Isaiah 8
New Living Translation
The Coming Assyrian Invasion
8 Then the Lord said to me, “Make a large signboard and clearly write this name on it: Maher-shalal-hash-baz.[a]” 2 I asked Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah, both known as honest men, to witness my doing this.
3 Then I slept with my wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said, “Call him Maher-shalal-hash-baz. 4 For before this child is old enough to say ‘Papa’ or ‘Mama,’ the king of Assyria will carry away both the abundance of Damascus and the riches of Samaria.”
5 Then the Lord spoke to me again and said, 6 “My care for the people of Judah is like the gently flowing waters of Shiloah, but they have rejected it. They are rejoicing over what will happen to[b] King Rezin and King Pekah.[c] 7 Therefore, the Lord will overwhelm them with a mighty flood from the Euphrates River[d]—the king of Assyria and all his glory. This flood will overflow all its channels 8 and sweep into Judah until it is chin deep. It will spread its wings, submerging your land from one end to the other, O Immanuel.
9 “Huddle together, you nations, and be terrified.
Listen, all you distant lands.
Prepare for battle, but you will be crushed!
Yes, prepare for battle, but you will be crushed!
10 Call your councils of war, but they will be worthless.
Develop your strategies, but they will not succeed.
For God is with us![e]”
A Call to Trust the Lord
11 The Lord has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does. He said,
12 “Don’t call everything a conspiracy, like they do,
and don’t live in dread of what frightens them.
13 Make the Lord of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life.
He is the one you should fear.
He is the one who should make you tremble.
14 He will keep you safe.
But to Israel and Judah
he will be a stone that makes people stumble,
a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of Jerusalem
he will be a trap and a snare.
15 Many will stumble and fall,
never to rise again.
They will be snared and captured.”
16 Preserve the teaching of God;
entrust his instructions to those who follow me.
17 I will wait for the Lord,
who has turned away from the descendants of Jacob.
I will put my hope in him.
18 I and the children the Lord has given me serve as signs and warnings to Israel from the Lord of Heaven’s Armies who dwells in his Temple on Mount Zion.
19 Someone may say to you, “Let’s ask the mediums and those who consult the spirits of the dead. With their whisperings and mutterings, they will tell us what to do.” But shouldn’t people ask God for guidance? Should the living seek guidance from the dead?
20 Look to God’s instructions and teachings! People who contradict his word are completely in the dark. 21 They will go from one place to another, weary and hungry. And because they are hungry, they will rage and curse their king and their God. They will look up to heaven 22 and down at the earth, but wherever they look, there will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. They will be thrown out into the darkness.
Isaiah 8
International Standard Version
Isaiah’s Son is Born
8 The Lord also told me, “Take a large tablet and write on it with a stylus[a] pen, ‘For Maher-shalal-hash-baz’.[b] 2 Then I will call[c] Uriah the priest and Jeberechiah’s son Zechariah as reliable witnesses to testify on my behalf.”
3 After this, I was intimate with the prophetess and she conceived. Later, she bore a son, and then the Lord told me,[d] “Call him[e] ‘Maher-shalal-hash-baz,’ 4 for before the young lad knows how to call out to his father or mother,[f] the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.”
Invasion by Assyria
5 The Lord spoke to me again: 6 “Because this people have rejected the gently-flowing waters of Shiloah, and because[g] they keep rejoicing in Rezin and Remaliah’s son, 7 watch out! The Lord God[h] is about to bring the flood waters of the Euphrates[i] River against them, mighty and strong.[j]
“It’s the king of Assyria and all of his arrogance! He will rise over all of the river’s channels and run over all of its banks. 8 He will sweep on into Judah, overflowing as he passes through, like flood waters[k] reaching up to a person’s neck. His outstretched wings will flow as wide as your land, O Immanuel!”
9 “Band together,[l] you peoples,
but be shattered!
Listen, all you distant countries!
