Isaiah 8:9-22

English Standard Version

⁹Be broken,^[a] you peoples, and ^(A)be shattered;^[b]
    give ear, all you far countries;
strap on your armor and be shattered;
    strap on your armor and be shattered.
¹⁰Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing;
    speak a word, ^(B)but it will not stand,
    for God ^(C)is with us.^[c]

Fear God, Wait for the Lord

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

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