Isaiah 7:11

Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
Ask	שְׁאַל she.'al-	H7592	to inquire · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
sign	א֔וֹת 'ot	H226	a signal (literally or figuratively) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
LORD	יְהוָ֣ה Yah.weh	H3068	Jehovah · proper noun, a title
God	אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ 'e.lo.Hei.kha	H430	gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
ask	שָׁאַל shâʼal	H7592	to inquire
depth	הַעְמֵ֣ק ha'.Mek	H6009	to be (causatively · verb, hiphil infinitive absolute
height	הַגְבֵּ֥הַּ hag.Be.ah	H1361	to soar · verb, hiphil infinitive absolute
above	לְמָֽעְלָה le.Ma.'e.lah	H4605	properly · preposition + cardinal number, both genders singular absolute + directional suffix

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

Isaiah 37:30 And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such as groweth of itself; and the second year that which springeth of the same:…
Isaiah 38:7-8 And this shall be a sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken;
2 Kings 19:29 And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of…
Judges 6:36-40 And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said,
2 Kings 20:8-11 And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the LORD the thir…
Isaiah 38:22 Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?
Jeremiah 19:10 Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,
Matthew 12:38-40 Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 7:10-16

Here, I. God, by the prophet, makes a gracious offer to Ahaz, to confirm the foregoing predictions, and his faith in them, by such sign or miracle as he should choose (Isa 7:10, Isa 7:11): Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; See here the divine faithfulness and veracity. God tells us nothing but what he is able and ready to prove. See his wonderful condescension to the children of men, in that he is so willing to show to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, Heb 6:17. He considers our frame, and that, living in a world of sense, we are apt to require sensible proofs, which therefore he has favoured us with in sacramental signs and seals. Ahaz was a bad man, yet God is called…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 7:11

Ask thee--since thou dost not credit the prophet's words. sign--a miraculous token to assure thee that God will fulfil His promise of saving Jerusalem (Isa 37:30; Isa 38:7-8). "Signs," facts then present or near at hand as pledges for the more distant future, are frequent in Isaiah. ask . . . in . . . depth--literally, "Make deep . . . ask it," that is, Go to the depth of the earth or of Hades [Vulgate and LOWTH], or, Mount high for it (literally, "Make high"). So in Mat 16:1. Signs in heaven are contrasted with the signs on earth and below it (raising the dead) which Jesus Christ had wrought (compare Rom 10:6-7). He offers Ahaz the widest limits within which to make his choice.

John Gill on Isaiah 7:11

Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God,.... For though Ahaz was a wicked man, yet the Lord was his God, as he was the God of the people of Israel in general, as a nation; and knowing his unbelief and diffidence of his word unto him, offers to confirm it by a sign or miracle: ask it either in the depth, or in the height above, in earth, or in heaven: so the Targum, "ask that a miracle may be done for thee upon earth, or that a sign may be shown thee in heaven;'' either that the earth might gape and open its mouth, as in the days of Moses; or that the sun might stand still, as in the times of Joshua; or that a dead man might be raised out of the depth of the earth; or that there might be some…

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The Church Fathers

But what Isaiah said, "From the height above, or from the depth beneath," was meant to indicate, that "He who descended was the same also who ascended." But in this that he said, "The Lord Himself shall give you a sign," he declared an unlooked-for thing with regard to His generation, which could have been accomplished in no other way than by God the Lord of all, God Himself giving a sign in the house of David. For what great thing or what sign should have been in this, that a young woman conceiving by a man should bring forth,-a thing which happens to all women that produce offspring? But since an unlooked-for salvation was to be provided for men through the help of God, so also was the unlooked-for birth from a virgin accomplished; God giving this sign, but man not working it out.
— Irenaeus, Against Heresies (Book III, Chapter 21), Section 6

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…
Ephraim, Tribe Of · The leading tribe of the kingdom of Israel — The leading tribe of the kingdom of Israel
Pekah · Prophecies against — Prophecies 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).

Isaiah 7:11

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 7:10-16

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 7:11

John Gill on Isaiah 7:11

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Isaiah 7:11

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 7:10-16

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 7:11

John Gill on Isaiah 7:11

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Isaiah 7:11

Keil & Delitzsch on Isaiah 7:10-12

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Isaiah 7:11

Rashi on Isaiah 7:11