7
In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. David’s house was told, “Syria is allied with Ephraim.” His heart trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest tremble with the wind. Then Yahweh said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shearjashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller’s field. Tell him, ‘Be careful, and keep calm. Don’t be afraid, neither let your heart be faint because of these two tails of smoking torches, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have plotted evil against you, saying, “Let’s go up against Judah, and tear it apart, and let’s divide it among ourselves, and set up a king within it, even the son of Tabeel.” This is what the Lord Yahweh says: “It shall not stand, neither shall it happen.” For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty-five years Ephraim shall be broken in pieces, so that it shall not be a people; and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.’”
10 Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz, saying, 11 “Ask a sign of Yahweh your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.”
12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, neither will I tempt Yahweh.”
13 He said, “Listen now, house of David. Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.+ 15 He shall eat butter and honey when he knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good. 16 For before the child knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two kings you abhor shall be forsaken. 17 Yahweh will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria. 18 It will happen in that day that Yahweh will whistle for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19 They shall come, and shall all rest in the desolate valleys, in the clefts of the rocks, on all thorn hedges, and on all pastures. 20 In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired in the parts beyond the River, even with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard. 21 It shall happen in that day that a man shall keep alive a young cow, and two sheep; 22 and it shall happen, that because of the abundance of milk which they shall give he shall eat butter: for everyone will eat butter and honey that is left within the land. 23 It will happen in that day that every place where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silver shekels,+ shall be for briers and thorns. 24 People will go there with arrows and with bow, because all the land will be briers and thorns. 25 All the hills that were cultivated with the hoe, you shall not come there for fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending out of oxen, and for the treading of sheep.”
+1:2“Yahweh” is God’s proper Name, sometimes rendered “LORD” (all caps) in other translations.+1:4or, seed+1:10The Hebrew word rendered “God” is “אֱלֹהִ֑ים” (Elohim).+1:24The word translated “Lord” is “Adonai.”+1:25tin is a metal that is separated from silver during the refining and purification process.+3:1“Behold”, from “הִנֵּה”, means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.+5:10literally, ten yokes, or the amount of land that ten yokes of oxen can plow in one day, which is about 10 acres or 4 hectares.+5:101 bath is about 22 liters or 5.8 U. S. gallons+5:101 homer is about 220 liters or 6 bushels+5:101 ephah is about 22 liters or 0.6 bushels or about 2 pecks—only one tenth of what was sown.+5:14Sheol is the place of the dead.+7:14“Immanuel” means “God with us”.+7:23A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces, so 1000 shekels is about 10 kilograms or 22 pounds.