Isaiah 8–9

THE COMING ASSYRIAN INVASION

8Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large piece of parchment^A and write on it with an ordinary pen:^Ba Maher-shalal-hash-baz.^{C 2}I have appointed^D trustworthy witnesses—the priest Uriah and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.”^b

³I was then intimate with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. The Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz, ⁴for before the boy knows how to call ‘Father,’ or ‘Mother,’^c the wealth of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria will be carried off to the king of Assyria.”^d

⁵The Lord spoke to me again:

⁶Because these people rejected

the slowly flowing water of Shiloah

and rejoiced with^E Rezin

and the son of Remaliah,^e

⁷the Lord will certainly bring against them

the mighty rushing water of the Euphrates River—

the king of Assyria and all his glory.

It will overflow its channels

and spill over all its banks.

⁸It will pour into Judah,

flood over it, and sweep through,

reaching up to the neck;^f

and its flooded banks^F

will fill your entire land, Immanuel!^g

⁹Band together,^G peoples, and be broken;

pay attention, all you distant lands;

prepare for war, and be broken;

prepare for war, and be broken.

¹⁰Devise a plan; it will fail.^h

Make a prediction; it will not happen.

For God is with us.^Hi

THE LORD OF ARMIES, THE ONLY REFUGE

¹¹For this is what the Lord said to me with great power, to keep^I me from going the way of this people:^j

¹²Do not call everything a conspiracy

that these people say is a conspiracy.^k

Do not fear what they fear;^l

do not be terrified.

¹³You are to regard only the Lord of Armies as holy.^m

Only he should be feared;ⁿ

only he should be held in awe.

¹⁴He will be a sanctuary;^o

but for the two houses of Israel,

he will be a stone^p to stumble over

and a rock to trip over,^q

and a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁵Many will stumble over these;^r

they will fall and be broken;

they will be snared and captured.

¹⁶Bind up the testimony.^s

Seal up the instruction^t among my disciples.

¹⁷I will wait for the Lord,^u

who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob.^v

I will wait for him.

¹⁸Here I am with the children the Lord has given me^w to be signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of Armies who dwells on Mount Zion. ¹⁹When they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the spiritists who chirp and mutter,”^x shouldn’t a people inquire of their God?^A Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?^{y 20}Go to God’s instruction and testimony!^z If they do not speak according to this word, there will be no dawn for them.

²¹They will wander through the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged, and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. ²²They will look toward the earth^aa and see only distress, darkness, and the gloom of affliction, and they will be driven into thick darkness.

BIRTH OF THE PRINCE OF PEACE

9Nevertheless, the gloom of the distressed land will not be like that of the former times when he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.^ab But in the future he will bring honor to the way of the sea, to the land east of the Jordan, and to Galilee of the nations.

²The people walking in darkness

have seen a great light;^ac

a light has dawned

on those living in the land of darkness.^ad

³You have enlarged the nation

and increased its joy.^Bae

The people have rejoiced before you

as they rejoice at harvest time

and as they rejoice when dividing spoils.^a

⁴For you have shattered their oppressive yoke^b

and the rod on their shoulders,

the staff of their oppressor,

just as you did on the day of Midian.^c

⁵For every trampling boot of battle

and the bloodied garments of war

will be burned as fuel for the fire.

⁶For a child will be born for us,

a son will be given to us,^d

and the government will be on his shoulders.^e

He will be named

Wonderful Counselor,^f Mighty God,^g

Eternal Father,^h Prince of Peace.ⁱ

⁷The dominion will be vast,

and its prosperity will never end.^j

He will reign on the throne of David

and over his kingdom,

to establish and sustain it

with justice and righteousness from now on and forever.

The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.^k

THE HAND RAISED AGAINST ISRAEL

⁸The Lord sent a message against Jacob;

it came against Israel.

⁹All the people—

Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria^l—will know it.

They will say with pride and arrogance,

¹⁰“The bricks have fallen,

but we will rebuild with cut stones;

the sycamores have been cut down,

but we will replace them with cedars.”

¹¹The Lord has raised up Rezin’s adversaries against him

and stirred up his enemies.

¹²Aram from the east and Philistia from the west

have consumed Israel with open mouths.

In all this, his anger has not turned away,

and his hand is still raised to strike.^m

¹³The people did not turn to him who struck them;

they did not seek the Lord of Armies.

¹⁴So the Lord cut off Israel’s head and tail,ⁿ

palm branch and reed in a single day.

¹⁵The head is the elder, the honored one;^o

the tail is the prophet, the one teaching lies.^p

¹⁶The leaders of the people mislead them,

and those they mislead are swallowed up.^A

¹⁷Therefore the Lord does not rejoice

over^B Israel’s young men

and has no compassion

on its fatherless and widows,

for everyone is a godless evildoer,^q

and every mouth speaks folly.

In all this, his anger has not turned away,

and his hand is still raised to strike.

¹⁸For wickedness burns like a fire^r

that consumes thorns and briers

and kindles the forest thickets

so that they go up in a column of smoke.

¹⁹The land is scorched

by the wrath of the Lord of Armies,

and the people are like fuel for the fire.^s

No one has compassion on his brother.^t

²⁰They carve meat on the right,

but they are still hungry;^u

they have eaten on the left,

but they are still not satisfied.

Each one eats the flesh of his arm.^v

²¹Manasseh eats Ephraim,

and Ephraim, Manasseh;

together, both are against Judah.^w

In all this, his anger has not turned away,

and his hand is still raised to strike.^x