Overview
As a military coalition of Syria and northern Israel threatens Jerusalem, God sends Isaiah to steady the fearful King Ahaz with a call to faith; when Ahaz refuses a confirming sign under the guise of religious scruple, God himself delivers the sign of a virgin's son named Immanuel, while also warning that Ahaz's turn to Assyria will bring upon Judah a devastation unlike any since the division of the kingdom.
Passages
Study Resources
Isaiah 7
1In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. 2David’s house was told, “Syria is allied with Ephraim.” His heart trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest tremble with the wind.
3Then Yahweh said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shearjashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller’s field. 4Tell him, ‘Be careful, and keep calm. Don’t be afraid, neither let your heart be faint because of these two tails of smoking torches, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. 5Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have plotted evil against you, saying, 6“Let’s go up against Judah, and tear it apart, and let’s divide it among ourselves, and set up a king within it, even the son of Tabeel.” 7This is what the Lord Yahweh says: “It shall not stand, neither shall it happen.” 8For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim shall be broken in pieces, so that it shall not be a people. 9The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.’”
10Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz, saying, 11“Ask a sign of Yahweh your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.”
12But Ahaz said, “I won’t ask. I won’t tempt Yahweh.”
13He said, “Listen now, house of David. Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God also? 14Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 15He shall eat butter and honey when he knows to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16For before the child knows to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you abhor shall be forsaken. 17Yahweh will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah, even the king of Assyria.
18It will happen in that day that Yahweh will whistle 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. 19They shall come, and shall all rest in the desolate valleys, in the clefts of the rocks, on all thorn hedges, and on all pastures.
20In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired in the parts beyond the River, even with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard.
21It shall happen in that day that a man shall keep alive a young cow, and two sheep. 22It shall happen, that because of the abundance of milk which they shall give he shall eat butter, for everyone will eat butter and honey that is left within the land.
23It will happen in that day that every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels, will be for briers and thorns. 24People will go there with arrows and with bow, because all the land will be briers and thorns. 25All the hills that were cultivated with the hoe, you shall not come there for fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending out of oxen, and for sheep to tread on.”