One of the coolest Messianic prophecies in the Bible

Yeshua—YHVH Elohim’s gift to mankind from heaven!

Read and study the Bible and discover the genius of the Creator’s mind breathed into its words. Fall in love with the Elohim and his Word as you read it, and let it transform your life and thinking! — Natan

Notes from Natan’s Bible commentary:

Isaiah 7:11–17, A sign. This is an amazing prophecy—a twofer prophetically showcasing the genius of the Creator’s ability to accomplish so much by saying so little. Here Isaiah prophecies to the rebellious Jewish king his kingdom’s (and hence his own) downfall, but at that same time, the rising up of the King Messiah to be born of a virgin woman as well as being deity. So while Isaiah prophesies judgment upon the apostate southern kingdom of Judah, at the same time he is giving a message of hope in predicting the coming Messiah—the ultimate and eternal hope of Elohim’s people even in the midst of darkness and judgment.

Isaiah 7:11, A sign … either in the depth, or in the height above. Sign is the Hebrew word owth (Strong’s H226) meaning “sign, token, signal, a beacon, a monument, evidence, prodigy or omen.” Traditionally, Christians have viewed this passage along with the following verses as a prophecy concerning the Messiah would be born of a virgin. Some who are opposed to the virgin birth interpretation of Isaiah 7:14 will say that owth is never used in Scripture in reference to a miraculous sign. To the contrary, there are numerous examples in the Scriptures where owth is indeed used in reference to a miraculous sign (e.g. Exod 4:8, 9, 17, 28, 30; 7:3; 8:23; 10:1, 2; Num 14:22; Deut 4:34; 6:22; 7:19; 11:3; 2 Kgs. 20:8–11; Neh 9:10; Isa 20:3; Jer 32:20, 21). For example, owt describes such supernatural occurrences as rods becoming serpents, the Nile turning to blood, the death of the Egypt’s first born, the splitting of the Red Sea or time moving backward ten degrees on Hezekiah’s sundial. So when Isa 7:11–14 uses the word owth to describe a virgin miraculously giving birth to a child, such an interpretation is not a biblical hermeneutical twist on this scripture.

The word depth is the Hebrew masculine noun aymek (Strong’s H6009 from H6010) meaning “valley or depression.” This same Hebrew word in its adjective form (same spelling, different vowel points) refers to the depths of sheol or hell (Prov 9:18; Job 11:8). In Psalm 139:15, David in reference to his formation in his mother’s womb (verse 13) says, “I … was curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth (Heb. aretz). Aretz (Strong’s H776) is the commonly used word for earth or land in Scripture. A valley or depression is the lowest part of the earth. Here David figuratively likens his mother’s womb to a low place or depression in the earth. Though the Hebrew words for depth in Isaiah 7:11 and lowest parts in Psalm 139:15 are different, the Hebraic concepts seem connected and analogous.

Height is the Hebrew word gabahh (Strong’s H1361) and means “to soar, to be lofty, to exalt.” This root word in its adjective form is also gabahh (Strong’s H1362) with the only difference between the two words being a slight vowel pronunciation difference in the second syllable. This word means “lofty or high.” We see this adjective used in Job 35:5 as a poetic reference to heaven (Heb. shamayim) as well as in Isaiah 55:9; Psalm 103:11 (“For as the heaven/shamayim is high above the earth …” or “according to the heights of heaven” (alternate Hebrew rendering, KJV marginal notes).

Above, which is opposite the word height in the passage under analysis, is the word ma’al (Strong’s H4605) meaning “upward, above, overhead, from the top, exceedingly.” Thus, the phrase in this verse could be rendered as highest heaven (where YHVH abides). The word ma’al can be used as an adjective to refer to heaven above where YHVH dwells (Deut 4:39; Josh 2:11).

