The prophet assures king Achaz that the two kings his enemies shall not
take Jerusalem. A virgin shall conceive and bear a son.
7:1. And it came to pass in the days of Achaz the son of Joathan, the
son of Ozias, king of Juda, that Rasin king of Syria and Phacee the son
of Romelia king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem, to fight against it:
but they could not prevail over it.
7:2. And they told the house of David, saying: Syria hath rested upon
Ephraim, and his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the
trees of the woods are moved with the wind.
7:3. And the Lord said to Isaias: Go forth to meet Achaz, thou and Jasub
thy son that is left, to the conduit of the upper pool in the way of the
fuller's field.
7:4. And thou shalt say to him: See thou be quiet: fear not, and let not
thy heart be afraid of the two tails of these firebrands, smoking with
the wrath of the fury of Rasin king of Syria, and of the son of Romelia.
7:5. Because Syria hath taken counsel against thee, unto the evil of
Ephraim and the son of Romelia, saying:
7:6. Let us go up to Juda, and rouse it up, and draw it away to us, and
make the son of Tabeel king in the midst thereof.
7:7. Thus saith the Lord God: It shall not stand, and this shall not be.
7:8. But the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is
Rasin: and within threescore and five years, Ephraim shall cease to be a
people:
7:9. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the
son of Romelia. If you will not believe, you shall not continue.
7:10. And the Lord spoke again to Achaz, saying:
7:11. Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God, either unto the depth of
hell, or unto the height above.
7:12. And Achaz said: I will not ask, and I will not tempt the Lord.
7:13. And he said: Hear ye therefore, O house of David: Is it a small
thing for you to be grievous to men, that you are grievous to my God
also?
7:14. Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin
shall conceive, and bear a son and his name shall be called Emmanuel.
7:15. He shall eat butter and honey, that he may know to refuse the
evil, and to choose the good.
7:16. For before the child know to refuse the evil and to choose the
good, the land which thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of the face of her
two kings.
7:17. The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon the
house of thy father, days that have not come since the time of the
separation of Ephraim from Juda with the king of the Assyrians.
7:18. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall hiss
for the fly, that is in the uttermost parts of the rivers of Egypt, and
for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
7:19. And they shall come, and shall all of them rest in the torrents of
the valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all places set with
shrubs, and in all hollow places.
7:20. In that day the Lord shall shave with a razor that is hired by
them that are beyond the river, by the king of the Assyrians, the head
and the hairs of the feet, and the whole beard.
7:21. And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a
young cow, and two sheep.
7:22. And for the abundance of milk he shall eat butter: for butter and
honey shall every one eat that shall be left in the midst of the land.
7:23. And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place where
there were a thousand vines, at a thousand pieces of silver, shall
become thorns and briers.
7:24. With arrows and with bows they shall go in thither: for briers and
thorns shall be in all the land.
7:25. And as for the hills that shall be raked with a rake, the fear of
thorns and briers shall not come thither, but they shall be for the ox
to feed on, and the lesser cattle to tread upon.