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8. Assyria, the Lord's Instrument

¹ The LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.” Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz means quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil; also in verse 3. ² So I called in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me. ³ Then I made love to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the LORD said to me, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. ⁴ For before the boy knows how to say ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.”

⁵ The LORD spoke to me again:

    ⁶ “Because this people has rejected
   the gently flowing waters of Shiloah
and rejoices over Rezin
   and the son of Remaliah,
⁷ therefore the Lord is about to bring against them
   the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates—
   the king of Assyria with all his pomp.
It will overflow all its channels,
   run over all its banks
⁸ and sweep on into Judah, swirling over it,
   passing through it and reaching up to the neck.
Its outspread wings will cover the breadth of your land,
   Immanuel Immanuel means God with us.!”

    ⁹ Raise the war cry, Or Do your worst you nations, and be shattered!
   Listen, all you distant lands.
Prepare for battle, and be shattered!
   Prepare for battle, and be shattered!
¹⁰ Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted;
   propose your plan, but it will not stand,
   for God is with us. Hebrew Immanuel

¹¹ This is what the LORD says to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people:

    ¹² “Do not call conspiracy
   everything this people calls a conspiracy;
do not fear what they fear,
   and do not dread it.
¹³ The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy,
   he is the one you are to fear,
   he is the one you are to dread.
¹⁴ He will be a holy place;
   for both Israel and Judah he will be
a stone that causes people to stumble
   and a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of Jerusalem he will be
   a trap and a snare.
¹⁵ Many of them will stumble;
   they will fall and be broken,
   they will be snared and captured.”

    ¹⁶ Bind up this testimony of warning
   and seal up God’s instruction among my disciples.
¹⁷ I will wait for the LORD,
   who is hiding his face from the descendants of Jacob.
I will put my trust in him.

¹⁸ Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.

The Darkness Turns to Light

¹⁹ When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? ²⁰ Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. ²¹ Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. ²² Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.

4. Truly before the child have knowledge to cry. This is an interpretation both of the dark saying and of the vision which was added to it; for although God did not intend to speak in direct language, still it was proper that obscurity should be removed. I interpret הנער, (hannagnar,) the child, to mean not the Prophet’s son, but rather all who should be born soon afterwards. He declares that, before they are grown up, the two kings of Israel and Samaria ¹²³¹²³ It is evident that, by a slip of the pen, Samaria is put for Syria. — Ed. will be destroyed.

Before the face of the king of Assyria. That is, at the disposal, or at the will, of the king of Assyria; alluding perhaps to an ancient custom of carrying the spoils of the enemies before the chariot of those who received a public triumph. In like manner shall the spoils of Samaria and Damascus be carried before the king of Assyria.

This makes it still more evident that the Prophet intended nothing else than to foretell the desolation of the kingdom of Israel and of Syria. He does this for the purpose of comforting the godly, and likewise of holding up to scorn the foolish dread of the wicked king, who could not endure that the Lord should assist him; for he rejected not only the promises, but likewise the sign which was offered. In consequence of this, the Prophet goes farther and farther in reproving his wickedness, and that of the whole nation. “Thou dost, indeed, believe nothing, but the Lord will assist his own; and thou shalt quickly see sudden and unexpected changes, by which the Lord will deliver his people.” And yet these words were spoken not so much to the king as to godly men; and hence we ought to infer that the servants of God do not always speak so as to be believed by their hearers; for Isaiah here addresses wicked men, in whom he produces no conviction. Why, then, does he speak to them? To convict them more and more of their unbelief, and to reprove them for it; and next, to render the goodness of God more manifest: for who would not have thought that such aggravated wickedness would entirely shut the door against the mercy of God? And yet the Lord, by his goodness, rises superior to the wickedness both of the king and of the people. The object of the Prophet therefore is, to reprove the ungodly for their rebelliousness, and at the same time show that God is always like himself.