Isaiah — Chapter 7

And it came to pass in the days of Achaz... Rasin... and Phacee... went up toward Jerusalem to fight against it, and could not take it. Historical background from 4 Reg.15-16 and 2 Par.28: Syria and Israel had been sent by God to punish Achaz's sins; but when they attempted total conquest rather than chastisement, God withdrew His permission. The 'could not take it' is a prolepsis — placed here because the prophecy that follows was the cause of the deliverance.

And it was told the house of David, saying: Syria hath rested upon Ephraim, and his heart was moved, and the heart of his people. 'Requievit Syria super Ephraim' = conspired with Ephraim (per Septuagint). The terror of Achaz and his court is described: commotum est cor ejus sicut moventur ligna sylvarum a facie venti — the king trembles like trees in a storm, a sign of his guilty conscience. A king's role is to hearten his terrified people, but an impious king terrifies them first.

And the Lord said to Isaias: Go forth to meet Achaz, thou and Jasub thy son. Shear-Jasub ('remnant shall return') = a prophetic name God had Isaiah impose on his son, signifying the survival and eventual conversion of a remnant of Israel. Lapide discusses whether this son was of blood (probable) or a disciple (some Rabbis and Chaldean Targum). The detail that Isaiah meets Achaz at the waterworks shows Achaz was planning military defense rather than prayer.

And thou shalt say to him: See thou be quiet: fear not, and let not thy heart be afraid of the two tails of these firebrands. 'Caudis titionum' = extinguished brands that only smoke but give no light — the two kings (Rasin and Pekah) are nearly spent. God is contrasted to Achaz: Achaz seeks Assyrian arms; God sends the Prophet with a word of peace.

Let us go up to Judah, and rouse it up, and draw it away to us, and make the son of Tabeel king in the midst of it. The conspirators' plan: replace the Davidic dynasty with 'son of Tabeel' (a foreigner or Syrian client). This would have ended the Messianic line — hence God's vehement promise that it will not happen.

Thus saith the Lord God: It shall not stand, and this shall not be. God's irrevocable promise: the conspiracy against David's line will fail. Lapide: if the Davidic line had been extirpated, Emmanuel would not have been born — so the salvation of all humanity was at stake.

But the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rasin: and within threescore and five years, Ephraim shall cease to be a people. Within 65 years (from the third year of Achaz), the northern kingdom of Israel will be completely absorbed/transplanted by the Assyrian kings — fulfilled by Shalmaneser and later Esarhaddon (who repopulated Samaria with foreigners, 2 Kgs 17). The 65 years is counted from the third year of Achaz.

If you will not believe, you shall not continue. Hebrew paronomasia: 'im lo taaminu lo teamenu' — 'if you will not be firm in faith, you will not be firm' (i.e., stable/enduring). Lapide: this is one of the great prophetic axioms — the kingdom of Judah rests on trust in God, not on Assyrian alliances. The threat reaches its ultimate fulfillment in the Babylonian captivity (and ultimately the Roman destruction).

Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God either unto the depth of hell, or unto the height above. God's generous offer of any sign whatever, 'even from the depths of hell or heights of heaven,' to confirm His promise.

And Achaz said: I will not ask, and I will not tempt the Lord. Achaz's hypocritical piety: feigning reverence for God while actually relying on Assyria. Ambrose: 'It is not religion but perversity; he refuses the gift lest he be obliged to receive it and give up his Assyrian plans.' This is the prototype of those who, under cover of humility, reject God's offered mercy.

Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel. This is the most extensive note in the chapter. Lapide argues definitively that Hebrew 'haalma' = 'the virgin' (not merely 'the young woman'), citing: (1) etymology — from 'alam' = to hide, thus a hidden/concealed one, unknown to man; (2) the Septuagint's unanimous rendering as 'parthenos'; (3) Matthew 1:20-23's express application to Mary; (4) ten Sibyls' prophecies of a virgin birth including the Cumaean Sibyl quoted by Virgil (Eclogue 4); (5) ancient Rabbis including the story of Simeon who repeatedly found God restoring the article 'ha' (=illa, definita) to 'alma.' Against Calvin, who argued the verse means a young woman formerly a virgin now conceived: refuted by Matthew's own words 'quod in ea natum est de Spiritu Sancto est.' Emmanuel = nobiscum Deus = Jesus (same meaning, different designation). Mary's title 'alma' in Latin corresponds to the Latin 'alma mater' tradition.

He shall eat butter and honey, that he may know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good. Christ will eat ordinary infant food — proof of His true and full humanity against the Manichaean/Docetist view that His body was phantasmal. He grows and acquires experimental knowledge in His human nature (per Basil, Jerome, Cyril, Chrysostom). Allegorically: honey = the sweetness of the Divinity (and the Virgin's virginity, since bees are virginal creatures); butter/milk = the maternal fecundity of the Incarnation.

For before the child know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good, the land which thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of the face of her two kings. Within a few years of the child's infancy (before He reaches discernment age = before Tiglath-Pileser acts), both Syria (Rasin killed by Tiglath-Pileser, ca. 732 BC) and Israel (Pekah dethroned) will be destroyed. This shows the near-term fulfillment of the Emmanuel sign: the liberation of Judah from these two kings.

The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon the house of thy father, days that have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Juda, with the king of Assyria. Having promised deliverance from Rasin/Pekah, Isaiah now threatens Achaz and Judah with the very ally he sought — the king of Assyria, who will subsequently turn on Judah. The Babylonian captivity and ultimately the Roman destruction are the fuller meanings.

And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost parts of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. God whistles (sibilabit) to summon first the Egyptians (flies, numerous and pestilential) and then the Assyrians (bees, organized and stinging). These two great powers will ravage Judah. Lapide: the Egyptian reference is fulfilled under Pharaoh Necho and Shishak; the Assyrian reference under Sennacherib and later the Babylonians.

In that day the Lord shall shave with a razor that is hired... the head, and the hair of the feet, and the whole beard. The Assyrian king as a hired razor shaving Judah bare — complete humiliation, like stripping a prisoner of war. The beard's shaving was the extreme of disgrace for an Oriental.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep. The desolation will be so great that the whole land, once densely cultivated, will revert to a pastoral wilderness: one cow and two sheep per farmer. Yet from this very poverty will come an abundance of dairy (butter and honey) — a paradox: the semi-wilderness produces more than the cultivated land had.

And it shall come to pass in that day that every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand pieces of silver, shall become briars and thorns. The vineyards (laboriously cultivated to yield the most intense economic value per acre) will become briar-patches — a total inversion of Judah's civilization. Military foragers will hunt there with bows and arrows.