Damascus and Samaria Fall

      1Then 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. 2“And I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.” 3So 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; 4for 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.”

      5Again the LORD spoke to me further, saying,

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

      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“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.

A Believing Remnant

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.

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

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

      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.

      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.

      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.

      15“Many will stumble over them,
            Then they will fall and be broken;
            They will even be snared and caught.”

      16Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. 17And I will wait for the LORD who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; I will even look eagerly for Him. 18Behold, 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.

      19When 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? 20To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. 21They 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. 22Then they will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness.