A Warning and a Hope
1 The Lord said, “Isaiah, get something to write on. Then write in big clear letters the name, MAHER-SHALAL-HASH-BAZ. 2 I will tell Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah to serve as witnesses to this.”
3 Sometime later, my wife and I had a son, and the Lord said, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. 4 Because before he can say ‘Mommy’ or ‘Daddy,’ the king of Assyria will attack and take everything of value from Damascus and Samaria.”
5 The Lord spoke to me again and said:
6 These people have refused the gentle waters of Shiloah and have gladly gone over to the side of King Rezin and King Pekah. 7 Now I will send the king of Assyria against them with his powerful army, which will attack like the mighty Euphrates River overflowing its banks. 8 Enemy soldiers will cover Judah like a flood reaching up to your neck.
But God is with us.
He will spread his wings
and protect our land.
9 All of you foreign nations,
go ahead and prepare for war,
but you will be crushed.
10 Get together and make plans,
but you will fail
because God is with us.
11 The Lord took hold of me with his powerful hand and said:
I'm warning you! Don't act like these people. 12 Don't call something a rebellious plot, just because they do, and don't be afraid of something, just because they are. 13 I am the one you should fear and respect. I am the holy God, the Lord All-Powerful! 14-15 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
16 My message and my teachings are to be sealed and given to my followers. 17 Meanwhile, I patiently trust the Lord, even though he is no longer pleased with Israel. 18 My children and I are warning signs to Israel from the Lord All-Powerful, who lives on Mount Zion.
19 Someone 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 20 what it should do.”
None of those who talk like that will live to see the light of day! 21 They 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 22 and on earth, they will find only trouble and darkness, terrible trouble and deepest darkness.
1 Moreover, the Lord sayd vnto me, Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a mans penne, Make speede to the spoyle: haste to the praye. 2 Then I tooke vnto me faithfull witnesses to recorde, Vriah the Priest, and Zechariah the sonne of Ieberechiah. 3 After, I came vnto the Prophetesse, which conceiued, and bare a sonne. Then sayd the Lord to me, Call his name, Mahershalalhash-baz. 4 For before the childe shall haue knowledge to crye, My father, and my mother, he shall take away the riches of Damascus and the spoyle of Samaria, before the King of Asshur. 5 And the Lord spake yet againe vnto me, saying, 6 Because this people hath refused the waters of Shiloah that runne softly, and reioyce with Rezin, and the sonne of Remaliah, 7 Nowe therefore, beholde, the Lord bringeth vp vpon them the waters of the Riuer mightie and great, euen the King of Asshur with all his glory, and he shall come vp vpon all their riuers, and goe ouer all their banks, 8 And shall breake into Iudah, and shall ouerflowe and passe through, and shall come vp to the necke, and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanu-el. 9 Gather together on heapes, O ye people, and ye shalbe broken in pieces, and hearken all ye of farre countreys: gird your selues, and you shalbe broken in pieces: gird your selues, and you shalbe broken in pieces. 10 Take counsell together, yet it shall be brought to nought: pronounce a decree, yet shall it not stand: for God is with vs. 11 For the Lord spake thus to me in taking of mine hand, and taught me, that I should not walke in the way of this people, saying, 12 Say ye not, A confederacie to all them, to whome this people sayth a confederacie, neither feare you their feare, nor be afrayd of them. 13 Sanctifie the Lord of hostes, and let him be your feare, and let him be your dread, 14 And he shalbe as a Sanctuarie: but as a stumbling stone, and as a rocke to fall vpon, to both the houses of Israel, and as a snare and as a net to the inhabitants of Ierusalem. 15 And many among them shall stumble, and shall fall and shalbe broken and shalbe snared and shalbe taken. 16 Binde vp the testimonie: seale vp the Law among my disciples. 17 Therefore I will waite vpon the Lord that hath hid his face from the house of Iaakob, and I wil looke for him. 18 Beholde, I and the children whome the Lord hath giuen me, are as signes and as wonders in Israel, by the Lord of hostes, which dwelleth in mount Zion. 19 And when they shall say vnto you, Enquire at them that haue a spirit of diuination, and at the soothsayers, which whisper and murmure, Should not a people enquire at their God? from the liuing to the dead? 20 To the Law, and to the testimonie, if they speake not according to this worde: it is because there is no light in them. 21 Then he that is afflicted and famished, shall go to and from in it: and when he shalbe hungry, he shall euen freat himselfe, and curse his King and his gods, and shall looke vpward. 22 And when he shall looke to the earth, beholde trouble, and darkenes, vexation and anguish, and he is driuen to darkenes.