The meaning of this verse is not completely clear, so its significance is difficult to determine. Literally the Hebrew text reads “Curds and honey he will eat for his knowing to refuse the evil and choose the good.” The meaning of the two clauses, “curds and honey he will eat” (the main clause) and “his knowing to refuse the evil and choose the good” (the dependent clause), is clear enough. The problem is to know how the second clause relates to the first one. Revised Standard Version says He shall eat … when he knows …, which means he will eat curds and honey at the time when he discovers the difference between good and evil. New Revised Standard Version and New International Version are similar. For Good News Translation the people will be eating this special diet when the boy is mature. New Jerusalem Bible and Bible en français courant are different. They say the boy will be eating curds and honey until he is mature enough to know the difference between good and evil. Finally, the Septuagint has the conjunction “before” rather than “when,” matching “before” in the next verse. Contemporary English Version also uses this conjunction (see its rendering of this verse in the discussion on the next verse). We recommend using a conjunction such as “when” or “until.”

This entire verse seems to be almost independent of the context. There is, of course, the repeated phrase refuse the evil and choose the good, which reappears in the next verse, and the reference to eating curds and honey in verse 22. However, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh places verse 15 between parentheses, perhaps because verse 14 can connect directly and smoothly with verse 16. Translators should keep verse 15 in their translation since there is no textual reason for omitting it or considering it to be out of context.

He shall eat curds and honey: The significance of this diet is ambiguous. In the New Testament John the Baptist ate similar food (Matt 3.4), so it can be regarded as a frugal, nomad’s diet. Curds and honey are mentioned again in verse 22, but what they imply there is not entirely clear. It is possible in the present context that this clause indicates there will be a change for the better in the people’s livelihood before this child has grown to maturity. If so, then this clause parallels the promise in the next verse that the land will be rescued from the attack of the two enemy kings. Uncertainty remains, however. Concerning this special diet, Contemporary English Version notes “This may refer either to expensive foods eaten in a time of plenty or to a limited diet eaten in times of a food shortage.” Translators should render the text as it stands, but they have the option to add a footnote such as the one in Contemporary English Version.

Curds is a food made from milk. It may be rendered “yogurt” (Contemporary English Version), “sour milk,” “cheese,” or even “butter.” See 2 Sam 17.29; Job 20.17 and Pro 30.33 for other references to this food. Honey is probably well known in most languages.

When he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good: As noted above, the connection between this temporal clause and the previous one is not easy to determine. It may even be a purpose clause (“in order to understand right from wrong”), but this is unlikely. He knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good is an idiom for reaching maturity and being responsible for one’s own actions. Good News Translation says “he is old enough to make his own decisions.”

New Jerusalem Bible provides a helpful model for verses 14b-16a:
14b It is this: the young woman is with child
and will give birth to a son
whom she will call Immanuel.
15 On curds and honey will he feed
until he knows how to refuse the bad
and choose the good.
16 Before the child knows how to refuse the bad and choose the good …

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .