Isaiah 8

1 Then the Lord told me, “Get a large tablet and write on it in with an ordinary pen, ‘Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’

And the Lord said to me, Take to yourself 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.

2 I will need Uriah the priest and Zechariah, son of Jeberekiah, to be my trustworthy witnesses.”

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

3 Then I slept with my wife the prophetess, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. The Lord told me, “Call him Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

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.

4 For even before the boy knows how to say ‘Daddy’ or ‘Mommy,’ the king of Assyria will carry off Damascus' wealth and Samaria's possessions.”

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.

5 Then the Lord spoke to me again, saying,

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

6 “Because this people has rejected the waters of Shiloah that gently flow and instead have rejoiced with Rezin and Remaliah's son,

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;

7 the Lord is going to bring the powerful floodwaters of the Euphrates River against them—the king of Assyria with all his glorious army. It will flood all its channels and overflow all its banks.

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:

8 It will sweep on into Judah, overflowing and flooding through, reaching up to the neck. Like outspread wings it will engulf the whole of your land, Immanuel!

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 your land, [O] God with us.

9 Pay attention, you nations, and be smashed! Listen, all you distant lands, get ready, but you will be smashed. Get ready, but you will be smashed.

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

10 You can plan your strategy, but it will be foiled; you can say what you're intending, but it won't happen, for God is with us.”

And whatever counsel you shall take, the Lord shall bring it to nothing; and whatever word you shall speak, it shall not stand among you: for God is with us.

11 For this is what the Lord told me, holding me with a strong hand, instructing me not to follow the way of this people. He said,

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

12 Don't call a conspiracy everything that these people call a conspiracy. Don't fear what they fear. Don't be overawed!

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

13 The Lord Almighty is the one you should see as holy. He is the one you should fear, he is the one you should be in awe of.

Sanctify you the Lord himself; and he shall be your fear.

14 He will be a sanctuary for you. But to the royal families of both Israel and Judah he will be a stone they trip over and a rock that makes them stumble, a trap and a snare to the people who live in Jerusalem.

And if you shall trust in him, he shall be to you for a sanctuary; and you 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.

15 Many people will stumble over them. They will fall and be broken. They will be trapped and caught.

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

16 Safeguard this testimony, seal these instructions—they are for my disciples.

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

17 I will wait for the Lord, the one who is hiding his face from Jacob's descendants. I will wait in hope for him.

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.

18 Look, I'm here, together with the children the Lord has given me. They are signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord Almighty, who lives on Mount Zion.

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.

19 When someone suggests to you, “Go and ask mediums and spiritists who whisper and mutter,” shouldn't people ask their God? Why should they ask the dead on behalf of the living?

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?

20 Go and examine God's law and his instructions! If what they say doesn't correspond with God's word, there will be no dawn for them.

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.

21 They will wander round the country, depressed and hungry. When they are starving they will become furious, and looking up they will curse their king and their God.

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

22 Then they will look towards the earth and see only misery and gloom and agonizing depression, and they will be thrown out into the darkness.

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