8:1  Then the LORD said to me, "Take for yourself a large tablet and write on it in ordinary letters: Swift is the booty, speedy is the prey.

8:2  "And I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah."

8:3  So I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Then the LORD said to me, "Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz;

8:4  for before the boy knows how to cry out `My father' or `My mother,' the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria."

8:5  Again the LORD spoke to me further, saying,

8:6  "Inasmuch as these people have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah And rejoice in Rezin and the son of Remaliah;

8:7  "Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the strong and abundant waters of the Euphrates, {Even} the king of Assyria and all his glory; And it will rise up over all its channels and go over all its banks.

8:8  "Then it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through, It will reach even to the neck; And the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.

8:9  "Be broken, O peoples, and be shattered; And give ear, all remote places of the earth. Gird yourselves, yet be shattered; Gird yourselves, yet be shattered.

8:10  "Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted; State a proposal, but it will not stand, For God is with us."

8:11  For thus the LORD spoke to me with mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying,

8:12  "You are not to say, `{It is} a conspiracy!' In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy, And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of {it.}

8:13  "It is the LORD of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, And He shall be your dread.

8:14  "Then He shall become a sanctuary; But to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over, {And} a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

8:15  "Many will stumble over them, Then they will fall and be broken; They will even be snared and caught."

8:16  Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.

8:17  And I will wait for the LORD who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; I will even look eagerly for Him.

8:18  Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

8:19  When they say to you, "Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter, should not a people consult their God? {Should they} {consult} the dead on behalf of the living?"

8:20  To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.

8:21  They will pass through the land hard-pressed and famished, and it will turn out that when they are hungry, they will be enraged and curse their king and their God as they face upward.

8:22  Then they will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and {they will be} driven away into darkness.