Chapter 17

Ephraim and Syria wage war against Judah—Christ will be born of a virgin—Compare Isaiah 7. About 559–545 B.C.

 aAnd it came to pass in the days of bAhaz the son of cJotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that dRezin, king of Syria, and ePekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it.

 And it was told the house of David, saying: Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.

 Then said the Lord unto Isaiah: Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou and Shearjashub thy son, at the end of the aconduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field;



 Let us go up against Judah and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, yea, the son of Tabeal.

 Thus saith the Lord God: aIt shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass.

 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus, Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be abroken that it be not a people.

 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If ye will anot believe surely ye shall not be established.

 10 Moreover, the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying:

 11 Ask thee a asign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depths, or in the heights above.

 12 But Ahaz said: I will not ask, neither will I atempt the Lord.

 13 And he said: Hear ye now, O house of David; is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?

 14 Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign—Behold, a avirgin shall conceive, and shall bear a son, and shall call his name bImmanuel.

 15 Butter and ahoney shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and to choose the good.

 16 For abefore the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of bboth her kings.

 17 The Lord shall abring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come from the day that bEphraim departed from Judah, the king of Assyria.



 20 In the same day shall the Lord shave with a arazor that is hired, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard.

 21 And it shall come to pass in that day, a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep;

 22 And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk they shall give he shall eat butter; for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land.

 23 And it shall come to pass in that day, every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, which shall be for briers and thorns.

 24 With arrows and with bows shall men come thither, because all the land shall become briers and thorns.

 25 And all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and the treading of lesser cattle.