The Coming Assyrian Invasion

1Then the LORD said to me, “Take a large tablet and write on it in common characters,8:1 Hebrew with a man's stylus ‘Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’8:1 Maher-shalal-hash-baz means The spoil speeds, the prey hastens 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: 6“Because 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,8:7 That is, the Euphrates 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,8:9 Or Be evil you peoples, and be shattered;8:9 Or dismayed

give ear, all you far countries;

strap on your armour and be shattered;

strap on your armour 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.8:10 The Hebrew for God is with us is Immanuel

Fear God, Wait for the LORD

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: 12“Do 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 honour as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. 14And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offence 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 teaching8:16 Or law; also verse 20 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, “Enquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter”, should not a people enquire of their God? Should they enquire 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,8:21 Hebrew it greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against8:21 Or speak contemptuously by their king and their God, and turn their faces upwards. 22And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.