The Sign of Swift Plunder
8 1 Our Father said to me, "Take a large tablet and write on it in plain writing: 'Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.'" a a v1 Maher-shalal-hash-baz means "swift to the plunder, quick to the spoil" — a living sign that Assyria would soon carry off Damascus and Samaria.
2 So I called reliable witnesses to attest for me—Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.
3 Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And our Father said to me, "Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz."
4 For before the boy knows how to cry 'My father' or 'My mother,' the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off before the king of Assyria.
5 Our Father spoke to me yet again:
6 "Because this people has refused the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoices over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, b b v6 Shiloah was a small, gentle stream flowing near Jerusalem — deliberately contrasted with the overwhelming Euphrates flood in verse 7. 7 therefore the Sovereign Father is about to bring up against them the mighty floodwaters of the River—the king of Assyria and all his glory. It will rise over all its channels and overflow all its banks, 8 and it will sweep on into Judah, flooding and passing through, reaching up to the neck; and its outstretched wings will fill the breadth of your land, Immanuel.
9 Be shattered, you peoples, and be broken! Listen, all you distant lands! Strap on your armor and be broken; strap on your armor and be broken! 10 Devise your plan, but it will come to nothing; speak your word, but it will not stand—for our Father is with us.
11 For this is what our Father said to me, with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the ways of this people:
12 "Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not be terrified. 13 The Father of heaven's armies—he is the one you should regard as holy. Let him be your fear; let him be your dread. 14 He will become a sanctuary; but to both houses of Israel he will be a stone that makes them stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem a trap and a snare. c c v14 Peter and Paul both name Jesus as this stone — 1 Pet 2:8; Rom 9:33. 15 Many among them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured.
16 Preserve the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples. 17 I will wait for our Father, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob; I will hope in him. d d v17 Hebrews 2:13 takes these very words—"I will put my trust in him"—and the next verse's children, as the words of Jesus, the Son who trusts the Father and calls us his family. 18 Here am I, and the children our Father has given me—we are signs and wonders in Israel from the Father of heaven's armies, who dwells on Mount Zion. e e v18 Hebrews 2:13 puts these words in Jesus's mouth — the children he claims are those our Father gives him.
19 When they tell you, "Inquire of the mediums and those who consult spirits, who whisper and mutter," should not a people inquire of their Father? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To the teaching and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they are in complete darkness. 21 Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; and when they are famished, they will rage and curse their king and their Father, and look up. 22 Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and into thick darkness they will be driven.