For to Us a Child Is Born

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.1

²2 The people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light;

those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,

on them has light shone.

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 upon3 his shoulder,

and his name shall be called4

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.5

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.