Isaiah 8

¹Then the Lord said to me, Take a large tablet and write on it in common characters , Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz .

²And I will get reliable witnesses , Uriah 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, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz ;

⁴for before the boy knows how to cry My father or My mother , the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria .

⁵The Lord spoke to me again :

⁶Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently , and rejoice over Rezin and the son of Remaliah ,

⁷therefore , behold , the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River , mighty and many , the king of Assyria and all his glory . And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks ,

⁸and it will sweep on into Judah , it will overflow and pass on , reaching even to the neck , and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land , O Immanuel .

⁹Be broken , you peoples , and be shattered ; 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 , but it will not stand , for God is with us.

¹¹For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people , saying :

¹²Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy , and do not fear what they fear , nor be in dread .

¹³But the Lord of hosts , him you shall honor as holy . Let him be your fear , and let him be your dread .

¹⁴And he will become a sanctuary and a 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 shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken ; they shall be snared and taken .

¹⁶Bind up the testimony ; seal the teaching among my disciples .

¹⁷I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob , and I will hope in him.

¹⁸Behold , I and the 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 mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter , should not a people inquire of their God ? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living ?

²⁰To the teaching and to the testimony ! If they will not speak according to this word , it is because they have no dawn .

²¹They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry . And when they are hungry , they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God , and turn their faces upward .

²²And they will look to the earth , but behold , distress and darkness , the gloom of anguish . And they will be thrust into thick darkness .