< Isaiah 7 >
1 And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria, and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel, came up, to Jerusalem, to war against it, but could not prevail against it.
2 And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria hath settled down upon Ephraim. Then shook his heart, and the heart of his people, as the trees of a forest shake before a wind.
3 Then said Yahweh, unto Isaiah, Go forth, I pray thee, to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shear-jashub thy son, —unto the end of the channel of the upper pool, unto the highway of the fuller’s field;
4 and say unto him—Take heed and keep thyself calm—do not fear, neither let thy heart be faint, because of these two fag-ends of smoking firebrands, —in spite of the glow of the anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah.
5 Because Syria, hath taken counsel against thee, for mischief, —[with] Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, saying,
6 Let us go up against Judah, and besiege it, and break it open, for ourselves, —and set up a king in the midst thereof, even the son of Tabeal,
7 Thus, saith My Lord, Yahweh, —It shall not stand Neither shall it come to pass!
8 For, though the head of Syria is Damascus, And, the head of Damascus, is Rezin, Yet within threescore and five years more, shall Ephraim be broken that it shall not be a people;
9 Even though the head of Ephraim is Samaria, And, the head of Samaria, is the son of Remaliah. If ye trust not, Surely, ye cannot be trusted!
10 And again spake Yahweh unto Ahaz saying—
11 Ask thee a sign, of Yahweh thy God, —Go down deep for a request, Or ascend on high! (Sheol )
12 But Ahaz said, —I will not ask Nor will I put Yahweh to the proof.
13 Then said he—Hear, I pray you, O house of David! Is it, too little, for you to weary men, that ye must weary even my God?
14 Wherefore let My Lord Himself give you a sign, —Lo! a Virgin, being with child and giving birth to a son, thou wilt call his name Immanuel.
15 Curds and honey, shall he eat, by the time that he knoweth to refuse the bad and choose the good;
16 for before the boy knoweth to refuse the bad and choose the good, forsaken shall be the land, at which, thou, art alarmed, of the presence of both her kings.
17 Yahweh will bring upon thee and upon thy people, and upon the house of thy father, days which have not come, from the day when Ephraim departed from Judah, —even the king of Assyria.
18 And it shall come to pass in that day that Yahweh will give a signal—To the fly that is in the uttermost part of the Nile-canals of Egypt, And to the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
19 And they shall all of them come and settle down—In the desolate torrent-valleys, And in the rents of the crags, —And on all the thorn-bushes, And on all the pastures,
20 In that day, will My Lord shave, with a hired razor, even with them of the lands over the River Euphrates, with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet, —yea, even the beard, will it sweep off.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall keep alive a young cow and two sheep.
22 Yea it shall come to pass for the abundance of the yield of milk, that he shall eat curds, —for, curds and honey, shall every one eat that is left in the midst of the land.
23 And it shall some to pass in that day, that, every place wherein there used to be a thousand vines at a thousand pieces of silver, —yea, even for briars and thorns, shall it be.
24 With arrows and with a bow, shall one come in thither, —for briars and thorns, shall be all the land.
25 But all the hills which, with the hoe, can be weeded, —there shall not come thither, the fear of briars and thorns, —but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the tread of lesser cattle.
