Isaiah 7

Isaiah 7
The Great Isaiah Scroll, the best preserved of the biblical scrolls found at Qumran from the second century BC, contains all the verses in this chapter.
Book Book of Isaiah
Bible part Old Testament
Order in the Bible part 23
Category Nevi'im

Isaiah 7 is the seventh chapter of the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies spoken by the prophet Isaiah, and is a part of the Book of the Prophets.[1][2]

Text

Textual versions

Some most ancient manuscripts containing this chapter in Hebrew language:

  • Masoretic Text (10th century)
  • Dead Sea Scrolls: (2nd century BC) [3]
    • 1QIsaa: complete
    • 1QIsab: extant: verses 14‑16, 20‑25
    • 4QIsaf (4Q60): extant: verses 16‑18, 23‑25
    • 4QIsah (4Q62): extant: verses 14‑15
    • 4QIsal (4Q65): extant: verses 17‑20

Ancient translations in Koine Greek:

Structure

The New King James Version organises this chapter as follows:

Verse 1

Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin, king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but could not prevail against it.[4]

Cross reference: 2 Kings 16:5; Matthew 1:9

The purpose of the war was to bring Judah into an anti-Assyrian coalition.[5]

Verses 3-9

'Then the Lord said to Isaiah,
“Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-Jashub your son,
at the end of the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field,[6]

According to the New Oxford Annotated Bible, the "upper pool" is the "reservoir south of Gihon Spring" (Isaiah 36:2).[7] This was unlikely to be a regular meeting point: the Good News Translation calls the area "the road where the cloth makers work";[8] Ahaz may have gone there to undertake an engineering inspection, to ensure either that the water supplies for Jerusalem were secure, or that they would not be accessible to invading forces.[9]

Isaiah speaks God's word to Ahaz; apparently this is "received in silence, at any rate without acknowledgment".[9]

Verse 14

The last part of Isaiah 7:14 in Hebrew.
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.[10]

Verse 14 in Hebrew

Masoretic text (10th century) and Isaiah scroll (2nd century BC): (read from right to left)

לָכֵן יִתֵּן אֲדֹנָי הוּא לָכֶם אוֹת הִנֵּה הָעַלְמָה הָרָה וְיֹלֶדֶת בֵּן וְקָרָאת שְׁמוֹ עִמָּנוּאֵל‬

Transliteration

"lā·ḵên yitên ’ă·ḏō·nāy hū lā·ḵem o·wt: hinneh hā·‘al·māh hā·rāh wə·yō·le·ḏeṯ bên, wə·qā·rāṯ shem-o imanuel"

Cited in: Matthew 1:23

Verse 18

The "fly of Egypt" and the "bee of Assyria"

The Pulpit Commentary suggests that "the choice of the terms "bee" and "fly" to represent respectively the hosts of Assyria and Egypt, is not without significance. Egyptian armies were swarms, hastily levied, and very imperfectly disciplined. Assyrian were bodies of trained troops accustomed to war, and almost as well disciplined as the Romans."[9]

See also

Notes and references

  1. ↑ J. D. Davis. 1960. A Dictionary of the Bible. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House.
  2. ↑ Theodore Hiebert, et al. 1996. The New Interpreter's Bible: Volume VI. Nashville: Abingdon.
  3. ↑ Timothy A. J. Jull; Douglas J. Donahue; Magen Broshi; Emanuel Tov (1995). "Radiocarbon Dating of Scrolls and Linen Fragments from the Judean Desert". Radiocarbon. 37 (1): 14. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  4. ↑ Isaiah 7:1
  5. ↑ Footnote in Jerusalem Bible at 2 Kings 16:5
  6. ↑ Isaiah 7:3
  7. 1 2 The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, Augmented Third Edition, New Revised Standard Version, Indexed. Michael D. Coogan, Marc Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, Editors. Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2007. pp. 987-989 Hebrew Bible. ISBN 978-0195288810
  8. ↑ Isaiah 7:3: Good News Translation
  9. 1 2 3 Pulpit Commentary on Isaiah 7, accessed 14 March 2018
  10. ↑ Isaiah 7:14

Jewish

Christian

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