July 31

Isaiah 8:1 — 10:34

8 And Jehovah proceeded to say to me: “Take for yourself a large tablet and write upon it with the stylus of mortal man, ‘Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’ 2 And let me have attestation for myself by faithful witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.”

3 Then I went near to the prophetess, and she came to be pregnant and in time gave birth to a son. Jehovah now said to me: “Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz, 4 for before the boy will know how to call out, ‘My father!’ and ‘My mother!’ one will carry away the resources of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria before the king of Assyria.”

5 And Jehovah proceeded to speak yet further to me, saying: 6 “For the reason that this people has rejected the waters of the Shiloah that are going gently, and there is exultation over Rezin and the son of Remaliah; 7 even therefore, look! Jehovah is bringing up against them the mighty and the many waters of the River, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And he will certainly come up over all his streambeds and go over all his banks 8 and move on through Judah. He will actually flood and pass over. Up to the neck he will reach. And the outspreading of his wings must occur to fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel!”

9 Be injurious, O YOU peoples, and be shattered to pieces; and give ear, all YOU in distant parts of the earth! Gird yourselves, and be shattered to pieces! Gird yourselves, and be shattered to pieces! 10 Plan out a scheme, and it will be broken up! Speak any word, and it will not stand, for God is with us! 11 For this is what Jehovah has said to me with strongness of the hand, that he may make me turn aside from walking in the way of this people, saying: 12 “YOU men must not say, ‘A conspiracy!’ respecting all that of which this people keep saying, ‘A conspiracy!’ and the object of their fear YOU men must not fear, nor must YOU tremble at it. 13 Jehovah of armies—he is the One whom YOU should treat as holy, and he should be the object of YOUR fear, and he should be the One causing YOU to tremble.”

14 And he must become as a sacred place; but as a stone to strike against and as a rock over which to stumble to both the houses of Israel, as a trap and as a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 15 And many among them will be certain to stumble and to fall and be broken, and to be snared and caught.

16 Wrap up the attestation, put a seal about the law among my disciples! 17 And I will keep in expectation of Jehovah, who is concealing his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.

18 Look! I and the children whom Jehovah has given me are as signs and as miracles in Israel from Jehovah of armies, who is residing in Mount Zion.

19 And in case they should say to YOU people: “Apply to the spiritistic mediums or to those having a spirit of prediction who are chirping and making utterances in low tones,” is it not to its God that any people should apply? [Should there be application] to dead persons in behalf of living persons? 20 To the law and to the attestation!

Surely they will keep saying what is according to this statement that will have no light of dawn. 21 And each one will certainly pass through the land hard pressed and hungry; and it must occur that because he is hungry and has made himself feel indignant, he will actually call down evil upon his king and upon his God and will certainly peer upward. 22 And to the earth he will look, and, lo! distress and darkness, obscurity, hard times and gloominess with no brightness.

9 However, the obscureness will not be as when the land had stress, as at the former time when one treated with contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali and when at the later time one caused [it] to be honored—the way by the sea, in the region of the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. 2 The people that were walking in the darkness have seen a great light. As for those dwelling in the land of deep shadow, light itself has shone upon them. 3 You have made the nation populous; for it you have made the rejoicing great. They have rejoiced before you as with the rejoicing in the harvesttime, as those who are joyful when they divide up the spoil.

4 For the yoke of their load and the rod upon their shoulders, the staff of the one driving them to work, you have shattered to pieces as in the day of Midian. 5 For every boot of the one tramping with tremors and the mantle rolled in blood have even come to be for burning as food for fire. 6 For there has been a child born to us, there has been a son given to us; and the princely rule will come to be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 To the abundance of the princely rule and to peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom in order to establish it firmly and to sustain it by means of justice and by means of righteousness, from now on and to time indefinite. The very zeal of Jehovah of armies will do this.

8 There was a word that Jehovah sent against Jacob, and it fell upon Israel. 9 And the people will certainly know [it], even all of them, Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, because of [their] haughtiness and because of [their] insolence of heart in saying: 10 “Bricks are what have fallen, but with hewn stone we shall build. Sycamore trees are what have been cut down, but with cedars we shall make replacement.” 11 And Jehovah will set the adversaries of Rezin on high against him, and the enemies of that one he will goad on, 12 Syria from the east and the Philistines from behind, and they will eat up Israel with open mouth. In view of all this his anger has not turned back, but his hand is stretched out still.

13 And the people themselves have not returned to the One striking them, and Jehovah of armies they have not sought. 14 And Jehovah will cut off from Israel head and tail, shoot and rush, in one day. 15 The aged and highly respected one is the head, and the prophet giving false instruction is the tail. 16 And those who are leading this people on prove to be the ones causing [them] to wander; and those of them who are being led on, the ones who are being confused. 17 That is why Jehovah will not rejoice even over their young men, and upon their fatherless boys and upon their widows he will have no mercy; because all of them are apostates and evildoers and every mouth is speaking senselessness. In view of all this his anger has not turned back, but his hand is stretched out still.

