Immanuel and the shoot from Jesse · Micah

Isaiah 11–12 WEB

^11:1A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit. ²The LORD’s Spirit will rest on him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. ³His delight will be in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by the sight of his eyes, neither decide by the hearing of his ears; ⁴but he will judge the poor with righteousness, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked. ⁵Righteousness will be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his waist. ⁶The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together; and a little child will lead them. ⁷The cow and the bear will graze. Their young ones will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. ⁸The nursing child will play near a cobra’s hole, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. ⁹They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. ¹⁰It will happen in that day that the nations will seek the root of Jesse, who stands as a banner of the peoples; and his resting place will be glorious. ¹¹It will happen in that day that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. ¹²He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. ¹³The envy also of Ephraim will depart, and those who persecute Judah will be cut off. Ephraim won’t envy Judah, and Judah won’t persecute Ephraim. ¹⁴They will fly down on the shoulders of the Philistines on the west. Together they will plunder the children of the east. They will extend their power over Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon will obey them. ¹⁵The LORD will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind he will wave his hand over the River, and will split it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals. ¹⁶There will be a highway for the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, like there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

^12:1In that day you will say, “I will give thanks to you, the LORD; for though you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you comfort me. ²Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD, the LORD, is my strength and song; and he has become my salvation.” ³Therefore with joy you will draw water out of the wells of salvation. ⁴In that day you will say, “Give thanks to the LORD! Call on his name! Declare his doings among the peoples! Proclaim that his name is exalted! ⁵Sing to the LORD, for he has done excellent things! Let this be known in all the earth! ⁶Cry aloud and shout, you inhabitant of Zion, for the Holy One of Israel is great among you!”

Micah 1–4 WEB

^1:1The LORD’s word that came to Micah of Morasheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. ²Hear, you peoples, all of you! Listen, O earth, and all that is therein. Let the Lord GOD be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. ³For behold, the LORD comes out of his place, and will come down and tread on the high places of the earth. ⁴The mountains melt under him, and the valleys split apart like wax before the fire, like waters that are poured down a steep place. ⁵“All this is for the disobedience of Jacob, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the disobedience of Jacob? Isn’t it Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Aren’t they Jerusalem? ⁶Therefore I will make Samaria like a rubble heap of the field, like places for planting vineyards; and I will pour down its stones into the valley, and I will uncover its foundations. ⁷All her idols will be beaten to pieces, all her temple gifts will be burned with fire, and I will destroy all her images; for of the hire of a prostitute has she gathered them, and to the hire of a prostitute shall they return.” ⁸For this I will lament and wail. I will go stripped and naked. I will howl like the jackals and mourn like the ostriches. ⁹For her wounds are incurable; for it has come even to Judah. It reaches to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. ¹⁰Don’t tell it in Gath. Don’t weep at all. At Beth Ophrah I have rolled myself in the dust. ¹¹Pass on, inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame. The inhabitant of Zaanan won’t come out. The wailing of Beth Ezel will take from you his protection. ¹²For the inhabitant of Maroth waits anxiously for good, because evil has come down from the LORD to the gate of Jerusalem. ¹³Harness the chariot to the swift steed, inhabitant of Lachish. She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; for the transgressions of Israel were found in you. ¹⁴Therefore you will give a parting gift to Moresheth Gath. The houses of Achzib will be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel. ¹⁵I will yet bring a conqueror to you, inhabitants of Mareshah. The glory of Israel will come to Adullam. ¹⁶Shave your heads, and cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Enlarge your baldness like the vulture, for they have gone into captivity from you!

^2:1Woe to those who devise iniquity and work evil on their beds! When the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. ²They covet fields and seize them, and houses, then take them away. They oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. ³Therefore the LORD says: “Behold, I am planning against these people a disaster, from which you will not remove your necks, neither will you walk haughtily, for it is an evil time. ⁴In that day they will take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, saying, ‘We are utterly ruined! My people’s possession is divided up. Indeed he takes it from me and assigns our fields to traitors!’” ⁵Therefore you will have no one who divides the land by lot in the LORD’s assembly. ⁶“Don’t prophesy!”—they prophesy— “Don’t prophesy about these things. Disgrace won’t overtake us.” ⁷Shall it be said, O house of Jacob, “Is the LORD’s Spirit angry? Are these his doings? Don’t my words do good to him who walks blamelessly?” ⁸But lately my people have risen up as an enemy. You strip the robe and clothing from those who pass by without a care, returning from battle. ⁹You drive the women of my people out from their pleasant houses; from their young children you take away my blessing forever. ¹⁰Arise, and depart! For this is not your resting place, because of uncleanness that destroys, even with a grievous destruction. ¹¹If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood lies, saying, “I will prophesy to you of wine and of strong drink,” he would be the prophet of this people. ¹²I will surely assemble all of you, Jacob. I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as a flock in the middle of their pasture. They will swarm with people. ¹³He who breaks open the way goes up before them. They break through the gate, and go out. Their king passes on before them, with the LORD at their head.

^3:1I said, “Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Isn’t it for you to know justice? ²You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones; ³who also eat the flesh of my people, and peel their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as meat within the cauldron. ⁴Then they will cry to the LORD, but he will not answer them. Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they made their deeds evil.” ⁵The LORD says concerning the prophets who lead my people astray—for those who feed their teeth, they proclaim, “Peace!” and whoever doesn’t provide for their mouths, they prepare war against him: ⁶“Therefore night is over you, with no vision, and it is dark to you, that you may not divine; and the sun will go down on the prophets, and the day will be black over them. ⁷The seers shall be disappointed, and the diviners confounded. Yes, they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God.” ⁸But as for me, I am full of power by the LORD’s Spirit, and of judgment, and of might, to declare to Jacob his disobedience, and to Israel his sin. ⁹Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity, ¹⁰who build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. ¹¹Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money; yet they lean on the LORD, and say, “Isn’t the LORD among us? No disaster will come on us.” ¹²Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.

^4:1But in the latter days, it will happen that the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established on the top of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills; and peoples will stream to it. ²Many nations will go and say, “Come! Let’s go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For the law will go out of Zion, and the LORD’s word from Jerusalem; ³and he will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning strong nations afar off. They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war any more. ⁴But every man will sit under his vine and under his fig tree. No one will make them afraid, for the mouth of the LORD of Armies has spoken. ⁵Indeed all the nations may walk in the name of their gods, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever. ⁶“In that day,” says the LORD, “I will assemble that which is lame, and I will gather that which is driven away, and that which I have afflicted; ⁷and I will make that which was lame a remnant, and that which was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD will reign over them on Mount Zion from then on, even forever.” ⁸You, tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, to you it will come. Yes, the former dominion will come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem. ⁹Now why do you cry out aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished, that pains have taken hold of you as of a woman in travail? ¹⁰Be in pain, and labor to give birth, daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now you will go out of the city, and will dwell in the field, and will come even to Babylon. There you will be rescued. There the LORD will redeem you from the hand of your enemies. ¹¹Now many nations have assembled against you, that say, “Let her be defiled, and let our eye gloat over Zion.” ¹²But they don’t know the thoughts of the LORD, neither do they understand his counsel; for he has gathered them like the sheaves to the threshing floor. ¹³Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs bronze. You will beat in pieces many peoples. I will devote their gain to the LORD, and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth.