7:1The year was 734 B.C. Ahaz, king of Judah in Jerusalem, was about to be attacked by an alliance of the northern kingdom of Israel and Aram. He was frightened by the prospect of the possible end of his reign and by the invading armies that killed many people or took them as captives (2 Chronicles 28:5-21). But, as Isaiah predicted, the kingdom of Judah did not come to an end at this time. The sign of Immanuel would be a sign of deliverance.
Life Application Study BibleIsaiahChapter 7
Isaiah 7
New Living Translation · Life Application Study Bible · Original pages: 1101, 1102, 1103
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7Isaiah 7
5Then I heard the LORD asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Whowill go for us?”I said,
6Here
7am. Send me.”
9And he said, “ Yes, go, and say to this people,‘Listen carefully, but do not understand.Watch closely, but learn nothing.’
10Harden the hearts of these people.Plug their ears and shut their eyes.That way, they will not see with their eyes,nor hear with their ears,
nor understand with their heartsand turn to me for healing.”*"Then I said, “LORD, how long will this go on?”And he replied,“Until their towns are empty,their houses are deserted,and the whole country is a wasteland;12 until the Lor has sent everyone away,and the entire land of Israel lies deserted.13 If even a tenth—a remnant—survive,it will be invaded again and burned.But as a terebinth or oak tree leaves a stump when it is cut down,so Israel’s stump will be a holy seed.”
A Message for Ahaz
When Ahaz, son of Jotham and grandson of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Syria* and Pekah son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, set out to attack Jerusalem. However, they were unable to carry out their plan. 2The news had come to the royal court of Judah: “Syria is allied with Israel* against us So the hearts of the king and his people trembled with fear, like trees shaking in a storm. 3Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Take your son Shear-jashub* and go out to meet King Ahaz. You will find him at the end of the aqueduct that feeds water into the upper pool, near the road leading to the field where cloth is washed.* 4Tell him to stop worrying. Tell him he doesn’t need to fear the fierce anger of those two burned-out embers, King Rezin of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah. 5Yes, the kings of Syria and Israel are plotting against him, saying, §‘ We will attack Judah and capture it for ourselves. Then we will install the son of Tabeel as Judah’s king.’ 7 But this is what the Sovereign LORD says:
11This invasion will never happen;it will never take place;8 for Syria is no stronger than its capital, Damascus,and Damascus is no stronger than its king, Rezin.As for Israel, within sixty-five yearsit will be crushed and completely destroyed.9 Israel is no stronger than its capital, Samaria,and Samaria is no stronger than its king, Pekah son of Remaliah.Unless your faith is firm,I cannot make you stand firm.”
The Sign of Immanuel
10Later, the LORD sent this message to King Ahaz: “Ask the LORD your God for a sign of confirmation, Ahaz. Make it as difficult as you want—as high as heaven or as deep as the place of the dead.*” 12But the king refused. “No,” he said, “I will not test the LORD like that.” 13Then Isaiah said, “Listen well, you royal family of David! Isn't it enough to exhaust human patience? Must you exhaust the patience of my God as well? 4A right then, the LORD himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin* will conceive a child! She will give birth toa son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’). 'SBy the time this child is old enough to choose what is right and reject what is wrong, he will be eating yogurt* and honey. 16For before the child is that old, the lands of the two kings you fear so much will both be deserted. Then the LORD will bring things on you, your nation, and your family unlike anything since Israel broke away from Judah. He will bring the king of Assyria upon you!” 18In that day the LORD will whistle for the army of southern Egypt and for the army of Assyria. They will swarm around you like flies and bees. 19They will come in vast hordes and settle in the fertile areas and also in the desolate valleys, caves, and thorny places. 20In that day the LORD will hire a “razor” from beyond the Euphrates River*—the king of Assyria—and use it to shave off everything: your land, your crops, and your people.* 21In that day a farmer wil! be fortunate to have a cow and two sheep or goats left. 22Nevertheless, there will be enough milk for everyone because so few people will be left in the land. They will eat their fill of yogurt and honey. 23In that day the lush vineyards, now worth 1,000 pieces of silver,* will become patches of briers and thorns. 24The entire land will become a vast expanse of briers and thorns, a hunting ground overrun by wildlife. 25No one will go to the fertile hillsides where the gardens once grew, for briers and thorns will cover them. Cattle, sheep, and goats will graze there.
