Isaiah 7:16

16 For before the child is old enough to make a decision between evil and good, the land whose two kings you are now fearing will have become waste.

Isaiah 7:16 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 7:16

For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and
choose the good
This may be understood of Isaiah's child, Shearjashub, he had along with him, he was bid to take with him; and who therefore must be supposed to bear some part, or answer some end or other, in this prophecy; which it is very probable may be this, viz. to assure Ahaz and the house of David that the land which was abhorred by them should be forsaken of both its kings, before the child that was with him was grown to years of discretion; though it may be understood of any child, and so of the Messiah; and the sense be, that before any child, or new born babe, such an one as is promised, ( Isaiah 7:14 ) , arrives to years of discretion, even in the space of a few years, this remarkable deliverance should be wrought, and the Jews freed from all fears of being destroyed by these princes: the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings;
meaning not the land of Judea, now distressed by them, which they should leave; for that could not be said to be abhorred by Ahaz, or the house of David; but the land of Israel and Syria, called one land, because of the confederacy between the kings of them, Rezin and Remaliah's son, which Ahaz and his nobles abhorred, because of their joining together against them; and so it was, that in a very little time both these kings were cut off; Pekah the son of Remaliah was slain by Hoshea the son of Elah, who reigned in his stead, ( 2 Kings 15:30 ) and Rezin was slain by the king of Assyria, ( 2 Kings 16:9 ) .

Isaiah 7:16 In-Context

14 For this cause the Lord himself will give you a sign; a young woman is now with child, and she will give birth to a son, and she will give him the name Immanuel.

15 Butter and honey will be his food, when he is old enough to make a decision between evil and good.

16 For before the child is old enough to make a decision between evil and good, the land whose two kings you are now fearing will have become waste.

17 The Lord is about to send on you, and on your people, and on your father's house, such a time of trouble as there has not been from the days of the separating of Ephraim from Judah; even the coming of the king of Assyria.

18 And it will be in that day that the Lord will make a piping sound for the fly which is in the end of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee which is in the land of Assyria.