1 The Coming Assyrian Invasion Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large piece of parchment Hb obscure and write on it with an ordinary pen: Lit with the pen of a man Maher-shalal-hash-baz.2 I have appointed Vg; MT, one DSS ms read I will appoint ; one DSS ms, LXX, Syr, Tg read Appoint trustworthy witnesses — the priest Uriah and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.”3 I was then intimate with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. The Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz,4 for before the boy knows how to call ‘Father,’ or ‘Mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria will be carried off to the king of Assyria.”5 The Lord spoke to me again:6 Because these people rejected the slowly flowing water of Shiloah and rejoiced with Or and rejoiced over Rezin and the son of Remaliah,7 the Lord will certainly bring against them the mighty rushing water of the Euphrates River — the king of Assyria and all his glory. It will overflow its channels and spill over all its banks.8 It will pour into Judah, flood over it, and sweep through, reaching up to the neck; and its flooded banks Lit its outspread wings will fill your entire land, Immanuel!9 Band together, Or Raise the war cry, or Be shattered peoples, and be broken; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for war, and be broken; prepare for war, and be broken.10 Devise a plan; it will fail. Make a prediction; it will not happen. For God is with us.11 The Lord of Armies, the Only Refuge For this is what the Lord said to me with great power, to keep DSS; MT reads instruct me from going the way of this people:12 Do not call everything a conspiracy these people say is a conspiracy. Do not fear what they fear; do not be terrified.13 You are to regard only the Lord of Armies as holy. Only he should be feared; only he should be held in awe.14 He will be a sanctuary; but for the two houses of Israel, he will be a stone to stumble over and a rock to trip over, and a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.15 Many will stumble over these; they will fall and be broken; they will be snared and captured.16 Bind up the testimony. Seal up the instruction among my disciples.17 I will wait for the Lord , who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will wait for him.18 Here I am with the children the Lord has given me to be signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of Armies who dwells on Mount Zion.19 When they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the spiritists who chirp and mutter,” shouldn’t a people inquire of their God? Or gods Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?20 Go to God’s instruction and testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, there will be no dawn for them.21 They will wander through the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged, and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God.22 They will look toward the earth and see only distress, darkness, and the gloom of affliction, and they will be driven into thick darkness.