Chapter 8

Damascus and Samaria Fall

1 Then the Lord said to me, “Take for yourself a large tablet and awrite on it 1in ordinary letters: 2bSwift is the booty, speedy is the prey.

2 “And 1I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, aUriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.”

3 So I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Name him 1aMaher-shalal-hash-baz;

4 for abefore the boy knows how to cry out ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of bDamascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”

5 Again the Lord spoke to me further, saying,

6 “Inasmuch as these people have arejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah

And rejoice in bRezin and the son of Remaliah;

7 “Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the astrong and abundant waters of the 1bEuphrates,

Even the cking of Assyria and all his glory;

And it will drise up over all its channels and go over all its banks.

8 “Then ait will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through,

It will breach even to the neck;

And the spread of its wings will 1fill the breadth of 2your land, O cImmanuel.

A Believing Remnant

9 “aBe broken, O peoples, and be 1bshattered;

And give ear, all remote places of the earth.

Gird yourselves, yet be 1shattered;

Gird yourselves, yet be 1shattered.

10 “aDevise a plan, but it will be thwarted;

State a 1proposal, but bit will not stand,

For 2cGod is with us.”

11 For thus the Lord spoke to me 1with amighty power and instructed me bnot to walk in the way of this people, saying,

12 “You are not to say, ‘It is a aconspiracy!’

In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy,

And byou are not to fear 1what they fear or be in dread of it.

13 “It is the aLord of hosts bwhom you should regard as holy.

And He shall be your fear,

And He shall be your dread.

14 “Then He shall become a asanctuary;

But to both the houses of Israel, a bstone to strike and a rock to stumble over,

And a snare and a ctrap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

15 “Many awill stumble over them,

Then they will fall and be broken;

They will even be snared and caught.”

16 aBind up the testimony, bseal the 1law among cmy disciples.

17 And I will await for the Lord bwho is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; I will even look eagerly for Him.

18 aBehold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for bsigns and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who cdwells on Mount Zion.

19 When they say to you, “aConsult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,” should not a people bconsult their God? Should they cconsult the dead on behalf of the living?

20 To the 1alaw and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because bthey have no dawn.

21 They will pass through 1the land ahard-pressed and famished, and it will turn out that when they are hungry, they will be enraged and curse 2their king and their God as they face upward.

22 Then they will alook to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be bdriven away into darkness.