Isaiah 7

In the days of Ahaz son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not prevail against it. The house of David was told, “Aram has settled in Ephraim.” His heart and the heart of his people trembled as the trees of the forest tremble before the wind. The LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the road to the cloth washer’s field. Say to him, ‘Be careful and keep calm. Do not fear or let your heart grow faint because of these two stubs of smoking firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah. Because Aram, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying, “Let us go up against Judah, terrify it, break into it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in its midst,” thus says the Lord GOD:
“It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin.
Within sixty-five years Ephraim shall be shattered, no longer a people. The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you do not stand firm in faith, you shall not stand firm at all.”’” The LORD spoke again to Ahaz: “Ask for yourself a sign from the LORD your God; ask it in the depths or in the heights above.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.” Then he said, “Hear now, house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and she shall call his name Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows to refuse evil and choose good. For before the boy knows to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread shall be abandoned. The LORD will bring upon you, your people, and your father’s house days unlike any since Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria.” 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. They will all come and settle in the steep ravines, in the clefts of the rocks, on all the thornbushes, and on all the thickets. In that day the Lord will shave with a razor hired from beyond the River, with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the legs; it will remove the beard as well. In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep. Because of the abundance of milk they produce, he will eat curds; for everyone left in the land will eat curds and honey. In that day every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand pieces of silver will become briers and thorns. People will go there with arrows and bow, for the whole land will be briers and thorns. As for all the hills once cultivated with a hoe, you will not go there for fear of briers and thorns. They will become a range for oxen and a place for sheep to trample.

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