What is the Meaning of Eating “curds and
honey” in VV. 15-16a?
Insufficient
thought has been given by interpreters to the statement that the child born to
the virgin will “eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the
evil and choose the good.” First, refusing evil and choosing good is connected
to the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis 2:9, 16. It refers to making moral
choices on one’s own and hence refers to the age of accountability. In biblical
culture, this is around 13 years old, the time of one’s Bar Mitzvah in later
Judaism.
Nogah
Hareuveni has best explained “eating curds and honey.” (Nogah Hareuveni, Nature
in Our Biblical Heritage [Kiryat Ono, Israel: Neot Kedummim, 1980], 11-22)
Curds are a product of pastoralists, those who herd flocks of goats or sheep
and cattle. Honey comes from bees and refers to the forests as opposed to
cultivated land because honey bees flourished in the wild. In the land of Canaan
there was always a struggle over the use of land. Pastoralists, those who grazed
animals, would look for uncultivated areas for pasturage. Famers, on the other
hand, were terracing the hillsides and turning areas that grew wild into cultivated
fields and vineyards. What Isaiah is saying is that the region will be so devastated
by the Assyrians that there will be few farmers and the cultivated fields will return
to regions left to grow wild. This would allow bees and pastoralists more
territory. So, eating curds and honey is not a statement of blessing, but
rather a sign of devastation and judgment in the land. The fact that the child will
eat curds and honey means that the land will be dominated by pastoralists and
not farmers. This is an indication of the devastation and destruction resulting
in exile and the conquest by the Assyrians and Babylonians. Therefore, a person
reduced to eating curds and honey is a person in exile, not a person enjoying
the good life. In the case of Jesus of Nazareth, this is fulfilled in the fact
that the country was dominated by foreign overlords and in exile before the boy
reached the age of accountability. (Christophe Rico and Peter J. Gentry, The
Mother of the Infant King, Isaiah 7:14: ‘almâ and parthenos in the World of the
Bible, a Linguistic Perspective [trans. Peter J. Gentry; Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf
and Stock, 2020], 214-15)
This may also help answer an objection concerning the use of KJV Isa 7:15 (cf.2 Nephi 17:15):
Isa. 7:15//2 Ne. 17:15: “Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may
know to refuse the evil and choose the good.” The logical relation of the
second clause to the first is not clear. It is as if eating butter and honey
leads to moral knowledge. Clarification is needed. Compare the NJB: “On curds
and honey will he feed until he knows how to refuse the bad and choose the
good.” (David P. Wright, “Isaiah in the Book of Mormon: Or Joseph Smith in Isaiah,”
in American Apocrypha: Essays on the Book of Mormon, ed. Dan Vogel and
Brent Lee Metcalfe [Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002], 170)
