CHAPTER 9

1 Yet the darkness shall not be,
According to the affliction which happened to her,
When they first lightly afflicted
The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali;
Nor when they afterwards did more grievously afflict
By the way of the sea beyond Jordan,
In Galilee of the nations.

2 The people walking in darkness
Hath seen a great light.
They who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
Light hath shined on them.

3 By multiplying the nation thou hast not increased the joy;
They have rejoiced before thee according to the joy of harvest,
As men shout in dividing the spoils.

4 For his burdensome yoke,
And the staff of his shoulder,
The sceptre of his oppressor
Hast thou broken, as in the day of Midian.

5 Although every battle of the warrior is made
With noise and rolling of the vesture in blood,
This shall be for burning,
For fuel of fire.

6 For to us a child is born;
To us a son is given;
And the government hath been laid upon his shoulder;
And his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor,
The mighty God, The Father of the age, The Prince of Peace.

7 To the increase of the government and to peace,
There shall be no end;
On the throne of David and on his kingdom,
To order and establish it
In judgment and justice,
Henceforth, even for ever.
The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will do this.

8 The Lord sent a word against Jacob,
And it hath fallen on Israel.

9 And all the people shall know,
Ephraim, and the inhabitants of Samaria,
Who say in the pride and haughtiness of their heart,

10 The bricks are fallen down, and we will build with hewn stones;
The sycamores are cut down, and we will substitute cedars.

11 But Jehovah will strengthen the enemies of Rezin against him,
And will aid his adversaries.

12 Syria before, and the Philistines behind;
And they shall devour Israel with open mouth.
And for all this his anger is not turned away,
But his hand is stretched out still.

13 But the people have not turned to him that smote them,
And have not sought Jehovah of hosts.

14 Therefore will Jehovah cut off from Israel
The head and the tail,
The branch and the reed,
In one day.

15 The elder and the honourable, he is the head;
And the prophet who teacheth falsehood, he is the tail.

16 For the governors of this people are seducers,
And they who are guided by them are destroyed.

17 Therefore the Lord will not rejoice over their young men,
And will not have compassion on the orphans and widows;
For all are hypocrites and evil-doers,
And every mouth speaketh villany.
For all this his anger is not turned away,
But his hand is stretched out still.

18 For wickedness burneth as the fire;
It shall devour the briers and thorns;
Afterwards it shall kindle into the thickets of the forest,
And the smoke of that which ascendeth shall go up.

19 Through the wrath of Jehovah of hosts
Shall the land be darkened,
And the people shall be as the fuel of fire:
No man shall spare his brother.

20 Every one shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry;
He shall eat on the left hand, and shall not be satisfied;
Every one shall devour the flesh of his own arm:

21 Manasseh, Ephraim;
And Ephraim, Manasseh;
They together shall be against Judah.
And yet for all this his anger is not turned away,
But his hand is stretched out still.