Isaiah 7

The story shows up in 2 Kings 16 and 2 Chronicles 28. Ahaz had just become king of Judah in 735 BC. That’s also when Israel, Syria, and the Philistines decided to build a coalition army to fight off the Assyrians, who were conquering nations so they could rob and tax them. Judah refused to join the coalition. So, Israel and Syria (then called Aram) decided to attack Judah and appoint a king willing to join the coalition. Isaiah told King Ahaz of Judah not to worry. But the king worried anyhow. He later went to Assyria’s king Tiglath-Pileser and asked for help. Mistake. Assyrians crushed the coalition, destroyed Damascus in 732 BC, and took a lot of Israel’s land. Judah survived, but only as a servant nation that had to pay taxes to Assyria.

King Ahaz ruled from about 735-715 BC, give or take a few years. Scholars debate it.

King Pekah reigned from about 740-720 BC or perhaps much less—just half a dozen years or so. He’s credited with reigning 20 years (2 Kings 15:27). But many scholars seem to take that as a round number and say he didn’t survive the Assyrian invasion. He became king after murdering the former king, Pekahiah (2 Kings 15:25).

King Rezin ruled Syria (Aram) from 740-733 BC. He led the plot to overthrow King Ahaz of Judah. That was in 735 BC. Two years later, Assyrian invaders captured his capital city of Damascus and then deported and executed him (2 Kings 16:9).

2 Kings 16:5.

Literally, “Ephraim,” a nickname for the northern Jewish nation. Ephraim was the dominate tribe in the northland, just as Judah was in the south. Also, the Syrians were known then as Arameans and their land was Aram.

Isaiah gave his son a hopeful symbolic name. It seems to refer to a small percentage of Jews who would survive the coming invasion and exile. His name means “some will return.”

This was apparently a place by the water where people came to wash their clothes.

Tabeel and his son aren’t mentioned in the story again and are otherwise unknown today.

Samaria was the capital of the northern Jewish nation of Israel, just as Jerusalem was the capital of the southern nation of Judah.

Literally, Sheol, a word Old Testament writers used to describe the place of the dead. It is a kind of underworld where the dead are cut off from the living—and from God—and there is no coming back.

The woman isn’t identified, and she’s described with a Hebrew word that can mean “young woman” or “virgin.” An anonymous New Testament writer quoted this passage and described the woman with a Greek word that means only “virgin” (Matthew 1:23). Scholars offer guesses about who this woman was: a bystander in the group, the wife of Isaiah, or a wife of the king. Some guess the mother may have been the daughter of one of Isaiah’s friends, Zechariah. His daughter was, princess Abijah, mother of King Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:1-2). The New Testament writer who quoted this passage said the prophecy referred to Mary in the birth of Jesus. Many Old Testament scholars say this could have been a secondary meaning. But they insist that the initial message was for King Ahaz, and the woman Isaiah was talking about was there at the time—and was not Mary.

Immanuel means “God is with us.” The el in the name is the Hebrew word for God. The message in the name seems intended to remind the worried King Ahaz that God is protecting his people.

Children were about a year old when they were introduced to honey and milk curds. Curds are similar to cottage cheese, yogurt, or tofu, though all four go through different processes. Curds are made from the kind of lumps that we’ve seen develop when we leave the milk out too long.

In 930 BC, Israel split in two. This happened after King Solomon’s son and successor, Rehoboam, threatened to make life harder on the citizens than his dad had done. Solomon had taxed heavily, and he drafted people to work on government building projects like the Jerusalem Temple and his palace and walls for cities. See 1 Kings 12. The northern tribes, on the spot, succeeded from the southern tribes and took with them the name of Israel. The southern nation became Judah, using the name of the dominate southern tribe.

A thousand shekels. It weighs 11 kilograms.