curdled milk or cheese · noun, common feminine singular absolute
honey
וּדְבַ֖שׁu.de.Vash
H1706
honey (from its stickiness) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
eat
יֹאכֵ֑לyo.Khel
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
know
לְדַעְתּ֛וֹle.da'.To
H3045
to know (properly · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
refuse
מָא֥וֹסma.'os
H3988
to spurn · verb, qal infinitive absolute
evil
בָּרָ֖עba.Ra'
H7451
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · preposition with the article + adjective, masculine singular absolute
choose
וּבָח֥וֹרu.va.Chor
H977
properly · conjunction + verb, qal infinitive absolute
good
בַּטּֽוֹבba.Tov
H2896
good (as an adjective) in the widest sense · preposition with the article + adjective, masculine singular absolute
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 7:22 And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that…
Amos 5:15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant…
Matthew 3:4 And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
Philippians 1:9-10 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;
Psalms 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Luke 1:35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore…
Romans 12:9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
Luke 2:40 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.
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…
Butter--rather, curdled milk, the acid of which is grateful in the heat of the East (Job 20:17).
honey--abundant in Palestine (Jdg 14:8; Sa1 14:25; Mat 3:4). Physicians directed that the first food given to a child should be honey, the next milk [BARNABAS, Epistle]. HORSLEY takes this as implying the real humanity of the Immanuel Jesus Christ, about to be fed as other infants (Luk 2:52). Isa 7:22 shows that besides the fitness of milk and honey for children, a state of distress of the inhabitants is also implied, when, by reason of the invaders, milk and honey, things produced spontaneously, shall be the only abundant articles of food [MAURER].
that he may know--rather, until He shall kn…
Butter and honey shall he eat..... As the Messiah Jesus no doubt did; since he was born in a land flowing with milk and honey, and in a time of plenty, being a time of general peace; so that this phrase points at the place where, and the time when, the Messiah should be born, as well as expresses the truth of his human nature, and the manner of his bringing up, which was in common with that of other children. signifies the "cream of milk", as well as "butter", as Jarchi, in Genesis 18:8, observes; and milk and honey were common food for infants:
that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good; meaning not knowledge of good and bad food, so as to choose the one, and refuse the other…
The Church Fathers
Now, since the Lord was not a mere man but was also God and knew all things, he stood in no need of reflection, inquiry, counsel or judgment. He also had a natural affinity for good and antipathy for evil. Thus it is in this sense that the prophet Isaiah, too, says, "Before the child shall know to refuse the evil, he will choose the good. For before the child knows to refuse the evil and to choose the good, he will reject the evil by choosing the good." The "before" shows that he made no inquiry or investigation in a human manner but that since he was God and divinely subsisted in the flesh—that is to say, was personally united to the flesh—by the fact of his very being and his knowing all things he naturally possessed the good.
(Verse 15) He shall eat butter and honey, so that he may know how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before he knows to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings. The Lord will bring the king of Assyria upon you and your people and your father's house—days that have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall hiss 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. And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes. I will say something even more amazing, so that you do not think that he is born in a fantasy, he will use foods of infancy, he will eat butter and milk. And although many centuries later the Evangelist testifies about him: But the child grew in wisdom and age and grace before God and men (Luke 2:52): and this is said to confirm the truth of the human body: yet still wrapped in swaddling clothes, and fed with butter and honey, he will have the ability to judge between good and evil, so that he may reject evil and choose good. Not because he did or disapproved or chose this, but because he knew how to disapprove and choose, so that through these words we may know that the infancy of the human body did not hinder divine wisdom. Lastly, the Angels announce to the shepherds the laying in the manger: The Magi adore coming from the East, whom it is to be believed were certainly chosen. And on the other hand, Herod, the scribes, and the Pharisees are disapproved, (Matthew 2), because they killed many thousands of infants for the sake of one child.
