Surely I am more brutish than any other human being, and I do not have human understanding;

a lion, mightiest of the beasts, who does not retreat from anything;

She brings him good and not evil all the days of her life.

It is better for you not to vow than to vow and not pay it.

For this reason the sovereign master, the Lord, says: “It will not take place; it will not happen.

But Ahaz responded, “I don’t want to ask; I don’t want to put the Lord to a test.”

Eyes will no longer be blind and ears will be attentive.

“But you did not call for me, O Jacob; you did not long for me, O Israel.

Look, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have purified you in the furnace of misery.

So listen to this, oppressed one, who is drunk, but not from wine!

I will denounce your so-called righteousness and your deeds, but they will not help you.

Do you people think that I am some local deity and not the transcendent God?” the Lord asks.

We are pursued – they are breathing down our necks; we are weary and have no rest.

When the army is taken away, the king of the south will become arrogant. He will be responsible for the death of thousands and thousands of people, but he will not continue to prevail.

He will then turn his attention to the fortresses of his own land, but he will stumble and fall, not to be found again.

At an appointed time he will again invade the south, but this latter visit will not turn out the way the former one did.

For I delight in faithfulness, not simply in sacrifice; I delight in acknowledging God, not simply in whole burnt offerings.

God said to him, “Because you asked for the ability to make wise judicial decisions, and not for long life, or riches, or vengeance on your enemies,

So this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria: “He will not enter this city, nor will he shoot an arrow here. He will not attack it with his shield-carrying warriors, nor will he build siege works against it.

So this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria: ‘He will not enter this city, nor will he shoot an arrow here. He will not attack it with his shielded warriors, nor will he build siege works against it.