And Jehovah spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of Jehovah thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt Jehovah. And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David: Is it a small thing for you to weary men, that ye will weary my God also?
Isaiah 7:10-17 ASV
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Butter and honey shall he eat, when he knoweth to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two kings thou abhorrest shall be forsaken.
Jehovah will bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—even the king of Assyria.
The first two verses of this paragraph record God’s offer to provide a sign (presumably a miraculous sign) to strengthen the faith of Ahaz, even offering him the choice of what it might be.
But hypocritical Ahaz, having already made up his mind to reject God’s counsel, refused to ask, pretending that he did not wish to tempt Jehovah.
Of course, he referred to such passages in the Law as that found in Deuteronomy 6:6; but it would not have been `tempting God’ for him to accept God’s offer.
Some believe that, in spite of Ahaz’ unbelieving and hypocritical refusal to cooperate with God in the matter of a miraculous sign, God went ahead and gave him the sign of The Virgin anyway.
Notice the dramatic shift from “thy” God (Isaiah 7:11) to “my” God (Isaiah 7:13).
Notice also that the same Isaiah 7:13 is the place where the prophet ceased from addressing King Ahaz and addressed, instead, the whole House of David. Notice also that the pronoun “he” in Isaiah 7:13 is a reference to Isaiah, not Ahaz.
BEHOLD
Isaiah 7:10
THE VIRGIN SHALL CONCEIVE AND BEAR A SON
This extremely important prophecy is one of the most discussed and debated in the entire Old Testament.
We wish to begin by our confident allegation that here indeed is a true prophecy of the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in the only true sense, must be hailed as the unique example of one truly entitled to be called IMMANUEL “GOD WITH US.”
We are familiar with all the objections that evil and unbelieving men have made against this view, and these shall be noted later in this discussion.
Here are the reasons for our own confidence in the true meaning of the prophecy.
- Note that the prophecy does not say “a virgin,” but “The Virgin” (consult marginal notes on this), a title that could hardly belong to anyone ever born except the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus.
- The silly objection that the ultimate fulfillment of this was too far removed to do Ahaz any good is worthless, because it was not designed to do Ahaz any good.
- That evil man had already refused to see a sign from God; and the notion that God forced the issue and gave him a sign anyway is ridiculous. This sign was for “the House of David,” not for Ahaz.
- The Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ the Son of God is the unique and only authenticated example of such an occurrence in the history of the human race.
- It was verified by medical testimony and by the unanimous testimony of the first century of the Christian era, the gospels themselves being just about the most historical documents known to mankind; and the apostle Matthew cited this prophecy as a predictive announcement of Christ’s birth.
- No arrogant and conceited modern seminarian has any right or ability whatever to contradict the testimony of an inspired apostle of Jesus Christ on a subject like this.
- It was verified by medical testimony and by the unanimous testimony of the first century of the Christian era, the gospels themselves being just about the most historical documents known to mankind; and the apostle Matthew cited this prophecy as a predictive announcement of Christ’s birth.
- But, how about the word [ALMAH]?
- Does it not have a possible meaning of “young woman”; and could the allegation of unbelievers such as Peake be true?
- He wrote that, “The rendering virgin’ here is unjustifiable; the Hebrew word employed here means a young woman of marriageable age, without any suggestion that she is not married.
- Does it not have a possible meaning of “young woman”; and could the allegation of unbelievers such as Peake be true?
To begin with, this alleged meaning of “[ALMAH]” is a disputed matter; but even if the critical rendition of it should be allowed, it could not possibly obscure the true meaning of the word which is “virgin.”
A fact apparently unknown to critical enemies of God’s Word is that the true meaning of any word must finally be determined, not by any etymological data, but by the USAGE of it.
Look at the following: hamburgers are not made out of ham; trotlines do not trot; catheads have nothing to do with cats, and a horse-cock reamer has nothing to do with horses! Ask anybody in the oil business!
All right, now let us take a look at the usage of [ALMAH].
Here is a summary on the usage of [ALMAH] in God’s Word:
- This word was never used of a married woman, nor of an immoral woman.
- This word occurs six times in Biblical passages in addition to the one before us. In every instance, the word refers to an unmarried, chaste woman.
- In Genesis 24:43, Rebekah is called [ALMAH], and also [BETHUWLAH], a woman whom no man had known (Genesis 24:16).
- In Exodus 2:8, Moses’ sister, Miriam, in her childhood is called [ALMAH].
- Twice in the Song of Solomon it refers to a chorus of young women (Song of Solomon 1:3) distinguished from Solomon’s queens and concubines (Song of Solomon 6:8).
- And in Proverbs 30:19 it refers to a maiden in contrast to an adulterous woman.
- In Psalms 68:25 the word describes the damsels who played timbrels in the sanctuary; and any assumption that those damsels were anything but virgins is impossible.
- Remember that there are no Biblical examples of where the word [ALMAH] ever referred to anyone except a virgin in the usual sense of the word.
- That accounts for the existence of the next argument we shall cite, that is, No. 4. below.
- Two hundred fifty years before Christ was born, the Septuagint (LXX) version of the Hebrew Scriptures was translated into the Greek language by seventy of the most renowned scholars on earth, their number being reflected in the symbol for that version.
- A copy of the LXX is before this writer as this paragraph is written. How did they translate this verse 14? Here it is:
“O house of David … Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Immanuel.”
Thus the great scholars who gave us the Hebrew Bible in the Greek language translated the Hebrew [ALMAH] with a word that evil men could not possibly misunderstand.
We believe that no group of scholars has yet appeared in human history that outranks the ability and quality of the famed “seventy” who authored the LXX.
No Dr. Conceit, or Dr. Smart, or Dr. Anybody else has learned any more about the Hebrew tongue than was most certainly known to the translators of the Septuagint Version of the Bible.
In this light we are absolutely certain that the current translators of the Revised Standard Version betrayed the faith when they translated [ALMAH] with what is most surely a corrupt rendition, namely, ” a young woman.”
There is no reason whatever to respect such an erroneous translation. The 20th Century A.D. is not the era in which anyone may expect to find any new information about the meaning of Hebrew words used 2,800 years earlier.
- The introduction to this prophecy makes it impossible of misunderstanding.
- Look at these words: THEREFORE; THE LORD HIMSELF SHALL GIVE YOU A SIGN; BEHOLD; A VIRGIN SHALL CONCEIVE!
- Can it be imagined for a single moment that such a prelude could appropriately introduce such commonplace information as the fact that some young woman would get pregnant! Ridiculous! Preposterous! Impossible!
- The information that this would be a tremendous sign from God Himself and which is here preceded by the heavenly order to “Behold!” the marvelous event, has no meaning at all, unless it indicates that an event of world-shaking importance would be indicated by the forthcoming announcement, as indeed it proved to be!
- Look at these words: THEREFORE; THE LORD HIMSELF SHALL GIVE YOU A SIGN; BEHOLD; A VIRGIN SHALL CONCEIVE!
Who has heard such a thing?
Who has seen such things?
Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment?
For as soon as Zion was in labor she brought forth her sons.
Shall I bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth? says the Lord; shall I, who cause to bring forth, shut the womb? says your God.
Isaiah 66:7-9 RSV
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