Therefore Sheol enlarges its throat and opens wide its enormous jaws, and down go Zion’s dignitaries, her masses, her crowds, and those who celebrate in her!

Woe to those who drag iniquity with cords of deceit and pull sin along with cart ropes,

Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against his people. He raised his hand against them and struck them; the mountains quaked, and their corpses were like garbage in the streets. In all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still raised to strike.

Their arrows are sharpened, and all their bows strung. Their horses’ hooves are like flint; their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind.

Seraphim were standing above him; they each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.

The foundations of the doorways shook at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs.

He touched my mouth with it and said: Now that this has touched your lips, your iniquity is removed and your sin is atoned for.

Make the minds of these people dull; deafen their ears and blind their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand with their minds, turn back, and be healed.

Then I said, “Until when, Lord?” And he replied: Until cities lie in ruins without inhabitants, houses are without people, the land is ruined and desolate,

The Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear-jashub to meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, by the road to the Launderer’s Field.

For Aram, along with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has plotted harm against you. They say,

The chief city of Aram is Damascus, the chief of Damascus is Rezin (within sixty-five years Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people),

the chief city of Ephraim is Samaria, and the chief of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you do not stand firm in your faith, then you will not stand at all.

All of them will come and settle in the steep ravines, in the clefts of the rocks, in all the thornbushes, and in all the water holes.

A man will go there with bow and arrows because the whole land will be thorns and briers.

You will not go to all the hills that were once tilled with a hoe, for fear of the thorns and briers. Those hills will be places for oxen to graze and for sheep to trample.

The Coming Assyrian Invasion

Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large piece of parchment and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

I was then intimate with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. The Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz,

Because these people rejected the slowly flowing water of Shiloah and rejoiced with Rezin and the son of Remaliah,

the Lord will certainly bring against them the mighty rushing water of the Euphrates River— the king of Assyria and all his glory. It will overflow its channels and spill over all its banks.

Band together, peoples, and be broken; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for war, and be broken; prepare for war, and be broken.

Devise a plan; it will fail. Make a prediction; it will not happen. For God is with us.

The Lord of Armies, the Only Refuge

For this is what the Lord said to me with great power, to keep me from going the way of this people:

I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will wait for him.