Isaías 8

Maher-shalal-hash-baz

¹The LORD said to me, “Get yourself a large tablet and write on it in ordinary letters, ‘Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’^{ab 2}I will have trustworthy witnesses confirm it for me, Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah.”^{c 3}I went in to the prophetess, and she became pregnant and bore a son. Then the LORD said to me, “Give him the name Maher-shalal-hash-baz. ⁴For before the child can say ‘Father’ or ‘Mother,’ the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be hauled away before the king of Assyria.”

⁵The LORD spoke to me once more: ⁶“This people has turned away from the gently flowing waters of Shiloah \q and takes delight in Rezin and the son of Remaliah.^{d 7}So now the Lord is about to bring against them the waters of the River, strong and plentiful: \q the king of Assyria and all his glory. \q It will rise over all its channels and spill over all its banks. ⁸It will surge on into Judah, flooding and passing through until it reaches the neck. \q Its outspread wings will cover the whole width of your land, O Immanuel.”

⁹Do your worst, you peoples, and be shattered! \q Listen, all you distant lands! \q Arm for war, and be shattered; \q arm for war, and be shattered!^{e 10}Draw up your plans; they will be undone. \q Give the order; it will not stand. For God is with us.^f

Fear only the LORD of Armies

¹¹For this is what the LORD said to me while his hand held me hard, warning me not to follow the way of this people:^{g 12}“Do not call something a plot just because this people calls it a plot. \q What frightens them must not frighten you; do not tremble at it. ¹³The LORD of Armies is the one you must treat as holy. \q Let him be the one you fear, let him be the one who makes you tremble. ¹⁴He will be a holy place of refuge, \q but also a stone that people strike against and a rock they trip over, for both houses of Israel; a trap and a snare for those who live in Jerusalem.^{h 15}Many will stumble on them and fall; \q they will be broken, caught in the snare, and carried off.”

¹⁶Wrap up the testimony, \q and put a seal on the instruction among my disciples. ¹⁷I will wait on the LORD while he keeps his face hidden from the house of Jacob; \q I will look to him in hope. ¹⁸Here I am with the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and omens in Israel \q from the LORD of Armies, who makes his home on Mount Zion.

To the instruction and the testimony

¹⁹When they tell you, “Seek out the ghosts and the familiar spirits that chirp and moan,” \q should a people not seek its own God? \q Should they go to the dead on behalf of the living?^{i 20}To the instruction and the testimony! \q Those who do not speak in keeping with this word have no dawn before them.^{j 21}They will roam through the land, worn down and hungry. \q When hunger gnaws at them, they will rage and curse their king and their God, and turn their faces upward.^{k 22}They will stare at the ground, \q and there will be trouble and darkness, the dimness of anguish; into thick darkness they are driven. ²³Yet the land in anguish will not be left in gloom. At first he brought low the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but afterward he will bring honor to the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.^lm