Textual footnotes
- 7:11 Hebrew as deep as Sheol.
- 7:14 Or young woman.
- 7:15 Or curds, also in 7:22.
- 7:20a Hebrew the river.
- 7:20b Hebrew shave off the head, the hair of the legs, and the beard.
- 7:23 Hebrew 1,000 shekels of silver, about
Life Application Notes 2 notes
7:3Shear-jashub means “a remnant will return.” God told Isaiah to give his son this name as a reminder of his plan for mercy.
Charts, profiles & sidebars from the printed pages
Personality profile · page 1101
Profile: Isaiah
Trees and prophets share at least one important characteristic—both are planted for the future. Yet seedlings are often overlooked and prophets often ignored. Isaiah is one of the best examples of this. The people of his time could have been rescued by his words. Instead, they refused to believe him. With the passing of centuries, however, Isaiah’s words have cast a shadow on ail of history. Isaiah was active as a prophet during the reigns of five kings, but he did not set out to be a prophet. By the time King Uzziah died, \saian may have been established as a scribe in the royal palace in Jerusalem. It was a respectable career, but God had other plans for his servant. Isaiah’s account of God’s call leaves little doubt about what motivated the prophet for the next half century. His vision of God was unforgettable. His encounter with God permanently affected!saiah’s character. He reflected the God he represented. Isaiah’s messages—some comforting, some confronting—are so dissimilar that some have guessed they came from different authors. Isaiah’s testimony is that the messages came from the only one capable of being perfect in justice as well as in mercy—God himself. When he called {saiah as a prophet, God did not encourage him with predictions of great success. God told Isaiah that the people would not listen. But he was to speak and write his messages anyway because eventually some wouid listen. God compared his people to a tree that would have to be cut down so that a new tree could grow from the old stump (Isaiah 6:13). We who are part of that future can see that many of the promises God gave through Isaiah have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. We also gain the hope of knowing that God is active in all of history, including our own.
• Considered the greatest Old Testament prophet
• Quoted at least 50 times in the New Testament
• Brought powerful messages of both judgment and hope
• Carried out a consistent ministry even though there was little positive response from his listeners
• His ministry spanned the reigns of five kings of Judah
• God's help is needed in order to comfort people while effectively confronting sin One resuit of experiencing forgiveness is the desire to share that forgiveness with others © God is purely and perfectly holy, just, and loving
Strengths and accomplishments
Lessons from his life
• Where: Jerusalem
• Occupations: Scribe, prophet
• Relatives: Father: Amoz. Sons: Shear-jashub, Maher-shalal-hash-baz © Contemporaries: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Micah
Vital statistics
Key verse “Then I heard the LORD asking, ‘Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?’ I said, ‘Here I am. Send me” (Isaiah 6:8). Isaiah's story is told in 2 Kings 19:2—20:19. He is also mentioned in 2 Chronicles 26:22; 32:20, 32; Matthew 3:3; 8:17; 12:17-21; John 12:38-41; Romans 10:16, 20, 21.
beyond repentance. God’s patience with their chronic rebellion was finally exhausted. His judgment was to abandon them to their rebellion and hardness of heart. Why did God send Isaiah if he knew the people wouldn't listen? Although the nation itself would not repent and would reap judgment, some individuals would listen. In 6:13 God explains his plan for a remnant (holy seed) of faithful followers. God is merciful even when he judges. We can gain encouragement from God's promise to preserve his people. If we are faithful to him, we can be sure of his mercy.
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Study feature · page 1102
6:9-10 Greek version reads And he said, “Go and say to this people, / ‘When you hear what I say, you will not understand. / When you see what I do, you will not comprehend.’ / For the hearts of these people are hardened, / and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes— /so their eyes cannot see, / and their ears cannot hear, / and their hearts cannot understand, / and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.” Compare Matt 13:14-15; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10; Acts 28:26-27. 7:1 Hebrew Aram; also in 7:2, 4, 5, 8. 7:2 Hebrew Ephraim, reterring to the northern kingdom of Israel; also in 7:5, 8, 9,17. 7:3a Shear-jashub means “A remnant will return.” 7:3b Or bleached.
