13 Then he said , "Listen now , O house of David ! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men , that you will try the patience of my God as well ? 14 "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign : Behold , a virgin will be with child and bear a son , and she will call His name Immanuel . 15 "He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good . 16 " For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good , the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken .
17 "The Lord will bring on you, on your people , and on your father's house such days as have never come since the day that Ephraim separated from Judah , the king of Assyria ." 18 In that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is in the remotest part of the rivers of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria . 19 They will all come and settle on the steep ravines , on the ledges of the cliffs , on all the thorn bushes and on all the watering places . 20 In that day the Lord will shave with a razor , hired from regions beyond the Euphrates (that is, with the king of Assyria ), the head and the hair of the legs ; and it will also remove the beard . 21 Now in that day a man may keep alive a heifer and a pair of sheep ; 22 and because of the abundance of the milk produced he will eat curds , for everyone that is left within the land will eat curds and honey . 23 And it will come about in that day , that every place where e there used to be a thousand vines , valued at a thousand shekels of silver , will become briars and thorns . 24 People will come there with bows and arrows because all the land will be briars and thorns . 25 As for all the hills which used to be cultivated with the hoe , you will not go there for fear of briars and thorns ; but they will become a place for pasturing oxen and for sheep to trample .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Isaiah 7:13-25
Commentary on Isaiah 7:10-16
(Read Isaiah 7:10-16)
Secret disaffection to God is often disguised with the colour of respect to him; and those who are resolved that they will not trust God, yet pretend they will not tempt him. The prophet reproved Ahaz and his court, for the little value they had for Divine revelation. Nothing is more grievous to God than distrust, but the unbelief of man shall not make the promise of God of no effect; the Lord himself shall give a sign. How great soever your distress and danger, of you the Messiah is to be born, and you cannot be destroyed while that blessing is in you. It shall be brought to pass in a glorious manner; and the strongest consolations in time of trouble are derived from Christ, our relation to him, our interest in him, our expectations of him and from him. He would grow up like other children, by the use of the diet of those countries; but he would, unlike other children, uniformly refuse the evil and choose the good. And although his birth would be by the power of the Holy Ghost, yet he should not be fed with angels' food. Then follows a sign of the speedy destruction of the princes, now a terror to Judah. "Before this child," so it may be read; "this child which I have now in my arms," (Shear-jashub, the prophet's own son, verse 3,) shall be three or four years older, these enemies' forces shall be forsaken of both their kings. The prophecy is so solemn, the sign is so marked, as given by God himself after Ahaz rejected the offer, that it must have raised hopes far beyond what the present occasion suggested. And, if the prospect of the coming of the Divine Saviour was a never-failing support to the hopes of ancient believers, what cause have we to be thankful that the Word was made flesh! May we trust in and love Him, and copy his example.
Commentary on Isaiah 7:17-25
(Read Isaiah 7:17-25)
Let those who will not believe the promises of God, expect to hear the alarms of his threatenings; for who can resist or escape his judgments? The Lord shall sweep all away; and whomsoever he employs in any service for him, he will pay. All speaks a sad change of the face of that pleasant land. But what melancholy change is there, which sin will not make with a people? Agriculture would cease. Sorrows of every kind will come upon all who neglect the great salvation. If we remain unfruitful under the means of grace, the Lord will say, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforth for ever.