1Then the LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary 8:1 Hebrew with a man’s stylus: Maher-shalal-hash-baz.8:1 Maher-shalal-hash-baz means The spoil speeds, the prey hastens or Swift to plunder, quick to carry away; also in verse 3.
2And I will appoint for Myself trustworthy witnesses—Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah.”
3And 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.
4For 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.”
5And the LORD spoke to me further:
6“Because this people has rejected
7the Lord will surely bring against them
8It will pour into Judah,
9Huddle together,8:9 Or Raise the war cry or Be evil or Be broken O peoples, and be shattered;
10Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted;
11For 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
13The LORD of Hosts is the One
14And He will be a sanctuary—
15Many will stumble over these;
16Bind up the testimony
17I will wait for the LORD,
18Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me 8:18 Cited in Hebrews 2:13 as signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD of Hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.
19When 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?
20To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.
21They 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.
22Then 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.