Isa 8:1 The LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.”
Isa 8:2 So I called in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me.
Isa 8:3 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.
Isa 8:4 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.”
Isa 8:5 The LORD spoke to me again:
Isa 8:6 “Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoices over Rezin and the son of Remaliah,
Isa 8:7 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
Isa 8:8 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!”
Isa 8:9 Raise the war cry, you nations, and be shattered! Listen, all you distant lands. Prepare for battle, and be shattered! Prepare for battle, and be shattered!
Isa 8:10 Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted; propose your plan, but it will not stand, for God is with us.
Fear God, Wait for the Lord
Isa 8:11 This is what the LORD says to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people:
Isa 8:12 “Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it.
Isa 8:13 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.
Isa 8:14 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.
Isa 8:15 Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured.”
Isa 8:16 Bind up this testimony of warning and seal up God’s instruction among my disciples.
Isa 8:17 I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the descendants of Jacob. I will put my trust in him.
Isa 8:18 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.
Isa 8:19 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?
Isa 8:20 Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.
Isa 8:21 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.
Isa 8:22 Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.
In Maher-shalal-hash-baz, he prophesies that Syria and Israel shall be subdued by Assyria. 5 Judah likewise for their infidelity. 9 God’s judgments shall be irresistible. 11 Comfort shall be to them that fear God. 19 Great afflictions to idolaters.
Isa 8:1 The LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.”
Chapter 8 is linked with ch. 7, and makes of it a continuation of that narrative. The prophecy itself is also closely related to that of the preceding chapter, and is to be understood against the background of that chapter.
Maher-shalal-hash-baz. Literally, “speed the spoil, hasten the plunder.” This name, to be recorded on a tablet, was meant to signify the imminence of the Assyrian invasion foretold in ch. 7:17–25. For nearly a year before the birth of the child this name bore its mute, symbolic message to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, giving them ample opportunity to ponder its importance.
Isa 8:2 So I called in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me.
Isa 8:3 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.
Maher-shalal-hash-baz was Isaiah’s second son (see Isa. 7:3). As the first son of Isaiah was a sign to the people that a “remnant” would “return,” the second was to be a sign of speedy judgment to come.
Isa 8:4 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.”
By the age of one year a child usually has the ability to say “da da” and “mamma.” Before this child became two years of age the Assyrians would spoil both Israel and Syria. This prophecy was fulfilled in 732, when Pekah and Rezin lost their thrones, and, later, their lives (Isa. 7:16; cf. 2 Kings 15:30; 16:9).
Thus the writing of the name Maher-shalal-hash-baz on the tablet was a sign of the speedy coming of the Assyrians to “spoil” Samaria and to “plunder” Syria (see on Isa. 8:1). Israel and Syria thus fell to Assyria. Judah was spared for the time being. God had told Ahaz not to fear (ch. 7:4), and had foretold the birth of the sign child Immanuel by way of assurance that the Lord would be with Judah and spare it the unhappy fate that befell its neighbours to the north.
On one clay tablet Tiglath-pileser declares that the people of Israel overthrew their king, and that he then placed Hoshea upon the throne. According to 2 Kings 15:29, 30, it was in the days of Pekah that Tiglath-pileser conquered “Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria” and that Hoshea slew Pekah and took his throne.
And according to 2 Kings 16:7–9 it was when Ahaz called for Assyrian aid that Tiglath-pileser took Damascus, carried its people away captive, and slew Rezin. Instead of relying upon God for help, Ahaz had asked Tiglath-pileser to save him out of the hands of the kings of Israel and Syria (2 Kings 16:7).
But in doing this, Ahaz was only inviting judgments upon Judah. The chronicler declares that by his transgressions Ahaz made Judah “naked,” and that although Tiglath-pileser came, he “distressed him, but strengthened him not” (2 Chron. 28:19, 20).
