Isaiah 8
8
A Warning and a Hope
1The Lord said, “Isaiah, get something to write on. Then write in big clear letters#8.1 in big clear letters: Or “in letters everyone can understand.” the name, MAHER-SHALAL-HASH-BAZ.#8.1 MAHER-SHALAL-HASH-BAZ: In Hebrew “Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz” means “suddenly attacked, quickly taken.” 2I will tell Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah to serve as witnesses to this.”
3Sometime later, my wife and I had a son, and the Lord said, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. 4Because before he can say ‘Mommy’ or ‘Daddy,’ the king of Assyria will attack and take everything of value from Damascus and Samaria.”
5The Lord spoke to me again and said:
6These people have refused the gentle waters of Shiloah#8.6 Shiloah: The canal that brought water from Gihon Spring to Jerusalem. and have gladly gone over to the side of King Rezin and King Pekah. 7Now I will send the king of Assyria against them with his powerful army, which will attack like the mighty Euphrates River overflowing its banks. 8Enemy soldiers will cover Judah like a flood reaching up to your neck.
But God is with us.#8.8 God is with us: Here and in verse 10 this translates the Hebrew word “Immanuel” (see 7.14).
He will spread his wings
and protect our land.#8.8 But … land: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
9All of you foreign nations,
go ahead and prepare for war,
but you will be crushed.
10Get together and make plans,
but you will fail
because God is with us.
11The Lord took hold of me with his powerful hand and said:
I'm warning you! Don't act like these people. 12#1 P 3.14,15. Don't call something a rebellious plot, just because they do, and don't be afraid of something, just because they are. 13I am the one you should fear and respect. I am the holy God, the Lord All-Powerful! 14-15#1 P 2.8. Run to me for protection. I am a rock that will make both Judah and Israel stumble and break their bones. I am a trap that will catch the people of Jerusalem—they will be captured and dragged away.
Isaiah and His Followers
16My message and my teachings are to be sealed and given to my followers. 17#He 2.13. Meanwhile, I patiently trust the Lord, even though he is no longer pleased with Israel. 18#He 2.13. My children and I are warning signs to Israel from the Lord All-Powerful, who lives on Mount Zion.
19Someone may say to you, “Go to the fortunetellers who make soft chirping sounds or ask the spirits of the dead. After all, a nation ought to be able to ask its own gods 20what it should do.”
None of those who talk like that will live to see the light of day! 21They will go around in great pain and will become so hungry that they will angrily curse their king and their gods. And when they try to find help in heaven 22and on earth, they will find only trouble and darkness, terrible trouble and deepest darkness.
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Isaiah 8: CEV
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Isaiah 8
8
Signs of the Assyrian Invasion
1Then Yahweh said to me, “Take yourself a large tablet and write on it with a common stylus pen: Maher-Halal-Hash-Baz. 2And I will require reliable witnesses as a witness for me: Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah.” 3And I approached the prophetess, and she conceived, and she gave birth to a son. And Yahweh said to me, “Call his name Maher-Halal-Hash-Baz. 4For before the boy knows to call ‘my father’ and ‘my mother,’ one will carry away the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria in the presence of the king of Assyria.”
Shiloah Waters and Euphrates Flood
5And Yahweh continued to speak to me again, saying,
6“Because this people has refused the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoices over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, 7therefore look! The Lord is bringing up the waters of the great and mighty river against them, the king of Assyria and all his glory.
And he will rise above all his channels,
and he will flow over all his banks.
8And he will sweep into Judah;
he will overflow and he will flood up to the neck.
He will reach, and he will spread his wings out over your entire land,#Literally “the outspreading of his wings will be the fullness of the breadth of your land” God with us.”
9Be broken, you peoples, and be dismayed.
And listen, all distant parts of the earth;
gird yourselves and be dismayed;
gird yourselves and be dismayed!
10Make a plan,#Literally “Plan counsel” but it will be frustrated!
Speak a word, but it will not stand,
for God is with us!
Wait for Yahweh
11For Yahweh said this to me while his hand weighed heavily on me,#Literally “with the strength of the hand”
and he warned me not to walk#Literally “instructed me from walking” in the way of this people, saying,
12“You must not call conspiracy everything that this people calls conspiracy,
and you must not share its fear,#Literally “fear its fear” and you must not be in dread.
13You shall regard Yahweh of hosts as holy,
and he is your#The Hebrew is plural fear, and he is your dread.
14And he will become like a sanctuary and a stumbling-stone,
and like a stumbling-rock for the two houses of Israel,
like a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15And many shall stumble among them,
and they shall fall and they shall be broken,
and they shall be ensnared and they shall be caught.”
16Bind up the testimony;
seal the teaching among my disciples.
17And I will wait for Yahweh,
who hides his face from the house of Jacob,
and I will await him.
18Look! I and the children whom Yahweh has given to me are like signs and portents in Israel from Yahweh of hosts, the one who dwells on the mountain of Zion. 19Now if they tell you, “Consult the ghosts and the spirits, those who chirp and those who mutter. Should not a people consult its gods, the dead on behalf of the living, 20for teaching and for testimony?” surely they who speak like this have no dawn.#Literally “if not, they say like this word that there is no dawn for him,” which could also mean “if not, let them say a word like this: that there is no dawn for him”
21And it#That is, the nation will pass through it#That is, the land distressed and hungry, and this shall happen: when it is hungry, it will be enraged, and it will curse its king and its gods,#Or “God” and it will face upwar 22or look to the earth. But look! Distress and darkness, the gloom of affliction! And it will be thrust into darkness!
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