Isaiah 7

1 And it was done in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, (that) Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, ascended to Jerusalem, for to fight against it; and they might not overcome it. (And it was done in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, the king of Judah, that Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, came to Jerusalem, to fight against it; but they could not overcome it.)

2 And they told to the house of David, and said, Syria hath rested on Ephraim, that is, the king of Syria and the king of Israel be confederated, to come together against the realm of Judah, and the heart of him and of his people was moved together, as the trees of woods be moved of the face of the wind (and his heart and those of his people were altogether moved, or shaken, like the trees in the woods by the wind).

3 And the Lord said to Isaiah, Go thou out, and Jashub, thy son, which is left, into the meeting of Ahaz, at the last end of the water conduit of the higher cistern, in the way of the field of the fuller. (And the Lord said to Isaiah, Thou, and thy son Shearjashub, go out to meet with Ahaz, at the far end of the water conduit of the Upper Pool, on the way to the Fuller's Field.)

4 And thou shalt say to him, See thou, that thou be still; do not thou dread, and thine heart be not afeared of the two tails of these brands smoking, in the wrath of the strong vengeance of Rezin, king of Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. (And thou shalt say to him, See thou, that thou stay calm; do not thou fear, and do not let thy heart be afraid of the two tails of these smoking firebrands, that is, of the anger of the strong vengeance of Rezin, the king of Syria, and that of the son of Remaliah.)

5 For Syria, and Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have begun evil counsel against thee, and say,

6 Go we up to Judah, and raise we him, and draw we him out to us; and set we a king in the midst thereof, the son of Tabeal.

7 The Lord God saith these things, This shall not be, and it shall not stand;

8 but Damascus shall be the head of Syria, and Rezin shall be the head of Damascus; and yet sixty years and five, and Ephraim shall fail to be a people (and yet within sixty-five years, Ephraim shall cease to be a nation);

9 and Samaria shall fail to be the head of Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah to be [the] head of Samaria. Forsooth if ye shall not believe, ye shall not (still) dwell (But if ye do not believe this, ye shall not endure).

10 And the Lord added to speak to Ahaz, and said,

11 Ask thou to thee a sign of thy Lord God, into the depth of hell, either into [the] height above. (Ask thou for a sign from the Lord thy God for thee, yea, from the depths of hell/from the lowest part of Sheol, or from the heights above.)

12 And Ahaz said, I shall not ask, and I shall not tempt the Lord.

13 And Isaiah said, Therefore the house of David, hear ye; whether it is (too) little to you to be dis-easeful to men, for ye be dis-easeful also to my God? (And Isaiah said, And so, hear ye, the house of David; is it not enough for you to make men weary? must ye also make my God weary as well?)

14 For this thing the Lord himself shall give a sign to you. Lo! a virgin shall conceive, and shall bear a son; and his name shall be called Immanuel. [Lo! a maid(en) shall conceive, and bare a son; and thou shalt call his name Immanuel.]

15 He shall eat butter and honey, that he know how to reprove evil, and choose good. (He shall eat butter and honey, and he shall know how to rebuke, or to reject, evil, and to choose good.)

16 For why before the child know how to reprove evil, and choose good, the land, which thou loathest, shall be forsaken of the face of their two kings. (And before that the child know how to rebuke, or to reject, evil, and to choose good, the lands of these two kings, whom thou fearest, shall be deserted.)

17 The Lord shall bring on thee, and on thy people, and on the house of thy father, days that came not from the days of [the] departing of Ephraim from Judah, with the king of Assyrians. (The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon the house of thy father, such days that came not since the days of the separating of Ephraim from Judah, yea, by the hand, or by the power, of the king of Assyria.)

18 And it shall be, in that day the Lord shall hiss to a fly, which is in the last part of the floods of Egypt; and to a bee, which is in the land of Assur; (And it shall be, on that day the Lord shall whistle for the fly, which is at the ends of the rivers of Egypt; and for the bee, which is in the land of Assyria;)

19 and all those shall come, and shall rest in the strands of valleys, and in the caves of stones, and in all [the] places of bushes, and in all holes. (and they all shall come, and shall rest by the streams in the valleys, and in the caves of stone, and in all the places of bushes, and in all the holes.)

20 And in that day the Lord shall shave with a sharp razor in these men, that be beyond the flood, of the king of Assyrians, the head, and the hairs of the feet, and all the beard. (And on that day the Lord shall shave with a sharp razor the hair on the heads, and on the feet, and all the beards, of your young men, by the hand, or by the power, of the king of Assyria, who is beyond the river.)

21 And it shall be, in that day (And it shall be, on that day), a man shall nourish a cow of oxes, and two sheep,

22 and for the plenty of milk he shall eat butter; for why each man that shall be left in the midst of the land, shall eat butter and honey.

23 And it shall be, in that day each place where a thousand vineries shall be worth a thousand pieces of silver, and shall be into thorns and briars, (And it shall be, on that day each place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand pieces of silver, shall be given over to thorns and briars,)

24 (and) men shall enter thither with bows and arrows; for why briars and thorns shall be in all the land.

25 And all hills that shall be purged with a briar hook, the dread of thorns and of briars shall not come thither; and it shall be into pasture of oxen, and into the treading of sheep. (And on all the hills that were once planted, now for fear of thorns and briars, no one shall go there; and they shall only be used for the pasture of oxen, and for the treading of sheep.)

