81 Then 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 ." 3 So I approached the prophetess , and she conceived and gave birth to a son . Then the Lord said to me, "Name e him Maher-shalal-hash-baz ; 4 for 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 ." 5 Again the Lord spoke to me further , saying , 6 "Inasmuch e 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 .
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." 11 For 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 ."
16 Bind up the testimony , seal the law among my disciples . 17 And I will wait for the Lord who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob ; I will even look eagerly for Him. 18 Behold , 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 . 19 When 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 ? 20 To the law and to the testimony ! If they do not speak according to this word , it is because they have no dawn . 21 They 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 . 22 Then they will look to the earth , and behold , distress and darkness , the gloom of anguish ; and they will be driven away into darkness .
