Trials to Come for Judah

¹⁷ The Lord will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim (the ten northern tribes) separated from Judah—[He will call for] the king of Assyria.”

¹⁸ In that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is in the ^[a]mouth of the rivers and canals of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. ¹⁹ These [armies, like flies and bees] will all come and settle on the steep and rugged ravines and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thorn bushes and in all the watering places.

²⁰ In that day [when foreign armies swarm the land] the Lord will shave with a razor, hired from the regions beyond the Euphrates (that is, with the king of Assyria), [that razor will shave] the head and the hair of the legs; and it will also remove the beard [leaving Judah stripped, shamed and scorned].^(A)

²¹ Now in that day [because of the poverty caused by the invaders] a man will keep alive only a young milk cow and two sheep; ²² and because of the abundance of milk produced he will eat curds, for everyone that is left in the land will eat [only] curds and [wild] honey.

²³ And it will come to pass in that day, in every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand silver shekels, there will be briars and thorns. ²⁴ People will come there [to hunt] with arrows and with bows because all the land will be briars and thorns. ²⁵ As for all the hills which used to be cultivated with the pick and the hoe, you will no longer go there for fear of briars and thorns; but they will become a place where oxen are pastured and where sheep tread.

⁵ Again the Lord spoke to me, saying,

A Believing Remnant

¹¹ For in this way the Lord spoke to me with His strong hand [upon me] and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people [behaving as they do], saying,

¹⁶ Bind up the testimony, seal the law and the teaching among my (Isaiah’s) disciples. ¹⁷ And I will wait for the Lord who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; and I will look eagerly for Him. ¹⁸ Listen carefully, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are ^[c]for signs and wonders [that will occur] in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

¹⁹ When the people [instead of trusting God] say to you, “Consult the mediums [who try to talk to the dead] and the soothsayers who chirp and whisper and mutter,” should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? ²⁰ [Direct those people] to the law and to the testimony! If their teachings are not in accord with this word, it is because they have no dawn. ²¹ They [who consult mediums and soothsayers] will pass through the land deeply distressed and hungry, and when they are hungry, they will become enraged and will curse their king and their God as they look upward. ²² Then they will look to the earth, they will see only distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness and overwhelming night.