Isaiah 8

1Yahweh said to me, "Take a large tablet and write on it in ordinary script: Maher-shalal-hash-baz."

2I took trustworthy witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.

3I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Yahweh said to me, "Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz."

4For before the child knows to say "My father" or "My mother," the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried before the king of Assyria.

5Yahweh spoke to me again, saying,

6Because this people has rejected Shiloah's gently flowing waters and delights in Rezin and Remaliah's son,

7Therefore, see, Yahweh brings upon them the River's strong and overflowing waters—the king of Assyria, with all his glory. They will rise over every channel and flood every bank.

8It will surge into Judah, overflow and pass through, rise even to the neck, and the span of its wings will fill the width of your land, Immanuel.

9Unite, O peoples, and shatter! All you distant lands, listen: arm for war, and break apart! Arm for war, and break apart!

10Devise a plan together, but it will fail; speak out, but it will not prevail, for God is with us.

11For Yahweh said this to me with a strong hand and warned me not to walk in the way of this people,

12Do not call conspiracy whatever this people calls conspiracy, nor fear what they fear, nor dread.

13Sanctify Yahweh of hosts; he is your sanctuary, and he is your fear, and he is your dread.

14He will be a refuge, but a stone that trips them and a rock over which they stumble to both houses of Israel—a trap and a snare to those dwelling in Jerusalem.

15Many will stumble on it, fall, shatter, get trapped, and be captured.

16Secure the testimony. Seal the instruction among my disciples.

17I will wait for Yahweh, who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.

18I and the children whom Yahweh has given me stand as signs and wonders in Israel from Yahweh of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

19When they tell you, "Inquire of the mediums and the sorcerers who whisper and murmur," should a people not inquire of their God? On behalf of the living, why the dead?

20Look to the instruction and the testimony. If they do not speak according to this word, no dawn awaits them.

21They will wander through it, anguished and famished; and when hunger overtakes them, they will rage and revile their king and their God, gazing upward.

22They look to the earth and see distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, and they are driven into thick darkness.