Bible Strands
Isaiah 7:13
Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God as well?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Isaiah speaks to Ahaz and the house of David immediately after Ahaz declares he will not ask or test the Lord. The exchange occurs during a political crisis when the king’s refusal to request a sign triggers Isaiah’s direct rebuke.
The words — The verb הַלְא֣וֹת (hal.'ot) literally means “to make weary” or “to exhaust.” Isaiah pairs it with אֲנָשִׁ֔ים ('a.na.Shim), “people,” to establish that weariness is a human reality before contrasting it with divine patience.
The thread — The text links Ahaz’s behavior to Isaiah 43:24, Malachi 2:17, and Jeremiah 6:11, where repeated human actions burden God. These passages share the same lexical concept of weariness, showing a pattern where religious or political presumption drains divine forbearance.
Why it lands — The verse states that testing God directly exhausts His patience just as human actions exhaust others. It requires the reader to abandon the assumption that divine restraint is infinite and to stop treating faith as a mechanism for forcing divine compliance.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?
Cross-references
- Isaiah 43:24 You have not bought Me sweet cane with your silver, nor satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened Me with your sins; you have wearied Me with your iniquities.
- Malachi 2:17 You have wearied the LORD with your words; yet you ask, “How have we wearied Him?” By saying, “All who do evil are good in the sight of the LORD, and in them He delights,” or, “Where is the God of justice?”
- Jeremiah 6:11 But I am full of the LORD’s wrath; I am tired of holding it back. “Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the young men gathered together. For both husband and wife will be captured, the old and the very old alike.
- Hebrews 3:10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known My ways.’
- Isaiah 7:2 When it was reported to the house of David that Aram was in league with Ephraim, the hearts of Ahaz and his people trembled like trees in the forest shaken by the wind.
- Isaiah 63:10 But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He turned and became their enemy, and He Himself fought against them.
- Ezekiel 16:47 And you not only walked in their ways and practiced their abominations, but soon you were more depraved than they were.
- Ezekiel 34:18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of the pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink the clear waters? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet?
- Amos 3:13 Hear and testify against the house of Jacob, declares the Lord GOD, the God of Hosts.
- Genesis 30:15 But Leah replied, “Is it not enough that you have taken away my husband? Now you want to take my son’s mandrakes as well?” “Very well,” said Rachel, “he may sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”