Isaiah · 25 verses
Isaiah 7
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
Assyria appears here not first as an army but as a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates, commissioned to shave heads, legs, and beards—a remarkably personal sort of imperial inconvenience.
The two smoking stubsvv. 1–17
Ahaz is king of Judah when Rezin and Pekah march against Jerusalem, though the city holds. News that Aram and Ephraim are in league makes Ahaz and his people tremble like trees in a windy forest. Isaiah is sent with Shear-jashub to meet the king by the aqueduct and the Launderer's Field, carrying the odd comfort that the enemy is only “two smoldering stubs of firewood.”
The plot is plain enough: Judah is to be invaded, divided, and handed to Tabeal. The answer is equally plain, though not especially gentle: Damascus has Rezin for its head, Samaria has the son of Remaliah, and Ephraim is to be shattered. Ahaz is invited to ask for a sign from the depths of Sheol or the heights of heaven. He declines. The sign is given anyway: a virgin will bear a son called Immanuel, and before the boy can distinguish evil from good, the land of the two feared kings will be laid waste. Then Assyria enters the sentence, less like a rescue than like the next and much larger trouble.
The flies, the bees, and the razorvv. 18–25
The later picture is wonderfully crowded. The LORD whistles, and flies from the farthest streams of the Nile and bees from Assyria settle in ravines, rock clefts, thornbushes, and watering holes. Then the king of Assyria is turned into a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates, removing the hair from head, legs, and beard with the briskness of a household chore.
What remains is a land of curds and honey, briers and thorns. A man keeps one young cow and two sheep; abandoned vineyards become country for bowmen, oxen, and sheep. The hills once worked with a hoe are no longer crossed, not because the hoe has triumphed, but because the thorns have.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Isa 7:1Now in the days that Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, Rezin king of Aram marched up to wage war against Jerusalem. He was accompanied by Pekah son of Remaliah the king of Israel, but he could not overpower the city.
Isa 7:2When it was reported to the house of David that Aram was in league with Ephraim, the hearts of Ahaz and his people trembled like trees in the forest shaken by the wind.
Isa 7:3Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear-jashub to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct that feeds the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field,
Isa 7:4and say to him: Calm down and be quiet. Do not be afraid or disheartened over these two smoldering stubs of firewood—over the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah.
Isa 7:5For Aram, along with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has plotted your ruin, saying:
Isa 7:6‘Let us invade Judah, terrorize it, and divide it among ourselves. Then we can install the son of Tabeal over it as king.’
Isa 7:7But this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘It will not arise; it will not happen.
Isa 7:8For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered as a people.
Isa 7:9The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you do not stand firm in your faith, then you will not stand at all.’”
Isa 7:11“Ask for a sign from the LORD your God, whether from the depths of Sheol or the heights of heaven.”
Isa 7:12But Ahaz replied, “I will not ask; I will not test the LORD.”
Isa 7:13Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God as well?
Isa 7:14Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel.
Isa 7:15By the time He knows enough to reject evil and choose good, He will be eating curds and honey.
Isa 7:16For before the boy knows enough to reject evil and choose good, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.
Isa 7:17The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since the day Ephraim separated from Judah—He will bring the king of Assyria.”
Isa 7:18On that day the LORD will whistle to the flies at the farthest streams of the Nile and to the bees in the land of Assyria.
Isa 7:19And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines and clefts of the rocks, in all the thornbushes and watering holes.
Isa 7:20On that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates—the king of Assyria—to shave your head and the hair of your legs, and to remove your beard as well.
Isa 7:21On that day a man will raise a young cow and two sheep,
Isa 7:22and from the abundance of milk they give, he will eat curds; for all who remain in the land will eat curds and honey.
Isa 7:23And on that day, in every place that had a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver, only briers and thorns will be found.
Isa 7:24Men will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be covered with briers and thorns.
Isa 7:25For fear of the briers and thorns, you will no longer traverse the hills once tilled by the hoe; they will become places for oxen to graze and sheep to trample.
01 — Also here
Who else the chapter reaches
Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.
Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.
Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 238 passages were voted onto 24 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 14Matthew 1:23“Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel” (which means, “God with us”).
- 14Isaiah 9:6For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
- 14Luke 1:31Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus.
- 14John 1:1–2In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
- 14John 1:14The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
- 14Luke 1:35The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.
- 7Isaiah 8:10Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted; state a proposal, but it will not happen. For God is with us.”
- 141 Timothy 3:16By common confession, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was proclaimed among the nations, was believed in throughout the world, was taken up in glory.
- 9Hebrews 11:6And without faith it is impossible to please God. For anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
- 14Isaiah 8:8It will pour into Judah, swirling and sweeping over it, reaching up to the neck; its spreading streams will cover your entire land, O Immanuel!
- 7Lamentations 3:37Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has ordained it?
- 9Romans 11:20That is correct: They were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid.
- 92 Chronicles 20:20Early in the morning they got up and left for the Wilderness of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood up and said, “Hear me, O people of Judah and Jerusalem. Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be upheld; believe in His prophets, and you will succeed.”
- 14Genesis 3:15And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
- 4Isaiah 35:4Say to those with anxious hearts: “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance. With divine retribution He will come to save you.”
- 7Isaiah 46:10–11I declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish.’
Onward