Isaiah 7:16–25

¹⁶For before the boy knows to reject what is bad and choose what is good, the land of the two kings you dread will be abandoned. ¹⁷The Lord will bring on you, your people, and your father’s house such a time as has never been since Ephraim separated from Judah:^q He will bring the king of Assyria.”^r

¹⁸On that day^s

the Lord will whistle^t to flies

at the farthest streams of the Nile

and to bees in the land of Assyria.

¹⁹All of them will come and settle

in the steep ravines, in the clefts of the rocks,^u

in all the thornbushes, and in all the water holes.

²⁰On that day the Lord will use a razor^v hired from beyond the Euphrates River—the king of Assyria^w—to shave the hair on your heads, the hair on your legs, and even your beards.

²¹On that day

a man will raise a young cow and two sheep,

²²and from the abundant milk they give

he will eat curds,

for every survivor in the land will eat curds and honey.^x

²³And on that day

every place where there were a thousand vines,

worth a thousand pieces of silver,

will become thorns and briers.^y

²⁴A man will go there with bow and arrows

because the whole land will be thorns and briers.

²⁵You will not go to all the hills

that were once tilled with a hoe,

for fear of the thorns and briers.

Those hills will be places for oxen to graze

and for sheep to trample.