7:1 The 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 Syria. 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.
7:3 Shear-jashub means “a remnant will return.” God told Isaiah to give his son this name as a reminder of his plan for mercy. 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 “conduit of the upper pool” 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 fuller’s field 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 Syria (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, they brought further trouble instead of help. In 722 B.C., Samaria, the capital of “Ephraim” (another name for 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 ask, neither will I tempt the LORD”). 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 Immanuel. 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, Emmanuel, 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 Lord (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 land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8), but a land with only briers and thorns.