Strap on your armor,
but be shattered.[m]
10 Take counsel together,
but it will all be for nothing;
go ahead and talk,
but[n] it will all be for nothing,[o]
for God is with us.”[p]
Waiting on God
11 For[q] this is what the Lord spoke to me, as his forceful hand was resting on me, and as he was warning me not to live the way this people were living:[r]
12 “Don’t call conspiracy everything
that this people calls conspiracy,
and don’t fear what they fear,
or live in terror.
13 The Lord of the Heavenly Armies—
he’s the one you are to regard as holy.
Let him be the one whom you fear,
and let him be the one before whom you stand in terror!
14 Then he will be a sanctuary,
but for both houses of Israel
he’ll also be a stone with which someone strikes himself,
a rock one stumbles over,
a trap and a snare to those who live in Jerusalem.
15 Many will stumble on them;
They’ll fall and be broken;
They’ll be snared and captured.
16 “Bind up the testimony,
and seal up the teaching among my disciples.
17 I’ll wait for the Lord,
who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob,
and I’ll put my trust in him.
18 Watch out! I and the children
whom the Lord has given me
are a sign and a wonder[s] in Israel
from the Lord of the Heavenly Armies,
who resides on Mount Zion.”
Rejecting Occultic Wisdom
19 “So when they advise you,
‘Ask the mediums your questions,
and quiz the spiritists who chirp and mutter,’
shouldn’t a people instead be consulting their God—[t]
and not the dead—
on behalf of those who are living
20 for instruction and for testimony?
Surely they are speaking like this
because the truth[u] hasn’t dawned on them.
21 “They’ll pass through the land,[v]
while[w] greatly distressed and hungry.
When they are hungry,
they’ll become enraged,
and they’ll curse their king and their god.[x]
They’ll turn their faces upwards,
22 or they’ll look toward the[y] earth,
but they’ll see only distress and darkness,
the gloom that comes from anguish,
and then they’ll be thrown into total darkness.”
Footnotes
- Isaiah 8:1 Or with an ordinary
- Isaiah 8:1 The Heb. name Maher-shalal-hash-baz means Hurry to the plunder, quick to the loot
- Isaiah 8:2 So 1QIsaa LXX; MT reads call in
- Isaiah 8:3 So 1QIsaa MT LXX; 4QIsae lacks me
- Isaiah 8:3 Lit. Call his name
- Isaiah 8:4 So 1QIsaa; MT reads out ‘My father!’ or ‘My mother!’; LXX reads ‘Father!’ or ‘Mother!’
- Isaiah 8:6 1QIsaa MT lack because
- Isaiah 8:7 So 1QIsaa; MT reads the Lord
- Isaiah 8:7 1QIsaa MT lack Euphrates
- Isaiah 8:7 So 4QIsaf MT LXX; 1QIsaa lacks mighty and strong
- Isaiah 8:8 DSS MT lack like flood waters
- Isaiah 8:9 So 1QIsaa MT; 4QIsae 4QIsaf LXX read Learn this; or Know this
- Isaiah 8:9 So 1QIsaa; MT adds a second strap on your armor but be shattered; cf. LXX
- Isaiah 8:10 So 1QIsaa MT; 4QIsae LXX lack but
- Isaiah 8:10 Lit. it won’t stand
- Isaiah 8:10 I.e. a word play on the name Immanuel; cf. 7:14, 8:8
- Isaiah 8:11 So 1QIsaa 4QIsae MT; 4QIsaf LXX Syr lack For
- Isaiah 8:11 Lit. not to walk in the way of this people
- Isaiah 8:18 So 1QIsaa; MT LXX read are signs and wonders
- Isaiah 8:19 So 1QIsaa LXX; MT reads gods
- Isaiah 8:20 1QIsaa MT lack the truth
- Isaiah 8:21 Lit. through it
- Isaiah 8:21 So 1QIsaa; the Heb. lacks while
- Isaiah 8:21 So 1QIsaa; MT reads gods; LXX reads idols
- Isaiah 8:22 So 1QIsaa LXX; the Heb. lacks the
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