Isaiah 7 Commentary

Chapter 7

Ahaz threatened by Israel and Syria; and is assured their attack would be in vain. (1-9) God gives a sure sign by the promise of the long-expected Messiah. (10-16) The folly and sin of seeking relief from Assyria are reproved. (17-25)

Verses 1-9 Ungodly men are often punished by others as bad as themselves. Being in great distress and confusion, the Jews gave up all for lost. They had made God their enemy, and knew not how to make him their friend. The prophet must teach them to despise their enemies, in faith and dependence on God. Ahaz, in fear, called them two powerful princes. No, says the prophet, they are but tails of smoking firebrands, burnt out already. The two kingdoms of Syria and Israel were nearly expiring. While God has work for the firebrands of the earth, they consume all before them; but when their work is fulfilled, they will be extinguished in smoke. That which Ahaz thought most formidable, is made the ground of their defeat; because they have taken evil counsel against thee; which is an offence to God. God scorns the scorners, and gives his word that the attempt should not succeed. Man purposes, but God disposes. It was folly for those to be trying to ruin their neighbours, who were themselves near to ruin. Isaiah must urge the Jews to rely on the assurances given them. Faith is absolutely necessary to quiet and compose the mind in trials.

Verses 10-16 Secret disaffection to God is often disguised with the colour of respect to him; and those who are resolved that they will not trust God, yet pretend they will not tempt him. The prophet reproved Ahaz and his court, for the little value they had for Divine revelation. Nothing is more grievous to God than distrust, but the unbelief of man shall not make the promise of God of no effect; the Lord himself shall give a sign. How great soever your distress and danger, of you the Messiah is to be born, and you cannot be destroyed while that blessing is in you. It shall be brought to pass in a glorious manner; and the strongest consolations in time of trouble are derived from Christ, our relation to him, our interest in him, our expectations of him and from him. He would grow up like other children, by the use of the diet of those countries; but he would, unlike other children, uniformly refuse the evil and choose the good. And although his birth would be by the power of the Holy Ghost, yet he should not be fed with angels' food. Then follows a sign of the speedy destruction of the princes, now a terror to Judah. "Before this child," so it may be read; "this child which I have now in my arms," (Shear-jashub, the prophet's own son, ver. ( Isaiah 7:3 ) ,) shall be three or four years older, these enemies' forces shall be forsaken of both their kings. The prophecy is so solemn, the sign is so marked, as given by God himself after Ahaz rejected the offer, that it must have raised hopes far beyond what the present occasion suggested. And, if the prospect of the coming of the Divine Saviour was a never-failing support to the hopes of ancient believers, what cause have we to be thankful that the Word was made flesh! May we trust in and love Him, and copy his example.

Verses 17-25 Let those who will not believe the promises of God, expect to hear the alarms of his threatenings; for who can resist or escape his judgments? The Lord shall sweep all away; and whomsoever he employs in any service for him, he will pay. All speaks a sad change of the face of that pleasant land. But what melancholy change is there, which sin will not make with a people? Agriculture would cease. Sorrows of every kind will come upon all who neglect the great salvation. If we remain unfruitful under the means of grace, the Lord will say, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforth for ever.

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 7

This chapter contains a prophecy of the preservation of the kingdom of Judah, from its enemies; a confirmation of it by a sign; and a prediction of various calamities that should come upon it, antecedent to the accomplishment of that sign. The enemies of Judea are named, and the besieging of Jerusalem by them, and the date of it, which was without effect, are mentioned, Isa 7:1 the fear and dread which seized the house of David upon the news of this confederacy, Isa 7:2 the orders given by the Lord to the Prophet Isaiah, to take with him his son, and meet Ahaz, at a certain place pointed at, Isa 7:3 whose errand was to comfort him, and exhort him to be quiet and easy; since the conspiracy formed against him should be fruitless, and the kingdom of Israel should be broken to pieces, Isa 7:4-9 after which the king is put upon asking a sign of the Lord, for the confirmation of it; which he refusing to do, under a pretence of tempting the Lord, is reproved; and a sign nevertheless is given; which is that of the birth of the Messiah of a virgin, who would be truly God, as his name Immanuel shows, and truly man, as his birth, his food, and gradual knowledge of good and evil, prove, Isa 7:10-15 yea, it is suggested that the deliverance of Judea from the two kings of Syria and Israel should be very speedy; even before the young child Isaiah had with him was capable of knowing to refuse evil, and chose good, Isa 7:16 but as a chastisement of the house of David for their incredulity in this matter, and slight of the divine goodness, various things are threatened to befall them, before the birth of the Messiah; even such as had not been since the revolt of the ten tribes; as that their enemies, the Assyrians and others, should come upon them in great numbers, and fill all places, so that they would be in the utmost distress, and not be able to escape, Isa 7:17-19 there would be a great consumption of men of all sorts, high and low, signified by shaving off the hair of the head, beard, and feet; so that the few that remained would enjoy plenty, Isa 7:20-22 and for want of men to till the land, it would be covered with thorns and briers; and because of wild beasts, the few men in it would be obliged to defend themselves with bows and arrows, Isa 7:23,24 and yet, after this, the land should become fruitful again, before the Messiah's coming, Isa 7:25, as some interpret it.