18 For wickedness has become aflame just like a fire; thornbushes and weeds it will eat up. And it will catch fire in the thickets of the forest, and they will be borne aloft as the billowing of smoke. 19 In the fury of Jehovah of armies the land has been set afire, and the people will become as food for the fire. No one will show compassion even on his brother. 20 And one will cut down on the right and will certainly be hungry; and one will eat on the left, and they will certainly not be satisfied. They will each one eat the flesh of his own arm, 21 Manasseh Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh. Together they will be against Judah. In view of all this his anger has not turned back, but his hand is stretched out still.


10 Woe to those who are enacting harmful regulations and those who, constantly writing, have written out sheer trouble, 2 in order to push away the lowly ones from a legal case and to wrest away justice from the afflicted ones of my people, for the widows to become their spoil, and that they may plunder even the fatherless boys! 3 And what will YOU men do at the day of being given attention and at the ruin, when it comes from far away? Toward whom will YOU flee for assistance, and where will YOU leave YOUR glory, 4 except it be that one must bow down under the prisoners and that people keep falling under those who have been killed? In view of all this his anger has not turned back, but his hand is stretched out still.

5 “Aha, the Assyrian, the rod for my anger, and the stick that is in their hand for my denunciation! 6 Against an apostate nation I shall send him, and against the people of my fury I shall issue a command to him, to take much spoil and to take much plunder and to make it a trampling place like the clay of the streets. 7 Though he may not be that way, he will feel inclined; though his heart may not be that way, he will scheme, because to annihilate is in his heart, and to cut off nations not a few. 8 For he will say, ‘Are not my princes at the same time kings? 9 Is not Calno just like Carchemish? Is not Hamath just like Arpad? Is not Samaria just like Damascus? 10 Whenever my hand has reached the kingdoms of the valueless god whose graven images are more than those at Jerusalem and at Samaria, 11 will it not be that just as I shall have done to Samaria and to her valueless gods, even so I shall do to Jerusalem and to her idols?’

12 “And it must occur that when Jehovah terminates all his work in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I shall make an accounting for the fruitage of the insolence of the heart of the king of Assyria and for the self-importance of his loftiness of eyes. 13 For he has said, ‘With the power of my hand I shall certainly act, and with my wisdom, for I do have understanding; and I shall remove the boundaries of peoples, and their things stored up I shall certainly pillage, and I shall bring down the inhabitants just like a powerful one. 14 And just as if a nest, my hand will reach the resources of the peoples; and just as when one gathers eggs that have been left, I myself will gather up even all the earth, and there will certainly be no one fluttering [his] wings or opening [his] mouth or chirping.’”

15 Will the ax enhance itself over the one chopping with it, or the saw magnify itself over the one moving it back and forth, as though the staff moved back and forth the ones raising it on high, as though the rod raised on high the one who is not wood? 16 Therefore the [true] Lord, Jehovah of armies, will keep sending upon his fat ones a wasting disease, and under his glory a burning will keep burning away like the burning of a fire. 17 And Israel’s Light must become a fire, and his Holy One a flame; and it must blaze up and eat up his weeds and his thornbushes in one day. 18 And the glory of his forest and of his orchard He will bring to an end, even from the soul clear to the flesh, and it must become like the melting away of one that is ailing. 19 And the rest of the trees of his forest—they will become such a number that a mere boy will be able to write them down.

20 And it will certainly occur in that day that those remaining over of Israel and those who have escaped of the house of Jacob will never again support themselves upon the one striking them, and they will certainly support themselves upon Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, in trueness. 21 A mere remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God. 22 For although your people, O Israel, would prove to be like the grains of sand of the sea, a mere remnant among them will return. An extermination decided upon will be flooding through in righteousness, 23 because an exterminating and a strict decision the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies, will be executing in the midst of the whole land.

24 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies, has said: “Do not be afraid, O my people who are dwelling in Zion, because of the Assyrian, who with the rod used to strike [you] and who used to lift up his own staff against you in the way that Egypt did. 25 For yet a very little while—and the denunciation will have come to an end, and my anger, in their wearing away. 26 And Jehovah of armies will certainly brandish against him a whip as at the defeat of Midian by the rock Oreb; and his staff will be upon the sea, and he will certainly lift it up in the way that he did with Egypt.

27 “And it must occur in that day that his load will depart from upon your shoulder, and his yoke from upon your neck, and the yoke will certainly be wrecked because of the oil.”

28 He has come upon Aiath; he has passed along through Migron; at Michmash he deposits his articles. 29 They have passed over the ford, Geba is a place for them to spend the night, Ramah has trembled, Gibeah of Saul itself has fled. 30 Let your voice out in shrill cries, O daughter of Gallim. Pay attention, O Laishah. O you afflicted one, Anathoth! 31 Madmenah has run away. The inhabitants of Gebim themselves have taken to shelter. 32 It is yet day in Nob to make a halt. He waves his hand [threateningly] at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

33 Look! The [true] Lord, Jehovah of armies, is lopping off boughs with a terrible crash; and those tall in growth are being cut down, and the high ones themselves become low. 34 And he has struck down the thickets of the forest with an iron tool, and by a powerful one Lebanon itself will fall.

 End of July