Isaiah 8:8

¹⁴Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

²⁸His breath is as an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction. A bridle that leads to ruin will be in the jaws of the peoples.

²³“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall give birth to a son. They shall call his name Immanuel,” which is, being interpreted, “God with us.”

¹⁴Therefore hear the LORD’s word, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem: ¹⁵“Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and we are in agreement with Sheol.^[+] When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won’t come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.’” ¹⁶Therefore the Lord GOD says, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily. ¹⁷I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place. ¹⁸Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol^[+] shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it. ¹⁹As often as it passes through, it will seize you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be nothing but terror to understand the message.” ²⁰For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in. ²¹For the LORD will rise up as on Mount Perazim. He will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his unusual work, and bring to pass his act, his extraordinary act. ²²Now therefore don’t be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord, GOD ^[+] of Armies, on the whole earth.

³and say, ‘The Lord GOD says: “A great eagle with great wings and long feathers, full of feathers which had various colors, came to Lebanon and took the top of the cedar.

¹Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all of the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. ²The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool in the fuller’s field highway. ³Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph the recorder came out to him.

⁴Rabshakeh said to them, “Now tell Hezekiah, ‘The great king, the king of Assyria, says, “What confidence is this in which you trust? ⁵I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only vain words. Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? ⁶Behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt, which if a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. ⁷But if you tell me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ isn’t that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?” ⁸Now therefore, please make a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. ⁹How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? ¹⁰Have I come up now without the LORD against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, “Go up against this land, and destroy it.”’”

¹¹Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Don’t speak to us in the Jews’ language in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

¹²But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you, to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?” ¹³Then Rabshakeh stood, and called out with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! ¹⁴The king says, ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you. ¹⁵Don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us. This city won’t be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”’ ¹⁶Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for the king of Assyria says, ‘Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and each of you eat from his vine, and each one from his fig tree, and each one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; ¹⁷until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. ¹⁸Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? ²⁰Who are they among all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

²¹But they remained silent, and said nothing in reply, for the king’s commandment was, “Don’t answer him.”

²²Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

¹Woe to Ariel! Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts come around; ²then I will distress Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation. She shall be to me as an altar hearth.^3[+] I will encamp against you all around you, and will lay siege against you with posted troops. I will raise siege works against you. ⁴You will be brought down, and will speak out of the ground. Your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will be as of one who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech will whisper out of the dust.

⁵But the multitude of your foes will be like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless ones like chaff that blows away. Yes, it will be in an instant, suddenly. ⁶She will be visited by the LORD of Armies with thunder, with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind and storm, and with the flame of a devouring fire. ⁷The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night. ⁸It will be like when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his hunger isn’t satisfied; or like when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and he is still thirsty. The multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion will be like that.

⁹Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.

²⁸He has come to Aiath. He has passed through Migron. At Michmash he stores his baggage. ²⁹They have gone over the pass. They have taken up their lodging at Geba. Ramah trembles. Gibeah of Saul has fled. ³⁰Cry aloud with your voice, daughter of Gallim! Listen, Laishah! You poor Anathoth! ³¹Madmenah is a fugitive. The inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety. ³²This very day he will halt at Nob. He shakes his hand at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

¹The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops?

²You that are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town, your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle. ³All your rulers fled away together. They were bound by the archers. All who were found by you were bound together. They fled far away. ⁴Therefore I said, “Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don’t labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁵For it is a day of confusion, and of treading down, and of perplexity from the Lord, GOD ^[+] of Armies, in the valley of vision, a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains.” ⁶Elam carried his quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield. ⁷Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate.