1 And the LORD said to me, “Take a large tablet and write on it in plain writing, ‘Hasten to seize the prey and to take away the spoil.’ 2 And call to witness before me, as faithful witnesses, the curses that I threatened to bring through the prophecy of Uriah the priest, and they have come; and also the consolations that I promised to bring through the prophecy of Zechariah son of Jeberechiah, which I am about to bring.” 3 And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the LORD said to me, “Call his name, ‘Hasten to seize the prey and to take away the spoil.’ 4 For before the child knows how to cry, ‘My father and my mother,’ the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried into captivity before the king of Assyria.” 5 And the Memra of the LORD spoke again to me, saying, 6 “Because this people refuses the kingdom of the house of David, which guides them in quietness, like the waters of Shiloah that flow softly, and delights in Rezin and Remaliah’s son; 7 therefore the LORD is bringing up against them the army of the peoples, who are many, like the waters of a river, strong and mighty, the king of Assyria and his army; and he will come up over all his channels and go over all his banks. 8 And he will pass through the land of the house of Judah like an overflowing torrent; he will reach as far as Jerusalem, and the people of his army will fill the breadth of your land, O Israel.” 9 Band together, O peoples, yet you will be broken; listen, all you who are at the ends of the earth; arm yourselves, yet you will be broken; arm yourselves, yet you will be broken. 10 Take counsel together, yet it will come to nothing; speak the word, yet it will not stand, because God is our help. 11 For the LORD spoke to me like this by the power of prophecy and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, 12 “Do not call rebellion all that this people calls rebellion; do not fear what they fear; and do not call their strength a strength. 13 The LORD of hosts, Him you shall call holy; let Him be your fear, and let Him be your strength. 14 And if you will not obey, His Memra will be among you for vengeance, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both houses of the princes of Israel, a destruction and a snare, because they contend against those of the house of Judah who dwell in Jerusalem. 15 And many among them will stumble and fall and be broken and snared and captured. 16 O prophet, keep the testimony; do not testify the testimony among them, because they do not obey; seal up and hide the Torah, for they are not willing to learn it.” 17 The prophet said, Because of this I prayed before the LORD, who has said that He would take away His Shekinah from the house of Jacob, and I pleaded before Him. 18 While I live with the children whom the LORD has given me, the signs and wonders that are promised to come upon Israel will be established among us. But if they would see and repent, the decree He decreed against them would be annulled, that they should go into captivity and not appear before the LORD of hosts, whose Shekinah is in the mountain of Zion. 19 And when the nations among whom you will live say to you, “Consult the necromancers and the wizards who chirp and mutter” — is this not the way of the nations, the worshippers of idols? A people seeks from its idol, the living from the dead.⁠a 20 Thus you shall say to them, “We will listen to the Torah that has been given to us, and to the testimony.” Yet you will go into captivity among the nations, and they will speak to you according to this word. Now there is none among them who would search and seek after it. 21 And one will pass through the land, stumbling along, and there will be oppression and famine. And when he sees famine and affliction, he will curse and despise the name of his Moloch and his idolatry; and he will look upward to seek deliverance after the decree has been sealed, but he will not be able to obtain it. 22 And he will seek help from the inhabitants of the earth, because there will come upon him oppression, famine, the weariness of oppression, darkness, and dispersion. 23 For none who come to oppress them will be weary, as at the former time, when the people of the land of Zebulun and the people of the land of Naphtali went into captivity; and those who were left, a mighty king led into captivity, because they did not remember the power of the Red Sea, nor the wonders of the Jordan, nor the war of the fortifications of the nations.