²Now the house of David was told, “Aram has allied itself with Ephraim”; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.³Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub, to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field. ⁴Say to him, ‘Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. ⁵Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s son have plotted your ruin, saying, ⁶“Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it.” ⁷Yet this is what the Sovereign Lord says:“‘It will not take place, it will not happen,⁸for the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is only Rezin.Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people.⁹The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah’s son.If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.’” ¹⁰Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, ¹¹“Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.”¹²But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test.”¹³Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? ¹⁴Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. ¹⁵He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, ¹⁶for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. ¹⁷The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah—he will bring the king of Assyria.”¹⁸In that day the Lord will whistle for flies from the Nile delta in Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria. ¹⁹They will all come and settle in the steep ravines and in the crevices in the rocks, on all the thornbushes and at all the water holes. ²⁰In that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates River—the king of Assyria—to shave your head and private parts, and to cut off your beard also. ²¹In that day, a person will keep alive a young cow and two goats. ²²And because of the abundance of the milk they give, there will be curds to eat. All who remain in the land will eat curds and honey. ²³In that day, in every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels, there will be only briers and thorns. ²⁴Hunters will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be covered with briers and thorns. ²⁵As for all the hills once cultivated by the hoe, you will no longer go there for fear of the briers and thorns; they will become places where cattle are turned loose and where sheep run. Isaiah 8¹The Lord said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.” ²So I called in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me. ³Then I made love to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. ⁴For before the boy knows how to say ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.”⁵The Lord spoke to me again: ⁶“Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloahand rejoices over Rezin and the son of Remaliah,⁷therefore the Lord is about to bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates— the king of Assyria with all his pomp.It will overflow all its channels, run over all its banks⁸and sweep on into Judah, swirling over it, passing through it and reaching up to the neck.Its outspread wings will cover the breadth of your land, Immanuel!” ⁹Raise the war cry, you nations, and be shattered! Listen, all you distant lands.Prepare for battle, and be shattered! Prepare for battle, and be shattered!¹⁰Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted; propose your plan, but it will not stand, for God is with us. ¹¹This is what the Lord says to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people: ¹²“Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy;do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it.¹³The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread.¹⁴He will be a holy place; for both Israel and Judah he will bea stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare.¹⁵Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured.” ¹⁶Bind up this testimony of warning and seal up God’s instruction among my disciples.¹⁷I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the descendants of Jacob.I will put my trust in him. ¹⁸Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.¹⁹When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? ²⁰Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. ²¹Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. ²²Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.