Isaiah 8 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~734-732 BC, during the war in which Israel and Syria tried to force Judah into an alliance against Assyria
Location
Jerusalem under King Ahaz, with the gentle waters of the Shiloah channel and the Euphrates River used as contrasting images
Audience
King Ahaz's court and the people of Judah deciding whether to buy Assyrian protection
Situation
Isaiah writes a name meaning quick to plunder, swift to spoil on a large tablet before witnesses, then gives it to his newborn son as a dated sign that Damascus and Samaria will be stripped before the boy can talk. He warns Judah not to join the popular panic about conspiracy, and not to consult mediums and spirit voices instead of God.
Key Background
Writing a message publicly and having it certified by named witnesses follows normal legal procedure for a contract, which is how the prophecy becomes checkable rather than deniable. The Shiloah was Jerusalem's modest water channel from the Gihon spring, so choosing the mighty Euphrates over it stands for preferring Assyrian power to the quiet security of a small kingdom trusting God. Consulting the dead by seeking whispering and muttering voices was a widespread practice in the region and was explicitly outlawed in Israelite law, which is why Isaiah treats the turn toward it as a measure of how frightened Judah had become.
Yahweh told me, "Take a large and write on it in 'Belonging to Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.'"
I called in — Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.
Then I slept with the and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. Yahweh told me, "Name him
Because before the boy knows how to cry or 'Mommy!', the wealth of and the plunder of will be carried off to the king of Assyria.
Yahweh spoke to me again:
"Because this people has rejected the of and melts in fear before and the of
"watch — the Lord is about to bring against them the of the — the king of Assyria in all his overwhelming power. It will rise over all its channels and spill over all its banks."
"It will sweep into Judah, flooding and overflowing, up to the Its spreading wings will fill the entire breadth of your land,
Rage all you want, you peoples — you will be shattered. Listen, all you distant lands — strap on your armor — you will be shattered. Strap on your armor — you will be
Hatch your schemes — they will fall apart. Make your plans — they won't stand. Because is with us.
This is what Yahweh said to me, me with warning me not to walk the same road as this people:
"Don't call everything a just because this people calls it a Don't share their fears. Don't be terrified."
It is of you should as He is the one you should fear. He is the one who should make you tremble.
He will be the for but also a stone that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. For both of a trap and a snare. For those who live in Jerusalem, a tripwire.
"Many will stumble over him. They will fall and be broken. They will be trapped and caught."
Bind up this Seal this among my
I will wait for Yahweh, who is from the of I will put my hope in him.
Look — here I am, together with the children Yahweh has given me. We are and in Israel, sent by Yahweh of Armies, who lives on
When they tell you, "Go consult the and the — the ones who and — shouldn't a people consult their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?
Turn to the teaching, turn to the testimony! If they don't speak according to this word, it is because there is no for them.
They will wander through the land, and starving. And when their hunger makes them rage, they will curse their king and their God, turning their faces upward —
then look toward the earth — and see only and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into