Isaiah 8 Amplified Bible

Damascus and Samaria Fall

8 Then the Lord said to me, “Take for yourself a large tablet [for public display] and write on it in ordinary characters: Belonging to ^[a]Maher-shalal-hash-baz. ²And I will get faithful witnesses to attest [to this prophecy] for me, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.” ³So I approached [my wife] the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz [to remind the people of the prophecy]; ⁴for before the boy knows how to say, ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the riches of Damascus (Aram’s capital) and the spoil of Samaria (Israel’s capital) ^[b]will be carried away by the king of Assyria.”

⁵Again the Lord spoke to me, saying,

⁶
“Because these people (Judah) have refused the gently flowing waters of ^[c]Shiloah
And rejoice in Rezin [the king of Aram] and Remaliah’s son [Pekah the king of Israel],
⁷
Now therefore, listen carefully, the Lord is about to bring on them the waters of the [Euphrates] River, strong and abundant—
The king of Assyria and all his glory;
And it will rise over all its channels and canals and go far beyond its banks.^(A)
⁸
“Then it will ^[d]sweep on into Judah; it will overflow and pass through [the hills],
Reaching even to the neck [of which Jerusalem is the head],
And its outstretched wings (the armies of Assyria) will fill the width of Your land, O Immanuel.^(B)

A Believing Remnant

⁹
“Be broken [in pieces], O peoples, and be shattered!
Listen, all you [our enemies from the] far countries.
Prepare yourselves [for war], and be shattered;
Prepare yourselves [for war], and be shattered.
¹⁰
“Take counsel together [against Judah], but it will come to nothing;
Speak the word, but it will not stand,
For God is with us (Immanuel).”

¹¹For in this way the Lord spoke to me with His strong hand [upon me] and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people [behaving as they do], saying,

¹²
“You are not to say, ‘It is a conspiracy!’
In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy,
And you are not to fear what they fear nor be in dread of it.
¹³
“It is the Lord of hosts whom you are to regard as holy and awesome.
He shall be your [source of] fear,
He shall be your [source of] dread [not man].
¹⁴
“Then He shall be a sanctuary [a sacred, indestructible shelter for those who fear and trust Him];
But to both the houses of Israel [both the northern and southern kingdoms—Israel and Judah, He will be] a stone on which to stumble and a rock on which to trip,
A trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.^(C)
¹⁵
“Many [among them] will stumble over them;
Then they will fall and be broken,
They will even be snared and trapped.”

¹⁶Bind up the testimony, seal the law and the teaching among my (Isaiah’s) disciples. ¹⁷And I will wait for the Lord who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; and I will look eagerly for Him. ¹⁸Listen carefully, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are ^[e]for signs and wonders [that will occur] in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

¹⁹When the people [instead of trusting God] say to you, “Consult the mediums [who try to talk to the dead] and the soothsayers who chirp and whisper and mutter,” should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? ²⁰[Direct those people] to the law and to the testimony! If their teachings are not in accord with this word, it is because they have no dawn. ²¹They [who consult mediums and soothsayers] will pass through the land deeply distressed and hungry, and when they are hungry, they will become enraged and will curse their king and their God as they look upward. ²²Then they will look to the earth, they will see only distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness and overwhelming night.

Footnotes

Isaiah 8:1 I.e. swift is the plunder, speedy is the prey.
Isaiah 8:4 Samaria was overthrown by Assyria in 722 b.c., ten years after the downfall of Damascus, fulfilling this prophecy.
Isaiah 8:6 The perennial spring outside Jerusalem that flowed to the Pool of Siloam, Jerusalem’s water supply. The spring was a symbol of God’s protection and sustaining power.
Isaiah 8:8 This prophecy was literally fulfilled, and although Aram and Israel were conquered and led into captivity, the kingdom of Judah was spared and continued for over 130 years.
Isaiah 8:18 Isaiah’s own name means “Salvation of the Lord.” His two children’s names were “signs” as well, the one (see note v 1) pointing to the coming military crisis and the other (see note 7:3) to the future restoration.