Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Isaiah predicts the fall of Damascus and Samaria. He rebukes the people for abandoning God, warns them of the upcoming Assyrian attack, and berates them for their misguided ways.
II. Photo
Isaiah warns the people of Judah: “Assuredly, my Lord will bring up against them the mighty, massive waters of the Euphrates, the king of Assyria and all his multitude. It shall rise above all its channels, and flow over all its beds, and swirl through Judah like a flash flood reaching up to the neck.” (vv. 7-8a)
III. Important Verses
1-4: The LORD said to me, “Get yourself a large sheet and write on it in common script ‘For Maher-shalal-hash-baz’; and call reliable witnesses, the priest Uriah and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah, to witness for Me.” I was intimate with the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son; and the LORD said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz. For before the boy learns to call ‘Father’ and ‘Mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, and the delights of Rezin and of the son of Remaliah, shall be carried off before the king of Assyria.”
6-8a: “Because that people has spurned The gently flowing waters of Siloam” — Assuredly, My Lord will bring up against them The mighty, massive waters of the Euphrates, The king of Assyria and all his multitude. It shall rise above all its channels, And flow over all its beds, And swirl through Judah like a flash flood Reaching up to the neck.”
13: None but the LORD of Hosts Shall you account holy; Give reverence to Him alone, Hold Him alone in awe.
17-18: So I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding His face from the House of Jacob, and I will trust in Him. Here stand I and the children the LORD has given me as signs and portents in Israel from the LORD of Hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.
21-22: [A false diviner] shall go about in it wretched and hungry; and when he is hungry, he shall rage and revolt against his king and his divine beings. He may turn his face upward or he may look below, but behold, Distress and darkness, with no daybreak; Straitness and gloom, with no dawn.
IV. Outline
1-4. Isaiah’s son’s name and the implications for Aram and Samaria
5-8. Parable: Israel will face the wrath of Assyria for rejecting God
9-10. Quotation of Immanuel slogan
11-16. Isaiah’s message to his disciples: God alone is to be trusted
17-18. Isaiah’s trust in God
19-22. The diviners are doomed to distress and darkness
23. A message regarding the north and the transjordan
V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.
VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Blenkinsopp, Joseph. “Isaiah 1-39” The Anchor Bible vol. 19 (New York: Doubleday, 2000).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Sweeney, Marvin A. “Isaiah 1-39 with an Introduction to Prophetic Literature” The Forms of Old Testament Literature vol. 16 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1996).
Photo taken from http://www.allenneighborhoodcenter.org/images/flood_harton.jpg
