Old Testament · Isaiah

Isaiah 8

Assyrian Invasion Prophesied

1And the LORD said to me: "Take for yourself a great tablet, and write upon it with a man's stylus: For Maher-shalal-hash-baz. 2And I will take to witness for me faithful witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah."

3And I drew near to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. And the LORD said to me: "Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz. 4For before the youth knows to call 'my father' and 'my mother,' the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be carried away before the king of Assyria."

5And the LORD again spoke to me, saying:

6"Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoices with Rezin and the son of Remaliah,
7therefore, behold, my Lord^a is bringing up upon them the waters of the River, the mighty and the many, the king of Assyria and all his glory; and it shall rise over all its channels and go over all its banks.
8And it shall sweep into Judah, overflow and pass through; up to the neck it shall reach; and the spreading of its wings shall be the fullness of the breadth of your land, O Immanuel."
9Be broken, O peoples, and be shattered; and give ear, all far places of the earth; gird yourselves and be shattered, gird yourselves and be shattered.
10Counsel a counsel, and it shall be broken; speak a word, and it shall not stand; for God is with us.

A Call to Fear God

(Ecclesiastes 8:10–13)

11For thus said the LORD to me, with strength of hand, and instructed me against walking in the way of this people, saying:

12"You shall not say 'conspiracy' to all that this people says 'conspiracy'; and its fear you shall not fear, and you shall not dread.
13The LORD of hosts^b, him you shall sanctify; and he is your fear, and he is your dread.
14And he shall be for a sanctuary, but for a stone of striking and for a rock of stumbling to the two houses of Israel, for a trap and for a snare to the inhabitant of Jerusalem.
15And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be caught."
16Bind up the testimony^c, seal the Torah among my disciples.
17And I will wait for the LORD, who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope for him.

18Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs^d and for wonders^e in Israel, from the LORD of hosts, who dwells in Mount Zion.

Darkness and Light

19And when they say to you: "Seek to the ghosts and to the familiar spirits that chirp and that mutter" — should not a people seek to its God? On behalf of the living^f, to the dead? 20To the Torah and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is one for which there is no dawn.

21And he shall pass through it, hard pressed and hungry; and it shall come to pass, when he is hungry, that he shall rage and curse by his king and by his God, and turn his face upward. 22And to the earth he shall look, and behold distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and into thick darkness he is driven away.

Unto Us a Child Is Born

(Matthew 4:12–17; Mark 1:14–15; Luke 4:14–15)

23For there is no gloom to her that was in anguish. As at the former time he treated lightly the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, so at the latter he has made it heavy, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.