Isaiah 7:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 7:1
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.
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
Ahaz
אָ֠חָז'A.choz
H271
Achaz · proper noun, a man's name
son
בֶּןben-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Jotham
יוֹתָ֨םyo.Tam
H3147
Jotham · proper noun, a man's name
son
בֶּןben-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Uzziah
עֻזִּיָּ֜הוּ'u.zi.Ya.hu
H5818
Uzzijah · proper noun, a man's name
king
מֶ֣לֶךְMe.lekh
H4428
a king · noun, common masculine singular construct
Judah
יְהוּדָ֗הye.hu.Dah
H3063
Jehudah (or Judah) · proper noun, a place name
Rezin
רְצִ֣יןre.Tzin
H7526
Retsin · proper noun, a man's name
king
מֶֽלֶךְMe.lekh-
H4428
a king · noun, common masculine singular construct
Syria
אֲ֠רָם'A.rom
H758
Aram or Syria · proper noun, a place name
Pekah
וּפֶ֨קַחu.Fe.kach
H6492
Pekach · conjunction + proper noun, a man's name
son
בֶּןben-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Remaliah
רְמַלְיָ֤הוּre.mal.Ya.hu
H7425
Remaljah · proper noun, a man's name
king
מֶֽלֶךְMe.lekh-
H4428
a king · noun, common masculine singular construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵל֙Yis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
up
עָלָ֣ה'a.Lah
H5927
to ascend · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Jerusalem
יְר֣וּשָׁלִַ֔םye.Ru.sha.Lim
H3389
Jerushalaim or Jerushalem · proper noun, a place name
war
לַמִּלְחָמָ֖הla.mil.cha.Mah
H4421
a battle (i.e. the engagement) · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
could
יָכֹ֖לya.Khol
H3201
to be able · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
prevail
לְהִלָּחֵ֥םle.hi.la.Chem
H3898
to feed on · preposition + verb, niphal infinitive construct
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
2 Kings 15:37 In those days the LORD began to send against Judah Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah.
2 Kings 16:1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.
Psalms 83:3-5 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.
Isaiah 1:1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings o…
Isaiah 7:4-9 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 a…
Isaiah 8:6 Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son;
Isaiah 8:9-10 Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be…
2 Kings 15:25 But Pekah the son of Remaliah, a captain of his, conspired against him, and smote him in Samaria, in the palace of the king’s house, with Ar…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 7:1-9
The prophet Isaiah had his commission renewed in the year that king Uzziah died, Isa 6:1. Jotham his son reigned, and reigned well, sixteen years. All that time, no doubt, Isaiah prophesied as he was commanded, and yet we have not in this book any of his prophecies dated in the reign of Jotham; but this, which is put first, was in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham. Many excellent useful sermons he preached which were not published and left upon record; for, if all that was memorable had been written, the world could not have contained the books, Joh 21:25. Perhaps in the reign of Ahaz, a wicked king, he had not opportunity to preach so much at court as in Jotham's time, and therefore then h…
And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah king of Judah,.... Here begins a new prophecy under the reign of another king; who, though a wicked king, had religious ancestors; and who are mentioned, not, as the Jewish writers (u) generally say, because it was owing to their worthiness that the enemies of Ahaz could not prevail against him; but because it was under these kings the prophet had prophesied: what is contained in the first five chapters were delivered in the times of Uzziah; and the vision in the sixth was in the times of Jotham, in the beginning of his reign; and what is said here, and in some following chapters, was in the time of Ahaz; so that th…
And it came to pass. Here is related a remarkable prophecy about the wonderful deliverance of Jerusalem, when it appeared to have been utterly ruined. Now the Prophet explains all the circumstances, that by means of them the miracle may be more fully displayed, and to make it manifest, that not by the wisdom or power of man, but by the favor of God, the city has been preserved. For so ungrateful were the people, that, at the close of this transaction, they would not have understood that they had been delivered by the hand of the Lord, if all the circumstances had not been expressly brought to their remembrance. And, indeed, there were very few persons who, in the hour of danger, ventured to…
The Church Fathers
