In that day the Lord will hire a “razor” from beyond the Euphrates River—the king of Assyria—and use it to shave off everything: your land, your crops, and your people.
Parallel translations
- WEB In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired in the parts beyond the River, even with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard.
- KJV 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.
- BSB On 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.
- NKJV In the same day the Lord will shave with a hired razor, With those from beyond the River, with the king of Assyria, The head and the hair of the legs, And will also remove the beard.
- NASB On that day the Lord will shave with a razor, hired from regions beyond the Euphrates River (that is, with the king of Assyria), the head and the hair of the legs; and it will also remove the beard.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God will use Assyria like a hired razor to strip the land bare, a humiliating picture of total devastation.
Overview
Shaving the head, legs, and beard was a deep humiliation in that culture, and here it pictures the land being stripped of its people and resources. The "hired razor" from beyond the Euphrates is the king of Assyria, wielded by God as his instrument. The verse shows that the nation Ahaz hired as a protector would be wielded by God as a tool of judgment.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Isa 8:7now therefore, behold, the Lord brings upon them the mighty flood waters of the River: the king of Assyria and all his glory. It will come up over all its channels, and go over all its banks.
- Isa 10:15Should an ax brag against him who chops with it? Should a saw exalt itself above him who saws with it? As if a rod should lift those who lift it up, or as if a staff should lift up someone who is not wood.
- Ezek 5:1–4“You, son of man, take a sharp sword. You shall take it as a barber’s razor to yourself, and shall cause it to pass over your head and over your beard. Then take balances to weigh and divide the hair.
- Ezek 29:18Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyre: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was worn; yet had he no wages, nor his army, from Tyre, for the service that he had served against it.
- Ezek 29:20I have given him the land of Egypt as his recompense for which he served, because they worked for me, says the Lord Yahweh.
- Isa 24:1–2Behold, Yahweh makes the earth empty, makes it waste, turns it upside down, and scatters its inhabitants.
- 2 Kgs 16:7–8So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who rise up against me.”
- Isa 1:5Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
- Isa 10:5–6Alas Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation!
- Isa 9:14–17Therefore Yahweh will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed, in one day.
- Jer 27:6–7Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and I have also given the animals of the field to him to serve him.
- 2 Kgs 18:13–16Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them.
- 2 Chr 28:20–21Tilgath Pilneser king of Assyria came to him, and gave him trouble, but didn’t strengthen him.
- Isa 11:15Yahweh will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind he will wave his hand over the River, and will split it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals.
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 7:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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