Isaiah 8:9-15
The Message
9-10 But face the facts, all you oppressors, and then wring your hands.
Listen, all of you, far and near.
Prepare for the worst and wring your hands.
Yes, prepare for the worst and wring your hands!
Plan and plot all you want—nothing will come of it.
All your talk is mere talk, empty words,
Because when all is said and done,
the last word is Immanuel—God-With-Us.
A Boulder Blocking Your Way
11-15 God spoke strongly to me, grabbed me with both hands and warned me not to go along with this people. He said:
“Don’t be like this people,
always afraid somebody is plotting against them.
Don’t fear what they fear.
Don’t take on their worries.
If you’re going to worry,
worry about The Holy. Fear God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
The Holy can be either a Hiding Place
or a Boulder blocking your way,
The Rock standing in the willful way
of both houses of Israel,
A barbed-wire Fence preventing trespass
to the citizens of Jerusalem.
Many of them are going to run into that Rock
and get their bones broken,
Get tangled up in that barbed wire
and not get free of it.”
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Isaiah 8:9-11
New International Version
9 Raise the war cry,[a](A) you nations, and be shattered!(B)
Listen, all you distant lands.
Prepare(C) for battle, and be shattered!
Prepare for battle, and be shattered!
10 Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted;(D)
propose your plan, but it will not stand,(E)
for God is with us.[b](F)
11 This is what the Lord says to me with his strong hand upon me,(G) warning me not to follow(H) the way of this people:
Footnotes
- Isaiah 8:9 Or Do your worst
- Isaiah 8:10 Hebrew Immanuel
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
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