¹ And HaShem said unto me: 'Take thee a great tablet, and write upon it in common script: The spoil speedeth, the prey hasteth;

² and I will take unto Me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.'

³ And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bore a son. Then said HaShem unto me: 'Call his name Maher-shalal-hashbaz.¹

1. That is, The spoil speedeth, the prey hasteth.

⁴ For before the child shall have knowledge to cry: My father, and: My mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be carried away before the king of Assyria.'

⁵ And HaShem spoke unto me yet again, saying:

⁶ Forasmuch as this people hath refused the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoiceth with Rezin and Remaliah's son;

⁷ Now therefore, behold, the L-rd bringeth up upon them the waters of the River, mighty and many, even the king of Assyria and all his glory; and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks;

⁸ And he shall sweep through Judah overflowing as he passeth through he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.

⁹ Make an uproar, O ye peoples, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.

¹⁰ Take counsel together, and it shall be brought to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand; for G-d is with us.

¹¹ For HaShem spoke thus to me with a strong hand, admonishing me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying:

¹² 'Say ye not: A conspiracy, concerning all whereof this people do say: A conspiracy; neither fear ye their fear, nor account it dreadful.

¹³ HaShem of hosts, Him shall ye sanctify; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.

¹⁴ And He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁵ And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.'

¹⁶ 'Bind up the testimony, seal the instruction among My disciples.'

¹⁷ And I will wait for HaShem, that hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him.

¹⁸ Behold, I and the children whom HaShem hath given me shall be for signs and for wonders in Israel from HaShem of hosts, who dwelleth in mount Zion.

¹⁹ And when they shall say unto you: 'Seek unto the ghosts and the familiar spirits, that chirp and that mutter; should not a people seek unto their G-d? on behalf of the living unto the dead

²⁰ for instruction and for testimony?' --Surely they will speak according to this word, wherein there is no light.--

²¹ And they shall pass this way that are sore bestead and hungry; and it shall come to pass that, when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse by their king and by their G-d, and, whether they turn their faces upward,

²² or look unto the earth, behold distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, and outspread thick darkness.

²³ For is there no gloom to her that was stedfast? Now the former hath lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but the latter hath dealt a more grievous blow by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in the district of the nations.