Isaiah 7

King Ahaz of Judah is terrified because two neighboring kings have joined forces against him. God sends Isaiah to tell him to trust, and offers him any sign he likes. When Ahaz refuses, God gives the sign of Immanuel, “God with us,” and warns that Ahaz’s own choices will bring Assyria down on the land.

Isaiah 7:1

Ahaz is king in a dangerous time. Syria (Aram) and the northern kingdom of Israel march against Jerusalem. They cannot take the city, but the threat is real, and it sets up the test of whether Ahaz will trust God or men.

BSA: overpower (“to conquer, to defeat”): The city held, yet Ahaz’s fear shows how little he rested on that.

See also: 2 Kings 16:5.

Isaiah 7:2

News reaches the royal house: Aram and Ephraim (the northern kingdom) are allied. The king and the people shake with fear, like forest trees tossed in a storm. Fear, not facts, is ruling Jerusalem.

BSA: trembled (“shook, moved”): Their whole inner being was rocked back and forth, with nothing steady to hold to.

Isaiah 7:3

God sends Isaiah to meet Ahaz at the water supply, probably where the king was checking the city’s defenses. He brings his son Shear-jashub, whose name means “a remnant shall return.” The child himself is a walking message of hope beyond judgment.

BSA: Shear-jashub (“a remnant shall return”): The boy’s name preaches that God will preserve a faithful remnant.

See also: Isaiah 10:21.

Isaiah 7:4

God’s word to the anxious king is to settle down and stay calm. The two feared kings are only “smoldering stubs,” burnt-out sticks that smoke but have little fire left. Their rage looks big, but it is nearly finished.

BSA: smoldering (“smoking firebrands, burning embers”): They give off smoke and anger, but they are nearly burned out.

Isaiah 7:5-6

Isaiah reports the enemy plan. Aram and Israel will invade Judah, terrorize it, split it up, and put a puppet king, the son of Tabeal, on David’s throne. This would strike at the royal line God had promised to protect.

BSA: plotted (“taken evil counsel, purposed evil”): The scheme was deliberate and wicked, yet it was still under God’s eye.

See also: 2 Samuel 7:16.

Isaiah 7:7-8

God declares the plot will fail: it will not arise and it will not happen. Each enemy capital is only as strong as its human head, Rezin or Pekah, and mere men are limited. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken as a people.

BSA: shattered (“broken, crushed”): Ephraim would be crushed so completely that it would no longer exist as a nation.

Isaiah 7:9

The verse closes on faith. Pekah is only the head of Samaria, a mere man, so there is nothing to fear. The Hebrew words for “stand firm” and “stand” sound alike, a wordplay. If Ahaz will not be steady in trust, he will not be steady at all. God’s promise holds, but it must be believed.

BSA: stand firm (“be faithful, trust”): Standing firm means leaning your whole weight on God’s word.

Hebrew: תַאֲמִינוּ (ta’aminu, H539) — “you believe, you are firm.” This verb and the next, “you will be established,” come from the same root as “amen.” The play on words says that only those who rest on God are made firm.

See also: 2 Chronicles 20:20.

Isaiah 7:10-11

God speaks again and gives Ahaz a remarkable offer: ask for any sign, from the deepest depths to the highest heights. Nothing is too hard. God stoops to strengthen a weak and frightened king’s faith.

BSA: sign (“miraculous wonder, beacon”): A sign is a visible pointer that confirms God’s word. Sheol (“the underworld, the grave”): The offer reaches even the realm of the dead; nothing is out of bounds.

Isaiah 7:12

Ahaz sounds pious, saying he will not test the LORD. But this is not humility. God had told him to ask, so refusing is disobedience dressed in religious words. He had likely already decided to rely on Assyria instead.

BSA: test (“tempt, try, or prove”): Ahaz borrows the language of Scripture to cover his unwillingness to trust.

See also: Deuteronomy 6:16; 2 Kings 16:7.

Isaiah 7:13

Isaiah’s rebuke is sharp. Ahaz has already worn out human patience, and now he wearies God. He is addressed as the house of David, because this concerns the whole royal family and its promises.

BSA: try the patience (“weary, grieve”): Ahaz’s stubborn unbelief wears God down like a heavy burden.

Isaiah 7:14

Since Ahaz refuses, God gives a sign himself. A virgin will conceive and bear a son named Immanuel, “God with us.” It spoke to Ahaz’s day as a promise that God was with David’s house. Christians see its full fulfillment in Jesus, as Matthew 1:22-23 says.

BSA: virgin (“young, unmarried woman, maiden”): The word points to a young woman of marriageable age, and Matthew applies it to the virgin Mary. Immanuel (“God with us, Emmanuel”): The child’s name is the promise itself: God is present with his people.

Hebrew: עַלְמָה (almah, H5959) — “young woman of marriageable age.” The Hebrew word stresses a young woman who is unmarried. When the Old Testament was translated into Greek, it was rendered with a word meaning virgin, and Matthew follows that.

See also: Matthew 1:22-23; Luke 1:31-35.

Isaiah 7:15-16

Before this child is old enough to tell right from wrong, the land of the two feared kings will be empty. Curds and honey are simple food, a sign of hard times in a land left uncultivated. God’s help comes, though not in the way Ahaz expects.

BSA: laid waste (“forsaken, deserted, abandoned”): The lands of Aram and Israel would be left empty, as the threat to Ahaz collapsed.

See also: 2 Kings 15:29-30.

Isaiah 7:17

The warning for Ahaz is stern. Because he trusts Assyria rather than God, the Assyrian king will come on Judah too, with a time of trouble worse than anything since the kingdom split. The helper Ahaz hired becomes the scourge.

BSA: separated (“turned aside, departed”): The northern tribes broke away from David’s line, and the damage had lasted ever since.

See also: 1 Kings 12:19; 2 Chronicles 28:20.

Isaiah 7:18-19

God pictures Egypt’s flies and Assyria’s bees as armies he can call with a whistle. They swarm into every ravine, crack, and thornbush. Both great powers are at his command, and nowhere in the land will be free of them.

BSA: whistle (“hiss, call out”): God summons the nations like a beekeeper calling his swarm, and they obey.

Isaiah 7:20

Assyria is called a razor hired by God. Ahaz paid it to help him, but the razor will shave head, legs, and beard, a picture of complete shame and loss. The tool Ahaz trusted is the instrument of his humbling.

BSA: razor (“a sharp knife”): Assyria is a blade in God’s hand, and it cuts the one who hired it. beard (“to take away dignity, to shameful exposure”): A man’s beard was a mark of honor, so losing it meant public disgrace.

See also: Isaiah 10:5.

Isaiah 7:21-22

After the invasion, the land will be so empty that a man keeps only one young cow and two sheep. With fewer people and wide pasture, milk is plentiful, and the survivors live on curds and honey. It is bare survival, not riches.

BSA: remain (“are left, survive”): Those left behind in the land are survivors, matching the remnant theme.

Isaiah 7:23-25

Where vineyards once were worth a fortune, only briers and thorns will grow. Men will enter with bow and arrow to hunt, and the old farmland will be fit only for roaming cattle and sheep. It is a vivid picture of lost fruitfulness when God’s people reject him.

BSA: briers (“thornbushes, wild growth”): The wild growth shows how quickly neglected, once-rich land is taken back.

See also: Isaiah 5:5-6.