Isaiah 8

1 Then the Lord told me, “Get a large tablet and write on it in with an ordinary pen, ‘Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’

And Yahweh said unto me: Take thee a large tablet, —and write thereon in plain characters, To Maher-shalal-hash-baz. ["Speed-spoil-hurry-prey".]

2 I will need Uriah the priest and Zechariah, son of Jeberekiah, to be my trustworthy witnesses.”

That I may take in attestation, faithful witnesses, —even Uriah the priest, and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.

3 Then I slept with my wife the prophetess, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. The Lord told me, “Call him Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

Then approached I unto the prophetess, and she conceived and bare a son, —and Yahweh said unto me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

4 For even before the boy knows how to say ‘Daddy’ or ‘Mommy,’ the king of Assyria will carry off Damascus' wealth and Samaria's possessions.”

For before the boy shall have knowledge to cry, My father! and, My mother! the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be carried away before the king of Assyria.

5 Then the Lord spoke to me again, saying,

And again Yahweh spake unto me yet further saying:

6 “Because this people has rejected the waters of Shiloah that gently flow and instead have rejoiced with Rezin and Remaliah's son,

Because this people hath refused the waters of Shiloah which flow softly, —and are rejoicing with Rezin and the son of Remaliah,

7 the Lord is going to bring the powerful floodwaters of the Euphrates River against them—the king of Assyria with all his glorious army. It will flood all its channels and overflow all its banks.

now therefore, lo! the Lord is about to bring up against them the waters, strong and many, of the River ["Euphrates"], even the king of Assyria and all his glory, —and he shall rise over all his channels, and flow over all his banks;

8 It will sweep on into Judah, overflowing and flooding through, reaching up to the neck. Like outspread wings it will engulf the whole of your land, Immanuel!

and roll on throughout Judah—overflow and pass along, till unto the neck, he shall reach, —and it shall be, that, the stretching out of his wings, shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel!

9 Pay attention, you nations, and be smashed! Listen, all you distant lands, get ready, but you will be smashed. Get ready, but you will be smashed.

Rage, O ye peoples, —and be overthrown, And give ear, all ye distant parts of the earth, —Gird yourselves and be overthrown, Gird yourselves, and be overthrown:

10 You can plan your strategy, but it will be foiled; you can say what you're intending, but it won't happen, for God is with us.”

Determine a plan, —and it shall be frustrated, —Speak a word, and it shall not stand, For With-us-is-GOD!

11 For this is what the Lord told me, holding me with a strong hand, instructing me not to follow the way of this people. He said,

For, thus, spake Yahweh unto me like a firm grasp of the hand, —when he admonished me, not to walk in the way of this people, saying:

12 Don't call a conspiracy everything that these people call a conspiracy. Don't fear what they fear. Don't be overawed!

Ye shall not say—A confederacy! of everything of which this people may say. A confederacy! And their fear, shall ye not fear or regard as awful:

13 The Lord Almighty is the one you should see as holy. He is the one you should fear, he is the one you should be in awe of.

Yahweh of hosts, him, shall ye hallow, —And let, him, be your fear, and let, him inspire you with awe;

14 He will be a sanctuary for you. But to the royal families of both Israel and Judah he will be a stone they trip over and a rock that makes them stumble, a trap and a snare to the people who live in Jerusalem.

So shall he become a hallowed asylum, —But a stone to strike against, and a rock to stumble over unto both houses of Israel A trap and a snare to the dweller in Jerusalem;

15 Many people will stumble over them. They will fall and be broken. They will be trapped and caught.

And many, shall stumble among them, —and fall and be torn, and snared, and captured.

16 Safeguard this testimony, seal these instructions—they are for my disciples.

Bind thou up the testimony, —Seal the instruction amongst my disciples.

17 I will wait for the Lord, the one who is hiding his face from Jacob's descendants. I will wait in hope for him.

I will therefore long for Yahweh, Who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, —And will wait, for him.

18 Look, I'm here, together with the children the Lord has given me. They are signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord Almighty, who lives on Mount Zion.

Lo! I and the children whom Yahweh hath given me, are for signs and for wonders in Israel, —from Yahweh of hosts, who is making his habitation in Mount Zion.

19 When someone suggests to you, “Go and ask mediums and spiritists who whisper and mutter,” shouldn't people ask their God? Why should they ask the dead on behalf of the living?

But, when they say unto you—Seek ye unto the necromancers and unto the wizards, who chirp, and who mutter, Should not a people seek, unto its God? In behalf of the living, [should it seek] unto the dead?

20 Go and examine God's law and his instructions! If what they say doesn't correspond with God's word, there will be no dawn for them.

To the law and to the testimony! If they speak not according to this word, [It is], because they have no dawning day.

21 They will wander round the country, depressed and hungry. When they are starving they will become furious, and looking up they will curse their king and their God.

Therefore shall they pass through it hard pressed and hungry, —And it shall be when they hunger, then will they rage and revile their king and their god and turn their faces upwards;

22 Then they will look towards the earth and see only misery and gloom and agonizing depression, and they will be thrown out into the darkness.

And unto the land, shall they look hard, And lo! distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, driven away!