Isaiah Sent to King Ahaz

1 ^hIn the days of ⁱAhaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, ^jRezin the king of Syria and ^kPekah 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. 2 When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with¹ Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz² and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

3 And the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub³ your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the ^lWasher’s Field. 4 And say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. 5 Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying, 6 “Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it⁴ for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” 7 thus says the Lord God:

The Sign of Immanuel

10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: 11 “Ask a sign of the Lord your⁶ God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13 And he⁷ said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you ^oweary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. ^pBehold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name ^qImmanuel.⁸ 15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For ^rbefore the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. 17 The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since ^sthe day that Ephraim departed from Judah—^tthe king of Assyria!”

18 In that day the Lord will ^uwhistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19 And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and ^vin the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures.⁹

20 In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired beyond the River¹⁰—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also.

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

23 In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels¹¹ of silver, will become briers and thorns. 24 With bow and arrows a man will come there, for all the land will be briers and thorns. 25 And as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not come there for fear of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.

The Coming Assyrian Invasion

1 Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large tablet and ^wwrite on it in common characters,¹² ‘Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’¹³ 2 And I will get reliable witnesses, ^xUriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, to attest for me.”

3 And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz; 4 for ^ybefore the boy knows how to cry ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ ^zthe wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”

5 The Lord spoke to me again: 6 “Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over ^aRezin and the son of Remaliah, 7 therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River,¹⁴ mighty and many, ^bthe king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks, 8 and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O ^cImmanuel.”

Fear God, Wait for the Lord

11 For the Lord spoke thus to me ^ewith his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: 12 “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and ^fdo not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. 13 But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. 14 And he will become a ^gsanctuary and ^ha ⁱstone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 15 And many shall ^jstumble on it. ^kThey shall ^lfall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”

16 Bind up the testimony; ^mseal the teaching¹⁸ among my disciples. 17 I will wait for the Lord, who is ⁿhiding his face from the house of Jacob, and ^oI will hope in him. 18 ^pBehold, I and the ^qchildren whom the Lord has given me ^rare signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. 19 And when they say to you, ^s“Inquire of the ^tmediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. 21 They will pass through the land,¹⁹ greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against²⁰ their king and their God, and turn their faces upward. 22 And they will look to the earth, but ^ubehold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.

By Grace Through Faith

1 And you were ^ydead in the trespasses and sins 2 ^zin which ^ayou once walked, following the course¹ of this world, following the ^bprince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the ^csons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the ^dpassions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.² 4 But³ God, being rich in ^emercy, ^fbecause of the great love with which he loved us, 5 ^geven when we were dead in our trespasses, ^hmade us alive together with Christ—ⁱby grace you have been saved— 6 and ^jraised us up with him and seated us with him in the ^kheavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable ^lriches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For ^mby grace you have been saved ⁿthrough faith. And this is ^onot your own doing; it is the ^pgift of God, 9 ^qnot a result of works, ^rso that no one may ^sboast. 10 For we are his ^tworkmanship, ^ucreated in Christ Jesus for good works, ^vwhich God prepared beforehand, that we should ^wwalk in them.

One in Christ

11 Therefore remember that ^xat one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called ^ythe circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, ^zalienated from the commonwealth of Israel and ^astrangers to ^bthe covenants of ^cpromise, ^dhaving no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus ^eyou who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our ^fpeace, who has made us both ^gone and has broken down ^hin his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 ⁱby abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might ^jreconcile us both to God ^kin one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and ^lpreached ^mpeace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have ⁿaccess in ^oone Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,⁴ but you are ^pfellow citizens with the saints and members of the ^qhousehold of God, 20 ^rbuilt on the ^sfoundation of the ^tapostles and prophets, ^uChrist Jesus himself being the ^vcornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, ^wbeing joined together, grows into a ^xholy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being ^ybuilt together into a ^zdwelling place for God by⁵ the Spirit.