All the hills that were cultivated with the hoe, you shall not come there for fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending out of oxen, and for the treading of sheep.”
Parallel translations
- KJV And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle.
- BSB For fear of the briers and thorns, you will no longer traverse the hills once tilled by the hoe; they will become places for oxen to graze and sheep to trample.
- NKJV And to any hill which could be dug with the hoe, You will not go there for fear of briers and thorns; But it will become a range for oxen And a place for sheep to roam.
- NASB As for all the hills which used to be cultivated with the plow, you will not go there for fear of briars and thorns; but they will become a place for pasturing oxen and for sheep to trample.
- NLT No one will go to the fertile hillsides where the gardens once grew, for briers and thorns will cover them. Cattle, sheep, and goats will graze there.
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
Even the carefully tended hills will be abandoned to grazing animals, fit only for pasture, not crops.
Overview
Hills once dug with the hoe will be too overgrown to farm, useful only for turning out cattle and sheep. The closing image of chapter 7 completes the portrait of a land reduced from cultivation to coarse grazing. The judgment is real, yet the surviving remnant and animals hint that God preserves a future amid the ruin.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Zeph 2:6The sea coast will be pastures, with cottages for shepherds and folds for flocks.
- Isa 17:2The cities of Aroer are forsaken. They will be for flocks, which shall lie down, and no one shall make them afraid.
- Isa 13:20–22It will never be inhabited, neither will it be lived in from generation to generation. The Arabian will not pitch a tent there, neither will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.
- Isa 7:21–22It shall happen in that day that a man shall keep alive a young cow, and two sheep;
- Isa 5:17Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture, and strangers will eat the ruins of the rich.
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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 7:25 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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