A warning about the Assyrian attack

1Then Yahweh said to me, “Make a large signboard. And write clearly on it, ‘Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz’ which means ‘quickly ◄plunder/take by force► and steal everything’.”

2So I requested Uriah the Supreme Priest and Jeberekiah’s son Zechariah, men who were both honest/trustworthy witnesses, to watch me as I was doing that.

3Then I had sex with [EUP] my wife, who was a prophetess, and she became pregnant and then gave birth to a son. Then Yahweh said to me, “Give him the name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (which means ‘suddenly attacked, quickly conquered’),

4because before he is old enough to say ‘papa’ or ‘mama’, the King of Assyria will come with his army and quickly take away all the valuable things in Damascus and in Samaria.”

5Yahweh spoke to me again and said, “Tell the people of Judah,

6‘I have taken good care of you people,
but you have rejected that, thinking that my help was very little, like [MET] the little canal through which water flows from the Gihon Spring into Jerusalem. Instead, you have been happy to request help from King Rezin and King Pekah.

7Therefore, I will cause the people of Judah to be attacked by the powerful army of the King of Assyria, which will be like a great flood from the Euphrates River. Their soldiers will be everywhere in your country, like a river that overflows all its banks.

8Those soldiers will go all over Judah— like a river whose water [MET] rises as high as a person’s neck. Their army will spread over the land quickly, like an eagle, and they will cover your entire land! But I will be with you!’ ”

9Listen, all you people in distant countries! You can prepare to attack Judah. You can prepare for battle, and shout your war-cries, but your armies will be crushed/shattered!

10You can prepare for what you will do to attack Judah, but what you plan to do will not happen! You will not succeed, because God is with us!

Isaiah is urged to revere Yahweh

11Yahweh strongly warned me [MTY] not to act like the other people in Judah did. He said to me,

12“Do not say that everything that people do is conspiring/rebelling against the government, like other people say, and do not ◄be afraid of/worry about► the things that other people are afraid of.

13I, the Commander of the armies of angels, am the one you should consider to be holy. And I am the one you should fear,
the one you should revere.

14I will protect you(sg).
But as for the other people [MTY] in Israel and Judah, I will be like [MET] a stone that causes people to stumble,
a rock that causes them to fall down. And as for the people of Jerusalem, I will be like [MET] a trap or a snare [DOU].

15Many people will stumble and fall down and never get up again. They will experience great troubles; they will be captured by their enemies.”

16So, I say to you who are my disciples, seal up this scroll on which I have written the messages that God has given to me, and give his instructions to others who have accompanied me.

17I will wait to see what Yahweh will do.
He has rejected the descendants [MTY] of Jacob, but I will confidently expect him to help me.

18I and the children that Yahweh has given to me are like signs to warn the people of Israel; we are warnings from the Commander of the armies of angels
the one who lives in his temple on Zion Hill in Jerusalem.

19Some people may urge you(pl) to ◄consult/go and talk with► those who talk with the spirits of dead people or with those who say that they receive messages from those spirits. They whisper and mutter about what we should do in the future. But God is [RHQ] the one whom we should ask to guide us! It is ridiculous [RHQ] for people who are alive to request spirits of dead people to tell us what we should do!

20Pay attention to God’s instructions and teaching! If people do not say things that agree with what God teaches us, what they say is worthless. It is as though those people are in darkness.

21They will wander through the land, worried/discouraged and hungry. And when they become very hungry, they will become very angry. They will look up toward heaven and curse God and will also curse their king.

22They will look around the land and see only trouble/distress and darkness and things that cause them to despair. And then they will be thrown into the very black darkness of hell.