Isaiah 8–9

CHAPTER 8

The Coming Assyrian Invasion

¹Then Yahweh said to me, “Take for yourself a large tablet and ^awrite on it ¹in ordinary letters: ^bConcerning ²Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

²“And ¹I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, ^aUriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.”

³Then I drew near to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then Yahweh said to me, “Call his name ^1aMaher-shalal-hash-baz,

⁴for ^abefore the boy knows how to cry out ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of ^bDamascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”

⁵Again Yahweh spoke to me further, saying,

⁶“Inasmuch as these people have ^arejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah

And rejoice in ^bRezin and the son of Remaliah;

⁷Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the ^amighty and abundant waters of the ^1bRiver—

The ^cking of Assyria and all his glory;

And it will ^drise up over all its channels and go over all its banks.

⁸“Then ^ait will sweep on into Judah; it will overflow and pass through;

It will ^breach even to the neck;

And the spread of its wings will ¹fill the breadth of ²Your land, O ^cImmanuel.

Yahweh, a Sanctuary and a Stumbling Stone

⁹“^aBe broken, O peoples, and be ^1bshattered;

And give ear, all remote places of the earth.

Gird yourselves, yet be ²shattered;

Gird yourselves, yet be ³shattered.

¹⁰“^aDevise counsel, but it will be thwarted;

Speak a word, but ^bit will not stand,

For ^1cGod is with us.”

¹¹For thus Yahweh spoke to me with a ^astrong hand and disciplined me ^bnot to walk in the way of this people, saying,

¹²“You are not to say, ‘It is a ^aconspiracy!’

In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy;

And ^byou are not to fear ¹what they fear, and you shall not tremble.

¹³“It is ^aYahweh of hosts ^bwhom you should regard as holy.

And He shall be your fear,

And He shall be your cause of trembling.

¹⁴“Then He shall become a ^asanctuary;

But to both the houses of Israel, a ^bstone to strike and a rock to stumble over,

And a snare and a ^ctrap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁵“And many ^awill stumble over them;

Then they will fall and be broken;

They will even be snared and caught.”

^16aBind up the testimony, ^bseal the ¹law among ^cmy disciples.

¹⁷And I will ^await for Yahweh ^bwho is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; and I will hope for Him.

^18aBehold, I and the children whom Yahweh has given me are for ^bsigns and wonders in Israel from Yahweh of hosts, who ^cdwells on Mount Zion.

Darkness to Light Through the Prince of Peace

¹⁹Now when they say to you, “^aInquire of the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,” should not a people ^binquire of their God? Should they ^cinquire of the dead on behalf of the living?

²⁰To the ^1alaw and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because ^bthey have no dawn.

²¹And they will pass through ¹the land ^ahard-pressed and hungry, and it will be that when they are hungry, they will be angry and curse ²their king and their God as they face upward.

²²Then they will ^alook to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be ^bbanished into thick darkness.

CHAPTER 9

¹¹But there will be no more ^agloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He ^btreated the ^cland of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the ²Gentiles.

^21aThe people who walk in darkness

Will see a great light;

Those who live in the land of the shadow of death,

The light will shine on them.

^3aYou shall multiply the nation,

You ^bshall ¹make great ²their gladness;

They will be glad in Your presence

As with the gladness ³of harvest,

As ^4cmen rejoice when they divide the spoil.

⁴For ^aYou shall shatter the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders,

The rod of their ^btaskmaster, as ¹at the battle of ^cMidian.

⁵For every boot of the booted warrior in the rumbling of battle,

And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.

⁶For a ^achild will be born to us, a ^bson will be given to us;

And the ^cgovernment will ¹rest ^don His shoulders;

And His name will be called ^eWonderful Counselor, ^fMighty God,

Eternal ^gFather, Prince of ^hPeace.

⁷There will be ^ano end to the increase of His government or of peace,

On the ^bthrone of David and over his kingdom,

To establish it and to uphold it with ^cjustice and righteousness

From then on and forevermore.

^dThe zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this.

Yahweh’s Anger with Israel’s Arrogance

⁸The Lord sends a ¹message against Jacob,

And it falls on Israel.

⁹And all the people know it,

That is, ^aEphraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,

Saying in lofty pride and in ^barrogance of heart:

¹⁰“The bricks have fallen down,

But we will ^arebuild with cut stones;

The sycamores have been cut in pieces,

But we will replace them with cedars.”

¹¹Therefore Yahweh exalts against them adversaries from ^aRezin

And incites their enemies,

¹²The Arameans on the east and the ^aPhilistines on the west;

And they ^bdevour Israel with ¹gaping jaws.

^cIn spite of all this, His anger does not turn back,

And His hand is still stretched out.

¹³Yet the people ^ado not turn back to Him who struck them,

Nor do they ^bseek Yahweh of hosts.

¹⁴So Yahweh cuts off ^ahead and tail from Israel,

Both palm branch and bulrush ^bin a single day.

¹⁵The head is ^athe elder and the ¹highly respected man,

And the prophet who teaches ^bfalsehood is the tail.

^16aFor those who guide this people are leading them astray;

And those who are guided by them are ¹brought to confusion.

¹⁷Therefore the Lord ^ais not glad in their choice men,

^bNor does He have compassion on their ¹orphans or their widows;

For every one of them is ^cgodless and an ^devildoer,

And every ^emouth is speaking wicked foolishness.

^fIn spite of all this, His anger does not turn back,

And His hand is still stretched out.

^18aFor wickedness burns like a fire;

It consumes briars and thorns;

It even sets the thickets of the forest aflame,

And they roll upward in a column of smoke.

¹⁹By the ^afury of Yahweh of hosts the ^bland is burned up,

And the ^cpeople are like fuel for the fire;

No ^dman spares his brother.

²⁰¹They slice off what is on the right hand but still are ^ahungry,

And ²they eat what is on the left hand but they are not satisfied;

Each of them eats the ^bflesh of his own arm.

²¹Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,

^aAnd together they are against Judah.

^bIn spite of all this, His anger does not turn back,

And His hand is still stretched out.