< Isaiah 7 >
1 And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, [that] Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but they were not able to fight against it.
2 And it was told the house of David saying, Syria is allied with Ephraim. Then his heart and the heart of his people shook, as the trees of the forest are shaken with the wind.
3 And Jehovah said to Isaiah, Go out now to meet Ahaz, thou and thy son Shear-jashub, at the end of the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller's field;
4 and thou shalt say unto him, Take heed and be quiet; fear not, and let not thy heart faint before these two ends of smoking firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.
5 Inasmuch as Syria hath taken evil counsel against thee, Ephraim [also] and the son of Remaliah, saying,
6 Let us go up against Judah, and harass it, and make a breach therein for us, and set up a king therein — the son of Tabeal;
7 thus saith the Lord Jehovah: It shall not stand, nor come to pass;
8 for the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty-five years shall Ephraim be broken, so as to be no [more a] people;
9 and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If ye believe not, surely ye shall not be established.
10 And Jehovah spoke again to Ahaz, saying,
11 Ask for thee a sign from Jehovah thy God; ask for it in the deep, or in the height above. (Sheol )
12 And Ahaz said, I will not ask, and will not tempt Jehovah.
13 And he said, Hear then, house of David: Is it a small matter for you to weary men, that ye weary also my God?
14 Therefore will the Lord himself give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth a son, and call his name Immanuel.
15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good.
16 For before the child knoweth to refuse the evil and to choose the good, the land whose two kings thou fearest shall be forsaken.
17 Jehovah will bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days which have not come since the day when Ephraim turned away from Judah — [even] the king of Assyria.
18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that Jehovah will hiss for the fly which is at the extremity of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee which is in the land of Assyria;
19 and they shall come and settle all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and on all thorn-bushes, and on all the pastures.
20 In that day will the Lord, with a razor which is hired beyond the river, with the king of Assyria, shave the head and the hair of the feet, yea, the beard also will it take away.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep,
22 and it shall come to pass, from the abundance of milk they shall give, [that] he shall eat butter; for every one that remaineth in the midst of the land shall eat butter and honey.
23 And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] every place, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silver pieces, shall become briars and thorns:
24 with arrows and with the bow shall they come thither, for the whole land shall become briars and thorns.
25 And all mountains that have been dug up with the hoe — thither will they not come, from fear of briars and thorns; and they shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of small cattle.
