In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of
Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the
king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but
could not yet mount an attack against it. When the house of David
was told, “Syria is in league with Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz and
the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake
before the wind.
And the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-
jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the
highway to the Washer's Field. And say to him, ‘Be careful, be
quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of
these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of
Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. Because Syria, with
Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you,
saying, “Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us
conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in
the midst of it,” thus says the Lord GOD:
“‘It shall not stand,
and it shall not come to pass.
For the head of Syria is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is Rezin.
And within sixty-five years
Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.
And the head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you are not firm in faith,
you will not be firm at all.’”
Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz: “Ask a sign of the LORD your
God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I
will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.” And he
said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to
weary men, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself
will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a
son, and shall call his name Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey
when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For
before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good,
the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. The LORD will
bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house
such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from
Judah—the king of Assyria!”
In that day the LORD will whistle for the fly that is at the end
of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of
Assyria. And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines,
and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on
all the pastures.
In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired beyond
the River—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the
feet, and it will sweep away the beard also.
In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep, and
because of the abundance of milk that they give, he will eat curds,
for everyone who is left in the land will eat curds and honey.
In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines,
worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns.
With bow and arrows a man will come there, for all the land will be
briers and thorns. And as for all the hills that used to be hoed
with a hoe, you will not come there for fear of briers and thorns,
but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where
sheep tread.
