Then the LORD said to me, “Take a large tablet and write on it in
common characters, ‘Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’ And I will
get reliable witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of
Jeberechiah, to attest for me.”
And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son.
Then the LORD said to me, “Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz; for
before the boy knows how to cry ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the
wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away
before the king of Assyria.”
The LORD spoke to me again: “Because this people has refused the
waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over Rezin and the
son of Remaliah, therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against
them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria
and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go
over all its banks, and it will sweep on into Judah, it will
overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread
wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”
Be broken, you peoples, and be shattered;
give ear, all you far countries;
strap on your armor and be shattered;
strap on your armor and be shattered.
Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing;
speak a word, but it will not stand,
for God is with us.
For the LORD spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me,
and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: “Do
not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do
not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the LORD of hosts,
him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be
your dread. And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense
and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a
snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble on
it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”
Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples. I
will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of
Jacob, and I will hope in him. Behold, I and the children whom the
LORD has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the LORD of
hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. And when they say to you, “Inquire
of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should
not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead
on behalf of the living? To the teaching and to the testimony! If
they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have
no dawn. They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and
hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will
speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn
their faces upward. And they will look to the earth, but behold,
distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be
thrust into thick darkness.
