Isaiah 7

Chapter 7

War against Jerusalem

¹Now it came about 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 reported to the ^ahouse of David, saying, “The Arameans ^1bhave camped in ^cEphraim,” his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake ²with the wind.

³Then the Lord 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, on the highway to the ²fuller’s field,

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

⁵‘Because ^aAram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has planned 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 the Lord ¹God: “^aIt shall not stand nor shall it come to pass.

⁸“For the head of Aram is ^aDamascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin (now within another 65 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 will not believe, you surely shall not ¹last.” ’ ”

The Child Immanuel

¹⁰Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying,

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

¹²But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!”

¹³Then he said, “Listen 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, ^aa ¹virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name ^2bImmanuel.

¹⁵“He will eat ^acurds and honey ¹at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good.

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

Trials to Come for Judah

¹⁷“The Lord will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house such days as have never come since the day that ^aEphraim separated from Judah, the ^bking of Assyria.”

¹⁸In that day the Lord 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.

¹⁹They will all come and settle on the steep ¹ravines, on the ^aledges of the cliffs, ^bon all the thorn bushes and on all the ²watering places.

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

²¹Now in that day 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 come about in that day, ^athat every place where there used to be a thousand vines, valued at a 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.