Isa 8:5 The LORD spoke to me again:
Isa 8:6 “Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoices over Rezin and the son of Remaliah,
The waters of Shiloah. This aqueduct flowed from the spring Gihon, in a cave in the eastern hill of Jerusalem, whose waters formed a stream that emptied into the old Pool of Siloam. Later, a tunnel built by Hezekiah (in which the Siloam inscription was found; conducted the waters of Gihon to a new Pool of Siloam inside the city.
These quiet waters of Shiloah represented the message of assurance against Assyria that was implicit in the name Immanuel, “God with us.” To refuse the gently flowing waters of Shiloah was to refuse the counsel of God. By turning to Assyria for help, Ahaz brought upon Judah “the waters of the river [Euphrates], strong and many,” for “the river,” “the king of Assyria,” would “go over all his banks” and inundate “the breadth of thy land [Judah
Isa 8:7 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
Isa 8:8 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!”
Because of its disobedience and unbelief, the land of Judah would not remain entirely free from Assyrian attack. Israel would utterly perish, but Judah would not be completely overwhelmed. Small at first, the flood would increase in size until the waters reached “to the neck” (see ch. 30:28) of Judah. History records that eventually all of Judah except the city of Jerusalem fell temporarily into Assyrian hands (see on 2 Kings 18:13).
Immanuel.
A small remnant, were faithful, and they would be saved. It was primarily for their benefit that this message was given.
Isa 8:9 Raise the war cry, you nations, and be shattered! Listen, all you distant lands. Prepare for battle, and be shattered! Prepare for battle, and be shattered!
You nations. Isaiah here speaks to the heathen nations that would think to “take counsel together” (v. 10) against God, and warns them that “God is with us.”
Isa 8:10 Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted; propose your plan, but it will not stand, for God is with us.
God can bring to nought all the counsels of evil men who set themselves to thwart His purpose. He did this in the days of Ahaz, and He is doing so today.
God is with us. Heb. ‘Immanu ’El, the same words transliterated in v. 8 as Immanuel. Verses 9 and 10 make clear the significance of the Immanuel message God was endeavouring to impress upon the hearts of His people. In the end, the counsels of the Assyrians would not prevail against the people of God because He was “with” them (see ch. 10:5–12).
Isaiah earnestly preached this Immanuel message to the people of Judah, and there were no doubt many who learned to place their confidence in God. King Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, was one of these. When Sennacherib came against Judah, Hezekiah encouraged his people with these inspiring words:
“Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him: with him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles” ( 2 Chron. 32:7, 8). Because Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, God was with him, and eventually 185,000 of Sennacherib’s host were slain in a single night by the angel of the Lord (2 Kings 19:35).
Isa 8:11 This is what the LORD says to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people:
Isa 8:12 “Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it.
Ahaz and the people of Judah feared the Israelite-Syrian conspiracy, or confederacy, and had united with the heathen in an effort to counteract it.
It was because he trusted in the heathen for help rather than trusting God, that Ahaz was rebuked by the Lord. It was a reproach to the God of heaven for His professed people to enter into a “confederacy” with idolaters. God would have His people stand by themselves, distinct from the world.
We are to counsel with God and to find our strength in Him. Only thus can we have the presence of the Lord with us; only thus can we accomplish His work in His way. When the people of God form alliances of any kind with those who know Him not, then the policies of men will inevitably supplant the principles of Heaven, and the work of the Lord will suffer. Our strength lies, not in close association with the world, but in a complete separation from it.
Isa 8:13 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.
Isaiah had caught a vision of the holiness of God (ch. 6:1–4), and now he called upon the people of Judah to recognize the holiness of the Lord. Unless the people caught a vision of the infinite holiness of God, they could never attain to holiness themselves.
He is the one you are to fear.. A people who feared God would not need to stand in fear of man. Ahaz was afraid of Pekah and Rezin because he refused to fear the Lord. The fear of God, however, is something far different from the fear of man. To fear the Lord does not mean to be afraid of Him, but to stand in awe of Him, to trust and love Him, to come into His presence with joy.
