After beginning with Moab to the south, the prophet Isaiah turned his gaze northwards to the alliance of Israel – called Ephraim in the text, the Northern Kingdom – and Damascus. Isaiah addressed them together, as they were allied in opposition to both Assyria and to Judah.
Tel Hazor
Unlike the other cities of Canaan, including even Megiddo, Hazor was the master. Like Rome would be millennia later, all roads led to and from Hazor, the largest fortified city in the country.
Isaiah 7: Sign of the Virgin
. God would direct the Assyrian armies to bring judgment, one-by-one, to all three kings, and all three lands, for the same ill pervaded them all, the fatal illness of idolatry.
Isaiah 7: Perspective
In the moment, circumstances seemed dire indeed, his people captured, his towns looted, his capital city nearly under siege. But the prophet Isaiah reassured King Ahaz that God was faithful.
Isaiah 7: Fear
All of us deal with some kind of deep-seated fear. It helps to keep that in mind when reading Isaiah 7, for it concerns a king with deep-seated, and legitimate fear.