Isaiah 8

1 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".]

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

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

3 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.

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 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.

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 And again Yahweh spake unto me yet further saying:

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

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

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 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;

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 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!

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 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:

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

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

11 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:

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

12 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:

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

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

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

14 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;

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

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

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

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

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

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 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?

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

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 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;

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

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.