Isaiah 7:21

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

a man: Isaiah 7:25, Isaiah 5:17, Isaiah 17:2, Isaiah 37:30, Jeremiah 39:10

Reciprocal: Isaiah 14:30 - the poor Hosea 4:16 - as a lamb

Cross-References

Genesis 6:13
Then God said to Noah, "The end of all living creatures has come before Me, because through them the earth is full of violence. Now behold, I will destroy both them and the earth.

Genesis 6:17
And behold, I will bring floodwaters upon the earth, to destroy every creature under the heavens that has the breath of life. Everything on the earth will perish.

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 7:4
For seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living thing I have made."

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

Genesis 7:7
And Noah entered the ark, along with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives, to escape the waters of the flood.

Genesis 7:15
They came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two of every creature with the breath of life.

Genesis 7:17
For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and the waters rose and lifted the ark high above the earth.

Genesis 7:20
The waters rose and covered the mountaintops to a depth of fifteen cubits.

Genesis 7:22
Of all that had been on dry land, everything that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And it shall come to pass in that day,.... Not in the days of Hezekiah, after the destruction of Sennacherib's army, when there followed great fruitfulness and plenty, Isaiah 37:30 as Kimchi and Jarchi interpret it; but in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, after the destruction of Jerusalem, when some poor men were left in the land to till it, Jeremiah 39:10 for of these, and not of rich men, are the following words to be understood:

[that] a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep; this seems to denote both the scarcity of men and cattle, through the ravages of the army of the Chaldeans; that there should not be large herds and flocks, only a single cow, and two or three sheep; and yet men should be so few, and families so thin, that these would be sufficient to support them comfortably.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In that day - In the time specified in the previous verses - in the judgments that should be brought upon the land by the Egyptians and Assyrians.

A man shall nourish - Hebrew ‘Make to live:’ that is, he shall own, or feed.

A young cow - The Hebrew denotes a heifer that gives milk. The state which is denoted by this is that of great poverty. Instead of being engaged in agriculture, of possessing great resources in that time, a man should depend, for the subsistence of himself and his family, on what a single cow and two sheep would yield. Probably this is intended also as a description of the general state of the nation, that it would be reduced to great poverty.

And two sheep - Two here seems to be used to denote a very small number. A man, that is, the generality of people, would be so reduced as to be able to purchase and keep no more.