Isaiah 7:19

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹⁷The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since the day Ephraim separated from Judah-He will bring the king of Assyria." ¹⁸On that day the LORD will whistle to the flies at the farthest streams of the Nile and to the bees in the land of Assyria. ¹⁹And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines and clefts of the rocks, in all the thornbushes and watering holes.²⁰On that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates-the king of Assyria-to shave your head and the hair of your legs, and to remove your beard as well. ²¹On that day a man will raise a young cow and two sheep, ²²and from the abundant milk they give, he will eat curds; for all who remain in the land will eat curds and honey. ²³And on that day, in every place where there used to be a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver, there will be only thorns and briers. ²⁴Men will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be covered with thorns and briers. ²⁵For fear of the thorns and briers, you will no longer traverse the hills once tilled by the hoe; they will become places for oxen to graze and sheep to trample.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

in the holes: Isaiah 2:19, Isaiah 2:21, 2 Chronicles 33:11, Jeremiah 16:16, Micah 7:17

bushes: or, commendable trees

Cross-References

Genesis 7:2
You are to take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and a pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate,

Genesis 7:3
and also seven of every kind of bird of the air, male and female, in order to preserve their offspring on the face of all the earth.

Genesis 7:6
Now Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came upon the earth.

Genesis 7:9
came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two, male and female, as God had commanded him.

Job 12:15
If He holds back the waters, they dry up, and if He releases them, they overwhelm the land.

Jeremiah 3:23
Surely deception comes from the hills, commotion from the mountains, but surely the salvation of Israel is in the LORD our God.

2 Peter 3:6
through which the world of that time perished in the flood.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And they shall come,.... The Egyptian and Assyrian armies, when the Lord calls for them in his providence, and his time is come to make use of them as a scourge to his people:

and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys: made so by war; this is said in allusion to flies and bees resting on trees and flowers; and signifies that these armies, after long and tedious marches, should all of them, without being diminished by the way, enter the land of Judea, fill all places, and take up their abode there for a while:

and in the holes of the rocks. Kimchi thinks that the former phrase designs cities in valleys, and this fortified cities which are upon rocks:

and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes; in allusion to flies and bees. Kimchi interprets this of unwalled towns and villages. The Targum of the whole verse is,

"and they shall all of them come and dwell in the streets of the cities, and in the clifts of the rocks, and in all deserts full of sedges, and in all houses of praise.''

The sense is, that they should be in all cities, towns, and villages, whether fortified or not, and in all houses of high and low, rich and poor, in cottages and in palaces; there would be no place free from them, nor no escaping out of their hands.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And they shall come - The idea in this verse is, that they would spread over the land, and lay it waste. The poetic image of flies and bees is kept up; meaning, that the armies would be so numerous as to occupy and infest all the land.

And shall rest - As bees do. Thus the “locusts” are said to have “rested” in all the land of Egypt; Exodus 10:14.

In the desolate valleys - The word translated “valleys” usually means “a valley with a brook,” or a brook itself. The Chaldee translates it, ‘In the streets of cities.’ But the idea is derived from the habits of flies and bees. The meaning is, that they should fill all the land, as innumerable swarms of flies and bees - would settle down everywhere, and would infest or consume everything. Bees, probably, chose situations near to running streams. Virgil, in his directions about selecting a place for an apiary, gives the following among others:

At liquidi fontes, et stagna virentia musco

Adsint, et tennis fugiens per gramina rivus.

Georg. iv. 18, 19.

But there let pools invite with moss arrayed,

Clear fount and rill that purls along the glade.

Sotheby.

In the holes of the rocks - Probably the same image is referred to here. It is well known that in Judea, as well as elsewhere, bees were accustomed to live in the holes or caverns of the rocks. They were very numerous; and the figure here is, that the Assyrians would be numerous as the swarms of bees were in that land, even in the high and inaccessible rocks; compare Isaiah 2:19-21.

Upon all thorns - The image here is kept up of flies and bees resting on everything. “Thorns” here refer to those trees and shrubs that were of little value; but even on these they would rest.

All bushes - Hebrew ‘All trees that are commendable, or that are to be praised;’ see the margin. The word denotes those shrubs and trees that were objects of “praise;” that is, that were cultivated with great attention and care, in opposition to “thorns” that grew wild, and without cultivation, and that were of little value. The meaning of the passage is, that the land would be invaded in every part, and that everything, valuable or not, would be laid waste.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 7:19. Holes of the rocks - "Caverns"] So the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, whence Houbigant supposes the true reading to be הנחללים hannachalolim. One of my oldest MSS. reads הנחלולים hannochalolim.