Isaiah 8:1-9:7

Common English Bible

Isaiah’s testimonies

8 The Lord said to me, “Take a large tablet, and write on it in ordinary letters,^[a] For Maher-shalal-hash-baz.^{[b] 2} Summon trusted people, Uriah the priest and Zechariah, Jeberechiah’s son, to witness it.”

³ I then had sex with the prophetess, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz. ⁴ Before the boy knows how to say ‘my father’ and ‘my mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”

⁵ The Lord spoke again to me: ⁶ Since this people has rejected the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and instead rejoices over^[c] Rezin and Remaliah’s son— ⁷ therefore, look, the Lord is raising up against them the powerful floodwaters of the Euphrates, the king of Assyria and all his glory. It will rise up over all its channels, overflowing all its banks, ⁸ and sweep into Judah, flooding, overflowing, and reaching up to the neck. But God is with us;^[d] the span of his wings will cover the width of the land.

¹¹ The Lord spoke to me, taking hold of me and warning me not to walk in the way of this people: ¹² Don’t call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy. Don’t fear what they fear, and don’t be terrified. ¹³ It is the Lord of heavenly forces whom you should hold sacred, whom you should fear, and whom you should hold in awe.

¹⁶ Bind up the testimony; seal up the teaching among my disciples. ¹⁷ I will wait for the Lord, who has hidden his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in God. ¹⁸ Look! I and the children the Lord gave me are signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of heavenly forces, who lives on Mount Zion.

¹⁹ If they say to you: “Consult the ghosts and the spirits that chirp and mutter. (Shouldn’t a people consult its gods?) Consult the dead on behalf of the living ²⁰ for instruction and for testimony”—they will surely say such things, but they will never see the dawn.^[g]

²¹ They will pass through the land,^[h] dejected and hungry, and when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will curse their king and God. They will turn toward heaven ²² and look to the earth, but they will see only distress and darkness, random movement, and the anguish and doom of banishment.^[i]

A great light

9 ^[j] Nonetheless, those who were in distress won’t be exhausted. At an earlier time, God cursed the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but later he glorified the way of the sea, the far side of the Jordan, and the Galilee of the nations.^[k]

The zeal of the Lord of heavenly forces will do this.