Isaiah 8

The LORD also said to me, "Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-shalal-hash-baz."

1Moreover the LORD said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man’s pen concerning Mahershalalhashbaz.

Note"LORD" in capital letters stands for the personal name of God in Hebrew, four letters usually written YHWH. Jewish readers avoided saying it aloud and substituted a word meaning "Lord," and English translations have followed that custom ever since. Where the text has the ordinary word for "lord" or "master" (as in verse 7), it is printed "Lord" in normal letters. Maher-shalal-hash-baz is a Hebrew sentence used as a name: roughly "quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil." The name itself is the message, which is why it is to be written up in public before the child exists. "An ordinary pen" translates a phrase meaning something like "with a common stylus", everyday handwriting in the everyday script, so that any passer-by could read it, not a scribe's formal hand.

2And I had reliable witnesses record it: Uriah the priest, and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.

2And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.

NoteContracts and legal documents in this period were signed off by named witnesses so that the date could not later be disputed. Isaiah is having the prophecy witnessed the way one would witness a deed: the point is that people can testify it was written down before the events happened. Uriah was the chief priest in Jerusalem under King Ahaz.

3Then I went to the prophetess, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. The LORD said to me, "Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

3And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Mahershalalhashbaz.

Note"The prophetess" is Isaiah's wife. The Hebrew title is ambiguous: it may mean simply "the prophet's wife," as titles were sometimes carried by a spouse, or it may mean she was a prophet in her own right, as Miriam and Deborah were. "I went to" is a standard Hebrew way of saying he slept with her.

4Before the boy knows how to say 'My father' or 'My mother,' the king of Assyria will carry off the riches of Damascus and the goods taken from Samaria."

4For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.

NoteDamascus was the capital of Aram (Syria) and Samaria the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. The two had allied against Judah and were pressuring it to join their revolt (the background to chapter 7). Assyria was the dominant empire of the day, based in what is now northern Iraq. A child says "father" and "mother" at around one or two years old, so the name is a deadline as well as a message.

5The LORD spoke to me again and said:

5The LORD spake also unto me again, saying,

6"This people has turned down the waters of Shiloah, which flow gently, and instead they are glad about Rezin and the son of Remaliah.

6Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son;

NoteShiloah was the channel that carried water from the Gihon spring into Jerusalem, a modest, slow-moving stream, and the city's water supply. It stands here for the small, unimpressive kingdom in Jerusalem, in contrast to the great river of verse 7. Rezin was king of Aram in Damascus. "The son of Remaliah" is Pekah, king of Israel; naming a king only by his father, without his own name, is a deliberate slight.

7So the Lord is about to bring against them the waters of the River, powerful and deep, that is, the king of Assyria with all his splendor. It will rise above all its channels and spill over all its banks.

7Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks:

Note"The River," with no name attached, always means the Euphrates in Hebrew, the great river of the Assyrian heartland, as opposed to Judah's small streams. The flood that overruns its banks is the Assyrian army. "Splendor" here means imperial display: the pomp and weight of a great king on the march.

8It will sweep on into Judah, flooding and passing through, rising as high as the neck. Its outspread wings will cover the whole width of your land, Immanuel.

8And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.

NoteThe picture shifts in mid-sentence from a flood to a bird: "outspread wings" is the same image used elsewhere for a bird of prey stooping over the land, and also, elsewhere, for wings of shelter. The Hebrew allows both overtones. Immanuel is Hebrew for "God is with us." It is the name announced in chapter 7 as a sign to King Ahaz, and it is used here as though addressing the land itself.

9Band together, you peoples, and you will be shattered. Listen, all you far-off countries: strap on your weapons, and you will be shattered; strap on your weapons, and you will be shattered.

9Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.

NoteThe opening word is uncertain in Hebrew: it can be read as "band together" or as "be broken" or "raise a war cry." Ancient translations differ, and the ambiguity is in the original, not the English. "Strap on your weapons" translates "gird yourselves", tying on a belt to hold sword and armor, the standard idiom for getting ready to fight.

