Isaiah 7

1And it happened in the days of Ahaz son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but they were not able to fight against it.

2And it was reported to the house of David, saying, “Aram has settled on Ephraim.” And his heart and the heart of his people shook, as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

3Then Yahweh said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the road to the launderer’s field.”

4and say to him, ‘Be careful and stay calm. Do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stubs of firebrands—because of the burning anger of Rezin and Aram, and the son of Remaliah.’

5Because Aram has planned evil against you, along with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, saying,

6Let us go up against Judah, and terrify her, and break her open for ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king in her midst.

7Thus says the Lord GOD: It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass.

8For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.

9And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you do not believe, surely you will not be established.

10And Yahweh continued to speak to Ahaz, saying,

11Ask for yourself a sign from Yahweh your God: make it as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven.

12But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not test Yahweh.”

13And he said, “Listen, please, house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you also weary my God?”

14Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: behold, the young woman is pregnant and is bearing a son, and she will call his name Immanuel.

15He will eat curds and honey by the time he knows to refuse the evil and choose the good.

16For before the boy knows to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.

17Yahweh will bring upon you, upon your people, and upon your father's house days unlike any that have not come since the day Ephraim turned away from Judah—namely, the king of Assyria.

18And in that day Yahweh will whistle for the fly that is at the far end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

19And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, in the clefts of the rocks, in all the thornbushes, and in all the watering places.

20In that day the Lord will shave with a hired razor from beyond the River—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will also sweep away the beard.

21And in that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep.

22And it will happen that because of the abundance of milk he gives, he will eat curds; for everyone left in the midst of the land will eat curds and honey.

23And in that day, every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand pieces of silver will become briars and thorns.

24One will come there with arrows and with a bow, because all the land will become briers and thorns.

25And as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not go there for fear of briers and thorns; they will become a place for the sending out of oxen and for the trampling of sheep.