Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

7:1 In the days of Ahaz is c. 735 b.c., when Ahaz has just begun his reign. Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel. Syria and the northern kingdom of Israel ("Ephraim," v. 2) join forces against Assyria with the intention of forcing the southern kingdom of Judah into their alliance, perhaps trying to take advantage of Ahaz's inexperience (see map). Isaiah informs the reader that Ahaz has nothing to fear (v. 4).

7:2 the house of David. In God's covenant with David his forefather, Ahaz has clear warrant for confidence in God's protective care (cf. 2 Sam. 7:8-17; Ps. 89:3-4, 19-34). the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook. The weakness of national character is revealed.

7:3 Shear-jashub means "a remnant shall return" and suggests both judgment (God's people will be reduced to a remnant) and grace (that remnant will return; cf. 10:20-22). See 8:18 for the symbolic significance of Isaiah's family.

7:4 Defiance in the face of evil is called for by the faithfulness of God.

7:6 the son of Tabeel. The puppet ruler meant to replace Ahaz, son of David. The promises of God were given only to the royal line of David (cf. 2 Sam. 7:12-16), and Tabeel is apparently not from this line.

7:7-9 Human threats are to be dismissed and divine promises firmly trusted, for the Lord God vetoes human intentions. within sixty-five years. The northern kingdom fell to Assyria in 722 b.c. By around 670 b.c. the ethnic identity of the former kingdom would have been decisively transformed, due to the importation of foreign settlers (cf. 2 Kings 17:24; Ezra 4:1-2, 10). If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all. The southern kingdom still has an opportunity to hold fast to God, but their faith must be firm. The wordplay on firmness ("not firm . . . not be firm") connects unbelief with instability. Unbelief in God destabilizes everything for Ahaz, not just his religious life.

7:10-17 The basic issue in ch. 7 is that Ahaz and the Lord (speaking through Isaiah) have completely different views concerning the threat from the coalition of Syria and Ephraim. Though Ahaz is the heir of David's throne, he has put his firm faith (v. 9) in the king of Assyria and he has given gold from the temple to the Assyrians, to induce them to attack Syria (2 Kings 16:1-9). Thus Ahaz placed his hope for salvation in human power rather than in the Lord. But Isaiah calls for Ahaz and all of Jerusalem to put their firm faith in a far more reliable ally: "the Lord himself" (Isa. 7:14). Thus the Lord invites Ahaz to request a sign to strengthen his faith (v. 11), but Ahaz hypocritically refuses to do so (v. 12; cf. Deut. 6:16). Isaiah then addresses the "house of David," accusing the royal house of wearying God, but Isaiah also offers them ("you" plural) a sign from the Lord himself (Isa. 7:14). This sign is the famous announcement of a son born to a virgin, whose name will be Immanuel (see notes following). This child's life is to be the sign that confirms the truth of the divine word, which the Lord will bring upon you ("you" singular; i.e., Ahaz) and upon your people and upon your father's house (i.e., the house of David; cf. v. 13). Christian interpretation of this passage requires doing justice to the meaning of Isaiah's words both (1) as they were first addressed to Ahaz, and then (2) as these same prophetic words are used later by Matthew with respect to the birth of Jesus the Messiah (Matt. 1:21-23).

7:11 The Lord's invitation to Ahaz sets out the possibility of a sign as deep as Sheol or high as heaven, clearly inviting Ahaz to think beyond natural signs, indicating that the sign involves something more than a merely normal birth. See note on vv. 10-17.

7:13 The transition from addressing Ahaz alone to addressing the whole house of David provides a parallel with the previous oracle, which likewise concerned both the royal family and the one current occupant of the throne (vv. 2-3). The failure shared by the whole house of David calls for a new, future hope--the sign of v. 14.

7:14 the Lord himself. Failure of the human king to respond to the invitation (v. 12) results in the divine King again taking the initiative (cf. v. 17). Similarly, two such signs would be offered to Hezekiah, Ahaz's son and successor (see 37:30; 38:7).

Although some claim that the word translated virgin (Hb. ‘almah) refers generally to a "young woman," it actually refers specifically to a "maiden"--that is, to a young woman who is unmarried and sexually chaste, and thus has virginity as one of her characteristics (see Gen. 24:16, 43; Ex. 2:8, "girl"). Thus when the Septuagint translators, 200 years before the birth of Christ, rendered ‘almah here with Greek parthenos (a specific term for "virgin") they rightly perceived the meaning of the Hebrew term; and when Matthew applied this prophecy to the virgin birth of Christ (see Matt. 1:23), it was in accord with this well-established understanding of parthenos ("virgin") as used in the Septuagint and in other Greek writers.

