¹⁷ The Lord will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house days worse than any since the day that Ephraim broke away from Judah. The Lord will bring the king of Assyria.

¹⁸ This is what will take place in that day: The Lord will whistle for the fly that is at the farthest end of Egypt’s rivers and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. ¹⁹ They will come and settle in the deep ravines, in the clefts in the rocks, among all the thorn hedges, and in all the pastures.^[a]

²⁰ In that day the Lord will shave with a razor hired from the regions beyond the River Euphrates, namely, the king of Assyria. This razor will shave their head and the hair on their legs, and it will also scrape away their beard.

²¹ In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep, ²² and because of the abundant milk they give, he will eat curds. So everyone left in the land will eat curds and honey. ²³ In that day, in every place where a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels were growing, there will be only briers and thorns. ²⁴ Hunters will go there with a bow and arrow, because all that land will be briers and thorns. ²⁵ You will no longer venture into all the hills that once were cultivated with the hoe, because you will be afraid of the briers and thorns, and the hills will be a pasture for grazing oxen, a land trampled by sheep.