1 The LORD said to me, "Get yourself a large tablet and write on it in ordinary letters: 'For Maher-shalal-hash-baz.'"
2 So I took trustworthy witnesses to testify for me: Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.
3 I went to the prophetess, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. The LORD told me, "Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz,
4 because before the boy can say 'Father' or 'Mother', the riches of Damascus and the loot of Samaria will be carried away to the king of Assyria."
5 Once more the LORD spoke to me:
6 "This people has refused the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and takes delight in Rezin and the son of Remaliah.
7 So now the Lord is about to bring against them the waters of the River, strong and abundant, the king of Assyria with all his glory. It will rise over all its channels and overflow all its banks.
8 It will sweep through Judah, flooding and surging forward until it reaches the neck; its outspread wings will cover the full width of your land, O Immanuel."
9 Be broken, you peoples, and be shattered! Listen, all you far corners of the earth: get ready for battle and be shattered; get ready for battle and be shattered!
10 Draw up your plans, and they will come to nothing; give your orders, and they will not stand, for God is with us.
11 The LORD spoke to me in this way, with his strong hand upon me, and instructed me not to follow the way of this people:
12 "Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls conspiracy; do not be afraid of what frightens them, and do not tremble at it.
13 It is the LORD of hosts you must treat as holy; he is the one to fear, he is the one to dread.
14 He will become a sanctuary, and a stone that people strike their foot on, a rock that makes both houses of Israel stumble, a trap and a snare for those who live in Jerusalem.
15 Many of them will stumble over it; they will fall and be broken, be snared and be caught."
16 Tie up the testimony; seal up the law among my disciples.
17 I will wait for the LORD, who hides his face from the house of Jacob; I will look eagerly for him.
18 Here I am, with the children the LORD has given me; we are signs and portents in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who lives on Mount Zion.
19 When people say to you, "Consult the mediums and the spiritists, who whisper and murmur," should not a people consult its God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?
20 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak in line with this word, there is no dawn for them.
21 They will wander through the land, distressed and starving; and in their hunger they will rage and curse their king and their God, and look up toward heaven.
22 Then they will look at the earth, and there will be trouble and darkness, the gloom of anguish, and they will be thrust into deep darkness.