Jacob, and it will fall on Israel; ⁹and all the people will know, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in pride and in arrogance of heart: ¹⁰“The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.” ¹¹But the Lord raises the adversaries of Rezin against him, and stirs up his enemies. ¹²The Syrians on the east and the Philistines on the west devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.

¹³The people did not turn to him who struck them, nor inquire of the Lord of hosts. ¹⁴So the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed in one day— ¹⁵the elder and honored man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail; ¹⁶for those who guide this people have been leading them astray, and those who are guided by them are swallowed up. ¹⁷Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men, and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is godless and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly.^[6]For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.

¹⁸For wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and thorns; it kindles the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke. ¹⁹Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is scorched, and the people are like fuel for the fire; no one spares another. ²⁰They slice meat on the right, but are still hungry, and they devour on the left, but are not satisfied; each devours the flesh of his own arm, ²¹Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim devours Manasseh; together they are against Judah. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.

[1] Ch 8:23 in Hebrew [2] Or of the Gentiles [3] Ch 9:1 in Hebrew [4] Or is upon [5] Or is called [6] Or speaks disgraceful things

10 10:1 Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression, ²to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey! ³What will you do on the day of punishment, in the ruin that will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth? ⁴Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.

Judgment on Arrogant Assyria

⁵Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! ⁶Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. ⁷But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few; ⁸for he says: "Are not my commanders all kings? ⁹Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus? ¹⁰As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria, ¹¹shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her images?”

¹²When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he[7] will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes. ¹³For he says:

“By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I remove the boundaries of peoples, and plunder their treasures; like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones. ¹⁴My hand has found like a nest the wealth of the peoples; and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken, so I have gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved a wing or opened the mouth or chirped.”

¹⁵Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood! ¹⁶Therefore the Lord God of hosts will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors, and under his glory a burning will be kindled, like the burning of fire. ¹⁷The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day. ¹⁸The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land the Lord will destroy, both soul and body, and it will be as when a sick man wastes away. ¹⁹The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few that a child can write them down.

The Remnant of Israel Will Return

²⁰In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. ²¹A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. ²²For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness. ²³For the Lord God of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth.

²⁴Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: “O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did. ²⁵For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction. ²⁶And the Lord of hosts will wield against them a whip, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. And his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt. ²⁷And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fat.”[8]

²⁸He has come to Aiath; he has passed through Migron; at Michmash he stores his baggage; ²⁹they have crossed over the pass; at Geba they lodge for the night; Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul has fled. ³⁰Cry aloud, O daughter of Gallim! Give attention, O Laishah! O Poor Anathoth! ³¹Madmenah is in flight; the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety. ³²This very day he will halt at Nob; he will shake his fist at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

³³Behold, the Lord God of hosts will lop the boughs with terrifying power; the great in height will be hewn down, and the lofty will be brought low. ³⁴He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon will fall by the Majestic One.

[7] Hebrew I [8] The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain

11 The Righteous Reign of the Branch

11:1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. ²And 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 the fear of the Lord. ³And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, ⁴but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. ⁵Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

⁶The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. ⁷The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. ⁸The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. ⁹They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

¹⁰In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

¹¹In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush,[9] from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.

¹²He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. ¹³The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and those who harass Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not harass Ephraim. ¹⁴But they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west, and together they shall plunder the people of the east. They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites shall obey them. ¹⁵And the Lord will utterly destroy^[10]the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, and will wave his hand over the River with his scorching breath,^[11]and strike it into seven channels, and he will lead people across in sandals. ¹⁶And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

[9] Probably Nubia [10] Hebrew devote to destruction [11] Or wind