Isaiah 8

The Coming Assyrian Invasion

¹Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large piece of parchment and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-shalal-hash-baz.²³I have appointed trustworthy witnesses — the priest Uriah and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.”⁴

⁵I was then intimate with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. The Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz,⁶⁷for before the boy knows how to call ‘Father,’ or ‘Mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria will be carried off to the king of Assyria.”⁸

⁹The Lord spoke to me again:¹⁰

¹¹Because these people rejected the slowly flowing water of Shiloah and rejoiced with Rezin and the son of Remaliah,¹²

¹³the Lord will certainly bring against them the mighty rushing water of the Euphrates River — the king of Assyria and all his glory. It will overflow its channels and spill over all its banks.¹⁴

¹⁵It will pour into Judah, flood over it, and sweep through, reaching up to the neck; and its flooded banks will fill your entire land, Immanuel!¹⁶

¹⁷Band together, peoples, and be broken; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for war, and be broken; prepare for war, and be broken.¹⁸

¹⁹Devise a plan; it will fail. Make a prediction; it will not happen. For God is with us.²⁰

The Lord of Armies, the Only Refuge

²¹For this is what the Lord said to me with great power, to keep me from going the way of this people:²²

²³Do not call everything a conspiracy that these people say is a conspiracy. Do not fear what they fear; do not be terrified.²⁴

²⁵You are to regard only the Lord of Armies as holy. Only he should be feared; only he should be held in awe.²⁶

²⁷He will be a sanctuary; but for the two houses of Israel, he will be a stone to stumble over and a rock to trip over, and a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.²⁸

²⁹Many will stumble over these; they will fall and be broken; they will be snared and captured.³⁰

³¹Bind up the testimony. Seal up the instruction among my disciples.³²

³³I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will wait for him.³⁴

³⁵Here I am with the children the Lord has given me to be signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of Armies who dwells on Mount Zion.³⁶³⁷When they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the spiritists who chirp and mutter,” shouldn’t a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?³⁸³⁹Go to God’s instruction and testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, there will be no dawn for them.⁴⁰

⁴¹They will wander through the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged, and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God.⁴²⁴³They will look toward the earth and see only distress, darkness, and the gloom of affliction, and they will be driven into thick darkness.⁴⁴