THE DANGER TO JUDAH FROM ASSYRIA. The perversity of Ahaz, already rebuked in Isaiah 7:13, is further punished by a threat, that upon him, and upon his people, and upon his father's house, shall come shortly a dire calamity.
The very power whose aid he is himself bent on invoking shall be the scourge to chastise both king and people (Isaiah 7:17-20). The land shall be made bare as by a razor (Isaiah 7:20). Cultivation shall cease; its scant inhabitants will support themselves by keeping a few cows and sheep (Isaiah 7:21), and will nourish themselves on dairy produce, and the honey that the wild bees produce (Isaiah 7:22).
Briers and thorns will come up everywhere; wild beasts will increase; cattle will browse on the hills that were once carefully cultivated to their summits (Isaiah 7:23-25).