The waters of Shiloah gently flowing
1 The Lord said to me, “Take a large cylindrical seal and write on it in ordinary characters: Quick to plunder-Booty is Close.
2 Do this before Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jebe rechiah my reliable witness.”
3 I went to my wife; she conceived and gave birth to a son. Then Yahweh said to me, “Call him Quick to plunder–Booty is Close, for this is Yahweh’s word:
4 Before the child knows how to say “father” or “mother”, the wealth of Da mas cus and the booty of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.”
5 Again Yahweh spoke to me:
6 “Be cause this people refuses the gently flowing waters of Shi loah, and cowers in fear before Rezin and the son of Remaliah,
7 therefore the Lord will bring against them the waters of the River, deep and mighty – the king of Assyria with all his pomp.
It will rise over all its channels
and overflow all its banks;
8 it will sweep on to Judah,
it will overflow and pass on,
reaching up to the neck.
It will spread its wings over the whole breadth of your land, O Immanuel!
9 Know it, O you nations.
Hear, O you distant lands;
gird yourselves for war and be dismayed!
10 Devise a plan and it will be thwarted,
make a resolve and it will not stand,
for God-is-with-us.
Yahweh, a hidden God
11 Thus Yahweh spoke to me when his hand grasped me and he warned me not to walk in the way of these people:
12 “Do not speak of conspiracy whenever these people dread conspiracy; do not fear what they fear nor be in dread.
13 Only Yahweh Sabaoth must you hold in veneration, only him must you fear, only him must you dread.
14 He will be a sanctuary and at the same time a stumbling-stone, the rock that brings down, for both houses of Israel. He will be like trap and snare for the people of Jeru salem.
15 Many of them will stumble, many will fall and be broken, be trapped and captured.”
16 Yahweh added: “Bind this testimony and seal it in the midst of my disciples.”
17 So I will wait for Yahweh who hides his face from the people of Jacob. I will hope in him.
18 Here am I and the children he has given me. We are signs and portents in Israel from Yahweh Sabaoth, who dwells on Mount Zion.
19 Should people tell you to consult mediums and spiritists who whisper and mutter, you must say to them: “A people, of course, must consult its gods! On be half of the living, will you consult the dead?”
20 This is what is said through the law and revelations: this word will not fade away.
21 Distressed and famished,
they will roam the land.
In their hunger they will fume
and curse their God and their king.
They will look upward,
22 and then look towards the earth,
but they will only find distress and darkness,
and frightening gloom.
23 Yet, where there was but anguish, darkness will disappear. He has just afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the future he will confer glory on the way of the sea, on the land beyond the Jordan – the pagans’ Galilee.
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Comments Isaiah, Chapter 8
• 8.1 Prophets teach through their words and through their actions. Here, the strange name that Isaiah gives his son serves as a warning for everyone. Such a name, along with Immanuel form a pair in this chapter, and complement each other in pointing both to the invasion caused by Ahaz and to the liberation which will come later.
The waters of Shiloah (8:6) are the only source of water supply for Jerusalem, located on a plateau. They symbolize the secret protection of the Lord, present in the midst of his people and in whom all should place their faith. Whereas the king of Assyria whom Ahaz called for help, would be like the river whose raging waters will flood everything. He will destroy Judah’s enemies, but will also leave Judah in ruins. In this, we also have the pro phecy about the destiny of modern nations that believe they will solve their internal problems by jumping on the bandwagon of more powerful nations.
• 11. When his hand grasped me. Isaiah is referring to one of those decisive encounters when God made him his prophet and he was under the wing of God’s Spirit.
Do not speak of conspiracy! God acts in his prophets and frees them from fear. They are no longer paralyzed by the fears of the society in which they live. They are able to see and to show new ways.
We are signs in Israel. Isaiah has concluded his interventions and they have not listened to him. All he can do now is to wait in silence for the events to occur. His two sons, to whom he gave symbolic names: Quick to plunder– Booty-is-Close (8:3) and A remnant-will-return (7:3) remind everyone of his predictions. The first of these names refers to the near future; the second, to the end of the crisis. (See 10:20.)
Only Yahweh Sabaoth is holy: only him must you fear. For Jerusalem, it is a privilege to have God in its midst. Rather than being frightened by human dangers, the Jews should look to God and obey him. In their midst, God is like the stone which hardly emerges from the ground but causes a fall for those who do not see it. Jesus will appear as a stumbling stone (Mt 21:44).
God hides his face from the people of Jacob. Humanly speaking, the people of Jerusalem have good reasons for not following Yahweh’s command given through Isaiah, and God does not work a miracle to persuade them at that time. God “hides” because faith relies on his word and does not demand miracles.
• 19. Israel, who did not listen to the word of the living God, is left with one recourse: to consult the dead through the fortune-tellers and the mediums: Isaiah makes fun of them (8:19-20).