Isaiah 8:11-22

English Standard Version

Fear God, Wait for the Lord

¹¹For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and ^(A)warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: ¹²“Do not call ^(B)conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and ^(C)do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. ¹³But the Lord of hosts, ^(D)him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. ¹⁴And he will become a ^(E)sanctuary and ^(F)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 ^(G)shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”

¹⁶Bind up ^(H)the testimony; ^(I)seal the teaching^[a] among my disciples. ¹⁷I will ^(J)wait for the Lord, who is ^(K)hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. ¹⁸^(L)Behold, I and ^(M)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 ^(N)mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of ^(O)the dead on behalf of the living? ²⁰^(P)To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no ^(Q)dawn. ²¹They will pass through the land,^[b] greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against^[c] their king and their God, and turn their faces upward. ²²^(R)And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into ^(S)thick darkness.