From the beginning of God's judgment he planned to restore a remnant of his people. Shear-jashub was a reminder to the people of God's faithfulness to them. 7:3. The “aqueduct” may have been the site of the Gihon Spring, located east of Jerusalem. The Gihon Spring was the main source of water for the holy city and was also the spring that emptied into Hezekiah’s famous water tunnel (2 Chronicles 32:30). The field where the cloth is washed was a well-known place where clothing or newly woven cloth was laid in the sun to dry and whiten (see 36:2). 7:4-8:15 Isaiah predicted the breakup of Israel’s alliance with Aram {7:4-9). Because of this alliance, Israel would be destroyed; Assyria would be the instrument God would use to destroy them (7:8-25) and to punish Judah. But God would not let Assyria destroy Judah (8:1-15). They would be spared because God's gracious plans cannot be thwarted. 7:8 Ahaz, one of Judah’s worst kings, refused God’s help, and instead, he tried to buy aid from the Assyrians with silver and gold from the Temple (2 Kings 16:8). When the Assyrians came,
Study feature · page 1103
they brought further trouble instead of help. in 722 B.C., Samaria, the capital of Israel, the northern kingdom, fell to the Assyrian armies, thus ending the northern kingdom. 7:12 Ahaz appeared righteous by saying he would not test God with a sign (“I will not test the LORD like that”). In fact, God had told him to ask, but Ahaz didn’t really want to know what God would say. Often we use some excuse—such as not wanting to bother God or blaming some theological question that concerns us—to keep us from communicating with him. Don’t let anything keep you from hearing and obeying God. 7:14-16 “Virgin” is translated from a Hebrew word used for an unmarried woman who is old enough to be married, one who is sexually mature (see Genesis 24:43; Exodus 2:8; Psalm 68:25; Proverbs 30:19; Song of Songs 1:3; 6:8). Some have compared this young woman to Isaiah’s young wife and newborn son (8:1-4). This is not likely because she had a child, Shear-jashub, and her second child was not named /mmanuel. Some believe that isaiah’s first wife may have died, and so this is his second wife. It is more likely that this prophecy had a double fulfillment. (1) A young woman from the house of Ahaz who was not married would marry and have a son. Before three years passed (one year for pregnancy and two for the child to be old enough to talk), the two invading kings would be destroyed. (2) Matthew 1:23 quotes Isaiah 7:14 to show a further fulfillment of this prophecy in that a virgin named Mary conceived and bore a son, Immanuel, the Christ. 7:18 Flies and bees are symbols of God’s judgment (see Exodus 23:28). Egypt and Assyria did not at this time devastate Judah. Hezekiah followed Ahaz as king, and he honored God; therefore,
God held back his hand of judgment. Two more evil kings reigned before Josiah, of whom it was said that no other king turned so completely to the Lard (2 Kings 23:25). However, Judah’s doom had been sealed by the extreme evil of Josiah’s father, Amon. During Josiah’s reign, Egypt marched against the Assyrians. Josiah then declared war on Egypt, although God told him not to. After Josiah was killed (2 Chronicles. 35:20-27), only weak kings reigned in Judah. The Egyptians carried off Josiah’s son, Jehoahaz, after three months. The next king, Jehoiakim, was taken by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon. Egypt and Assyria had dealt death blows to Judah. 7:20 Hiring Assyria to save them would be Judah’s downfall (2 Kings 16:7, 8). To “shave” Judah’s hair was symbolic of total humiliation. Numbers 6:9 explains that after being defiled, a person who had been set apart for the LORD had to shave his head as part of the cleansing process. Shaving bodily hair was an embarrassment—an exposure of nakedness. For a Hebrew man to have his beard shaved was humiliating (2 Samuel 10:4, 5). 7:21-25 Judah's rich farmland would be trampled until it became pastureland, fit only for grazing. No longer would it be a place of agricultural abundance, “a Jand flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8), but a land with only briers and thorns. 8:1-4 These verses predict the fall of Israel and Aram. Aram fell to Assyria in 732 B.C., and Israel followed in 722 B.C. Isaiah put his message on a large scroll in a public place. God was warning all his people. The name of the child means “swift to plunder and quick to spoil.”