8:1 The LORD said to me, "Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.

8:2 And I will call in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me."

8:3 Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the LORD said to me, "Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.

8:4 Before the boy knows how to say 'My father' or 'My mother,' the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria."

8:5 The LORD spoke to me again:

8:6 "Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoices over Rezin and the son of Remaliah,

8:7 therefore the Lord is about to bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the River--the king of Assyria with all his pomp. It will overflow all its channels, run over all its banks

8:8 and sweep on into Judah, swirling over it, passing through it and reaching up to the neck. Its outspread wings will cover the breadth of your land, O Immanuel!"

8:9 Raise the war cry, you nations, and be shattered! Listen, all you distant lands. Prepare for battle, and be shattered! Prepare for battle, and be shattered!

8:10 Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted; propose your plan, but it will not stand, for God is with us.

8:11 The LORD spoke to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people. He said:

8:12 "Do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it.

8:13 The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread,

8:14 and he will be a sanctuary; but for both houses of Israel he will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare.

8:15 Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured."

8:16 Bind up the testimony and seal up the law among my disciples.

8:17 I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in him.

8:18 Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.

8:19 When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?

8:20 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.

8:21 Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God.

8:22 Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.