Isaiah, 8

1. Yahweh said to me, 'Take a large tablet and on it with an ordinary stylus write, "Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz".

2. And take reliable witnesses, the priest Uriah and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.'

3. I then had intercourse with the prophetess, who then conceived and gave birth to a son. Yahweh said to me, 'Call him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz,

4. for before the child knows how to say "mother" or "father", the wealth of Damascus and the booty of Samaria will be carried away while the king of Assyria looks on.'

5. Yahweh spoke to me again and said,

6. 'Since this people has rejected the waters of Shiloah which flow smoothly, and has trembled before Razon and the son of Remaliah,

7. now, against it, the Lord will bring the mighty, swelling waters of the River (the king of Assyria and all his glory); the River will flood up all its channels and overflow all its banks;

8. it will flow into Judah, flooding everything and passing on; it will reach right up to the neck, and the spreading of its wings will cover the whole extent of your country, Immanuel!

9. Realise this, peoples, and be afraid, listen, all members of far-off nations! Arm yourselves yet be afraid! Arm yourselves yet be afraid!

10. Devise plans as you may: they will come to nothing! Make what pronouncements you like; it will not come about! For God is with us!'

11. For this was how Yahweh spoke to me when his hand seized hold of me and he taught me not to follow the path of this people, saying,

12. 'Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy; do not dread what they dread, have no fear of that.

13. Yahweh Sabaoth is the one you will proclaim holy, him you will dread, him you will fear.

14. He will be a sanctuary, a stumbling-stone, a rock to trip up the two Houses of Israel; a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem,

15. over which many of them will stumble, fall and be broken, be ensnared and made captive.

16. Bind up the testimony, seal the instruction in the heart of my disciples.'

17. My trust is in Yahweh who hides his face from the House of Jacob; I put my hope in him.

18. Look, I and the children whom Yahweh has given me shall become signs and portents in Israel on behalf of Yahweh Sabaoth who dwells on Mount Zion.

19. And should people say to you, 'Go and consult ghosts and wizards that whisper and mutter' -- a people should certainly consult its gods and the dead on behalf of the living!

20. As regards instruction and testimony, without doubt this is how they will talk, and hence there will be no dawn for them.

21. Oppressed and starving he will wander the country; and, once starving, he will become frenzied and curse his king and his God; turning his gaze upward,

22. then down to earth, there will be only anguish, gloom, the confusion of night, swirling darkness.

23. For is not everything dark as night for a country in distress? As the past humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, so the future will glorify the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, the territory of the nations.