Old Testament Lesson

Isa. 7:10-25 (NRSV)

10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying, 11Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high
as heaven. 12But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test. 13Then Isaiah said: "Hear
then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? 14Therefore the
Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name
him Immanuel. 15He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the
good. 16For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two
kings you are in dread will be deserted.

17 The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on your ancestral house such days as have not come
since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah-the king of Assyria." 18On that day the LORD will whistle
for the fly that is at the sources of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19And
they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and
on all the pastures. 20On that day the Lord will shave with a razor hired beyond the River-with the king of
Assyria-the head and the hair of the feet, and it will take off the beard as well. 21On that day one will keep
alive a young cow and two sheep, 22and will eat curds because of the abundance of milk that they give; for
everyone that is left in the land shall eat curds and honey. 23On that day every place where there used to be a
thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns. 24With bow and arrows
one will go there, for all the land will be briers and thorns; 25and as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a
hoe, you will not go there for fear of briers and thorns; but they will become a place where cattle are let loose
and where sheep tread.

The Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.