10Make your plans together, and they will come to nothing. Give the order, and it will not stand, because God is with us.

10Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.

Note"God is with us" is the same Hebrew phrase as the name Immanuel in verse 8; the passage plays on the name.

11This is what the LORD said to me while his strong hand was on me, warning me not to live the way this people lives:

11For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,

Note"His strong hand was on me" is a fixed idiom for the pressure of God taking hold of a prophet, a compulsion he cannot shrug off, not an act of violence.

12"Do not call it a plot when this people calls everything a plot. Do not be afraid of what they are afraid of, and do not be terrified.

12Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.

NoteThe Hebrew word rendered "plot" means a conspiracy or act of treason. In a country under war pressure, accusing people of conspiring with the enemy was a political weapon, and Isaiah is being warned not to join in the panic. (Some ancient readers took the consonants as a similar-looking word meaning "holy," and a few translations follow that reading.)

13Treat the LORD of Hosts himself as holy. He is the one you should fear; he is the one you should dread.

13Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

Note"LORD of Hosts" means the LORD of armies, a title picturing God at the head of massed forces, heavenly and earthly. It is a military title, not a description of hospitality.

14He will be a safe place; but to both households of Israel he will be a stone that people trip over and a rock that trips them up, and to the people living in Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare.

14And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

NoteA "safe place" or sanctuary was a physical refuge (a shrine or altar where a person in danger could take hold and not be seized. The same Hebrew consonants can also be read as a word for a stone or trap, and the sentence deliberately turns from refuge to hazard. "Both households of Israel" means the two kingdoms into which the nation had split: Judah in the south and Israel in the north. The trap and snare are hunter's gear) a spring-trap on the ground and a net or noose for catching birds.

15Many of them will trip and fall and be broken; they will be trapped and caught."

15And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.

16Tie up the record of what God has said, and seal up his teaching among my students.

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

NoteDocuments were rolled or folded, tied, and then sealed with a lump of clay stamped with a personal seal. A sealed document could not be altered or read without breaking the seal, so sealing meant putting the text beyond tampering until the day came to open it and check it against events. "Students" translates a word for those taught by him, his followers, who would keep the record.

17I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the family of Jacob, and I will keep looking for him.

17And I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.

Note"Hiding his face" is an idiom for withdrawing favor or attention; the opposite expression, letting one's face shine on someone, means showing favor. "The family of Jacob" means the nation descended from Jacob, that is, Israel.

18Here I am, and the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and warnings in Israel from the LORD of Hosts, who lives on Mount Zion.

18Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.

NoteIsaiah's children carry their meanings in their names, which is what makes them "signs": Shear-jashub, in chapter 7, means "a remnant will return," and Maher-shalal-hash-baz means "quick to the plunder." Isaiah's own name means "the LORD saves." Mount Zion is the ridge in Jerusalem on which the temple stood.

19When people tell you, "Go ask the mediums and the fortune-tellers who whisper and mutter," shouldn't a people ask their own God instead? Why ask the dead on behalf of the living?

19And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?

NoteConsulting the dead through mediums was a widespread practice in the ancient Near East and was banned in Israelite law. The whispering and muttering describes how the practitioners spoke, a thin, low voice thought to be the voice of the spirit coming up from the ground.

20Go to the teaching and to the record of what God has said! If they do not speak in line with this word, they have no light of dawn.

20To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

Note"The teaching" and "the record of what God has said" are the two things Isaiah has just had sealed up in verse 16: the standard against which any other message is to be checked. The last clause is hard in Hebrew and is read two ways: either "they have no dawn," that is, no daybreak coming for them, or "there is no light in them." The wording supports both.

21They will wander through the land, hard-pressed and hungry. When they are starving, they will grow angry, and looking upward they will curse their king and their God.

21And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "their God" is a plural form that can equally mean "their gods." Translators differ on which is meant here.

22Then they will look at the earth and see only trouble and darkness and the gloom of great pain, and they will be driven into thick darkness.

22And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.