What is the meaning of Isaiah 7:24? Men will go there “Men will go there” (Isaiah 7:24) pictures ordinary people still entering the territory that had belonged to Judah’s farms and vineyards. The prophecy just named specific hillsides and fertile plots (Isaiah 7:22–23) that would be abandoned. Now, instead of farmers tending rows of grain, scattered individuals will venture in. It shows how thoroughly judgment empties the land: population thins, infrastructure collapses, and what used to bustle with activity is reduced to sparse traffic. We hear a similar echo of depopulation in Leviticus 26:32–33, where God warns, “I will make the land desolate…and your land shall be a desolation.” With bow and arrow They bring “bow and arrow” not plows and pruning hooks. These tools are for hunting, not cultivation, underscoring how agricultural life has stalled. When cities fall and fields lie waste, survival shifts to whatever wild game roams the former pastureland—much like Esau’s dependence on his weaponry (Genesis 27:3) or David hiding in wilderness regions and living off the land (1 Samuel 26:20). Isaiah is showing the stark reversal of the peaceful picture in Isaiah 2:4 where swords become plowshares; here plowshares effectively become bows. For the land will be covered The reason for this change is “for the land will be covered.” The Hebrew hills that once displayed terraced vines are now so overtaken that human use is dictated by nature’s reclaiming. Isaiah 6:11–12 already predicted houses without people and fields without crops. The covering is total, not patchy—pointing to Assyria’s sweeping invasion (Isaiah 7:17–20) and God’s deliberate disciplinary hand (Deuteronomy 28:49–52). With briers and thorns “Briers and thorns” grow when ground is cursed or neglected (Genesis 3:18). Isaiah earlier warned, “I will make it a wasteland…briars and thorns will grow there” (Isaiah 5:6). The phrase communicates both literal overgrowth and the spiritual reality of judgment. Hebrews 6:8 references the same imagery, reminding believers that land bearing thorns is “worthless and near to being cursed.” God’s covenant people would visually see the effects of unfaithfulness every time they stepped through snagging shrubs in what used to be God-blessed territory (Hosea 10:8). summary Isaiah 7:24 shows the tangible fallout of Judah’s unbelief: depopulation, abandoned agriculture, and land reclaimed by thorns so thick that only hunters with bows venture in. The verse is a sober reminder that when God’s warnings go unheeded, even the most fruitful fields can become a wilderness—yet His word remains faithful and true, urging every generation to trust Him while the opportunity stands. |
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