Isaiah 8

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.