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.

For before the child shall know to refuse the evil (Hebrew, in respect to the evil), and choose the good

(Hebrew, in respect to the good). The alarm as to the foe, and the distress as to food (Isaiah 7:14) shall last only until the child grows to know good and evil: for, etc.

The land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings - rather desolate shall be the land, before the face of whose two kings thou art alarmed (DeDieu and Gesenius).

The land - namely, Syria and Samaria regarded as one, just two years after this prophecy, lost both the kings, as it foretells. Hoshea, the son of Elah, conspired against Pekah, and slew him. Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, killed Rezin (2 Kings 15:30; 2 Kings 16:9). Horsley takes it, 'the land (Judah and Samaria) of (the former of) which thou art the plague (literally, thorn; Hebrew, qaats (H6973) or qowts) shall be forsaken,' etc: a prediction thus that Judah and Israel (appropriately regarded as one "land") should cease to be kingdoms (Luke 2:1; Genesis 49:10) before Immanuel came. But the term of three years, defined by the interval from the typical child's birth to his conscious ability to know good said evil, marks rather the time of Judah's comparative distress, until it should be completely delivered by the death of the two invading kings. The Hebrew, too, [ qaats (H6973),] hardly bears the meaning thorn [ qowts (H6975)].

Though temporary deliverance (Isaiah 7:16; Isaiah 8:4) was to be given then, and final deliverance through Messiah, sore punishment shall follow the former. After subduing Syria and Israel, the Assyrians shall encounter Egypt (2 Kings 23:29), and Judah shall be the battle- field of both (Isaiah 7:18), and be made tributary to that very Assyria (2 Kings 16:7), now about to be called in by Ahaz the king of Judah as an ally. Compare 2 Chronicles 28:20, "Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came unto him, and distressed him, but strengthened him not." Egypt, too, should prove a fatal ally, (Isaiah 36:6; Isaiah 31:1, etc.)