II Nephi IX

16In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2Above it stood the seraphims; each one had six wings: with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3And one cried unto another and said: Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory. 4And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

5Then said I: Woe me, for I am undone because I a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts. 6Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. 7And he laid upon my mouth and said: Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged.

8Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? Then I said: Here I, send me. 9And he said: Go and tell this people: Hear ye indeed, but they understand not; and see ye indeed, but they perceive not. 10Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed.

11Then said I: Lord, how long? And he said: Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, 12and the Lord have removed men far away, for there shall be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. 13But yet in it there shall be a tenth, and they shall return and shall be eaten; as a teil tree and as an oak whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

17And it came to pass —in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham the son of Uzziah, king of Judah— Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up towards Jerusalem to war against it but could not prevail against it. 2And 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 wind are moved with the wind.

3Then 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, 4and say unto him: Take heed and be quiet. Fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria and of the son of Remaliah, 5because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have taken evil counsel against thee, saying: 6Let 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, yea, the son of Tabeal.

7Thus saith the Lord God: It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. 8For the head of Syria is Damascus and the head of Damascus Rezin, and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. 9And 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.

10Moreover the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying: 11Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask either in the depths or in the heights above. 12But Ahaz said: I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. 13And he saith: Hear ye now, O house of David: Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?

14Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive and shall bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. 15Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and to choose the good. 16For 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. 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, the king of Assyria. 18And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19And they shall come and shall rest, all of them, in the desolate valleys and in the holes of the rocks and upon all thorns and upon all bushes. 20In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard.

21And it shall come to pass that in that day a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep. 22And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk they shall give, he shall eat butter, for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land. 23And it shall come to pass in that day every place shall be where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, which shall be for briars and thorns. 24With arrows and with bows shall men come thither because all the land shall become briars and thorns. 25And all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briars and thorns, but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen and the treading of lesser cattle.

18Moreover the word of the Lord said unto me: Take thee a great roll and write in it with a man’s pen concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz. 2And I took 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 bare a son. Then said the Lord to me: Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz. 4For behold, the child shall not have knowledge to cry my father and my mother before the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.

5The Lord spake also unto me again, saying: 6Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son, 7now 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, 8and he shall pass through Judah. He shall overflow and go over; he shall reach even to the neck, and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.

9Associate yourselves, O ye people, 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 come to naught. Speak the word and it shall not stand, for God is with us.

11For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying: 12Say ye not a confederacy to all to whom this people shall say a confederacy, neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid. 13Sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself, 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 offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 15And many among them shall stumble and fall and be broken and be snared and be taken.

16Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. 17And I will wait upon 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 are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.

19And when they shall say unto you: Seek unto them that have familiar spirits and unto wizards that peep and mutter— Should not a people seek unto their God, for the living to hear from the dead, 20to the law and to the testimony? And if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. 21And 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.

22And they shall look unto the earth —and behold, trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish— and shall be driven to darkness. 19Nevertheless 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 grieviously afflict by the way of the Red Sea, beyond Jordan in Galilee of the nations.

2The 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. 3Thou 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. 4For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor. 5For every battle of the warrior with confused noise and garments rolled in blood— but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.

6For 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 Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. 7Of the increase of government and peace there is no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to order it and to establish it, with judgment and with justice from henceforth, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this.

8The Lord sent his word unto Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel. 9And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, that say in the pride and the stoutness of heart: 10The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars. 11Therefore the Lord shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him and join his enemies together, 12the Syrians before and the Philistines behind, and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand stretched out still.

13For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of Hosts. 14Therefore will the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush in one day. 15The ancient, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail. 16For the leaders of this people cause them to err, and they that are led of them are destroyed. 17Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows. For every one of them is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand stretched out still.

18For wickedness burneth as the fire. It shall devour the briars and thorns and shall kindle in the thickets of the forests, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke. 19Through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire. No man shall spare his brother. 20And he shall snatch on the right hand and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied. They shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm: 21Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh. They together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand stretched out still.

20Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees and that write grieviousness which they have prescribed, 2to turn aside the needy from judgment and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey and that they may rob the fatherless. 3And what will ye do in the day of visitation and in the desolation which shall come from far? To whom will ye flee for help? And where will ye leave your glory? 4Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand stretched out still.

5O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger; and the staff in their hand is their indignation. 6I will set him against a hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge to take the spoil and to take the prey and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

7Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but in his heart it is to destroy and cut off nations not a few. 8For he saith: Are not my princes altogether kings? 9Is not Calno as Carchemish? Is not Hamath as Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus? 10As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria, 11shall I not as I have done unto Samaria and her idols so do to Jerusalem and to her idols?

12Wherefore it shall come to pass that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and upon Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of his high looks. 13For he saith: By the strength of my hand and by my wisdom I have done these things, for I am prudent. And I have removed the borders of the people and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man. 14And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people, and as one gathereth eggs that are left have I gathered all the earth. And there was none that moved the wing or opened the mouth or peeped. 15Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? Shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? As if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up? Or as if the staff should lift up itself as if it were no wood?

16Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, send among his fat ones leanness, and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. 17And the light of Israel shall be for a fire and his Holy One for a flame, and shall burn and shall devour his thorns and his briars in one day, 18and shall consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, both soul and body. And they shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth. 19And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be a few, that a child may write them.

20And it shall come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob shall no more again stay upon him that smote them, but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. 21The remnant shall return, yea, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God. 22For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return. The consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness; 23for the Lord God of Hosts shall make a consumption, even determined in all the land.

24Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Hosts: O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian. He shall smite thee with a rod and shall lift up his staff against thee after the manner of Egypt. 25For yet a very little while and the indignation shall cease and mine anger in their destruction. 26And the Lord of Hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb. And as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt. 27And it shall come to pass in that day that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.

28He is come to Aiath. He is passed to Migron. At Michmash he hath laid up his carriages. 29They are gone over the passage. They have taken up their lodging at Geba. Ramah is afraid. Gibeah of Saul is fled. 30Lift up the voice, O daughter of Gallim. Cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth. 31Madmenah is removed. The inhabitants of Gebim gathered themselves to flee. 32As yet shall he remain at Nob that day. He shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. 33Behold, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, shall lop the bough with terror; and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled. 34And he shall cut down the thickets of the forests with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.

21And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. 2And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, 3and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears, 4but with righteousness shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. 5And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdles of his reins.

6The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. 7And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together. And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den. 9They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

10And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious. 11And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathros and from Cush and from Elam and from Shinar and from Hamath and from the island of the sea. 12And he shall set up an ensign for the nations and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

13The envy of Ephraim also shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off. Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. 14But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together. They shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon shall obey them.

15And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea. And with his mighty wind he shall shake his hand over the river and shall smite it in the seven streams and make men go over dry-shod. 16And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people which shall be left from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

22And in that day thou shalt say: O Lord, I will praise thee. Though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away and thou comfortedst me. 2Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.

3Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. 4And in that day shall ye say: Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted. 5Sing unto the Lord, for he hath done excellent things. This is known in all the earth. 6Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.