(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.

• Ahaz-pure, wicked evil

(2 Chronicles 28:23)
For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel. KING AHAZ

• Burnt incense in the high places (job of priests)
  
• Made idols to Ba'al
• Burnt his children in the fire as a sacrifice
• Pekah the son of Remaliah slew 120 K in a day for forsaking God
• During his reign, Zichri of Ephraim slaughtered
• Sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus,
• Gathered together the vessels of the house of God,
• Cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God,
• Shut up the doors of the house of the LORD,
• Made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem.
• Made high places to burn incense unto other gods,
• Provoked to anger the LORD God of his fathers.

(Isaiah 7:2)
And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.

• Ephraim is used as an idiom for the "House of Israel"
• The northern ten tribes conspire with Syria to take over the Southern Kingdom of Judah (Judah, Simeon)
  .....below

(Isaiah 7:3)
Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shearjashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field;

• Shearjashub means "A remnant shall return"

(Isaiah 7:4)
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 anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.

• "Not to worry"............
• Great way yo describe the enemies

(Isaiah 7:5-6)
Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying, Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal:

• Tabeal- Cryptographically, transposition in the Hebrew alphabet of 22 letters
• "Atbash" Jeremiah 25:26, 51:41, 59:1
• This one is albam........it is R-E-M-A-L-I-A-H
• This example is taught as one in ancient history in government cryptography classes

in encrypted Hebrew, transposition of exchanging letters called Albam or Atbash (Isaiah 7)
A B C D E F G H  I  J  K  L M Substitute for below N O P Q R S T U V W X Y  Z Substitute for above

or

A B C D E F G H  I  J  K  L M Substitute for below Z Y X W V U T S R Q P O N Substitute for above

http://www.khouse.org/articles/1998/145/

(Isaiah 7:7)
Thus saith the Lord GOD, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass.

• This plot is going to fail.........saith the LORD

(Isaiah 7:8)
For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people.

• In sixty five years, Ephraim is done

(Isaiah 7:9)
And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.

• It is repeated that it is not gonna happen.

(Isaiah 7:10-11)
Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.

• This is, "anything you like"...........fire away!

(Isaiah 7:12)
But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD.

• He does not want to know anything from God, and is posturing as though he is humble

(Isaiah 7:13)
And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?

• Ahaz here is not the only one getting an answer to a request he did not make
• This then is not for you, it is for all of Israel

(Isaiah 7:14)
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

• The "you" is Israel
• The MESSIANIC BIRTH FORETOLD
• The Messiah was to be a kinsman-redeemer, not just a man
• The man has the seed (biology)
  , so this was foretold all of the way back to Genesis

(Genesis 3:15)
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

(Matthew 1:23)
Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

(Luke 1:31)
And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.

(Isaiah 7:15)
Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

• Butter and honey was the food of nomads, poor ones at that

(Isaiah 7:16)
For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.

• Back to Ahaz
• This may be about Isaiah's son Shearjashub  (v.3)
  , or the Mesiaah to get to the age of accountability, or any child to get to that age......it is a limit of time

(Isaiah 7:3)
Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shearjashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field;

GILL:
For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good,.... This may be understood of Isaiah's child, Shearjashub, he had along with him, he was bid to take with him; and who therefore must be supposed to bear some part, or answer some end or other, in this prophecy; which it is very probable may be this, viz. to assure Ahaz and the house of David that the land which was abhorred by them should be forsaken of both its kings, before the child that was with him was grown to years of discretion; though it may be understood of any child, and so of the Messiah; and the sense be, that before any child, or new born babe, such an one as is promised, Isa 7:14, arrives to years of discretion, even in the space of a few years, this remarkable deliverance should be wrought, and the Jews freed from all fears of being destroyed by these princes: (Isaiah 7:17-18)
The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.  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.

• Assyria will be raised up to destroy Syria

(Isaiah 7:19)
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.

• This is akin to the term, "Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide"

(Isaiah 7:20)
In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard.

• The hired razor (Assyria)
  , shall make sure that the authority, national identity and the priesthood in Israel is gone

(Isaiah 7:21)
And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep;

• No large herds, just a cow and two sheep

(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 is left in the land.

• Butter and honey again are poor people's food

(Isaiah 7:23)
And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns.

• Destruction and desolation of the land itself, here incapable of supporting much life
• Silverlings (Paronychia argyrocoma) are basically useless mats of weeds

(Isaiah 7:24)
With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns.

• God is in charge of each arrow placement

(Isaiah 7:25)
And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle.

• The land is useless, unfruitful, for the oxen and lesser cattle to simply walk through and browse for very little in this desert
• It is no longer arable land

Matthew 13:3-9
And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;  And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.