IsaiahChapter 8

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¹Then the LORD said to me, "Take a large scroll. Write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-shalal-hash-baz."a ²"I will choose trustworthy witnesses for myself. They are Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah." ³Then I slept with the prophetess. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. The LORD said to me, "Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz. ⁴For before the boy knows how to say 'Father' or 'Mother,' the king of Assyria will carry off the riches of Damascus. He will carry off what was taken from Samaria." ⁵The LORD spoke to me again. He said, ⁶"Because these people have turned away from the gently flowing waters of Shiloah, and are happy about Rezin and the son of Remaliah, ⁷the Lord will surely bring the mighty flood waters of the Euphrates against them. That flood is the king of Assyria and all his power and glory. It will rise over all its channels. It will spill over all its banks. ⁸It will pour into Judah. It will swirl and sweep over it. It will rise as high as the neck. Its wide waters will cover your whole land, Immanuel! ⁹Band together, you peoples, and be crushed!
Listen, all you faraway lands!
Get ready for battle, and be crushed!
Get ready for battle, and be crushed! ¹⁰Make a plan, but it will fail.
Give orders, but they will not happen.
For God is with us." ¹¹The LORD spoke to me with his strong hand on me. He warned me not to live the way these people live. He said, ¹²"Don't call everything a plot that these people call a plot. Don't fear what they fear. Don't be filled with dread. ¹³The LORD of Hosts is the one you must treat as holy. He is the only one you should fear. He is the only one you should dread. ¹⁴He will be a holy place of safety. But for both houses of Israel, he will be a stone that makes people trip. He will be a rock that makes them fall. For the people of Jerusalem, he will be a trap and a snare. ¹⁵Many of them will trip over these. They will fall and be broken. They will be trapped and caught." ¹⁶Tie up the testimony. Seal up the law among my disciples. ¹⁷I will wait for the LORD. He is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. But I will put my trust in him. ¹⁸Here I am, with the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD of Hosts, who lives on Mount Zion. ¹⁹People will tell you to ask mediums and spiritists for advice. Those people whisper and mutter. But shouldn't a people ask their God instead? Why ask the dead about the living? ²⁰Go to the law and to the testimony! If they don't speak by this word, they have no light of dawn. ²¹They will wander through the land, sad and hungry. When they are starving, they will get angry. They will look up and curse their king and their God. ²²Then they will look at the earth. They will see only trouble and darkness and terrible gloom. And they will be pushed into total darkness.