Isaiah prophesies further that it is "the virgin" who shall call his name Immanuel. Bestowing a child's name often falls to the mother in the OT (e.g., the naming of the patriarchs in Gen. 29:31-30:24; but cf. 35:18; also Judg. 13:24; 1 Sam. 1:20), although other women (cf. Ruth 4:17) or even the father (Gen. 16:15; Judg. 8:31) could be involved in the naming. The name itself, Immanuel, "God is with us," is the message of the sign. Such is its importance that Matthew translates it for his readers (Matt. 1:23). Immanuel is used as a form of address in Isa. 8:8 ("your land, O Immanuel"), and as a sentence in 8:10 ("for God is with us"). To say that God is "with" someone or a people means that God is guiding and helping them to fulfill their calling (Gen. 21:22; Ex. 3:12; Deut. 2:7; Josh. 1:5; Ps. 46:7, 11; Isa. 41:10). As such, it would provide a pointed message either to the fearful Ahaz or to the failing royal house.

Christian interpretation follows Matthew in applying this verse to the birth of Jesus. However, some aspects of Isaiah's prophecy also relate to the significance of the sign for Isaiah's own day. This being the case, a number of questions are raised: To whose family does the virgin belong, and how should her marital status be understood? What is the precise significance of the child's name? Is it a personal name, or should it be understood as a title? Most importantly, does the fulfillment of this sign belong to Isaiah's own day, or does it rather point (even in his day) to a much more distant and complete fulfillment? Christians have typically answered these questions in one of two ways.

Some hold that the sign has a single fulfillment--that is, the sign points originally and solely to the birth of Jesus as the "ultimate" Messiah. Those who hold this view emphasize the understanding of ‘almah only as "virgin," thus precluding any "near term" fulfillment before the birth of Jesus; this view understands "Immanuel" as a title (as in 8:8) rather than a personal name. It is also noted that the variation in reference to a "son" (Hb. ben) in 7:14, as compared to a "boy" (Hb. na‘ar) in v. 16, further distinguishes between the child of miraculous birth and a more generic reference to a male child unrelated to the divine promise. This has the effect of separating the reference to Isaiah's day (vv. 16-17) from the fulfillment of the announced miraculous son to be born at a future time (v. 14). According to this interpretation, then, the prediction of the virgin birth in v. 14 is a straightforward prediction of an event cast well into the future, and Matthew's application of this prophecy to Jesus (Matt. 1:20-23) provides the divinely inspired testimony to there being a single fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. By this interpretation, the sign is directed to the "house of David," to affirm God's intention of preserving David's dynasty (in keeping with the promises of 2 Sam. 7:12-16), in order to bring Israel's mission to its glorious fulfillment (Isa. 9:6-7; 11:1-10). God will use any means to do this, even miraculous ones: this is a rebuke to the faithless and secular outlook of Ahaz.

Those who see in this sign a more immediate application to Ahaz and his times usually argue that the prophecy has a double fulfillment--that is, both an immediate fulfillment in Isaiah's day and a long-term fulfillment in the birth of the Messiah. Those who hold this view argue that it is natural for the name "Immanuel" to be understood in terms of double fulfillment, since two other "sons" perform similar symbolic roles in the context (cf. 7:3; 8:3-4). They argue further that the prophet's own interpretation of the sign in 7:16-17 applies it directly to Ahaz's own day. It should be observed that this understanding of the text in no way diminishes Matthew's affirmation of the supernatural conception and virgin birth of Jesus (cf. also Luke 1:34-35). Even if the prophecy does include an immediate application to the time of Ahaz, however, the prophecy cannot have been fulfilled completely by the birth of someone like Maher-shalal-hash-baz (Isa. 8:1, 3) or by Hezekiah, as some have suggested, since 9:6 prophesies the birth of a son whose name will be "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace"--a statement that could apply only to the Davidic Messiah. On this understanding, then, the prophecy of 7:14 foretells the birth of Immanuel, which was fulfilled partially in Isaiah's time but fully and finally in the person of Jesus Christ.

Faithful interpreters can be found on either side of this debate. One should not, therefore, lose sight of those truths on which all agree: the prophet speaks authoritatively for God; Ahaz and his house stand under judgment; the prophetic sign directly meets the failures of Ahaz's day; fulfillment of the prophecy comes about through direct divine intervention in human history; and the sign finds its final fulfillment in the virgin birth of Jesus the Messiah, who is literally "God with us."

