Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
Butter (Hebrew: chem'aah (H2529)) - rather, Curdled milk, the acid of which is grateful in the heat of the East (Job 20:17).
And honey shall he eat - i:e., he shall be fed with the usual food of children in the East. The invasion by these two kings, though it cause distress, shall not prevent his having the ordinary nourishment of children up to the time of the invasion ceasing. Honey is abundant in Palestine (Judges 14:8; 1 Samuel 14:25; Matthew 3:4). Physicians directed that the first food given to a child should be honey, the next milk (Barnabas Epistle). Horsley takes this as implying the real humanity of the Immanuel, Jesus Christ, about to be fed as other infants (Luke 2:52). But Isaiah 7:15-16 refer mainly to the typical child of the prophetess. Isaiah 7:22 shows that, besides the fitness of milk and honey for children, a state of distress of the inhabitants is also implied, when, by reason of the invaders, milk and honey, things produced spontaneously, shall be the only abundant articles or food.
That he may know - rather (Hebrew, lªda`ªtow (H3045)), with Chaldaic, until He shall know. So the Hebrew preposition lª- is used in 2 Samuel 13:2.
To refuse the evil, and choose the good. At about three years of age moral consciousness begins (cf. Isaiah 8:4; Deuteronomy 1:39; Jonah 4:11).