Chronological Plan

¹Jotham was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jerushah daughter of Zadok.

²He did what was right in the LORD’s sight just as his father Uzziah had done. In addition, he didn’t enter the LORD’s sanctuary, but the people still behaved corruptly.

³Jotham built the Upper Gate of the LORD’s temple, and he built extensively on the wall of Ophel.

⁴He also built cities in the hill country of Judah and fortresses and towers in the forests.

⁵He waged war against the king of the Ammonites. He overpowered the Ammonites, and that year they gave him 7,500 pounds of silver, 50,000 bushels of wheat, and 50,000 bushels of barley. They paid him the same in the second and third years.

⁶So Jotham strengthened his position because he did not waver in obeying the LORD his God.

⁷As for the rest of the events of Jotham’s reign, along with all his wars and his ways, note that they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.

⁸He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem.

⁹Jotham rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. His son Ahaz became king in his place.

¹Nevertheless, the gloom of the distressed land will not be like that of the former times when he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the future he will bring honor to the way of the sea, to the land east of the Jordan, and to Galilee of the nations.

²The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; a light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness.

³You have enlarged the nation and increased its joy. The people have rejoiced before you as they rejoice at harvest time and as they rejoice when dividing spoils.

⁴For you have shattered their oppressive yoke and the rod on their shoulders, the staff of their oppressor, just as you did on the day of Midian.

⁵For every trampling boot of battle and the bloodied garments of war will be burned as fuel for the fire.

⁶For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

⁷The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the LORD of Armies will accomplish this.

⁸The Lord sent a message against Jacob; it came against Israel.

⁹All the people — Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria  — will know it. They will say with pride and arrogance:

¹⁰“The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with cut stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will replace them with cedars.”

¹¹The LORD has raised up Rezin’s adversaries against him and stirred up his enemies.

¹²Aram from the east and Philistia from the west have consumed Israel with open mouths. In all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still raised to strike.

¹³The people did not turn to him who struck them; they did not seek the LORD of Armies.

¹⁴So the LORD cut off Israel’s head and tail, palm branch and reed in a single day.

¹⁵The head is the elder, the honored one; the tail is the prophet, the one teaching lies.

¹⁶The leaders of the people mislead them, and those they mislead are swallowed up.

¹⁷Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over Israel’s young men and has no compassion on its fatherless and widows, for everyone is a godless evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. In all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still raised to strike.

¹⁸For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets so that they go up in a column of smoke.

¹⁹The land is scorched by the wrath of the LORD of Armies, and the people are like fuel for the fire. No one has compassion on his brother.

²⁰They carve meat on the right, but they are still hungry; they have eaten on the left, but they are still not satisfied. Each one eats the flesh of his own arm.

²¹Manasseh is with Ephraim, and Ephraim with Manasseh; together, both are against Judah. In all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still raised to strike.

¹Woe to those enacting crooked statutes and writing oppressive laws

²to keep the poor from getting a fair trial and to deprive the needy among my people of justice, so that widows can be their spoil and they can plunder the fatherless.

³What will you do on the day of punishment when devastation comes from far away? Who will you run to for help? Where will you leave your wealth?

⁴There will be nothing to do except crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. In all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still raised to strike.

⁵Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger — the staff in their hands is my wrath.

⁶I will send him against a godless nation; I will command him to go against a people destined for my rage, to take spoils, to plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.

⁷But this is not what he intends; this is not what he plans. It is his intent to destroy and to cut off many nations.

⁸For he says, “Aren’t all my commanders kings?

⁹Isn’t Calno like Carchemish? Isn’t Hamath like Arpad? Isn’t Samaria like Damascus?

¹⁰As my hand seized the idolatrous kingdoms, whose idols exceeded those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

¹¹and as I did to Samaria and its worthless images will I not also do to Jerusalem and its idols?”

¹²But when the Lord finishes all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for his arrogant acts and the proud look in his eyes.”

¹³For he said: I have done this by my own strength and wisdom, for I am clever. I abolished the borders of nations and plundered their treasures; like a mighty warrior, I subjugated the inhabitants.

¹⁴My hand has reached out, as if into a nest, to seize the wealth of the nations. Like one gathering abandoned eggs, I gathered the whole earth. No wing fluttered; no beak opened or chirped.

