The devastation that the Assyrians would cause in the land of Judah would even affect the people’s diet. Isaiah’s prophecy continues: “It must occur in that day that an individual will preserve alive a young cow of the herd and two sheep. And it must occur that, due to the abundance of the producing of milk, he will eat butter; because butter and honey are what everyone left remaining in the midst of the land will eat. . . .

The remaining population would, therefore, have to depend for food largely upon dairy products and wild honey. Since there would be ample pasturage in view of the devastation, the animals that had been preserved alive would produce abundantly for the greatly reduced population.