Isaiah 7:11 "Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights."

◄ Isaiah 7:11 ►

Parallel Verses

New International Version
"Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights."

English Standard Version
“Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”

New American Standard Bible
"Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven."

King James Bible
Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Ask for a sign from the LORD your God--from the depths of Sheol to the heights of heaven."

International Standard Version
"Ask a sign from the LORD your God. Make it as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven above."

American Standard Version
Ask thee a sign of Jehovah thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God either unto the depth of hell, or unto the height above.

Darby Bible Translation
Ask for thee a sign from Jehovah thy God; ask for it in the deep, or in the height above.

Young's Literal Translation
Ask for thee a sign from Jehovah thy God, Make deep the request, or make it high upwards.'

Cross References

Luke 2:12
And this shall be a sign to you; You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

Exodus 7:9
When Pharaoh shall speak to you, saying, Show a miracle for you: then you shall say to Aaron, Take your rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent.

2 Kings 19:29
And this shall be a sign to you, You shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springs of the same; and in the third year sow you, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.

Isaiah 7:10
Moreover the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying,

Isaiah 7:12
But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD.

Isaiah 37:30
And this shall be a sign to you, You shall eat this year such as grows of itself; and the second year that which springs of the same: and in the third year sow you, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof.

Isaiah 38:7
And this shall be a sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has spoken;

Isaiah 38:8
Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.

Isaiah 55:13
Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

Jeremiah 44:29
And this shall be a sign to you, said the LORD, that I will punish you in this place, that you may know that my words shall surely stand against you for evil:

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Commentaries

Matthew Henry's Commentary

7:10-16 Secret disaffection to God is often disguised with the colour of respect to him; and those who are resolved that they will not trust God, yet pretend they will not tempt him. The prophet reproved Ahaz and his court, for the little value they had for Divine revelation. Nothing is more grievous to God than distrust, but the unbelief of man shall not make the promise of God of no effect; the Lord himself shall give a sign. How great soever your distress and danger, of you the Messiah is to be born, and you cannot be destroyed while that blessing is in you. It shall be brought to pass in a glorious manner; and the strongest consolations in time of trouble are derived from Christ, our relation to him, our interest in him, our expectations of him and from him. He would grow up like other children, by the use of the diet of those countries; but he would, unlike other children, uniformly refuse the evil and choose the good. And although his birth would be by the power of the Holy Ghost, yet he should not be fed with angels' food. Then follows a sign of the speedy destruction of the princes, now a terror to Judah. Before this child, so it may be read; this child which I have now in my arms, (Shear-jashub, the prophet's own son, ver. 3,) shall be three or four years older, these enemies' forces shall be forsaken of both their kings. The prophecy is so solemn, the sign is so marked, as given by God himself after Ahaz rejected the offer, that it must have raised hopes far beyond what the present occasion suggested. And, if the prospect of the coming of the Divine Saviour was a never-failing support to the hopes of ancient believers, what cause have we to be thankful that the Word was made flesh! May we trust in and love Him, and copy his example.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

11. Ask thee—since thou dost not credit the prophet's words.

sign—a miraculous token to assure thee that God will fulfil His promise of saving Jerusalem (Isa 37:30; 38:7, 8). "Signs," facts then present or near at hand as pledges for the more distant future, are frequent in Isaiah.

ask … in … depth—literally, "Make deep … ask it," that is, Go to the depth of the earth or of Hades [Vulgate and Lowth], or, Mount high for it (literally, "Make high"). So in Mt 16:1. Signs in heaven are contrasted with the signs on earth and below it (raising the dead) which Jesus Christ had wrought (compare Ro 10:6, 7). He offers Ahaz the widest limits within which to make his choice.