7:15-17 These verses indicate that the Syro-Ephraimite threat will soon pass; it will not last longer than the time it takes for the boy (possibly in the sense of "any boy") to reach an age when he can refuse the evil and choose the good. In fact, Syria did fall to Assyria in 732 b.c. and Israel fell in 722. But the agent of deliverance--the king of Assyria--was a worse disaster for Judah. Ahaz forsook "the King, the Lord of hosts" (6:5) for a dreaded earthly king. He foolishly hired the military support of Assyria (2 Kings 16:5-9), for in his spiritual blindness he could not discern between his true ally and his true enemy. Ahaz's unbelief doomed the Davidic dynasty to loss of sovereignty under foreign domination. Now God must restore the throne of David and save the world.

7:18-25 Isaiah sets forth the devastating national consequences of foreign invasion, marked fourfold by the phrase, in that day (vv. 18, 20, 21, 23), referring back to "such days" in v. 17.

7:18-19 At the Lord's command, the Promised Land is infested with swarms of enemy troops.

7:20 In a culture of honor and shame, forced shaving was a mark of humiliation (cf. 2 Sam. 10:4-5). Isaiah foresees his nation scraped down to bare essentials, to their disgrace, by the very razor they hired to save them from humiliation. But the sovereign Lord fulfills his purpose.

7:21 The population of God's people is so diminished that it takes only a few animals to produce more than enough food for the remnant.

8:1-22 Isaiah reflects on the events of ch. 7, shifting from the third person ("And the Lord said to Isaiah," 7:3) to the first person ("Then the Lord said to me," 8:1).

8:1-2 Through Isaiah's son, God provides an openly attested witness to his promise of deliverance from the Syro-Ephraimite coalition. Maher-shalal-hash-baz. See ESV footnote, the relevance of which is explained in v. 4. The striking similarities between 7:14-17 and 8:1-4 suggest that, in addition to the Lord's promise of ultimate deliverance in ch. 7, he provides a rapidly approaching, short-term assurance in ch. 8, encouraging confidence in his long-term faithfulness.

8:2 Uriah worked closely with King Ahaz (cf. 2 Kings 16:10-16), while Zechariah was probably Ahaz's father-in-law (cf. 2 Kings 18:2; 2 Chron. 29:1).

8:3 Isaiah's wife, the prophetess, bears the "sign-child," Maher-shalal-hash-baz (cf. v. 18).

8:5-8 Judah celebrates their escape from Syria and Israel as their own achievement, despite the witness of Maher-shalal-hash-baz, only to find that their ally, Assyria, is really their oppressor.

8:6-7 The waters of Shiloah that flow gently is probably referring to the water system that preceded Hezekiah's construction of the conduit that brought water into the pool of Siloam (cf. 22:9; 2 Kings 20:20; Luke 13:4; John 9:7), used here as an image of God's faithful care, available to his people. Rezin and the son of Remaliah. See Isa. 7:1. the waters of the (Euphrates) River. In contrast to 8:6, v. 7 describes a swollen "river" of Assyrian military power flowing over Syria and Ephraim and flooding south into Judah, who will survive only by standing on tiptoe to keep her head above the tide (chs. 36-37). The way of faith in God seems inadequate to Judah, but the worldly alternative she prefers nearly drowns her in human oppression.

8:8 your land, O Immanuel. Immanuel's land (cf. 7:14) will be almost completely overrun (even to the neck) by the Assyrians (chs. 36-37).

8:9-10 In view of Immanuel's future triumph, Isaiah announces that the enemies of God who gather against his people will be shattered (cf. Gen. 3:15). At all times, in all conditions, even prior to the first coming of Christ, God is with us (Hb. "Immanuel"; see note on Isa. 7:14).

8:11-15 God deeply impressed upon Isaiah a surprising message. The holy God, who is the sanctuary for frightened human beings, is also the snare for those who do not fear him. Judah and Jerusalem wring their hands over surface-level crises (7:2, 6, 16), with little awareness of the grandeur of God. By disregarding God, they find him to be an obstacle they cannot evade. First Peter 3:15 uses language from Isa. 8:13 to identify Isaiah's the Lord of hosts (v. 13) with Jesus Christ.

