(Isa. 7:17–25)
With King Ahaz having rejected the word of the Lord, the prophet now proceeds to pronounce the penalties that would befall the king and the people of Judah. Instead of becoming a partner with the Assyrians, Ahaz and his people would become their prey. They would experience a devastation such as they had not seen since the days the northern tribes broke away from the united kingdom of the twelve tribes. Flies and bees would infest the land, and thorns and briers would take over the once-productive land. The people would be taken into captivity, and those who remain would have to forage for food.
(Hoyt W. Brewster, Jr., Isaiah Plain and Simple [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1995], 70.)
Ahaz’s failure to believe in the Lord led to the devastation of his land by the Assyrians, the same source to which he, in his twisted wisdom, had looked for deliverance. In fact, Isaiah said that God sent the Assyrians against his people to humble them (Isa. 10:5–11). The account of this appears in Isaiah 36–37 and 2 Kings 18–19, in which the writer explains: the “king of Assyria came against all the defenced cities of Judah, and took them” (Isa. 36:1). Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, boasted in his own records about how he conquered forty-six fortified cities plus innumerable smaller cities in their environs and carried their inhabitants into captivity. The kingdom of Judah was devastated. Of its cities, only Jerusalem survived.”
(Keith A Meservy, Studies in Scripture, Vol. 4, ed. Kent P. Jackson, [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1993], 98.)
King Ahaz wants to ask the king of Assyria to come and help him. Isaiah prophesies that the Lord is going to bring the king of Assyria upon Ahaz and all of Judah. The king’s coming against them would be the worst devastation they had experienced since the twelve tribes had divided into the two nations of Ephraim and Judah (approximately 975 b.c.). The prophecy states that the land which has been cultivated for agricultural purposes will be left uncultivated following the Assyrian conquest. The fly and the bee are usually interpreted to be the armies of Egypt and Assyria, which would come upon Judah as a swarm. However, the invasion by Egypt is historically questionable. The prophecy therefore seems to refer to literal swarms of flies and bees inhabiting the land. The fly was and still is notorious in Egypt, and the honeybee was apparently notorious is Assyria. When the land remains uncultivated, the Lord will bring the insects from these lands, where they will find a permanent home in the desolate valleys. The Lord’s “shaving with a razor that is hired” symbolizes the comfort of having someone else perform a tedious or unpleasant task, such as shaving every morning, and the Lord’s using the king of Assyria to do the unpleasant task of punishing the wickedness of Judah. This punishment will be very thorough, as the whole body (land of Judah) will be shaved. Following the devastating “shaving” of the agricultural land, it will be used to graze a few animals. The cow will produce milk, which will be used for making butter, and the honey gathered from the bees will supplement the diet. The main diet for the few nomadic people who remain upon the land will then be milk, or butter, and honey. Thus the land will become a land of milk and honey. The vineyards will be left unpruned or uncared for and will quickly turn into briers and thorns, and only the hunters shall go among them seeking wild animals for food. Small areas will be digged with the mattock (the hoe) for a few vegetables, but the formerly cultivated land will be primarily a grazing land for a few cattle. When Assyria came and conquered northern Israel, she also came upon the regions round about Jerusalem and thus fulfilled this prophecy.
(Monte S. Nyman, Great Are the Words of Isaiah [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1980], 59–60.)
After Ahaz turned down Isaiah’s advice, he went straight to the temple, stripped it of all its precious ornaments, and sent them to the king of Assyria as a bribe to induce him to immediately attack Syria and the northern Ten Tribes before they attacked Judah. In this verse [20] Isaiah is assuring Ahaz that although the Assyrians were like a “razor that is hired” (hired by Ahaz, in fact!), they would nevertheless turn around and shave Judah.
(W. Cleon Skousen, Isaiah Speaks to Modern Times [Salt Lake City: Ensign Publishing Co., 1984], 206.)
The seriousness of the devastation in the land is expressed in verses 22–25. People will be able to retain only a fraction of their original herds and flocks, … yet the population will be so decimated that the limited livestock will provide plentiful milk and curds to the survivors… . The abundance of honey in these devastating circumstances comes from the large land areas that are left uncultivated and quickly turn to wild flowers, weeds, and other blossom-producing plants. Thus, ironically, the few who remain in the land will enjoy milk and honey because of the relatively large numbers of food-producing animals. They will still have problems and dangers, however, since they must fight off the weeds, thorny bushes, and wild animals. All in all, Isaiah describes serious conditions that will beset the people.
(Victor L. Ludlow, Isaiah: Prophet, Seer, and Poet [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1982], 146.)