Isaiah 7

the book of the prophet isaiah

Isaiah ben Amoz · c. 740–681 BC

Chapter the Seventh

And it came to pass 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, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it.

And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.

Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shear-jashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field;

And say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.

Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying,

Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal:

Thus saith the Lord GOD, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass.

For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people.

And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.

Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying,

Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.

But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD.

And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.

The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes.

In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep;

And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns.

With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns.

And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle.

Chuck Smith on Isaiah 7

Verse by verse, the C2000 series. Permission granted by The Word For Today.

Verses 1-2

Chapter 7 Now Uzziah is dead and his grandson Ahaz is reigning.

It came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, the king of Judah, that Rezin was the king of Syria, and Pekah was the son of Remaliah, the king of Israel ( Isaiah 7:1 ),

So Pekah was ruling in Israel. He had assassinated the previous king. And Syria and Israel, the Northern Kingdom, had confederated together to attack Judah, the Southern Kingdom. And so they

came up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but they could not prevail against it. And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria has confederated with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of the people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind ( Isaiah 7:1-2 ).

In other words, they began to tremble because they said, "Oh, there's a confederacy. Those two nations are coming against us, you know. What are we going to do?"

Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shearjashub ( Isaiah 7:3 )

Verses 3-4

Now Shearjashub means a remnant shall return. That was the name of his son, Shearjashub. Quite a name for a boy, but he's got one with a better name-Mahershalalhashbaz. That's quite a tag to put on a kid, isn't it? And meet them.

[at the conduit,] the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway that is the fuller's field; And say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be faint-hearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin, and because of the son of Remaliah [or Pekah]. Because ( Isaiah 7:3-4 )

Don't be afraid, don't be fainthearted. Just be quiet before God.

Because Syria and Ephraim have taken evil counsel against thee, saying, Let us go up to Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal: Thus saith the Lord GOD, It shall not stand ( Isaiah 7:5-7 ),

Verses 5-6

neither shall it come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin [who was the king]; and within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken, that it be not a people ( Isaiah 7:7-8 ).

Verses 7-8

So the Northern Kingdom of Israel, of which Ephraim was the chief tribe, in sixty-five years they're not going to exist any longer. And sure enough, within sixty-five years the Assyrians destroyed them.

If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established ( Isaiah 7:9 ).

Verse 9

Now don't be afraid, don't be fainthearted, God's going to take care of it. The confederacy that they've made against you isn't going to stand. God's going to break it.

Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD. And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that you abhor shall be forsaken of both of her kings ( Isaiah 7:10-16 ).

Verses 10-25

So these kings, Rezin and Pekah, are going to be wiped out. Now herein is where the prophets wrote as they were inspired of the Holy Spirit, but did not understand the things that they were writing about, and how that he was writing of a local instance, but yet it had a prophetic aspect towards the future. And much of prophecy has a two-fold interpretation. They call it the near and the far. And this is true of much prophecy. In fact, it says that these men wrote of things that they did not understand. Earnestly they desired to know these things of which they wrote. But they really didn't understand but they were writing, inspired of the Holy Spirit. And in the near prophecy, a child was to be born. Or, before a child born at that period was old enough to know evil, to choose good, or the age of accountability, twelve, thirteen years old, or what he is saying, within twelve or thirteen years, both Pekah and Rezin are going to get wiped out. They'll no longer be reigning over Syria and over Samaria within twelve or thirteen years.

But the prophecy in its long-term was a prophecy of the birth of Jesus Christ in that, "The Lord Himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." We know that that is a prophecy of Jesus Christ, because it is interpreted by the Holy Spirit in Matthew's gospel, chapter 1, verse Isaiah 7:23 as a prophecy. When it speaks there of how Mary and Joseph were engaged; before they had had relations, Mary was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit, that it might be fulfilled according to the word of the prophet saying, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." So Matthew's gospel, as Matthew writing by the Holy Spirit interprets this passage of scripture. He interprets it to be a prophecy of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.

Commentary on Isaiah 7

Whosoever Will · the Seven Threads Commentary

Isaiah 7:1

Syria and Ephraim, the northern kingdom of Israel allied with a foreign power, are marching on Jerusalem. Ahaz panics. The text says his heart and the hearts of his people shook like trees in a wind. The image is accurate: Ahaz is a man whose root system is not deep enough to hold when the storm arrives. God sends Isaiah to intercept him at the conduit of the upper pool, the same place where the Assyrians will later taunt Hezekiah (Isaiah 36:2). The location is not accidental. This is where water management decisions were made for the city. Ahaz is probably already planning his military and diplomatic strategy, calculating which alliance will save him. God's word through Isaiah is: these two smoking firebrands are going out. They have taken evil counsel. It will not stand. Syria's head is Damascus. Ephraim's head is Samaria. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered. The political reality is less threatening than it appears, and Ahaz needs to stop calculating and start trusting. The closing wordplay is the theological center: im lo ta'aminu ki lo te'amenu. If you will not believe, you will not be established. The same aman root that runs through the whole OT faith vocabulary, Genesis 15:6 (Abram he'emin), Habakkuk 2:4 (the just shall live by his emunah), here frames the political crisis as a faith crisis. Thread 4 is the condition placed on Ahaz: genuine trust, genuine response, genuinely possible and genuinely demanded.

Fear not, God's first word to Ahaz through Isaiah, and the last word of the passage is the condition: if you will not believe, you will not be established; the faith that political calculation refuses to exercise is exactly the faith the crisis requires.

הִשָּׁמֵר וְהַשְׁקֵט אַל תִּירָא (hishamer ve-hashqet al tira): take heed and be quiet, fear not: three imperatives in sequence; hishamer (be on guard, watch yourself); hashqet (be calm, be still, be quiet); al tira (do not fear); God's command to Ahaz is not strategic advice but a theological demand: your posture in this crisis must be trust, not panic · אִם לֹא תַאֲמִינוּ כִּי לֹא תֵאָמֵנוּ (im lo ta'aminu ki lo te'amenu): if ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established: a wordplay on the root aman (to be firm, to trust, to believe); ta'aminu (you will believe) and te'amenu (you will be established, made firm) share the same root; belief is the condition of stability; unbelief is self-undermining; the same root as he'emin in Genesis 15:6