Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of Isaiah
Chapter 7: Behold, a Virgin Shall Conceive
King Ahaz is terrified as two enemy kings march on Jerusalem, and God sends Isaiah to steady him with a promise and a warning: 'If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.' God even offers Ahaz a sign, any sign he asks, but Ahaz, feigning piety, refuses. So God gives a sign of His own choosing, one that reaches far beyond Ahaz's day: 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.' It is a chapter about the faith that establishes us, and the greatest sign ever given: the virgin's Son, God with us.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of Isaiah chapter 7. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. The chapter calls Ahaz to believe, records his refusal of a sign, and gives the great prophecy of the virgin's Son, Immanuel. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
Setting the Stage
Believe, or Fall
God warns Ahaz that if he will not believe, he will not be established.
Ask a Sign
God offers Ahaz any sign he wishes, but Ahaz refuses under a cloak of false piety.
A Virgin Shall Conceive
God gives a sign of His own: a virgin will bear a son and call His name Immanuel.
God With Us
The name Immanuel means God with us, fulfilled when God was made flesh in Jesus.
If Ye Will Not Believe (Isaiah 7:1-9)
With two enemy kings threatening Jerusalem, God sends Isaiah to calm King Ahaz and to warn that his security rests entirely on whether he will believe.
If Ye Will Not Believe, Ye Shall Not Be Established
"And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shearjashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field; And say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying, Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal: Thus saith the Lord GOD, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD."
Hebrew Study
"believe" and "be established," from aman (אָמַן). The two verbs share one root, the root behind "Amen." To believe (taaminu) and to be established or made firm (teamenu) are the same word in two forms. The play is exact: if you will not be firm in faith, you will not be made firm at all. Faith and firmness are one.
Explanation
Syria and Ephraim (the northern kingdom) had allied against Judah, and when Ahaz heard of it, "his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind." God sent Isaiah to meet him with a word of calm: these two threatening kings were only "two tails of these smoking firebrands," soon to be burned out, and their plot would not stand. But God's reassurance came with a condition of the heart: "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established." Ahaz's safety did not depend on his armies or alliances but on whether he would trust the LORD.
Gospel Focus
"If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established" is a principle that runs through the whole Bible. Our stability rests not on our circumstances but on our faith in God. The very Hebrew makes the point: to believe and to be made firm are the same word, so that a life without faith is a life without foundation. Ahaz was tempted to secure himself by human alliances rather than trust God, and Scripture says he did just that, to his ruin. The lesson stands: "without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Hebrews 11:6). When threats rise and the heart shakes like trees in the wind, the call is to believe, and in believing to be made firm. Faith is not a leap into uncertainty but the only sure ground there is. Trust the Lord in the day of fear, and you will be established; refuse to trust Him, and no alliance or army can make you stand.
Ask a Sign, and Ahaz Refuses (Isaiah 7:10-13)
God offers Ahaz any sign he wishes to confirm the promise, but Ahaz refuses it under a pretense of piety, wearying the patience of God.
Will Ye Weary My God Also?
"And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?"
Hebrew Study
God graciously offers faithless King Ahaz a sign, "ask it either in the depth, or in the height," but Ahaz refuses under a mask of false piety — "I will not... tempt the LORD" (nasah, to test, to put to the proof -- Ahaz dresses up his unbelief by quoting the very law that forbids testing God, "Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God" (Deuteronomy 6:16), twisting a command against presumption into an excuse for refusing faith). Isaiah sees through it: "Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?" The Hebrew la'ah means to exhaust, to try one's patience. Ahaz's stubborn unbelief, cloaked in religious language, wearies God — and provokes the LORD Himself to give the sign Ahaz would not ask: the coming Immanuel.
Explanation
God, in remarkable grace, invited Ahaz to "ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above." God would confirm His promise with any sign the king could name. But Ahaz refused, cloaking his unbelief in false reverence: "I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD." It sounded pious, but it was disobedience; Ahaz had already set his heart on trusting Assyria instead of God, and he did not want a sign that might call him to faith. Isaiah answered with weary indignation: "Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?" Ahaz's stubborn unbelief tried even the patience of God.
Gospel Focus
There is a kind of false humility that is really unbelief in disguise. Ahaz dressed up his refusal as reverence, "I will not tempt the LORD," but God was not fooled; his real problem was that he had already decided to trust something other than God and did not want his mind changed. It is possible to use spiritual-sounding words to avoid the very faith God is calling us to. And notice that unbelief can "weary" God, trying His patience, spurning His gracious offers. God had gone out of His way to help Ahaz believe, and Ahaz threw the offer back. How often God reaches toward us with reassurance and evidence, and we, with our minds already made up, refuse to trust Him. Do not hide unbelief behind pious words. When God offers to strengthen your faith, take His hand; do not weary the God who is reaching out to help you believe.
