Isaiah 8:1–9:1

The Coming Assyrian Invasion

8Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large tablet ^wand write on it in common characters,¹ ‘Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’^{2 2}And ^xI will get reliable witnesses, ^yUriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, to attest for me.”

³And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, ^z“Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz; ^4afor before the boy knows how to cry ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the ^awealth of ^bDamascus and the spoil of ^bSamaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”

⁵The Lord spoke to me again: ⁶“Because this people has refused the waters of ^cShiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over ^dRezin and the son of Remaliah, ⁷therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them ^ethe waters of ^fthe River,³ mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it ^gwill rise over all its channels and go over all its banks, ⁸and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, ^hreaching even to the neck, and its ⁱoutspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, ^jO Immanuel.”

⁹Be broken,⁴ you peoples, and ^kbe shattered;⁵

give ear, all you far countries;

strap on your armor and be shattered;

strap on your armor and be shattered.

¹⁰Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing;

speak a word, ^lbut it will not stand,

for God ^mis with us.⁶

Fear God, Wait for the Lord

¹¹For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and ⁿwarned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: ¹²“Do not call ^oconspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and ^pdo not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. ¹³But the Lord of hosts, ^qhim you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. ¹⁴And he will become a ^rsanctuary and ^sa stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁵And many ^tshall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”

¹⁶Bind up ^uthe testimony; ^vseal the teaching⁷ among my disciples. ¹⁷I will ^wwait for the Lord, who is ^xhiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. ^18yBehold, I and ^zthe children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. ¹⁹And when they say to you, “Inquire of the ^amediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of ^bthe dead on behalf of the living? ^20cTo the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no ^ddawn. ²¹They will pass through the land,⁸ greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against⁹ their king and their God, and turn their faces upward. ^22eAnd they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into ^fthick darkness.

For to Us a Child Is Born

9¹ But there will be no ^ggloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he ^hbrought into contempt the land of ⁱZebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he ^jhas made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.²