Isaiah 8

¹Isaiah 8:1. Then the LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary stylus: Maher-shalal-hash-baz.²Isaiah 8:2. And I will appoint for Myself trustworthy witnesses—Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah.”³Isaiah 8:3. And 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.⁴Isaiah 8:4. For 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.”⁵Isaiah 8:5. And the LORD spoke to me further:⁶Isaiah 8:6. “Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoiced in Rezin and the son of Remaliah,⁷Isaiah 8:7. the 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.⁸Isaiah 8:8. It will pour into Judah, swirling and sweeping over it, reaching up to the neck; its spreading streams will cover your entire land, O Immanuel!⁹Isaiah 8:9. Huddle together, O peoples, and be shattered; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for battle, and be shattered; prepare for battle, and be shattered!¹⁰Isaiah 8:10. Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted; state a proposal, but it will not happen. For God is with us.”

¹¹Isaiah 8:11. For this is what the LORD has spoken to me with a strong hand, instructing me not to walk in the way of this people:¹²Isaiah 8:12. “Do not call conspiracy everything these people regard as conspiracy. Do not fear what they fear; do not live in dread.¹³Isaiah 8:13. The LORD of Hosts is the One you shall regard as holy. Only He should be feared; only He should be dreaded.¹⁴Isaiah 8:14. And 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.¹⁵Isaiah 8:15. Many will stumble over these; they will fall and be broken; they will be ensnared and captured.”¹⁶Isaiah 8:16. Bind up the testimony and seal the law among my disciples.¹⁷Isaiah 8:17. I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in Him.¹⁸Isaiah 8:18. Here 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.¹⁹Isaiah 8:19. When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists who whisper and mutter, shouldn’t a people consult their God instead? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?²⁰Isaiah 8:20. To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.²¹Isaiah 8:21. They 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.²²Isaiah 8:22. Then 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.