A Message to Ahaz

1And it came to pass in the days of Achaz the son of Joatham, the son of Ozias, king of Juda, there came up Rasim king of Aram, and Phakee son of Romelias, king of Israel, against Jerusalem to war against it, but they could not take it. 2And a message was brought to the house of David, saying, Aram has conspired with Ephraim. And his soul was amazed, and the soul of his people, as in a wood a tree is moved by the wind.

3And the Lord said to Esaias, Go forth to meet Achaz, thou, and thy son Jasub who is left, to the pool of the upper way of the fuller's field. 4And thou shalt say to him, Take care to be quiet, and fear not, neither let thy soul be disheartened because of these two smoking firebrands: for when my fierce anger is over, I will heal again. 5And as for the son of Aram, and the son of Romelias, forasmuch as they have devised an evil counsel, saying, 6We will go up against Judea, and having conferred with them we will turn them away to our side, and we will make the son of Tabeel king of it; 7thus saith the Lord of hosts, This counsel shall not abide, nor come to pass. 8But the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus, Rasim; and yet within sixty and five years the kingdom of Ephraim shall cease from being a people. 9And the head of Ephraim is Somoron, and the head of Somoron the son of Romelias: but if ye believe not, neither will ye at all understand.

The Sign of Immanuel

10And the Lord again spoke to Achaz, saying, 11Ask for thyself a sign of the Lord thy God, in the depth or in the height. 12And Achaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. 13And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; is it a little thing for you to contend with men? and how do ye contend against the Lord? 14Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Emmanuel. 15Butter and honey shall he eat, before he knows either to prefer evil or choose the good. 16For before the child shall know good or evil, he refuses evil, to choose the good; and the land shall be forsaken which thou art afraid of because of the two kings.

Judgment to Come

17But God shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon the house of thy father, days which have never come, from the day that Ephraim took away from Juda the king of the Assyrians.

18And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall hiss for the flies, which insect shall rule over a part of the river of Egypt, and for the bee which is in the land of the Assyrians. 19And they all shall enter into the clefts of the land, and into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves, and into every ravine.

20In that day the Lord shall shave with the hired razor of the king of Assyria beyond the river the head, and the hairs of the feet, and will remove the beard.

21And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall rear a heifer, and two sheep. 22And it shall come to pass from their drinking an abundance of milk, that every one that is left on the land shall eat butter and honey.

23And it shall come to pass in that day, for every place where there shall be a thousand vines at a thousand shekels, they shall become barren land and thorns. 24Men shall enter thither with arrow and bow; for all the land shall be barren ground and thorns. 25And every mountain shall be certainly ploughed: there shall no fear come thither: for there shall be from among the barren ground and thorns that whereon cattle shall feed and oxen shall tread.