(Chapter VII, Verses 1, 2) And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah: Rezin King of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but they could not conquer it. And they reported to the house of David, saying: Syria has joined forces with Ephraim, and his heart is troubled, as the trees of the forest are moved by the wind. Uzziah, also known as Azariah, reigned as king of Judah in Jerusalem for fifty-two years (2 Kings 15). At the end of his time, Isaiah saw what he had already prophesied. When he died, and Jotham his son reigned in his place, a just king, the prophet immediately saw the Lord Savior reigning in his majesty, and announcing the blindness of the Jewish people, and the destruction of Jerusalem, and the other cities under Vespasian and Adrian. He also saw how the remnants would be saved through the Apostles. The third king, son of Jotham, succeeded him - Ahaz, the most impious king - who closed the doors of the temple, worshipped Baalim in the valley of Benbannom, and consecrated his son to idols. So he took away the bronze altar that Solomon had made and put it in the temple of the gods of Damascus, which he had taken from Damascus. Thus he was abandoned by the Lord, and Rasin, king of Syria, that is, Aram, and Phacee, son of Romelias, king of Israel in Samaria, rose up against him and came to Jerusalem to attack it (Same source). We read in the Book of Chronicles that after defeating Achaz, Rasin, king of Damascus, brought many people from Judah to Damascus, and Phacee, son of Romelias, king of the ten tribes called Israel, struck down in one day one hundred twenty thousand warriors from Judah and took captive two hundred thousand women, children, and girls along with a great amount of plunder to Samaria. About this battle, the prophet is now silent, but according to the account, a battle took place when they, having the test of their strength and victory, and invited by the magnitude of the spoils, came again to Judea, and desired to wage war against Jerusalem, but they could not, because the Lord helped him, so that under the occasion of mercy, by which he freed the besieged people, he announced that his son would be born of a Virgin. When the house of David, that is, the royal house, heard this, Syria and Ephraim, namely Rasin and Phacee, came together…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Ahaz — Possessor. (1.) A grandson of Jonathan (1 Chr. 8:35; 9:42). (2.) The son and successor of Jotham, king of Judah (2 Kings 16; Isa. 7-9; 2 Chr. 28). He gave himself up to a life of wickedness and…
Pekah — Open-eyed, the son of Remaliah a captain in the army of Pekahiah, king of Israel, whom he slew, with the aid of a band of Gileadites, and succeeded (B.C. 758) on the throne (2 Kings 15:25). Seventeen…
Remaliah — Adorned by the Lord, the father of Pekah, who conspired successfully against Pekahiah (2 Kings 15:25, 27, 30, 32, 37; Isa. 7:1, 4, 5, 9; 8:6).
Rezin — Firm; a prince, a king of Syria, who joined Pekah (q.v.) in an invasion of the kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 15:37; 16:5-9; Isa. 7:1-8). Ahaz induced Tiglath-pileser III. to attack Damascus, and this…
Isaiah · kings of — kings of
Jerusalem · Calamities of, mentioned: Besieged but not taken by Rezin and Pekah — Calamities of, mentioned: Besieged but not taken by Rezin and Pekah
Pekah · Prophecies against — Prophecies against
Remaliah · Father of Pekah, king of Israel — Father of Pekah, king of Israel
Rezin · .Prophecy against — .Prophecy against
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The historical context of these prophecies involved Assyria’s rise to power and the alliance between Syria and Israel as enemies of Judah (7:1-2; see 2 Kgs 16:5). Assyria became God’s rod to punish Syria, Israel, and Judah (Isa 7–10).
7:1-25 At one point in his reign, Ahaz found himself in a crisis. The leaders of Syria and Israel attacked Judah. They planned to replace Ahaz and force Judah to join them in their resistance against Assyria. Ahaz responded by calling Assyria in to help him (2 Kgs 16:7-10), thus refusing Isaiah’s challenge to trust the Lord instead (Isa 7:12). Although the Assyrians squelched the alliance of Syria and Israel, leading to the eventual downfall of both those nati…
And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz What did Scripture see to trace his lineage? But, since the end of the verse states: “And he could not wage war against it,” it teaches you that the merit of his forebears stood him in good stead. The ministering angels said before the Holy One, blessed be He, Woe! Who is this wicked man who has become king? He replied to them, He is the son of Jotham; he is the son of Uzziah. His forebears were righteous. I, therefore, do not wish to harm him. This is the meaning of the words, “and he could not wage war against it,” because of the merit of his forefathers. [This is found in Gen. Rabbah 63:1.]
