8:1 The LORD said to me, Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. [Maher- Shalal-Hash-Baz means quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil also in verse 3.]
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 [That is, the Euphrates] 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! [Immanuel means God with us.]
8:9 Raise the war cry, [Or Do your worst] 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. [Hebrew: Immanuel]
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 [Or Do not call for a treaty every time these people call for a treaty] 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 enquire 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 towards the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.