THE COMING ASSYRIAN INVASION

8 Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large piece of parchmentA and write on it with an ordinary pen:B,a Maher-shalal-hash-baz.C 2 I have appointedD trustworthy witnesses—the priest Uriah and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.”b

3 I 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, 4 for 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

5 The Lord spoke to me again:

6 Because these people rejected

the slowly flowing water of Shiloah

and rejoiced withE Rezin

and the son of Remaliah,e

7 the 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.

8 It will pour into Judah,

flood over it, and sweep through,

reaching up to the neck;f

and its flooded banksF

will fill your entire land, Immanuel!g

9 Band together,G peoples, and be broken;

pay attention, all you distant lands;

prepare for war, and be broken;

prepare for war, and be broken.

10 Devise a plan; it will fail.h

Make a prediction; it will not happen.

For God is with us.H,i

THE LORD OF ARMIES, THE ONLY REFUGE

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

12 Do not call everything a conspiracy

that these people say is a conspiracy.k

Do not fear what they fear;l

do not be terrified.

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

Only he should be feared;n

only he should be held in awe.

14 He will be a sanctuary;o

but for the two houses of Israel,

he will be a stonep to stumble over

and a rock to trip over,q

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

15 Many will stumble over these;r

they will fall and be broken;

they will be snared and captured.

16 Bind up the testimony.s

Seal up the instructiont among my disciples.

17 I will wait for the Lord,u

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

I will wait for him.

18 Here I am with the children the Lord has given mew to be signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of Armies who dwells on Mount Zion. 19 When they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the spiritists who chirp and mutter,”x shouldn’t a people inquire of their God?J 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.

21 They 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. 22 They will look toward the earthaa and see only distress, darkness, and the gloom of affliction, and they will be driven into thick darkness.