Isaiah 7:16–25

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.