The Skeptics Annotated Bible (530 page)

27 None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:

28 Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:

29 Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it.

30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.

(6.1-7) Isaiah’s holy hallucinations.

6
In 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.

(6.1)
“I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne.”
49 Can God be seen?

2
Above 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.

(6.2)
“Above 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.”
Isaiah sees angels with six wings. Two to cover his face, two to cover his feet, and two to fly with.

3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

4 And
the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

(6.4)
“The posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.”
When the angels (or God?) cry, the door posts move and the house fills with smoke.

5 Then said I
, Woe is me
! for I am undone;
because I am 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.

(6.5a)
“Woe is me! … because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.”

(6.5b)
“Mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
49 Can God be seen?

6
Then 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:

7
And he laid it upon my mouth
, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

(6.6-7)
“Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand … And he laid it upon my mouth.”
An angel touches Isaiah’s lips with a live coal.

8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

10
Make 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
.

(6.10)
“Make 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.”
God will prevent people from hearing and understanding “lest they … convert and be healed.”

11 Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,

12 And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.

13 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it 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.

7
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.

2 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.

3
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;

4 And 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.

(7.3-4) “Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz … and … fear not.” God told Isaiah to tell Ahaz, the King of Judah, not to be concerned about Rezin (the king of Syria) or Pekah (the king of Israel). But according to 2 Chr 28.5-6 “God delivered him [Ahaz] into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter.”

5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying,

6 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:

7 Thus saith the Lord GOD, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass.

8 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.

9 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.

10 Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying,

11 Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.

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

13 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?

14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign;
Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

(7.14) “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” The King James Version mistranslates the Hebrew word “almah”, which means “young woman” as “virgin”. (The Hebrew word, “bethulah”, means “virgin”.) In addition, the young woman referred to in this verse was living at the time of the prophecy. And Jesus, of course, was called Jesus—and is not called Emmanuel in any verse in the New Testament.

15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

16 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.

17 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.

18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that
the LORD shall hiss for the fly
that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt,
and for the bee
that is in the land of Assyria.

(7.18)
“The Lord shall hiss for the fly … and for the bee.”

19 And 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.

20 In the same day shall
the Lord shave with a razor
that is hired, namely, 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.

(7.20) “The Lord shave with a razor … the hair of the feet.” God will shave men’s feet, where “feet” and “hair” are biblical euphemisms for male sexual organs and pubic hair, respectively.