8:1  Then the LORD said to me, "Take for yourself a large tablet and write on it in ordinary letters: Swiftly we regard the booty, speedy we regard 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 the enemies will carry 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 will soon 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  " Become broken, O peoples, and become shattered; And give ear, all remote places of the earth. Gird yourselves, yet become shattered; Gird yourselves, yet become shattered.

8:10  " Devise a plan, but it will become thwarted; State a proposal, but it will not stand, For God stays 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 will not say, ' we see a conspiracy!' In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy, And you will not fear what they fear or dread it.

8:13  "You should regard the LORD of hosts as holy. And He shall serve for your fear, And He shall serve for 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 break; They will even ensnare themselves and become caught."

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

8:17  And I will wait for the LORD who hides 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 serve as 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 has happened 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 hunger, they will feel 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 people will drive them away into darkness.