What is the point we are trying to make here? YHVH prophesies, through Isaiah, that he will give a supernatural, miraculous sign to the house of Judah from both the depths (or womb of a woman) and the highest heavens. In verse 14 Isaiah speaks of the (the Hebrew uses the definite article the) virgin or the young maiden (depending on your Bible translation) giving birth to a son named Immanuel meaning “El With Us.” Now great controversy has raged as to the meaning of the word virgin (Heb. almah). Does it refer simply to a young maiden or to an actual virgin? Much has been written by scholars on both sides of this hotly debated issue and it is outside the scope of this work to deal with this particular subject. Both sides (the pro-virgin birth side and the anti-virgin birth of Messiah side) have valid points to their credit. This author maintains that if Isaiah 7:14 were to stand alone, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to prove the virgin birth of the Messiah either way. However, with the context of verse 11 considered (not to mention the other references in the Tanakh referring to the virgin birth of the Messiah (e.g., Gen 3:15; Isa 9:6–7; Pss 2:7; 110:1–7), it seems that Isaiah had one thing in mind in penning verse 14: the Messiah would be born of a virgin. He would be formed in the womb of a woman (without the seed of a man (see Gen 3:15) and at the same time would originate from the highest heaven. This seems to be a clear reference to the incarnation, that YHVH would miraculously fuse (by the Spirit of Elohim [Matt 1:20]) with the physical egg of a woman to form the Yah-Man (God-Man) referred to in Christian theology as the incarnation or the hypostatic union.

 

6 thoughts on “One of the coolest Messianic prophecies in the Bible

    • I am simply have an insatiable appetite to learn new things, and like a prospector digging for gold, or an explorer looking for new land, I like to discover new things—especially when it comes the Word of Elohim and to our upward spiritual walk—and to share it with others. If that’s one of my divinely given gifts to humanity, then may all praise and glory go to YHVH! As the saying goes, my greatest desire is to know Yeshua and to make him known.

  1. In today’s Judaism, their stance is that “the Alma” means young woman/maiden and that “Betulah” is the word that means “virgin”.

    First of all, as Natan mentions, the translation as “the maiden” certainly wouldn’t be a sign, but “the virgin” would be a sign.

    Scripturally, in Genesis 24:43 – Rebecca/Rivka, who we know is an unmarried virgin at the well before she “knew” Isaac is called, “the Alma”.
    In Genesis 24:16 – Rivka/Rebecca is also called “the Na’ar” (the maiden) and “Betulah” where it also proclaims “she has known no man”.
    Therefore both “Betulah” and “Alma” and the third, “Na’ar” are all used to describe Rivka/Rebecca, but when Scripture uses “Betulah” they also add, “she has known no man”.

    But if we go to Joel 1:8 – “Betulah” isn’t a virgin, but most likely a young woman who was prematurely widowed. The same goes for Ezekiel 44:22.

    And also in Exodus 2:8 – The girl, “the Alma” who was Miriyam, Moshe’s sister, who was very young at the time and of course a virgin and who happened to have the same name as Yeshua haMashiach’s mother, Miriyam!

    Also, in Matthew 1:23, quoting Isaiah 7:14 from the Greek Septuagint which was translated by 72 of the best Hebrew scholars from the Hebrew language into Greek translated “the Alma” to “the Parthenos” which ONLY means VIRGIN!

    Etymologically, the shoresh/root of the Hebrew word, “Alma”, means “conceal” or “hide” as also does the closed “MEM” sofit in the Hebrew word “LeMarba” found in Isaiah 9:6(7) where it’s describing the Messiah’s attributes. “LeMarba” means, “to increase His dominion”. The letter “MEM” looks a certain way unless it’s the last letter (sofit) of a word where it’s always closed, like a circle or a “closed womb”. Isaiah 9:6(7) is the ONLY place that a closed “MEM” is in the interior of a word.

    • Correct. Great insights. Thanks for sharing. That closed mem is an exciting discovery that doesn’t come through in our English text like a lot of other anomalies in the Hebrew alephbet that are found in the Hebrew text. That’s why I encourage everyone to get a basic understanding of Hebrew so they can at least read and write it. It’s not difficult to do. There are a lot of good primers out there to teach one the basics of biblical Hebrew.

    • My understanding is that “mem” also means “water” or “water of the womb”, as you note. This gives new meaning to Genesis 1:7, when God divided the waters (heavenly or earthly birth?) and John 3:7, when Yeshua said “you must be born from above” !

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