Isaiah 8:1-22
8 And Jehovah proceeded to say to me: “Take for yourself a large tablet+ and write upon it with the stylus of mortal man,* ‘Maʹher-shalʹal-hash-baz.’*
2 And let me have attestation+ for myself by faithful witnesses,+ U·riʹah the priest+ and Zech·a·riʹah* the son of Je·ber·e·chiʹah.”*
3 Then I went near to the prophetess, and she came to be pregnant and in time gave birth to a son.+ Jehovah now said to me: “Call his name Maʹher-shalʹal-hash-baz,
4 for before the boy will know how to call out,+ ‘My father!’ and ‘My mother!’ one will carry away the resources of Damascus and the spoil of Sa·marʹi·a before the king of As·syrʹi·a.”+
5 And Jehovah proceeded to speak yet further to me, saying:
6 “For the reason that this people has rejected+ the waters of the Shi·loʹah*+ that are going gently, and there is exultation+ over Reʹzin and the son of Rem·a·liʹah;*+
7 even therefore, look! Jehovah* is bringing up against them+ the mighty and the many waters of the River,+ the king of As·syrʹi·a+ and all his glory.+ And he will certainly come up over all his streambeds and go over all his banks
8 and move on through Judah. He will actually flood and pass over.+ Up to the neck he will reach.+ And the outspreading of his wings+ must occur to fill the breadth of your land, O Im·manʹu·el!”*+
9 Be injurious,* O YOU peoples, and be shattered to pieces; and give ear, all YOU in distant parts of the earth!+ Gird yourselves,+ and be shattered to pieces!+ Gird yourselves, and be shattered to pieces!
10 Plan out a scheme, and it will be broken up!+ Speak any word, and it will not stand, for God is with us!*+
11 For this is what Jehovah has said to me with strongness of the hand, that he may make me turn aside* from walking in the way of this people, saying:
12 “YOU men must not say, ‘A conspiracy!’ respecting all that of which this people keep saying, ‘A conspiracy!’+ and the object of their fear YOU men must not fear, nor must YOU tremble at it.+
13 Jehovah of armies—he is the One whom YOU should treat as holy,+ and he should be the object of YOUR fear,+ and he should be the One causing YOU to tremble.”+
14 And he must become as a sacred place;*+ but as a stone to strike against and as a rock over which to stumble+ to both the houses of Israel, as a trap and as a snare to the inhabitants* of Jerusalem.+
15 And many among them will be certain to stumble and to fall and be broken, and to be snared and caught.+
16 Wrap up the attestation,*+ put a seal about the law among my disciples!*+
17 And I will keep in expectation of Jehovah,+ who is concealing his face from the house of Jacob,+ and I will hope in him.+
18 Look! I and the children whom Jehovah has given me+ are as signs+ and as miracles* in Israel from Jehovah of armies, who is residing in Mount Zion.+
19 And in case they should say to YOU people: “Apply to the spiritistic mediums+ or to those having a spirit of prediction who are chirping+ and making utterances in low tones,”* is it not to its God that any people should apply?+ [Should there be application] to dead persons in behalf of living persons?+
20 To* the law and to the attestation!+
Surely they will keep saying what is according to this statement*+ that will have no light of dawn.+
21 And each one* will certainly pass through the land* hard pressed and hungry;+ and it must occur that because he is hungry and has made himself feel indignant, he will actually call down evil upon his king and upon his God*+ and will certainly peer upward.
22 And to the earth he will look, and, lo! distress and darkness,+ obscurity, hard times and gloominess with no brightness.*+
Footnotes
^ Or, “with a common stylus.”
^ Meaning “Hasten, O [or, Hastening to the] Spoil! He Has Come Quickly to the Plunder.”
^ Meaning “Jehovah Has Remembered.” Heb., Zekhar·yaʹhu.
^ Meaning “Jehovah Blesses.” Heb., Yeve·rekh·yaʹhu.
^ Meaning “Sender,” designating a water conduit; LXX, “Siloam.”
^ One of 134 scribal changes from YHWH to ʼAdho·naiʹ. See App 1B.
^ “Know,” LXX and by a correction of M, in agreement with the parallel expression “give ear.”
^ “God is with us.” Heb., ʽim·maʹnu ʼEl; LXX, “Jehovah God is with us.”
^ “May admonish me away,” by another derivation of the Heb. verb.
^ Or, “a sanctuary.”
^ “Inhabitants,” LXXSyVg and seven Heb. mss; 1QIsaM, “inhabitant.”
^ Or, “my taught ones.”
^ Or, “testimony.”
^ Or, “wonders; portents; tokens.”
^ Or, “and ventriloquizing.”
^ Or, “For”; or, “It belongs to.”
^ Or, “word; thing spoken.”
^ Or, “they.” Lit., “one.”
^ Lit., “it,” fem., that is, the land or earth.
^ “And upon his God.” Heb., u·vEʼ·lo·havʹ.
^ “With no brightness,” by a slight correction; LXX, “so as not to see”; M, “[into which] one is pushed (thrust).”
