BOOK 23 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Isaiah 8

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Isaiah 8 Overview

Isaiah’s son Maher-shalal-hash-baz embodies the speed of Assyria’s coming conquest, while Judah is warned not to fear conspiracies but to fear the LORD; darkness deepens for those who seek occult guidance instead of God’s word.

IsaiahBook

8Chapter

22Verses

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Before you read Isaiah 8

Coming from

During the Syro-Ephraimite crisis, Isaiah tells fearful King Ahaz to trust the LORD rather than political calculation; Ahaz refuses a sign, and God gives the sign of Immanuel while also warning that Assyria will bring severe trouble.

In this chapter

Leads into

Light dawns in Galilee’s darkness as Isaiah announces a child whose royal names and endless Davidic government point to extraordinary rule; the chapter then returns to repeated judgments on proud, unrepentant Israel.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The chapter continues the crisis of Isaiah 7. Assyria will sweep through Syria and Israel and overflow into Judah, yet the land is still called Immanuel’s land, holding judgment and divine purpose together.

The interpretive center of Isaiah 8 is the chapter’s own movement: political powers move under god’s larger purpose. Read its poetry, signs, historical references, and later biblical connections from that center rather than treating isolated phrases as detached slogans.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Political powers move under God’s larger purpose

Assyria is a devastating flood, but it does not erase the Immanuel promise.

The LORD, not public panic, must define fear

Isaiah and his disciples are told not to share the people’s conspiracy fears.

Rejecting revelation drives people toward darkness

Consulting mediums instead of the law and testimony leads away from light.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Isaiah 7

Maher-shalal-hash-baz continues the sign-child pattern and the Assyrian warning.

1 Peter 3:14-15

Peter echoes Isaiah 8:12-13 when telling believers not to fear human threats but to sanctify the Lord in their hearts.

Isaiah 9:1-7

The darkness at the end of chapter 8 prepares for the great-light and royal-child promise that follows.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not treat occult consultation as harmless curiosity.

The chapter directly contrasts mediums with seeking God’s revealed word.

Do not read Assyria’s invasion as proof that Immanuel failed.

The text presents both Assyrian judgment and the continuing divine claim over the land.

Read Isaiah 8 watching for…

Maher-shalal-hash-baz as a sign

the flood imagery for Assyria

the repeated Immanuel language

the command to fear the LORD rather than conspiracies

the movement from rejected testimony into darkness

Chapter outline3 sections

1-8Maher-shalal-hash-baz is named as a sign of swift Assyrian spoil 9-15Conspiracies will fail, but the LORD must be feared as sanctuary and stone of stumbling 16-22Isaiah waits on the LORD while the people turn to familiar spirits and darkness

Moreover the LORD said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man's pen concerning Mahershalalhashbaz.

And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.

And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Mahershalalhashbaz.

For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.

The LORD spake also unto me again, saying,

Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son;

Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks:

And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.

Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.

Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.

For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,

Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.

Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.

Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.

And I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.

Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.

And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?

To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.

And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.

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Isaiah 8:16

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