¹⁶ ·But [or For] before the child ·learns [knows] to choose good and reject evil, the lands of the two kings you fear [^CIsrael and Aram/Syria] will be ·empty [desolate; laid waste]. ¹⁷ The Lord will bring ·troubled times to [^Lupon] you, your people, and to ·the people of your father’s family [^Lyour father’s house; ^CDavid’s dynasty]. ·They will be worse than […days unlike] anything that has happened since Israel separated from Judah [^Cthe civil war dividing Israel into north (Israel) and south (Judah) after David’s son Solomon died, two centuries earlier]. ·The Lord will bring the king of Assyria to fight against you [^L…—the king of Assyria].

¹⁸ “·At that time [^LIn that day] the Lord will whistle for ·the Egyptians, and they will come like flies from Egypt’s faraway streams [^Lthe fly that is at the farthest streams of Egypt]. ·He will call for the Assyrians, and they will come like bees [^L… and for bees from the land of Assyria; ^CIsrael and Judah were caught in a tug-of-war between these two great powers].