¹⁵Does an ax exalt itself above the one who chops with it? Does a saw magnify itself above the one who saws with it? It would be like a rod waving the one who lifts it! It would be like a staff lifting the one who isn’t wood!

¹⁶Therefore the Lord GOD of Armies will inflict an emaciating disease on the well-fed of Assyria, and he will kindle a burning fire under its glory.

¹⁷Israel’s Light will become a fire, and its Holy One, a flame. In one day it will burn and consume Assyria’s thorns and thistles.

¹⁸He will completely destroy the glory of its forests and orchards as a sickness consumes a person.

¹⁹The remaining trees of its forest will be so few in number that a child could count them.

²⁰On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer depend on the one who struck them, but they will faithfully depend on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.

²¹The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God.

²²Israel, even if your people were as numerous as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction has been decreed; justice overflows.

²³For throughout the land the Lord GOD of Armies is carrying out a destruction that was decreed.

²⁴Therefore, the Lord GOD of Armies says this: “My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear Assyria, though they strike you with a rod and raise their staff over you as the Egyptians did.

²⁵In just a little while my wrath will be spent and my anger will turn to their destruction.”

²⁶And the LORD of Armies will brandish a whip against him as he did when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb; and he will raise his staff over the sea as he did in Egypt.

²⁷On that day his burden will fall from your shoulders, and his yoke from your neck. The yoke will be broken because your neck will be too large.

²⁸Assyria has come to Aiath and has gone through Migron, storing their equipment at Michmash.

²⁹They crossed over at the ford, saying, “We will spend the night at Geba.” The people of Ramah are trembling; those at Gibeah of Saul have fled.

³⁰Cry aloud, daughter of Gallim! Listen, Laishah! Anathoth is miserable.

³¹Madmenah has fled. The inhabitants of Gebim have sought refuge.

³²Today the Assyrians will stand at Nob, shaking their fists at the mountain of Daughter Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

³³Look, the Lord GOD of Armies will chop off the branches with terrifying power, and the tall trees will be cut down, the high trees felled.

³⁴He is clearing the thickets of the forest with an ax, and Lebanon with its majesty will fall.

¹Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

²The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him  — a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and strength, a 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 what he sees with his eyes, he will not execute justice by what he hears with his ears,

⁴but he will judge the poor righteously and execute justice for the oppressed of the land. He will strike the land with a scepter from his mouth, and he will kill the wicked with a command from his lips.

⁵Righteousness will be a belt around his hips; faithfulness will be a belt around his waist.

⁶The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat. The calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf will be together, and a child will lead them.

⁷The cow and the bear will graze, their young ones will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like cattle.

⁸An infant will play beside the cobra’s pit, and a toddler will put his hand into a snake’s den.

⁹They will not harm or destroy each other on my entire holy mountain, for the land will be as full of the knowledge of the LORD as the sea is filled with water.

¹⁰On that day the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will look to him for guidance, and his resting place will be glorious.

¹¹On that day the Lord will extend his hand a second time to recover the remnant of his people who survive — from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coasts and islands of the west.

¹²He will lift up a banner for the nations and gather the dispersed of Israel; he will collect the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

¹³Ephraim’s envy will cease; Judah’s harassing will end. Ephraim will no longer be envious of Judah, and Judah will not harass Ephraim.

¹⁴But they will swoop down on the Philistine flank to the west. Together they will plunder the people of the east. They will extend their power over Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be their subjects.

¹⁵The LORD will divide the Gulf of Suez. He will wave his hand over the Euphrates with his mighty wind and will split it into seven streams, letting people walk through on foot.

¹⁶There will be a highway for the remnant of his people who will survive from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

¹On that day you will say: “I will give thanks to you, LORD, although you were angry with me. Your anger has turned away, and you have comforted me.

²Indeed, God is my salvation; I will trust him and not be afraid, for the LORD, the LORD himself, is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation.”

³You will joyfully draw water from the springs of salvation,

⁴and on that day you will say: “Give thanks to the LORD; proclaim his name! Make his works known among the peoples. Declare that his name is exalted.

⁵Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things. Let this be known throughout the earth.

⁶Cry out and sing, citizen of Zion, for the Holy One of Israel is among you in his greatness.”