Isa 8:14 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.
Those who duly feared the Lord (see on v. 13) would find in Him a refuge from danger (see on Ps. 91:1). Isaiah sought to turn the people away from earthly things to God. Christ was, and is today, the true “sanctuary” of Israel.
A stone that causes people to stumble. Jesus referred to Himself as the Rock (Matt. 21:42–44). Paul quoted Isa. 8:14 with reference to Christ (Rom. 9:33)
Rom 9:33 As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”
During the erection of Solomon’s Temple no place could be found for a certain huge stone cut at the quarry and transported to the site of the Temple. For a long time it lay in the way of the builders, unused and rejected. Eventually, however, it was discovered that this was the most important stone of the entire structure, the cornerstone, and it was finally placed in its vital position (see DA 597, 598). Jesus is the long-rejected Cornerstone of Judaism.
Isa 8:14 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.
The figure of the stone is exchanged for that of a trap, to bring out another aspect of the problem. Christ and His message would be as a trap, or a snare, to the wicked inhabitants of Jerusalem. He who should be the life, hope, and protection of all mankind would prove to be a snare to those who refused to walk in His ways. Only thus, however, can life be preserved on earth.
If the wicked were allowed to walk unrestrained in their evil ways, they would very soon destroy themselves and all the inhabitants of earth. It is only by calling a halt to the operations of the wicked and placing certain restraints upon them beyond which they are not permitted to go, that the continuation of life is made possible on earth. Every man who lives can thank God that He is a snare to the wicked, for otherwise there would be no peace or joy, no freedom or hope, for any of the inhabitants of earth.
Isa 8:15 And many among them shall stumble; They shall fall and be broken, Be snared and taken.”
The Lord here refers primarily to the people of Isaiah’s own time. But those in all ages who walk contrary to God and His law will, when they refuse the reproofs of God’s Holy Word, also “stumble, and fall.”
Those who, because of their lack of spiritual discernment, fail to understand the true import of the messages of God’s Word, often cause those messages to become a means of stumbling to those who come under their influence. No man need be ensnared if he has spiritual insight and a love of truth.
Isa 8:16 Bind up the testimony, Seal the law among my disciples.
This was to be Isaiah’s task. These words refer to the ancient custom of binding up a document and affixing a seal to it. Some of the Jewish Aramaic papyri of the 5th century b.c., discovered at Elephantine, in Egypt, were found still tied with string and the knot sealed with clay stamped with the impression of a carved seal. Thus the contents of the document would be authenticated and kept inviolate.
Thus it is to be with the words of God and the law of God. Isaiah had delivered a message of vital importance to the people, God’s message of life to the nation. That message must be diligently preserved. God had given Israel His holy law, and obedience to that law meant life to all mankind. It was of vital importance that the law be kept inviolate through all ages, that not one jot or tittle might be altered or otherwise made ineffective (see on Matt. 5:17, 18).
Isa 8:17 And I will wait on the LORD, Who hides His face from the house of Jacob; And I will hope in Him.
This is his personal response to God’s message in vs. 12–16. Whatever others may do, the prophet affirms his purpose to obey God and to find in Him confidence and strength.
God never arbitrarily hides His face from any man or nation. It is when men turn their backs upon God that He turns His face from them (see ch. 59:1, 2).
God does not forever continue to speak to those who will not hear. It was because Israel had turned away from hearing the Word of the Lord and from obeying His law that, as it were, He “hid” His face from them. The experience of the nation was now like that of Saul when the Lord would no longer answer him (1 Sam. 28:6).
Whatever the experience of others might be, Isaiah would look to God, give ear to His words, and walk in His ways (see Joshua 24:15).
Isa 8:18 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.
