Isaiah 7:16

For. Heb. ki. This connective requires that the “child” of v. 16 be identified with the “son” of vs. 14, 15, and not the “son” Shear-jashub, of v. 3, as some have suggested. The word ki renders v. 16 inseparable from that which immediately precedes it. Furthermore, the definite article “the” preceding the word “child” of v. 16 requires that the last preceding child, in this case Immanuel, be here understood.

Before the child. See on v. 15.

Forsaken of both her kings. Isaiah had admonished Ahaz not to be afraid of Rezin and Pekah, the “two tails of these smoking firebrands” (v. 4). Now he declares that the child soon to be born would be not more than about two years old when these kings lost their thrones. If Ahaz came to the throne in 736/735, it may have been either late in 735 or early in 734 that this interview with Isaiah took place. In the year 735 Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria was engaged in a campaign against Urartu in the regions of Annenia, in 734 he fought against Philistia, and in 733 and 732 against Damascus (see Vol. II, pp. 61, 62). Assyria was putting forth a relentless effort to secure control of all northwestern Asia. In their anti-Assyrian campaign Pekah and Rezin were arrayed against Ahaz, who had allied himself with Tiglath-pileser (2 Kings 16:5-7). Judah need not fear if her leaders would only trust the promise implicit in the name Immanuel, “God [is] with us.” By the time the sign child Immanuel should be two years or so of age, the reigns of Pekah and Rezin would be at an end. That would be in 732, the second of the two years in which Tiglath-pileser waged war against Damascus. Compare Isa. 8:3, 4, where the time of the fulfillment of this prophecy is again foretold. See 2 Kings 15:30; 16:9.