1384 - Isaiah 8
Isaiah Chapter 8
Then, the Lord said to me,
“Make a large billboard and clearly write this name on it:
Maher-shalal-hash-baz.”
…which means "he goes quickly (to the) spoils; or he hurries (to the) plunder."
It signifies the impending destruction of Israel and Syria by the Assyrian army. The name itself is a prophecy, highlighting the swiftness and certainty of this coming judgment
( So, I, Isaiah) asked Uriah, the priest, and Zechariah, son of Jeberekiah, both known as honest men, to witness my doing this - making the billboard.
Then, I slept with my wife, and she became pregnant, and she gave birth to a son.
And the Lord said, “Call him Maher-shalal-hash-baz.
For before this child is old enough to say ‘Papa’ or ‘Mama,’ the king of Assyria will carry away both the abundance of Damascus and the riches of Samaria.”
Then, the Lord spoke to me again and said,
“My care, for the people of Judah, is like the gently flowing waters of Shiloah, but they have rejected God’s grace.
They are rejoicing over what will happen to King Rezin and King Pekah.*
Therefore, the Lord will overwhelm Judah, with a mighty flood from the Euphrates River—which is the king of Assyria and all his glory.
This flood will overflow all its channels, and sweep into Judah, until it is chin deep.
It will spread its wings, submerging your land, from one end to the other, O Immanuel.
“Huddle together, you nations, and be terrified.
Listen, all you distant lands.
Prepare for battle, …but you will be crushed!
Yes, prepare for battle, but you will be crushed!
Call your councils of war, but they will be worthless.
Develop your strategies, but they will not succeed.
For God is with us!*”
The Lord has given me a strong warning …not to think like everyone else does.
The Lord said,
“Don’t call everything a conspiracy, like they do, and don’t live in dread of what frightens them.
Make the Lord, of Heaven’s Armies, holy in your life.
He is the one you should fear.
He is the one, who should make you tremble.
He will keep you safe.
But, to Israel and Judah, he will be a stone that makes people stumble; He will be a rock that makes them fall.
And, for the people of Jerusalem,
he will be a trap and a snare.
Many will stumble and fall, never to rise again.
They will be snared and captured.”
Preserve the teaching of God;
entrust his instructions, to those, who follow me.
I will wait for the Lord,… because He has turned away from the descendants of Jacob.
I will put my hope in him.
I and the children, that the Lord has given me, serve as signs, and a warning to Israel, from the Lord, of Heaven’s Armies, who dwells in his Temple, in Jerusalem, on Mount Zion.
Someone may say to you,
“Let’s ask the mediums, and those, who consult the spirits, of the dead.
With their whisperings and mutterings, they will tell us what to do.”
But, shouldn’t people ask God, for guidance?
Should the living seek guidance, from the dead?
Look to God’s instructions and teachings!
People, who contradict his word, are completely in the dark.
They will go from one place to another, weary and hungry.
And, because they are hungry, they will rage, and they will curse their king, and their God.
They will look up, to heaven, and down, at the earth, ….but wherever they look, there will be trouble, and anguish, and dark despair.
They will be thrown out, into the darkness.
The Holy Bible
New Living Translation
Praise be to God!
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