11. Then said I, Lord, how long?
And He answered, Until towns are wasted without inhabitant, and houses are without men, and the ground shall be laid waste, a wilderness, 12. and Jehovah shall put men far away, and there shall be many forsaken places within the land. 13. And is there still a tenth therein, this also is given up to destruction, like the terebinth and like the oak, of which, when they are felled, only a root stump remains: such a root stump is the holy seed.[1]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] And though there be only a tenth part in it, even that shall be again consumed; yet as a teil-tree, and as an oak, whose stocks [stumps] remain to them, when they are felled, so the holy seed shall be the stock [stump] thereof.—Strachey.
PART II.
consolation of immanuel in the midst of the assyrian oppressions.—chaps. vii.–xii.
Divine Sign of the Virgin’s Wondrous Son.—Chap. vii.
1. It came to pass, in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aramæa, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, and (he) could not make war upon it. 2. And it was told the house of David, Aram has settled down upon Ephraim: then his heart shook, and the heart of the people, as trees of the wood shake before the wind.
3. Then said Jehovah to Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou and Shear-jashub thy son, to the end of the aqueduct of the upper pool, to the road of the fuller’s field; 4. and say unto him, Take heed, and keep quiet; and let not thy heart become soft from these two smoking firebrand stumps! at the fierce anger of Rezin, and Aram, and the son of Remaliah. 5. Because Aram hath determined evil over thee, Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, saying, 6. We will march against Judah, and terrify it, and conquer it for ourselves, and make the son of Tabeal king in the midst of it: 7. thus saith the Lord Jehovah, It will not be brought about, and will not take place. 8. For head of Aram is Damascus, and head of Damascus Rezin, and in five-and-sixty years will Ephraim as a people be broken to pieces. 9. And head of Ephraim is Samaria, and head of Samaria the son of Remaliah; if ye believe not, surely ye will not remain.
10. And Jehovah continued speaking to Ahaz as follows: 11. Ask thee a sign of Jehovah thy God, going deep down into Hades, or high up to the height above. 12. But Ahaz replied, I dare not ask, and dare not tempt Jehovah. 13. And he spake, Hear ye now, O house of David! Is it too little to you to weary men, that ye weary my God also? 14. Therefore the Lord, He will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin conceives, and bears a son, and calls his name Immanuel. 15. Butter and honey will he eat, at the time that he knows to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16. For before the boy shall understand to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land will be desolate, of whose two kings thou art afraid.