Isaiah 7:16–25

¹⁶For before the boy knows enough to reject evil and choose good, 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 the day Ephraim separated from Judah— He will bring the king of Assyria.”

¹⁸On that day the LORD will whistle to the flies at the farthest streams of the Nile and to the bees in the land of Assyria.

¹⁹And they will all come and settle

in the steep ravines and clefts of the rocks,

in all the thornbushes and watering holes.

²⁰On that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates^g— the king of Assyria— to shave your head and the hair of your legs, and to remove your beard as well. ²¹On that day a man will raise a young cow and two sheep, ²²and from the abundance of milk they give, he will eat curds; for all who remain in the land will eat curds and honey.

²³And on that day, in every place that had a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver,^h only briers and thorns will be found. ²⁴Men will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be covered with briers and thorns. ²⁵For fear of the briers and thorns, you will no longer traverse the hills once tilled by the hoe; they will become places for oxen to graze and sheep to trample.