Tanakh, Bible & Qu'ran: The Pillars of Three Faiths. Various Authors

that ye will weary my God also? ¹⁴Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: behold, the young woman shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name ²Immanuel. ¹⁵Curd and honey shall he eat, when he knoweth to refuse the evil, and choose the good. ¹⁶Yea, before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two kings thou hast a horror of shall be forsaken. ¹⁷The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.'

      ¹⁸And it shall come to pass in that day,That the Lord shall hiss for the flyThat is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt,And for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.¹⁹And they shall come, and shall rest all of themIn the rugged valleys, and in the holes of the rocks,And upon all thorns, and upon all brambles.

      ²⁰In that day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired in the parts beyond the River, even with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also sweep away the beard.

      ²¹And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall rear a young cow, and two sheep; ²²and it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give, he shall eat curd; for curd and honey shall every one eat that is left in the midst of the land.

      ²³And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, shall even be for briers and thorns. ²⁴With arrows and with bow shall one come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns. ²⁵And all the hills that were digged with the mattock, thou shalt not come thither for fear of briers and thorns, but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of sheep.

8And the Lord said unto me: 'Take thee a great tablet, and write upon it in common script: The spoil speedeth, the prey hasteth; ²and I will take unto Me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.' ³And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bore a son. Then said the Lord unto me: 'Call his name ³Maher-shalal-hashbaz. ⁴For before the child shall have knowledge to cry: My father, and: My mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be carried away before the king of Assyria.'

      ⁵And the Lord spoke unto me yet again, saying:

      ⁶Forasmuch as this people hath refusedThe waters of Shiloah that go softly,And rejoiceth with Rezin and Remaliah's son;⁷Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon themThe waters of the River, mighty and many,Even the king of Assyria and all his glory;And he shall come up over all his channels,And go over all his banks;⁸And he shall sweep through JudahOverflowing as he passeth throughHe shall reach even to the neck;And the stretching out of his wingsShall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel. ⁹Make an uproar, O ye peoples, and ye shall be broken in pieces;And give ear, all ye of far countries;Gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces;Gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.¹⁰Take counsel together, and it shall be brought to nought;Speak the word, and it shall not stand;For God is with us.

      ¹¹For the Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand, admonishing me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying: ¹²'Say ye not: A conspiracy, concerning all whereof this people do say: A conspiracy; neither fear ye their fear, nor account it dreadful. ¹³The Lord of hosts, Him shall ye sanctify; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. ¹⁴And He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁵And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.'

      ¹⁶'Bind up the testimony, seal the instruction among My disciples.' ¹⁷And I will wait for the Lord, that hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him. ¹⁸Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me shall be for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwelleth in mount Zion. ¹⁹And when they shall say unto you: 'Seek unto the ghosts and the familiar spirits, that chirp and that mutter; should not a people seek unto their God? on behalf of the living unto the dead ²⁰for instruction and for testimony?'—Surely they will speak according to this word, wherein there is no light.—²¹And they shall pass this way that are sore bestead and hungry; and it shall come to pass that, when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse by their king and by their God, and, whether they turn their faces upward, ²²or look unto the earth, behold distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, and outspread thick darkness. ²³For is there no gloom to her that was stedfast? Now the former hath lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but the latter hath dealt a more grievous blow by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in the district of the nations.

      9The people that walked in darknessHave seen a great light;They that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,Upon them hath the light shined.²Thou hast multiplied the nation,Thou hast increased their joy;They joy before Thee according to the joy in harvest,As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.³For the yoke of his burden,And the staff of his shoulder,The rod of his oppressor,Thou hast broken as in the day of Midian.For every boot stamped with fierceness,And every cloak rolled in blood,Shall even be for burning, for fuel of fire.⁵For a child is born unto us,A son is given unto us;And the government is upon his shoulder;And his name is called4Pele-joez-el-gibbor-Abi-ad-sar-shalom;⁶That the government may be increased,And of peace there be no end,Upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom,To establish it, and to uphold itThrough justice and through righteousnessFrom henceforth even for ever.The zeal of the Lord of hosts doth perform this. ⁷The Lord sent a word into Jacob,And it hath lighted upon Israel.⁸And all the people shall know,Even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria,That say in pride and in arrogancy of heart:⁹'The bricks are fallen, but we will build with hewn stones;The sycamores are cut down, but cedars will we put in their place.'¹⁰Therefore the Lord doth set upon high the adversaries of Rezin against him,And spur his enemies;¹¹The Arameans on the east, and the Philistines on the west;And they devour Israel with open mouth.For all this His anger is not turned away,But His hand is stretched out still. ¹²Yet the people turneth not unto Him that smiteth them,Neither do they seek the Lord of hosts.¹³Therefore the Lord doth cut off from Israel head and tail,Palm-branch and rush, in one day.¹⁴The elder and the man of rank, he is the head;And the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.¹⁵For they that lead this people cause them to err;And they that are led of them are destroyed.¹⁶Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men,Neither shall He have compassion on their fatherless and widows;For every one is ungodly and an evil-doer,And every mouth speaketh wantonness.For all this His anger is not turned away,But His hand is stretched out still. ¹⁷ For wickedness burneth as the fire;It devoureth the briers and thorns;Yea, it kindleth in the thickets of the forest,And they roll upward in thick clouds of smoke.¹⁸Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land burnt up;The people also are as the fuel of fire;No man spareth his brother.¹⁹And one snatcheth on the right hand, and is hungry;And he eateth on the left hand, and is not satisfied;They eat every man the flesh of his own arm:²⁰Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh;And they together are against Judah.For all this His anger is not turned away,But His hand is stretched out still. 10Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees,And to the writers that write iniquity;²To turn aside the needy from judgment,And to take away the right of the poor of My people,That widows may be their spoil,And that they may make the fatherless their prey!³And what will ye do in the day of visitation,And in the ruin which shall come from far?To whom will ye flee for help?And where will ye leave your glory?⁴They can do nought except crouch under the captives,And fall under the slain.For all this His anger is not turned away,But His hand is stretched out still. ⁵O Asshur, the rod of Mine anger,In whose hand as a staff is Mine indignation!⁶I do send him against an ungodly nation,And against the people of My wrath do I give him a charge,To take the spoil, and to take the prey,And to tread them down like the mire of