Isaiah 7

• 1. During the reign of Ahaz son of Jotham and grandson of Uzziah, Jerusalem was attacked by King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah of Israel, the son of Remaliah. The city withstood the attack, however, and was not taken.
• 2. The news had come to the royal court: "Aram is allied with Israel against us!" So the hearts of the king and his people trembled with fear, just as trees shake in a storm.
• 3. Then the LORD said to Isaiah, "Go out to meet King Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub. You will find the king at the end of the aqueduct that feeds water into the upper pool, near the road leading to the field where cloth is bleached.
• 4. Tell him to stop worrying. Tell him he doesn't need to fear the fierce anger of those two burned-out embers, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah.
• 5. "Yes, the kings of Aram and Israel are coming against you. They are saying,
• 6. `We will invade Judah and throw its people into panic. Then we will fight our way into Jerusalem and install the son of Tabeel as Judah's king.'
• 7. "But this is what the Sovereign LORD says: This invasion will never happen,
• 8. because Aram is no stronger than its capital, Damascus. And Damascus is no stronger than its king, Rezin. As for Israel, within sixty-five years it will be crushed and completely destroyed.
• 9. Israel is no stronger than its capital, Samaria. And Samaria is no stronger than its king, Pekah son of Remaliah. You do not believe me? If you want me to protect you, learn to believe what I say."
• 10. Not long after this, the LORD sent this message to King Ahaz:
• 11. "Ask me for a sign, Ahaz, to prove that I will crush your enemies as I have promised. Ask for anything you like, and make it as difficult as you want."
• 12. But the king refused. "No," he said, "I wouldn't test the LORD like that."
• 13. Then Isaiah said, "Listen well, you royal family of David! You aren't satisfied to exhaust my patience. You exhaust the patience of God as well!
• 14. All right then, the Lord himself will choose the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel--`God is with us.'
• 15. By the time this child is old enough to eat curds and honey, he will know enough to choose what is right and reject what is wrong.
• 16. But before he knows right from wrong, the two kings you fear so much--the kings of Israel and Aram--will both be dead.
• 17. "The LORD will bring a terrible curse on you, your nation, and your family. You will soon experience greater terror than has been known in all the years since Solomon's empire was divided into Israel and Judah. The mighty king of Assyria will come with his great army!"
• 18. In that day the LORD will whistle for the army of Upper Egypt and for the army of Assyria. They will swarm around you like flies. Like bees, they will sting and kill.
• 19. They will come in vast hordes, spreading across the whole land. They will settle in the fertile areas and also in the desolate valleys, caves, and thorny places.
• 20. In that day the Lord will take this "razor"--these Assyrians you have hired to protect you--and use it to shave off everything: your land, your crops, and your people.
• 21. When they finally stop plundering, a farmer will be fortunate to have a cow and two sheep left.
• 22. The few people still left in the land will live on curds and wild honey because that is all the land will produce.
• 23. In that day the lush vineyards, now worth as much as a thousand pieces of silver, will become patches of briers and thorns.
• 24. The entire land will be one vast brier patch, a hunting ground overrun by wildlife.
• 25. No one will go to the fertile hillsides where the gardens once grew, for briers and thorns will cover them. Cattle, sheep, and goats will graze there.

