Isaiah 8–9

Assyria Will Come Soon

8The Lord told me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: ‘Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.’ ²I will gather some men to be reliable witnesses: Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah.”

³Then I went to the prophetess, and she became pregnant and had a son. The Lord told me, “Name the boy Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, ^{n 4}because the king of Assyria will take away all the wealth and possessions of Damascus and Samaria before the boy learns to say ‘my father’ or ‘my mother.’ ”

⁵Again the Lord spoke to me, saying,

⁶“These people refuse to accept

the slow-moving waters of the pool of Shiloah

and are terrified of Rezin

and Pekah son of Remaliah.

⁷So I, the Lord, will bring

the king of Assyria and all his power against them,

like a powerful flood of water from the Euphrates River.

The Assyrians will be like water rising over the banks of the river,

flowing over the land.

⁸That water will flow into Judah and pass through it,

rising to Judah’s throat.

Immanuel, this army will spread its wings like a bird

until it covers your whole country.”

⁹Be broken, all you nations,

and be smashed to pieces.

Listen, all you faraway countries.

Prepare for battle and be smashed to pieces!

Prepare for battle and be smashed to pieces!

¹⁰Make your plans for the fight,

but they will be defeated.

Give orders to your armies,

but they will be useless,

because God is with us.

Warnings to Isaiah

¹¹The Lord spoke to me with his great power and warned me not to follow the lead of the rest of the people. He said,

¹²“People are saying that others make plans against them,

but you should not believe them.

Don’t be afraid of what they fear;

do not dread those things.

¹³But remember that the Lord All-Powerful is holy.

He is the one you should fear;

he is the one you should dread.

¹⁴Then he will be a place of safety for you.

But for the two families of Israel,

he will be like a stone that causes people to stumble,

like a rock that makes them fall.

He will be like a trap for the people of Jerusalem,

and he will catch them in his trap.

¹⁵Many people will fall over this rock.

They will fall and be broken;

they will be trapped and caught.”

¹⁶Make an agreement.

Seal up the teaching while my followers are watching.

¹⁷I will wait for the Lord to help us,

the Lord who is ashamed of the family of Israel.

I will wait for him.

¹⁸I am here, and with me are the children the Lord has given me. We are signs and proofs for the people of Israel from the Lord All-Powerful, who lives on Mount Zion.

¹⁹Some people say, “Ask the mediums and fortune-tellers, who whisper and mutter, what to do.” But I tell you that people should ask their God for help. Why should people who are still alive ask something from the dead? ²⁰You should follow the teachings and the agreement with the Lord. The mediums and fortune-tellers do not speak the word of the Lord, so their words are worth nothing.

²¹People will wander through the land troubled and hungry. When they become hungry, they will become angry and will look up and curse their king and their God. ²²They will look around them at their land and see only trouble, darkness, and awful gloom. And they will be forced into the darkness.

A New Day Is Coming

9But suddenly there will be no more gloom for the land that suffered. In the past God made the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali hang their heads in shame, but in the future those lands will be made great. They will stretch from the road along the Mediterranean Sea to the land beyond the Jordan River and north to Galilee, the land of people who are not Israelites.

²Before those people lived in darkness,

but now they have seen a great light.

They lived in a dark land,

but a light has shined on them.

³God, you have caused the nation to grow

and made the people happy.

And they have shown their happiness to you,

like the joy during harvest time,

like the joy of people

taking what they have won in war.

⁴Like the time you defeated Midian,

you have taken away their heavy load

and the heavy pole from their backs

and the rod the enemy used to punish them.

⁵Every boot that marched in battle

and every uniform stained with blood

has been thrown into the fire.

⁶A child has been born to us;

God has given a son to us.

He will be responsible for leading the people.

His name will be Wonderful Counselor, Powerful God,

Father Who Lives Forever, Prince of Peace.

⁷Power and peace will be in his kingdom

and will continue to grow forever.

He will rule as king on David’s throne

and over David’s kingdom.

He will make it strong

by ruling with justice and goodness

from now on and forever.

The Lord All-Powerful will do this

because of his strong love for his people.

God Will Punish Israel

8The Lord sent a message against the people of Jacob;

it says that God will judge Israel.

⁹Then everyone in Israel, even the leaders in Samaria,

will know that God has sent it.

Those people are proud and brag by saying,

¹⁰“These bricks have fallen,

but we will build again with cut stones.

These small trees have been chopped down,

but we will put great cedars there.”

¹¹But the Lord has brought the enemies of Rezin against them;

he has stirred up their enemies against them.

¹²The Arameans came from the east

and the Philistines from the west,

and they ate up Israel with their armies.

But the Lord was still angry;

his hand was still raised to punish the people.

¹³But the people did not return to the one who had struck them;

they did not follow the Lord All-Powerful.

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

taking away both the branch and stalk in one day.

¹⁵The elders and important men were the head,

and the prophets who speak lies were the tail.

¹⁶Those who led the people led them in the wrong direction,

and those who followed them were destroyed.

¹⁷So the Lord is not happy with the young people,

nor will he show mercy to the orphans and widows.

All the people are separated from God and are very evil;

they all speak lies.

But the Lord is still angry;

his hand is still raised to strike down the people.

¹⁸Evil is like a small fire.

First, it burns weeds and thorns.

Next, it burns the larger bushes in the forest,

and they all go up in a column of smoke.

¹⁹The Lord All-Powerful is angry,

so the land will be burned.

The people are like fuel for the fire;

no one will try to save his brother or sister.

²⁰People will grab something on the right,

but they will still be hungry.

They will eat something on the left,

but they will not be filled.

Then they will each turn and eat their own children.

²¹The people of Manasseh will fight against the people of Ephraim,

and Ephraim will fight against Manasseh.

Then both of them will turn against Judah.

But the Lord is still angry;

his hand is still raised to strike down the people.