only message which could follow would be one which would threaten Ahaz with judgment. This is the dilemma with which one must struggle in any exposition of the text, even if one sets aside vv. 15* and 17* for the time being. But beneath this difficult exegetical issue, a hard theological problem with which Isaiah must wrestle in his response to Ahaz can now be stated clearly, on the basis of everything presupposed up to this point. He cannot simply announce the end of the Davidic dynasty, since the