¹ Then the LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary¹ stylus: Maher-shalal-hash-baz.²

1. Hebrew with a man’s
2. Maher-shalal-hash-baz means The spoil speeds, the prey hastens or Swift to plunder, quick to carry away; also in verse 3.

² And I will appoint for Myself trustworthy witnesses—Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah.”

³ And I had relations with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. The LORD said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

⁴ For before the boy knows how to cry ‘Father’ or ‘Mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.”

⁵ And the LORD spoke to me further:

⁶ “Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoiced in Rezin and the son of Remaliah,

⁷ the Lord will surely bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates¹— the king of Assyria and all his pomp. It will overflow its channels and overrun its banks.

1. Hebrew the River

⁸ It will pour into Judah, swirling and sweeping over it, reaching up to the neck; its spreading streams will cover your entire land, O Immanuel!¹

1. Immanuel means God with us.

⁹ Huddle together,¹ O peoples, and be shattered; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for battle, and be shattered; prepare for battle, and be shattered!

1. Or Raise the war cry or Be evil or Be broken

¹⁰ Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted; state a proposal, but it will not happen. For God is with us.¹”

1. Hebrew Immanuel; see Matthew 1:23.

A Call to Fear God

(Ecclesiastes 8:10–13)

¹¹ For this is what the LORD has spoken to me with a strong hand, instructing me not to walk in the way of this people:

¹² “Do not call conspiracy everything these people regard as conspiracy. Do not fear what they fear;¹ do not live in dread.²

1. Or Do not fear their threats
2. LXX do not be shaken; cited in 1 Peter 3:14

¹³ The LORD of Hosts is the One you shall regard as holy. Only He should be feared; only He should be dreaded.

¹⁴ And He will be a sanctuary— but to both houses of Israel a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,¹ to the dwellers of Jerusalem a trap and a snare.

1. Cited in Romans 9:33 and 1 Peter 2:8

¹⁵ Many will stumble over these; they will fall and be broken; they will be ensnared and captured.”

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

¹⁷ I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in Him.¹

1. Or I will eagerly look for Him; cited in Hebrews 2:13

¹⁸ Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me¹ as signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD of Hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

1. Cited in Hebrews 2:13

Darkness and Light

¹⁹ When men tell you to consult the spirits of the dead and the spiritists who whisper and mutter, shouldn’t a people consult their God instead? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?

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

²¹ They will roam the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged; and looking upward, they will curse their king and their God.

²² Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.