Isaiah 7

CHAPTER 7

Isaiah Sent to King Ahaz

¹Now it happened in the days of ^aAhaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that ^bRezin the king of Aram and ^cPekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but ^dcould not ¹conquer it.

²When it was told to the ^ahouse of David, saying, “¹The Arameans ^bhave camped in ^cEphraim,” his heart and the hearts 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 your son ¹Shear-jashub, at the end of the ^aconduit of the upper pool, to the highway of the ²fuller’s field,

⁴and say to him, ‘Take care and stay ^aquiet, have no ^bfear and ^cdo not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering ^dfirebrands, on account of the burning anger of Rezin and Aram and the ^eson of Remaliah.

⁵‘Because ^aAram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has counseled evil against you, saying,

⁶“Let us go up against Judah and ¹terrorize it, and make for ourselves a breach in ²its walls and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,”

⁷thus says Lord Yahweh: “^aIt shall not stand, nor shall it happen.

⁸“For the head of Aram is ^aDamascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin (now within another sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered, so that it is no longer a people),

⁹and the head of Ephraim is Samaria and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. ^aIf you do not ¹establish your faith in Yahweh, you surely shall not ²be established.” ’ ”

The Sign of Immanuel

¹⁰Then Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz, saying,

¹¹“Ask a ^asign for yourself from Yahweh your God; ¹make it deep as Sheol or high as ²heaven.”

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

¹³Then he said, “¹Listen now, O ^ahouse of David! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will ^btry the patience of ^cmy God as well?

¹⁴“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, ^athe ¹virgin ²will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name ^3bImmanuel.

¹⁵“He will eat ^acurds and honey ¹in order that He will know to refuse evil and choose good.

¹⁶“^aFor before the boy will know to refuse evil and choose good, ^bthe land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.

¹⁷“Yahweh will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house days which have never come since the day that ^aEphraim separated from Judah—the ^bking of Assyria!”

Trials to Come for Judah

¹⁸And it will be in that day, that Yahweh will ^awhistle for the fly that is in the ^1bremotest part of the rivers of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

¹⁹And they will all come and rest upon the steep ¹ravines, on the ^acrevices of the cliffs, ^bon all the thorn bushes, and on all the ²watering places.

²⁰In that day, the Lord will ^ashave with a ^brazor—one ^chired from regions beyond ^dthe ¹River (that is, the king of Assyria)—the head and the hair of the legs; and it will also remove the beard.

²¹And it will be in that day, that a man may keep alive a ^aheifer and a pair of sheep;

²²and because of the abundance of the milk produced, he will eat curds, for everyone that is left within the land will eat ^acurds and honey.

²³And it will be in that day, ^athat every place where there used to be one thousand vines, valued at ¹one thousand shekels of silver, will become ^bbriars and thorns.

²⁴People will come there with bows and arrows because all the land will be briars and thorns.

²⁵As for all the hills which used to be cultivated with the hoe, you will not go there for fear of briars and thorns; but they will become a place for ^1apasturing oxen and for sheep to trample.