Isaiah 7

¹ When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it.

² Now the house of David was told, "Aram has allied with Ephraim." So the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

³ Then the LORD said to Isaiah, "Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-Jashub, at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman's Field.

⁴ Say to him, 'Be careful, keep calm,
and do not be afraid.
Do not lose heart
because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—
because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram
and of the son of Remaliah.

⁵ Aram, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying,

⁶ "Let us invade Judah and terrorize it,
and let us divide it among ourselves
and set up the son of Tabeel as king over it."

⁷ This is what the Lord GOD says:
"It will not stand,
and it will not happen.

⁸ For the head of Aram is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is only Rezin.
Within sixty-five years
Ephraim will be shattered as a people.

⁹ The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is only the son of Remaliah.
If you do not stand firm in your faith,
you will not stand at all."

¹⁰ Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz:

¹¹ "Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights."

¹² But Ahaz said, "I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test."

¹³ Then Isaiah said, "Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also?

¹⁴ Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The young woman will conceive and bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel.

¹⁵ He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right.

¹⁶ For before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.

¹⁷ The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on your father's house a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah—he will bring the king of Assyria."

¹⁸ In that day the LORD will whistle
for the fly at the farthest streams of Egypt
and for the bee in the land of Assyria.

¹⁹ They will all come and settle
in the steep ravines and in the clefts of the rocks,
on all the thornbushes and at all the water holes.

²⁰ In that day the Lord will shave with a razor hired beyond the Euphrates—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the legs, and it will also remove the beard.

²¹ In that day, a man will keep alive a young cow and two goats.

²² And because of the abundance of milk they give, he will eat curds. Everyone left in the land will eat curds and honey.

²³ In that day, every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels will become briers and thorns.

²⁴ People will go there with bows and arrows, for the whole land will be covered with briers and thorns.

²⁵ As for all the hills once cultivated by the hoe, you will no longer go there for fear of the briers and thorns; they will become places where cattle are turned loose and where sheep run.