Dual Panel1The LORD said to me, “Take a large writing tablet and write on it in common script ‘Maher-shalal-hash-baz’.”
2I had it witnessed for me by Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah as reliable witnesses.
3Then I lay with my wife, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. The LORD said to me, “Call him Maher-shalal-hash-baz;
4before the boy can say ‘Father’ or ‘Mother’, the wealth of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria will be carried off and presented to the king of Assyria.”
5Once again the LORD spoke to me; he said:
6Because this nation has rejected the waters of Shiloah, which flow softly and gently,
7therefore the Lord will bring up against it the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates. The river will rise in its channels and overflow all its banks.
8In a raging torrent mounting neck-high it will sweep through Judah. With his outspread wings the whole expanse of the land will be filled, for God is with us.
9Take note, you nations; you will be shattered. Listen, all you distant parts of the earth: arm yourselves, and be shattered; arm yourselves, and be shattered.
10Devise your plans, but they will be foiled; propose what you will, but it will not be carried out; for God is with us.
11This is what the LORD said to me when he took me by the hand and charged me not to follow the ways of this people:
12“You are not to call alliance anything that this people calls alliance; you must neither fear nor stand in awe of what they fear.
13It is the LORD of Hosts whom you should hold sacred; he must be the object of your fear and awe.
14He will become a snare, an obstacle, and a rock against which the two houses of Israel will strike and stumble, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15Over them many will stumble and fall and suffer injury; they will be snared and caught.”
16I shall tie up the message, I shall seal the instruction so that it cannot be consulted by my disciples.
17I shall wait eagerly for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob; I shall watch longingly for him.
18Here I am with the children the LORD has given me to be signs and portents in Israel, sent by the LORD of Hosts who dwells on Mount Zion.
19People will say to you, “Seek guidance from ghosts and familiar spirits which squeak and gibber; a nation may surely consult its gods, consult its dead on behalf of the living
20for instruction or a message.” They will surely say some such thing, but what they say has no force.
21So despondency and fear will come over them, and when they are afraid and fearful, they will rebel against their king and their gods. Whether they turn their gaze upwards
22or look down, everywhere is distress and darkness inescapable, constraint and gloom that cannot be avoided;