Isaiah · Catholic Public Domain Version
Isaiah 7 Catholic Public Domain Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (3)
- Esther and Daniel are the Vulgate books (Esther 1–16 with the Greek additions as chapters 10:4–16; Daniel 1–14 with the Song of the Three, Susanna and Bel). Baruch 6 is the Letter of Jeremiah.
- The translator's footnotes, cross-references, chapter summaries and book introductions in the CrossWire module are not shown.
- No imprimatur; single translator.
1 And it happened in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, the king of Judah, that Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, ascended to Jerusalem to battle against it. But they were not able to defeat it.
1 In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it.
2 And they reported to the house of David, saying: “Syria has withdrawn to Ephraim.” And his heart was shaken, with the heart of his people, just as the trees of the forest are moved by the face of the wind.
2 David’s house was told, “Syria is allied with Ephraim.” His heart trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest tremble with the wind.
3 And the Lord said to Isaiah: Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son, Jashub, who was left behind, to the end of the aqueduct, at the upper pool, on the road to the fuller’s field.
3 Then Yahweh said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shearjashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller’s field.
4 And you shall say to him: “See to it that you are silent. Do not be afraid. And have no dread in your heart over the two tails of these firebrands, nearly extinguished, which are the wrath of the fury of Rezin, king of Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.”
4 Tell him, ‘Be careful, and keep calm. Don’t be afraid, neither let your heart be faint because of these two tails of smoking torches, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.
5 For Syria has undertaken a plan against you, with the evil of Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, saying:
5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have plotted evil against you, saying,
6 “Let us ascend to Judah, and stir it up, and tear it away for ourselves, and appoint the son of Tabeel as a king in its midst.”
6 “Let’s go up against Judah, and tear it apart, and let’s divide it among ourselves, and set up a king within it, even the son of Tabeel.”
7 Thus says the Lord God: This shall not stand, and this shall not be.
7 This is what the Lord Yahweh says: “It shall not stand, neither shall it happen.”
8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty-five years from now, Ephraim will cease to be a people.
8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim shall be broken in pieces, so that it shall not be a people.
9 For the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, you will not continue.
9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.’”
10 And the Lord spoke further to Ahaz, saying:
10 Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz, saying,
11 Ask for a sign for yourself from the Lord your God, from the depths below, even to the heights above.
11 “Ask a sign of Yahweh your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.”
12 And Ahaz said, “I will not ask, for I will not tempt the Lord.”
12 But Ahaz said, “I won’t ask. I won’t tempt Yahweh.”
13 And he said: “Then listen, O house of David. Is it such a small thing for you to trouble men, that you must also trouble my God?
13 He said, “Listen now, house of David. Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God also?
14◆ For this reason, the Lord himself will grant to you a sign. Behold, a virgin will conceive, and she will give birth to a son, and his name will be called Immanuel.
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
15 He will eat butter and honey, so that he may know to reject evil and to choose good.
15 He shall eat butter and honey when he knows to refuse the evil and choose the good.
16 But even before the boy knows to refuse evil and to choose good, the land that you detest will be abandoned by the face of her two kings.
16 For before the child knows to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you abhor shall be forsaken.
17 The Lord will lead over you, and over your people, and over the house of your father, such days as have not occurred since the days of the separation of Ephraim from Judah by the king of the Assyrians.
17 Yahweh will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah, even the king of Assyria.
18 And this shall be in that day: the Lord will call for the fly, which is in the most distant parts of the rivers of Egypt, and for the swarm, which is in the land of Assur.
18 It will happen in that day that Yahweh will whistle 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.
19 And they will arrive, and they all will rest in the torrents of the valleys, and in the caverns of the rocks, and in every thicket, and in every opening.
19 They shall come, and shall all rest in the desolate valleys, in the clefts of the rocks, on all thorn hedges, and on all pastures.
20 In that day, the Lord will shave with a razor the ones hired by those who are across the river, by the king of the Assyrians, from the head to the hairs of the feet, with the entire beard.
20 In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired in the parts beyond the River, even with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard.
21 And this shall be in that day: a man will raise a cow among oxen, and two sheep,
21 It shall happen in that day that a man shall keep alive a young cow, and two sheep.
22 and, instead of an abundance of milk, he will eat butter. For all who are left behind in the midst of the land will eat butter and honey.
22 It shall happen, that because of the abundance of milk which they shall give he shall eat butter, for everyone will eat butter and honey that is left within the land.
23 And this shall be in that day: every place, where there were a thousand grapevines worth a thousand pieces of silver, will become thorns and briers.
23 It will happen in that day that every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels, will be for briers and thorns.
24 They will enter such places with arrows and bows. For briers and thorns will be throughout the entire land.
24 People will go there with arrows and with bow, because all the land will be briers and thorns.
25 But as for all the mountains, which will be dug with a hoe, the terror of thorns and briers will not approach those places. And there will be pasture land for oxen, and a range for cattle.”
25 All the hills that were cultivated with the hoe, you shall not come there for fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending out of oxen, and for sheep to tread on.”
