Chapter 7

  It happened in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that 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.  

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  It was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. His heart trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest tremble with the wind.  

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  Then said Yahweh to Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fuller's field;  

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  and say to him, Take heed, and be quiet; don't be afraid, neither let your heart be faint, because of these two tails of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.  

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  Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have purposed evil against you, saying,  

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  Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set up a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeel;  

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  thus says the Lord Yahweh, It shall not stand, neither shall it happen.  

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  For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty-five years shall Ephraim be broken in pieces, so that it shall not be a people:  

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  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.  

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  Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz, saying,  

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  Ask you a sign of Yahweh your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.  

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  But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt Yahweh.  

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  He said, 'Listen now, house of David: Is it a small thing for you to weary men, that you will weary my God also?  

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  Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.  

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  Butter and honey shall he eat, when he knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good.  

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  For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two kings you abhor shall be forsaken.  

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  Yahweh will bring on you, and 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.  

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  It shall happen in that day, that Yahweh will hiss 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.  

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  They shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all thorn-hedges, and on all pastures.  

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  In that day will the Lord 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.  

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  It shall happen in that day, that a man shall keep alive a young cow, and two sheep;  

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  and it shall happen, that because of the abundance of milk which they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall everyone eat that is left in the midst of the land.  

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  It shall happen in that day, that every place, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silver shekels, shall be for briers and thorns.  

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  With arrows and with bow shall one come there, because all the land shall be briers and thorns.  

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  All the hills that were dug with the mattock, you shall not come there for fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of sheep.'  

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