The Coming King

¹Nevertheless there shall be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time He contemptuously treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.[#2Ki 15:29; 2Ch 16:4]

²The people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light;

those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death,

upon them the light has shined.

³You have multiplied the nation[#Isa 26:15]

and increased the joy;

they rejoice before You

according to the joy of harvest

and as men rejoice

when they divide the spoil.

⁴For You have broken the yoke of his burden

and the bar of his shoulder,

the rod of his oppressor

as in the day of Midian’s defeat.

⁵For all the sandals of the tramping warriors

and all the garments rolled in blood

shall be burned as fuel for the fire.

⁶For unto us a child is born,[#Isa 7:14; Lk 2:11]

unto us a son is given,

and the government shall be upon his shoulder.

And his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

⁷Of the increase of his government and peace

there shall be no end,

upon the throne of David

and over his kingdom,

to order it and to establish it

with justice and with righteousness,

from now until forever.

The zeal of the Lord of Hosts

will perform this.

The Message Against Israel

⁸The Lord sent a word against Jacob,

and it falls upon Israel.

⁹All the people shall know,

even Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,

who say in the pride

and stoutness of heart,

¹⁰“The bricks are fallen down,

but we will build with hewn stones;

the sycamores are cut down,

but we will replace them with cedars.”

¹¹Therefore, the Lord shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him,

and join his enemies together.

¹²The Arameans shall be before and the Philistines behind;[#2Ch 28:18]

and they shall devour Israel with open jaws.

For all this His anger is not turned away,

and His hand is stretched out still.

¹³For the people do not turn to Him who struck them,

nor do they seek the Lord of Hosts.

¹⁴Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail,

branch and bulrush, in one day.

¹⁵The elder and honorable man, he is the head;[#Isa 3:2–3]

and the prophet that teaches lies, he is the tail.

¹⁶For the leaders of this people cause them to err,[#Isa 3:12]

and those who are led by them are destroyed.

¹⁷Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men,

nor shall He have mercy on their fatherless and widows;

for every one of them is a hypocrite and an evildoer,

and every mouth speaks folly.

For all this His anger is not turned away,

and His hand is stretched out still.

¹⁸For wickedness burns as a fire;

it shall devour the briers and thorns,

and shall ignite in the thickets of the forest,

and they shall mount up like rising smoke.

¹⁹Through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts

is the land burned up,

and the people shall be as fuel for the fire;

no man shall spare his brother.

²⁰They shall snatch on the right hand,

but still be hungry;

and they shall eat on the left hand,

and shall not be satisfied;

every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm.

²¹Manasseh consumes Ephraim, and Ephraim, Manasseh,

and they together shall be against Judah.

For all this His anger is not turned away,

and His hand is stretched out still.