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Ahaz
A faithless king who courted Assyria and even sacrificed his own son.
Cited in the guide: 2 Kings 16; 2 Chron. 28; Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:9
Tabeal
Named only as the father of a man Aram and Ephraim planned to install as king over Judah.
Cited in the guide: Isaiah 7:6
Cross references (24)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 2 Kings 15:37; 2 Kings 16:1; Isaiah 7:4–9; Isaiah 8:6; Psalm 83:3–5
- 2 Isaiah 8:12; Isaiah 7:13; Isaiah 9:9; Proverbs 28:1; 2 Kings 7:6–7
- 3 2 Kings 18:17; Isaiah 36:2; Romans 9:27; Isaiah 6:13; Isaiah 10:21
- 4 Isaiah 35:4; Lamentations 3:26; Deuteronomy 20:3; Matthew 24:6; Isaiah 30:15
- 5 Psalm 83:3–4; Zechariah 1:15; Psalm 2:2; Nahum 1:11
- 7 Isaiah 8:10; Lamentations 3:37; Isaiah 46:10–11; Psalm 33:11; Proverbs 21:30
- 8 Isaiah 17:1–3; Genesis 14:15; 2 Samuel 8:6; Hosea 1:6–10; 2 Kings 17:5–23
- 9 Hebrews 11:6; Romans 11:20; 2 Chronicles 20:20; 1 John 5:10; Acts 27:25
- 10 Isaiah 8:5; Isaiah 1:5; Isaiah 10:20; Hosea 13:2; Isaiah 1:13
- 11 Isaiah 37:30; Isaiah 38:7–8; 2 Kings 19:29; Judges 6:36–40; Isaiah 38:22
- 12 2 Kings 16:15; Acts 5:9; Ezekiel 33:31; Malachi 3:15; Deuteronomy 6:16
- 13 Isaiah 43:24; Malachi 2:17; Hebrews 3:10; Jeremiah 6:11; Isaiah 63:10
- 14 Matthew 1:23; Isaiah 9:6; Luke 1:31; John 1:1–2; John 1:14
- 15 Isaiah 7:22; Amos 5:15; Philippians 1:9–10; Matthew 3:4; Romans 12:9
- 16 Isaiah 8:4; Deuteronomy 1:39; 2 Kings 16:9; Hosea 5:9; Amos 1:3–5
- 17 Isaiah 8:7–8; Isaiah 10:5–6; Isaiah 36:1–22; 2 Chronicles 33:11; 2 Chronicles 32:1–33
- 18 Isaiah 5:26; Deuteronomy 1:44; Isaiah 31:1; Deuteronomy 7:20; Joshua 24:12
- 19 Isaiah 2:19; Jeremiah 16:16; Isaiah 2:21; Micah 7:17; 2 Chronicles 33:11
- 20 Isaiah 8:7; Ezekiel 29:18; Ezekiel 5:1–4; Isaiah 10:15; Jeremiah 27:6–7
- 21 Isaiah 5:17; Jeremiah 39:10; Isaiah 17:2; Isaiah 37:30; Isaiah 7:25
- 22 Isaiah 7:15; Matthew 3:4; 2 Samuel 17:29
- 23 Isaiah 5:6; Song of Songs 8:11–12; Matthew 21:33; Hebrews 6:8; Jeremiah 4:26
- 24 Genesis 27:3
- 25 Isaiah 13:20–22; Isaiah 17:2; Isaiah 5:17; Isaiah 7:21–22; Zephaniah 2:6
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
Why does my Bible say something different?
- Isaiah 7:14: “a virgin” or “the young woman”?
The Hebrew text of Isaiah 7:14 says ha-almah, “the young woman.” The Greek Septuagint, translated by Jews before the time of Christ, says hē parthenos, “the virgin,” and St Matthew quotes that Greek wording (Matthew 1:23). The Orthodox Church reads the Septuagint here, as the Apostles did. The faith in the virgin birth does not rest on one Hebrew word, but the word still deserves an honest look.
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
And hear again how Isaiah in express words foretold that He should be born of a virgin; for he spoke thus: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bring forth a son, and they shall say for His name, God with us.' " For things which were incredible and seemed impossible with men, these God predicted by the Spirit of prophecy …
5. And when He says, "Hear, O house of David," He performed the part of one indicating that He whom God promised David that He would raise up from the fruit of his belly (ventris) an eternal King, is the same who was born of the Virgin, herself of the lineage of David.
For so had the prophet foretold: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which, being interpreted, is, God with us." He did many miracles that He might commend God in Himself, some of which, even as many as seemed sufficient to proclaim Him, are contained in the …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
For he doth not merely say, "Behold, the Virgin shall be with child," but having first said, "Behold, the Lord Himself shall give you a sign," then he subjoins, "Behold, the Virgin shall be with child." Whereas, if she that was to give birth was not a virgin, but this happened in the way of marriage, what sort of sign …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
the virgin shall conceive in her womb, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)