And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it.

And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.

Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shear-jashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field;

And say unto him,

Take heed, and be quiet;

Fear not, neither be faint-hearted

For the two tails of these smoking firebrands,

For the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah,
Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah,

Have taken evil counsel against thee, saying,

Let us go up against Judah, and vex it,

And let us make a breach therein for us,

And set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal :

Thus saith the Lord GOD, It shall not stand, neither shall it come

to pass.

For the head of Syria is Damascus,

And the head of Damascus is Rezin;

And within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people.

And the head of Ephraim is Samaria,

And the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son.

If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.

Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying,

Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God;

Ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.

But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD.

And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David;

Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my
God also?

Therefore the LORD himself shall give you a sign;

Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,

And shall call his name Immanuel.+

Butter and honey shall he eat,

A remnant shall return.

f God with us.

That he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
For before the child shall know

To refuse the evil, and choose the good,

The land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.
The 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.

LESSON LXVII.

AHAZ'S ALLIANCE.*

B.C. 741.-2 KINGS xvi. 7, 8; 2 CHRON. xxviii. 17-19; Is. viii. 1, 8.

So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me. And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria.

For again the Edomites had come and smitten Judah, and carried away captives.

The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low country, and of the south of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh, and Ajalon, and Gederoth, and Shocho with the villages thereof, and Timnah with the villages thereof, Gimzo also and the villages thereof: and they dwelt there.

For the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked,+ and transgressed sore against the LORD.

Moreover the LORD said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man's pen concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.

And the prophetess conceived and bare a son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz.‡

For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.

The LORD spake also unto me again, saying,

Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go

softly,

And rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son ;

Not for the younger ones.

+ Defenceless.

Make haste to the spoil.

LXVIII.]

THE APOSTASY OF AHAZ.

Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them
The waters of the river, strong 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 :

And he shall pass through Judah;

He shall overflow and go over,

He shall reach even to the neck;

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And the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land,
O Immanuel.

LESSON LXVIII.

THE APOSTASY OF A HAZ.

B.C. 740.-2 KINGS xvi. 9-18; 2 CHRON. xxviii. 20-25.

And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin.

And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus : and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.

And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus : so Urijah the priest made it against king Ahaz came from Damascus.

And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar : and the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon.

And he burnt his burnt-offering and his meat-offering, and poured his drink-offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace-offerings, upon the altar.

And he brought also the brasen altar, which was before the LORD, from the fore-front of the house, from between the altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of the altar.

And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt-offering, and the evening meat-offering, and the king's burnt-sacrifice, and his meat-offering, with the burnt-offering of all the people of the land, and their meat-offering, and their drink-offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt-offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice and the brasen altar shall be for me to inquire by.

Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded. And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the layer from off them; and took down the sea from off the brasen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stones.

And the covert *

for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and

Shelter used on the Sabbath-day.

the king's entry without, turned he from the house of the LORD for the king of Assyria. *

*

*

*

And Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria came unto him, and distressed him, but strengthened him not.

For Ahaz took away a portion out of the house of the LORD, and out of the house of the king, and of the princes, and gave it unto the king of Assyria: but he helped him not.

And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD this is that king Ahaz.

For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel.

And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the LORD, and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem.

And in every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, and provoked to anger the LORD God of his fathers.

LESSON LXIX.

THE CHILD OF PROPHECY.*

B.C. 740.-ISAIAH viii. 13-15, 18—22; ix. 1–7; MICAH V. I—5.

Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself;

And let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

And 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.

And many among them shall stumble, and fall,

And be broken, and be snared, and be taken.

Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me
Are for signs and for wonders in Israel

From the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.

And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits,

And unto wizards that peep, and that mutter :

Should not a people seek unto their God?

For the living to the dead?

To the law and to the testimony:

If they speak not according to this word,
It is because there is no light in them.

*Not for the younger ones.

+ Chirp.

LXIX.]

THE CHILD OF PROPHECY.

And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead * and hungry :
And it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry,
They shall fret themselves,

And curse their king and their God, and look upward.

And they shall look unto the earth;

And behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish ;

And they shall be driven to darkness.

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Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, When at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,

And afterward did more grievously afflict her

By the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light :

They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them
hath the light shined.

Thou hast multiplied the nation, and ‡ increased the joy :

They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest,

And as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden,

And the staff of his shoulder,

The rod of his oppressor,

As in the day of Midian.

For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise,
And garments rolled in blood;

But this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.

For unto us a Child is born,

Unto us a Son is given :

And the government shall be upon his shoulder :

And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty
God,

The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end,
Upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom,

To order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will

*

henceforth even for ever.

perform this.

*

Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops:

He hath laid siege against us:

They shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.

But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah,

Though thou be little among the thousands of Judah,

Yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in
Israel;

Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

Therefore will he give them up,

Until the time that she hath brought forth :

* Distressed.

Here let the younger begin.

The word "not," in our version, is decided to be a mistranslation.