As indicated by their names (see on ch. 7:14), Isaiah and his sons were ordained of God to be living signs to the people of Judah. Through them God proclaimed a vital message to His people. The name “Isaiah” means “Jehovah [will] save.” Isaiah’s name is, in fact, the theme of the book that bears his name. In relation to the immediate circumstances, this meant salvation from Israel, Syria, and Assyria.
The name of Isaiah’s first son, Shear-jashub, means “[a] remnant [shall] return,” and that child by his very name signified to the people that a remnant would be saved. God would not at this time make a full end of Judah, as He planned to do of Israel.
The name of Isaiah’s second son, Maher-shalal-hash-baz, means “Speed the spoil, hasten the prey.” This son was a constant reminder that judgment was hastening on apace and that erelong doom would fall on those who rejected God’s grace. To those who were faithful and true to Him, the child Immanuel was God’s assurance of His continued presence among them.
Isa 8:19 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?
Isaiah here denounces the sources upon which Ahaz and many in Judah were relying for counsel and guidance.
Consult mediums and spiritists. Lev. 19:31; Deut. 18:11. By their iniquities the children of Israel had cut themselves off from God, even as Saul had done, so that the Lord no longer answered them (see on 1 Sam. 28:6). And like Saul, the people now turned to demons for guidance and help. Spiritualism was prevalent then, as it is today, with the result that the people sought the spirits for guidance.
Whisper The mediums spoke in a lisping whisper. There is something of ridicule and contempt in these words. The emissaries of the devil often resorted to the most senseless and degrading devices in making contacts with the spirits. By consulting the spirits of devils, men would inevitably become like them in character and actions. Satan exercises practically unlimited influence over those who forsake the “law” and the “testimony” (Isa. 8:20) in preference for the more pleasing messages of his evil spirits.
Inquire of God. The alternative to seeking the spirit mediums for counsel. It was the height of folly for Israel to forsake God, the Author of life, and give themselves over to the author of misery and death.
Why consult the dead on behalf of the living Since “the dead know not any thing” (Eccl. 9:5), it is obvious that they cannot be consulted, and that any pretences at doing so are trickery. Man is capable of no higher folly than forsaking the living God and putting himself under the influence of the author of death. Those who refuse truth because it is not pleasing to them are defenceless against the devil’s lies (see 2 Thess. 2:10, 11).
Isa 8:20 Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.
Isa 8:20 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
The law. Heb. torah, denoting all the revealed will of God. This is the common Biblical term for the inspired writings of Scripture, particularly those of Moses (see on Num. 19:14; Deut. 4:44; 30:10; 31:9; Prov. 3:1.) Isaiah directs men away from the words and wisdom of devils and men to the revealed wisdom of God.
The prophets of God were His witnesses, or spokesmen, and the “testimony” they bore was His message of wisdom and life. Isaiah here directs men to the Word of God as the standard of truth and the guide to right living. God has revealed Himself in His Word. Whatever men may speak that is not in harmony with that Word has “no light” in it (see on ch. 50:10, 11).
Isa 8:21 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.
All such walk as it were through a land of darkness, in perplexity and distress, longing for something, they know not what, looking for something they can never find—apart from God.
In gloom, bewilderment, without either light or hope, and angry at their plight, they blame their human leaders for the trouble in which they find themselves, and curse God because they must now reap the bitter results of disobedience.
The prophet here aptly describes the experience of wilful men of all ages. In ch. 9:1–8 his inspired vision glances briefly forward to the time of the first advent of Christ, the Light who would dispel the darkness of men’s souls by the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness (Mal. 4:2; see on Matt. 1:23).
Isa 8:22 Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness. These men gaze heavenward without perceiving either God or light. Then they look earthward, and there find only anguish of soul and perplexity. Without God the world is a bewildering maze of uncertainty and distress. The Messiah, to whom the prophet looks longingly forward in ch. 9:1–7, is man’s only light in the darkness of today, and his only hope for a brighter tomorrow.