8:16-22 The difference between the remnant (vv. 16-18) and the hardened nation (vv. 19-22) becomes clear. God marks his own as loyal disciples who preserve the testimony of his Word (v. 16). Isaiah speaks for them with the voice of patient trust in God during hard times (v. 17). He offers himself and his children as a prophetic presence in their nation, bearing witness to the enduring significance of Zion (v. 18; cf. Heb. 2:13). The prophet urges his followers not to be drawn into occult gibberish when their faithful God speaks clearly in his Word (Isa. 8:19-20). Enshrouded in spiritual darkness and sent into exile, unbelieving Judah rages at God (vv. 21-22).

9:1-7 The spiritual gloom of 8:22 is dispelled forever by the light of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

9:1 Her who was in anguish refers to Israel as the people of God under his discipline. In the former time. Isaiah's vision projects his thought out of the tragic present as if it were already past. Brought into contempt, i.e., humiliated with national defeat. the land of Zebulun. The northern regions of the Promised Land--first to come under attack by foreign invaders who approached by means of the Fertile Crescent (2 Kings 15:29)--are the first to see a glorious new era. Galilee of the nations. The Messiah launched his worldwide mission from Galilee (Matt. 4:12-16). in the latter time he has made glorious. A past-tense verb, because the prophetic eye sees the future in a vision. The people of God finally play the glorious role prophesied in Isa. 2:3 through the triumph of their Messiah.

9:2 The people who walked in darkness. Such people as those who refused the appeal of 2:5 (cf. also 5:30; 8:22; John 3:19-20). on them has light shined. Not subjective wishful thinking but an objective, surprising joy breaking upon sinners through the grace of Christ (cf. Isa. 42:6; 49:6; John 1:5; 2 Cor. 4:6).

9:3 You have multiplied the nation. No longer are the faithful a small remnant (cf. 26:15; 49:20-21; 54:1-5; 66:7-14). the harvest . . . the spoil. The joys of both peaceful abundance and military victory, i.e., fullness of joy (cf. 29:19; 35:10; 61:7).

9:4-7 Isaiah explains the overflowing joy of v. 3, introduced by a threefold For.

9:4 Like a freedom fighter, God breaks all human oppression as on the day of Midian. Cf. Judges 6-7, where Gideon achieves an improbable victory over Midian by the power of God.

9:5 every boot . . . will be burned as fuel for the fire. See Ps. 46:9; Isa. 2:4.

9:6 to us. A gift of divine grace to sinners. a child . . . a son. This is the invincible figure striding across the world stage, taking gracious command, according to vv. 4-5 (cf. Ps. 2:7-9; Luke 1:32). Isaiah presents the events as if it were the time of the child's arrival, with an expectation of what he will achieve (Isa. 9:7). Wonderful Counselor. A "counselor" is one who is able to make wise plans (cf. 11:2). He is a ruler whose wisdom is beyond merely human capabilities, unlike intelligent but foolish Ahaz (cf. 28:29). Mighty God. A title of the Lord himself (10:20-21; Deut. 10:17; Neh. 9:32; Jer. 32:18). Everlasting Father. A "father" here is a benevolent protector (cf. Isa. 22:21; Job 29:16), which is the task of the ideal king and is also the way God himself cares for his people (cf. Isa. 63:16; 64:8; Ps. 103:13). (That is, this is not using the Trinitarian title "Father" for the Messiah; rather, it is portraying him as a king.) Prince of Peace. He is the ruler whose reign will bring about peace because the nations will rely on his just decisions in their disputes (cf. Isa. 2:4; 11:6-9; 42:4; 49:7; 52:15). This kind of king contrasts with even the best of the Davidic line that Judah has experienced so far, because these titles show that this king will be divine. Thus this cannot refer to, say, Hezekiah (whose father Ahaz was king at the time), who for all his piety was nevertheless flawed (cf. 39:5-8) and only human.

9:7 God called Abraham to be the channel of blessing to the whole world (Gen. 12:1-3), and this was the purpose of Israel's life in their land (Ex. 19:5-6). Isaiah focuses the messianic hope on an heir of David who would extend his rule from Israel to include all the Gentiles, and thus finally to bring to them the blessing of knowing the true God (Gen. 49:10; 2 Sam. 7:8-16). Of the increase . . . no end. The empire of grace will forever expand, and every moment will be better than the last. the throne of David. Cf. Luke 1:32. with justice and with righteousness. Unlike apostate Ahaz (cf. Jer. 33:15-16). zeal. The final victory is a miracle, accomplished with a passionate intensity of which only the Lord of hosts is capable (cf. Isa. 42:13; 59:15-19; 63:15).