Isaiah 8

• 1. Again the LORD said to me, "Make a large signboard and clearly write this name on it: Maher-shalal-hash-baz. "
• 2. I asked Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah, both known as honest men, to testify that I had written it before the child was conceived.
• 3. Then I slept with my wife, and she became pregnant and had a son. And the LORD said, "Call him Maher-shalal-hash-baz.
• 4. This name prophesies that within a couple of years, before this child is old enough to say `Papa' or `Mama,' the king of Assyria will invade both Damascus and Samaria and carry away their riches."
• 5. Then the LORD spoke to me again and said,
• 6. "The people of Judah have rejected my gentle care and are rejoicing over what will happen to King Rezin and King Pekah.
• 7. Therefore, the Lord will overwhelm them with a mighty flood from the Euphrates River--the king of Assyria and all his mighty armies.
• 8. This flood will overflow all its channels and sweep into Judah. It will submerge Immanuel's land from one end to the other.
• 9. "The Assyrians will cry, `Do your best to defend yourselves, but you will be shattered! Listen all you nations. Prepare for battle--and die! Yes, die!
• 10. Call your councils of war, develop your strategies, prepare your plans of attack--and then die! For God is with us! '"
• 11. The LORD has said to me in the strongest terms: "Do not think like everyone else does.
• 12. Do not be afraid that some plan conceived behind closed doors will be the end of you.
• 13. Do not fear anything except the LORD Almighty. He alone is the Holy One. If you fear him, you need fear nothing else.
• 14. He will keep you safe. But to Israel and Judah he will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap that entangles them.
• 15. Many of them will stumble and fall, never to rise again. Many will be captured."
• 16. I will write down all these things as a testimony of what the LORD will do. I will entrust it to my disciples, who will pass it down to future generations.
• 17. I will wait for the LORD to help us, though he has turned away from the people of Israel. My only hope is in him.
• 18. I and the children the LORD has given me have names that reveal the plans the LORD Almighty has for his people.
• 19. So why are you trying to find out the future by consulting mediums and psychics? Do not listen to their whisperings and mutterings. Can the living find out the future from the dead? Why not ask your God?
• 20. "Check their predictions against my testimony," says the LORD. "If their predictions are different from mine, it is because there is no light or truth in them.
• 21. My people will be led away as captives, weary and hungry. And because they are hungry, they will rage and shake their fists at heaven and curse their king and their God.
• 22. Wherever they look, there will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. They will be thrown out into the darkness."

Isaiah 9

• 1. Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever. The land of Zebulun and Naphtali will soon be humbled, but there will be a time in the future when Galilee of the Gentiles, which lies along the road that runs between the Jordan and the sea, will be filled with glory.
• 2. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light--a light that will shine on all who live in the land where death casts its shadow.
• 3. Israel will again be great, and its people will rejoice as people rejoice at harvesttime. They will shout with joy like warriors dividing the plunder.
• 4. For God will break the chains that bind his people and the whip that scourges them, just as he did when he destroyed the army of Midian with Gideon's little band.
• 5. In that day of peace, battle gear will no longer be issued. Never again will uniforms be bloodstained by war. All such equipment will be burned.
• 6. For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders. These will be his royal titles: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
• 7. His ever expanding, peaceful government will never end. He will rule forever with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David. The passionate commitment of the LORD Almighty will guarantee this!
• 8. The Lord has spoken out against that braggart Israel,
• 9. and the people of Israel and Samaria will soon discover it. In their pride and arrogance they say,
• 10. "Our land lies in ruins now, but we will rebuild it better than before. We will replace the broken bricks with cut stone, the fallen sycamore trees with cedars."
• 11. The LORD will reply to their bragging by bringing Rezin's enemies, the Assyrians, against them--
• 12. along with Arameans from the east and Philistines from the west. With bared fangs, they will devour Israel. But even then the LORD's anger will not be satisfied. His fist is still poised to strike.
• 13. For after all this punishment, the people will still not repent and turn to the LORD Almighty.
• 14. Therefore, in a single day, the LORD will destroy both the head and the tail, the palm branch and the reed.
• 15. The leaders of Israel are the head, and the lying prophets are the tail.
• 16. For the leaders of the people have led them down the path of destruction.
• 17. That is why the Lord has no joy in the young men and no mercy on even the widows and orphans. For they are all hypocrites, speaking wickedness with lies. But even then the LORD's anger will not be satisfied. His fist is still poised to strike.
• 18. This wickedness is like a brushfire. It burns not only briers and thorns but the forests, too. Its burning sends up vast clouds of smoke.
• 19. The land is blackened by the fury of the LORD Almighty. The people are fuel for the fire, and no one spares anyone else.
• 20. They fight against their own neighbors to steal food, but they will still be hungry. In the end they will even eat their own children.
• 21. Manasseh will feed on Ephraim, Ephraim will feed on Manasseh, and both will devour Judah. But even then the LORD's anger will not be satisfied. His fist is still poised to strike.

New Living Translation: 239 of 324 days.