Esias 8

1 And the Lord said to me, Take to thyself a volume of a great new [book], and write in it with a man's pen concerning the making a rapid plunder of spoils; for it is near at hand.

And Yahweh said unto me: Take thee a large tablet, —and write thereon in plain characters, To Maher-shalal-hash-baz. ["Speed-spoil-hurry-prey".]

2 And make me witnesses [of] faithful men, Urias, and Zacharias the son of Barachias.

That I may take in attestation, faithful witnesses, —even Uriah the priest, and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.

3 And I went in to the prophetess; and she conceived, and bore a son. And the Lord said to me, Call his name, Spoil quickly, plunder speedily.

Then approached I unto the prophetess, and she conceived and bare a son, —and Yahweh said unto me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

4 For before the child shall know [how] to call [his] father or [his] mother, [one] shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria before the king of the Assyrians.

For before the boy shall have knowledge to cry, My father! and, My mother! the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be carried away before the king of Assyria.

5 And the Lord spoke to me yet again, [saying],

And again Yahweh spake unto me yet further saying:

6 Because this people chooses not the water of Siloam that goes softly, but wills to have Rassin, and the son of Romelias [to be] king over you;

Because this people hath refused the waters of Shiloah which flow softly, —and are rejoicing with Rezin and the son of Remaliah,

7 therefore, behold, the Lord brings up upon you the water of the river, strong and abundant, [even] the king of the Assyrians, and his glory: and he shall come up over every valley of yours, and shall walk over every wall of yours:

now therefore, lo! the Lord is about to bring up against them the waters, strong and many, of the River ["Euphrates"], even the king of Assyria and all his glory, —and he shall rise over all his channels, and flow over all his banks;

8 and he shall take away from Juda [every] man who shall be able to lift up his head, [and every one] able to accomplish anything; and his camp shall fill the breadth of thy land, [O] God with us.

and roll on throughout Judah—overflow and pass along, till unto the neck, he shall reach, —and it shall be, that, the stretching out of his wings, shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel!

9 Know, ye Gentiles, and be conquered; hearken ye, even to the extremity of the earth: be conquered, after ye strengthened yourselves; for even if ye should again strengthen yourselves, ye shall again be conquered.

Rage, O ye peoples, —and be overthrown, And give ear, all ye distant parts of the earth, —Gird yourselves and be overthrown, Gird yourselves, and be overthrown:

10 And whatsoever counsel ye shall take, the Lord shall bring it to nought; and whatsoever word ye shall speak, it shall not stand among you: for God is with us.

Determine a plan, —and it shall be frustrated, —Speak a word, and it shall not stand, For With-us-is-GOD!

11 Thus saith the Lord, With a strong hand they revolt from the course of the way of this people, saying,

For, thus, spake Yahweh unto me like a firm grasp of the hand, —when he admonished me, not to walk in the way of this people, saying:

12 Let them not say, [It is] hard, for whatsoever this people says, is hard: but fear not ye their fear, neither be dismayed.

Ye shall not say—A confederacy! of everything of which this people may say. A confederacy! And their fear, shall ye not fear or regard as awful:

13 Sanctify ye the Lord himself; and he shall be thy fear.

Yahweh of hosts, him, shall ye hallow, —And let, him, be your fear, and let, him inspire you with awe;

14 And if thou shalt trust in him, he shall be to thee for a sanctuary; and ye shall not come against [him] as against a stumbling-stone, neither as against the falling of a rock: but the houses of Jacob are in a snare, and the dwellers in Jerusalem in a pit.

So shall he become a hallowed asylum, —But a stone to strike against, and a rock to stumble over unto both houses of Israel A trap and a snare to the dweller in Jerusalem;

15 Therefore many among them shall be weak, and fall, and be crushed; and they shall draw nigh, and men shall be taken securely.

And many, shall stumble among them, —and fall and be torn, and snared, and captured.

16 Then shall those who seal themselves that they may not learn the law be made manifest.

Bind thou up the testimony, —Seal the instruction amongst my disciples.

17 And [one] shall say, I will wait for God, who has turned away his face from the house of Jacob, and I will trust in him.

I will therefore long for Yahweh, Who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, —And will wait, for him.

18 Behold I and the children which God has given me: and they shall be [for] signs and wonders in the house of Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells in mount Sion.

Lo! I and the children whom Yahweh hath given me, are for signs and for wonders in Israel, —from Yahweh of hosts, who is making his habitation in Mount Zion.

19 And if they should say to you, Seek those who have in them a divining spirit, and them that speak out of the earth, them that speak vain words, who speak out of their belly: shall not a nation diligently seek to their God? why do they seek to the dead concerning the living?

But, when they say unto you—Seek ye unto the necromancers and unto the wizards, who chirp, and who mutter, Should not a people seek, unto its God? In behalf of the living, [should it seek] unto the dead?

20 For he has given the law for a help, that they should not speak according to this word, concerning which there are no gifts to give for it.

To the law and to the testimony! If they speak not according to this word, [It is], because they have no dawning day.

21 And famine shall come sorely upon you, and it shall come to pass, [that] when ye shall be hungry, ye shall be grieved, and ye shall speak ill of the prince and your fathers' ordinances: and they shall look up to heaven above,

Therefore shall they pass through it hard pressed and hungry, —And it shall be when they hunger, then will they rage and revile their king and their god and turn their faces upwards;

22 and they shall look on the earth below, and behold severe distress, and darkness, affliction, and anguish, and darkness so that [one cannot] see; and he that is in anguish shall not be distressed only for a time.

And unto the land, shall they look hard, And lo! distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, driven away!