Isaiah 8

Swift is the plunder

Then the LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary stylus: Maher-shalal-hash-baz. ²And I will appoint for Myself trustworthy witnesses—Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah.” ³And I had relations with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. The LORD said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

⁴For before the boy knows how to cry ‘Father’ or ‘Mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.” ⁵And the LORD spoke to me further: ⁶“Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoiced in Rezin and the son of Remaliah, ⁷the Lord will surely bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates — the king of Assyria and all his pomp. It will overflow its channels and overrun its banks.

⁸It will pour into Judah, swirling and sweeping over it, reaching up to the neck; its spreading streams will cover your entire land, O Immanuel!a ⁹Huddle together, O peoples, and be shattered; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for battle, and be shattered; prepare for battle, and be shattered! ¹⁰Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted; state a proposal, but it will not happen. For God is with us.”b

Fear God and no other

¹¹For this is what the LORD has spoken to me with a strong hand, instructing me not to walk in the way of this people: ¹²“Do not call conspiracy everything these people regard as conspiracy. Do not fear what they fear; do not live in dread.c ¹³The LORD of Hosts is the One you shall regard as holy. Only He should be feared; only He should be dreaded.d

¹⁴And He will be a sanctuary— but to both houses of Israel a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, to the dwellers of Jerusalem a trap and a snare.e ¹⁵Many will stumble over these; they will fall and be broken; they will be ensnared and captured.” ¹⁶Bind up the testimony and seal the law among my disciples.

¹⁷I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in Him.f ¹⁸Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me as signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD of Hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.g

To the law and to the testimony

¹⁹When men tell you to consult the spirits of the dead and the spiritists who whisper and mutter, shouldn’t a people consult their God instead? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?h ²⁰To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.i ²¹They will roam the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged; and looking upward, they will curse their king and their God.

²²Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.