The Virgin Shall Conceive: Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14-16)
Since Ahaz would not ask, the Lord gives a sign of His own choosing, one that reaches far beyond that hour: a virgin shall bear a son, and His name shall be Immanuel, God with us.
His Name Shall Be Immanuel
"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings. The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes. In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard. And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep; And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land. And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns. With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns. And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle."
Hebrew Study
"a virgin," almah (עַלְמָה). Sceptics often object that almah means only "a young woman," not a virgin, and that Hebrew has a more precise word, betulah. But the objection will not stand. Wherever almah appears in the Old Testament it names an unmarried young woman of marriageable age, never a married one; in that society such a maiden was assumed to be a virgin. The clearest proof is Rebekah: the narrative first calls her a virgin, "neither had any man known her" (Genesis 24:16), and then calls that same maiden by this very word almah a few verses later (Genesis 24:43) -- the two words describe one and the same virgin. And the sign itself demands it, for a young woman conceiving and bearing a son is no wonder at all; it happens every day. Only a virgin conceiving is the "sign" God promises. Decisively, the Jewish translators of the Septuagint, some two centuries before Christ and with no Christian cause to serve, rendered almah here by the Greek parthenos, which can mean nothing but a virgin -- the very word Matthew takes up when he declares this prophecy fulfilled in the virgin birth of Jesus (Matthew 1:23).
"Immanuel," Immanu-El (עִמָּנוּ אֵל). The name is a sentence: immanu (with us) and El (God), "God with us." It is not merely a promise that God would help, but a name declaring that God Himself would be present among His people, a meaning that would be fulfilled beyond anything Ahaz could imagine.
Explanation
Because Ahaz would not ask, "the Lord himself" gives the sign: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." The sign carried a nearer meaning for Ahaz's day, for before a child could grow old enough to tell right from wrong, the two kings he feared would be gone. But the words reach far past that: a virgin conceiving and bearing a son is a wonder no ordinary birth fulfills, and the name Immanuel, "God with us," points to a presence greater than any deliverance from Syria. Here, in the heart of Isaiah, is the promise of the virgin birth of the Messiah.
Gospel Focus
Matthew tells us plainly where this prophecy found its fullness. When the angel spoke to Joseph of the child conceived in Mary by the Holy Ghost, Matthew writes that it happened "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us" (Matthew 1:22-23). The virgin's Son is Jesus, and His name Immanuel tells us who He is: God with us. This is the heart of the Apostolic faith. In Jesus, God did not send someone else in His place; God Himself came, made flesh, to dwell among us and save us. There is one God, and that one God was manifest in the flesh as the virgin's Son. The sign Ahaz would not ask for became the greatest sign ever given, God Himself with us. And He is Immanuel still, for the risen Lord promised, "lo, I am with you alway." Rejoice in the wonder of it: the child of the virgin is God with us, come to save His people.
Chapter 7 in Review
Isaiah 7 meets King Ahaz in his fear as two kings threaten Jerusalem. God promises the threat will fail, but warns, "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established." He graciously offers Ahaz any sign to strengthen his faith, but Ahaz refuses under a mask of piety, wearying God with his unbelief. So the Lord gives a sign of His own choosing, one that reaches beyond that hour to the ages: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."
For the Apostolic reader, this chapter joins a call to faith with the promise of the incarnation. Our stability rests on believing God, not on our circumstances or alliances. False piety can mask real unbelief and weary the God who reaches out to help us. And the crowning word is the sign of Immanuel, fulfilled in Jesus, the virgin's Son, who is "God with us." There is one God, and in Jesus that one God came in flesh to dwell among us. Believe God and be established, take His hand when He offers to strengthen your faith, and rejoice that the sign He gave is Immanuel, God Himself with us.
- "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established"; faith is our firmness (7:9; Hebrews 11:6).
- Ahaz masked unbelief as piety and wearied God by refusing His offered sign (7:11-13).
- God gave the sign of the virgin's Son, Immanuel (7:14).
- Matthew shows it fulfilled in Jesus, born of the virgin Mary (Matthew 1:22-23).
- Immanuel means "God with us": the one God came in flesh as the virgin's Son.
Questions for Reflection
- Is your stability resting on your circumstances, or on believing God?
- Have you ever hidden unbelief behind pious-sounding words?
- Do you rejoice that the virgin's Son, Jesus, is Immanuel, God with us?
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). The Hebrew terms are standard and can be checked in any Hebrew lexicon. Supporting passages are listed so every claim can be verified in its own setting. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- Faith establishes; unbelief cannot stand: Isaiah 7:1-9; Hebrews 11:6.
- Ahaz refuses the offered sign: Isaiah 7:10-13.
- The virgin's Son, Immanuel, fulfilled in Jesus: Isaiah 7:14-16; Matthew 1:22-23.