Isaiah 8
A Stone of Stumbling and a Rock of Offence
← Isaiah 7 · Isaiah: all chapters · Isaiah 9 →
The Large New Sheet
8:1The Lord said to me, “Take a large new sheet and write on it with a human stylus: ‘To make plunder of spoils swiftly; for it is at hand.’”
8:2“Make reliable men witnesses for Me, Uriah and Zechariah son of Barachias.”
8:3I approached the prophetess; she became pregnant and bore a son. The Lord said to me, “Call his name Plunder-quickly, Spoil-swiftly,
8:4because before the child knows how to call father or mother, he will take Damascus’s power and Samaria’s spoils before the king of the Assyrians.”
Siloam’s Water Refused and the Assyrian Flood
8:5The Lord spoke to me yet again,
8:6“Because this people does not want Siloam’s water, which goes quietly, but wants to have Raasson and Romelias’s son as king over you,
8:7therefore, look, the Lord brings up against you the river’s strong and abundant water—the king of the Assyrians and his glory. He will ascend every ravine of yours and walk over every wall of yours,
8:8and he will remove from Judea a person able to lift a head or someone strong enough to accomplish anything. His encampment will fill the breadth of your country. God is with us.”
Know, Nations, and Be Defeated
8:9Know, nations, and be defeated! Listen to the earth’s extremity! You who have grown strong, be defeated; for even if you grow strong again, you will again be defeated.
8:10Whatever counsel you devise, the Lord will scatter; whatever word you speak will certainly not endure for you, because the Lord God is with us.
With a Strong Hand They Turn Aside
8:11Thus says the Lord: “With a strong hand they resist the course of this people’s way, saying,
8:12‘Never say hard; for everything this people says is hard.’ But do not fear its fear, and do not be troubled.
8:13Sanctify the Lord Himself, and He will be your fear.
8:14If you trust in Him, He will become a sanctuary for you, and you will not encounter Him as the stumbling of a stone or as the falling of a rock. But Jacob’s house is in a trap, and those settled in Jerusalem in a pit.
8:15Therefore many among them will be powerless, fall and be broken; people who are secure will draw near and be captured.”
8:16Then those sealing up the law so that it may not be learned will become manifest.
8:17He will say, “I will wait for God, who turned His face away from Jacob’s house, and I will put my trust in Him.”
8:18Look, I and the children God gave me—and it will be for signs and wonders in Israel’s house, from the Lord Sabaoth, who dwells on Mount Zion.
Seek Those Who Speak from the Earth
8:19If they say to you, “Seek those who speak from the earth and the belly-speakers, the empty-talkers who speak from the belly,” should not a nation turn to its God? Why do they seek the dead concerning the living?
8:20For He gave law for help, so that they might speak unlike this utterance, concerning which there are no gifts to give for it.
8:21A harsh famine will come upon you; when you hunger, you will be grieved and speak evil of the ruler and the cult images, and they will look up toward heaven above,
8:22and they will look down to the earth, and look, affliction and confinement and darkness, constricted perplexity and darkness so that they cannot see,
8:23and the one in confinement will not remain perplexed for a time. “Do this first, do it quickly, country of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, way of the sea, and the rest who dwell by the sea and beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations, the regions of Judea.”
← Isaiah 7 · Isaiah: all chapters · Isaiah 9 →
Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.