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…
Honey — (1.) Heb. ya’ar, occurs only 1 Sam. 14:25, 27, 29; Cant. 5:1, where it denotes the honey of bees. Properly the word signifies a forest or copse, and refers to honey found in woods. (2.) Nopheth,…
Milk — (1.) Hebrew halabh, “new milk”, milk in its fresh state (Judg. 4:19). It is frequently mentioned in connection with honey (Ex. 3:8; 13:5; Josh. 5:6; Isa. 7:15, 22; Jer. 11:5). Sheep (Deut. 32:14) 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…
Diet Of The Jews, The · Articles used for: Honey — Articles used for: Honey
Ephraim, Tribe Of · The leading tribe of the kingdom of Israel — The leading tribe of the kingdom of Israel
Food · .Honey — .Honey
Honey · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
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).
Butter and honey shall he eat. Here the Prophet proves the true human nature of Christ; for it was altogether incredible that he who was God should be born of a virgin. Such a prodigy was revolting to the ordinary judgment of men. To hinder us from thinking that his fancy now presents to us some apparition, he describes the marks of human nature, in order to show, by means of them, that Christ will actually appear in flesh, or in the nature of man; that is, that he will be reared in the same manner that children commonly are. The Jews had a different way of rearing children from what is followed by us; for they used honey, which is not so customary among us; and to this day they still retain…
"Therefore the Lord, He will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin conceives, and bears a son, and calls his name Immanuel. Butter and honey will he eat, at the time that he knows to refuse the evil and choose the good." In its form the prophecy reminds one of Gen 16:11, "Behold, thou art with child, and wilt bear a son, and call his name Ishmael." Here, however, the words are not addressed to the person about to bear the child, although Matthew gives this interpretation to the prophecy;
(Note: Jerome discusses this diversity in a very impartial and intelligent manner, in his ep. ad Pammachium de optimo genere interpretandi.)
for קראת is not the second person, but the third, and is synonymous…
By the time this child is old enough: The crisis involving the alliance of Syria and Israel against Judah was in 734 BC; by 732 BC Damascus, capital of Syria, was destroyed, and the northern kingdom, Israel, was defeated. • choose what is right and reject what is wrong: This was to happen by the age of 12, when a child was held responsible as an adult. In 722 BC, Israel went into exile. • he will be eating yogurt and honey: The land would be so depopulated that these delicacies would be available to all.
Rashi on Isaiah 7:15
Cream and honey he shall eat [i.e.,] the child [shall eat,] for our land shall be replete with all good.
when he knows to reject bad and choose good Heb. לְדַעְתּוֹ [lit. to his knowledge], when he knows to reject bad and choose good. Now whence will we have this plenty? Is not our land desolate now from the troops of the kings of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah?
I will say something even more amazing, so that you do not think that he is born in a fantasy, he will use foods of infancy, he will eat butter and milk. And although many centuries later the Evangelist testifies about him: But the child grew in wisdom and age and grace before God and men (Luke 2:52): and this is said to confirm the truth of the human body: yet still wrapped in swaddling clothes, and fed with butter and honey, he will have the ability to judge between good and evil, so that he may reject evil and choose good. Not because he did or disapproved or chose this, but because he knew how to disapprove and choose, so that through these words we may know that the infancy of the human body did not hinder divine wisdom. Lastly, the Angels announce to the shepherds the laying in the manger: The Magi adore coming from the East, whom it is to be believed were certainly chosen. And on the other hand, Herod, the scribes, and the Pharisees are disapproved, (Matthew 2), because they killed many thousands of infants for the sake of one child. (Verse 16) For before the boy knows how to reject evil and choose good, the land that you detest will be abandoned by the face of its two kings. In the sixth year of the reign of Hezekiah, Samaria was captured by the Assyrians (2 Kings 18), that is, in his thirty-first year of age. Therefore, this one who is to be born, either from a Virgin, as we believe, or from a young woman, as the Jews claim, will eat butter and honey, and will be so young that he cannot discern between evil and good, and before he leaves infancy, the land of Syria and Samaria will be laid waste by the Assyrians. Let the Hebrews answer how Hezekiah is proclaimed an infant at the age of thirty-one, and of such a young age that he, eating honey and butter, like the children of Nineveh, does not know left from right, that is, does not know evil from good. But in regard to Emmanuel, which means 'God is with us,' he will have an easy understanding. As for the mystery and invocation of his name, let the land of Syria and Samaria be laid waste, even by the Assyrians who prevail, and let the house of David be freed from the two kings whom he fears, namely, Rezin and Pekah.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
