Isaiah 7

What we see here is that ALL of them translate "almah" in Isaiah 7:14 as "virgin, but for the rest of the 108 times the word "almah" is translated in these 18 translations, it is only 20 times translated as "virgin", the rest of the time, 88 times out of a 108 times, it is translated like "girl", "young woman", or something like that.  

It is only that translating it in the right way in Isaiah 7:14 does not fit the Christian agenda, and therefore the translation there is corrupted in order to be able to push JC in. 

Let us now see what is really going on in Isaiah 7.

The prophecy of Isaiah 7:

1: In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzzi'ah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remali'ah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but they could not conquer it.  2: When the house of David was told, "Syria is in league with E'phraim," his heart and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. 3: And the LORD said to Isaiah, "Go forth to meet Ahaz, you and She'ar-jash'ub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller's Field, 4: and say to him, `Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remali'ah. 5: Because Syria, with E'phraim and the son of Remali'ah, has devised evil against you, saying, 6: "Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Ta'be-el as king in the midst of it,"   7: thus says the Lord GOD: It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass.

8: For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. (Within sixty-five years E'phraim will be broken to pieces so that it will no longer be a people.)  9: And the head of E'phraim is Sama'ria, and the head of Sama'ria is the son of Remali'ah. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.'"  10: Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz,

11: "Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven."  12: But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test."  13: And he said, "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?   14: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Imman'u-el.  15: He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.  16: For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted."

We see here in Isaiah 7, that king Achaz, the king of Judah, is afraid of two neighboring kings.  

It is important to know that after the death of king Solomo the kingdom of Israel split up into two parts; into the kingdom of Judah, and the kingdom of Israel.  

The kingdom om Judah was made up of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and a part of the Levites.   The kingdom of Israel was made up of the other ten tribes.  

Achaz was king over Judah, and in this prophecy the king of Israel is Pekah, the son of Remaliah.

And Pekah had made a covenant with the king of Syria, called Resin, to attack together the kingdom of Judah.

This news caused king Achaz considerable stress, because he had a dark suspicion that things could very well turn out not so very rosy for him.  

Therefore God sent Isaiah to Achaz, in order to tell him that things would work out just fine for him.  God tells Achaz that he will give him a sign.  Here is the sign: "14: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman is pregnant and is giving birth to a son, and she called his name Imman'u-el.  15: He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.  16: For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted."

God says that before the child of the young woman who is pregnant will grow up, the land of the two kings, Resin of Syria, and Pekah of Israel, will be deserted, that is devoid of people.  Those two nations will be led into exile.

So the sign is the fact that before the young boy Immanuel will grow up, the lands of the enemies of king Achaz will be deserted. That sign is given to king Achaz, who lived about 700 years before JC.

And the Bible tells us that this prophecy came true: "27: In the fifty-second year of Azari'ah king of Judah Pekah the son of Remali'ah began to reign over Israel in Sama'ria, and reigned twenty years. 28: And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not depart from the sins of Jerobo'am the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin.  29: In the days of Pekah king of Israel Tig'lath-pile'ser king of Assyria came and captured I'jon, A'bel-beth-ma'acah, Jan-o'ah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naph'tali; and he carried the people captive to Assyria.  30: Then Hoshe'a the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remali'ah, and struck him down, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzzi'ah."            II Kings 15.

We see here that the population of Israel indeed went into exile, and that the land of king Pekah was deserted.

And here is what happened to Resin, the king of Syria:

"6: At that time the king of Edom recovered Elath for Edom, and drove the men of Judah from Elath; and the E'domites came to Elath, where they dwell to this day.  7: So Ahaz sent messengers to Tig'lath-pile'ser king of Assyria, saying, "I am your servant and your son. Come up, and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me."  8: Ahaz also took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent a present to the king of Assyria.  9: And the king of Assyria hearkened to him; the king of Assyria marched up against Damascus, and took it, carrying its people captive to Kir, and he killed Rezin."       II Kings 16.

So here we see that also the inhabitants of the land of King Resin went into exile, and also his land was deserted, in the days of Achaz.

So God gave a sign to Achaz.

In the days of Achaz.

About 700 years before JC.

So this prophecy has no bearing what so ever on the messiah, and NOWHERE in this prophecy is spoken about a virgin.

These are only misconceptions of the NT.

However, the NT brings this prophecy to Achaz as a messianic prophecy, see Matthew 1  "21: she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." 22: All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel".

 So what the NT does here, is taking a text which does not speak about the messiah, ripping it out of context, mistranslating it, (it says "young woman", and not "virgin") and then presenting it to us as a messianic prophecy.

So one of the foundations of the Christian religion, the virgin birth, is based upon a mistranslated text which is ripped out of context and does NOT speak about the messiah.

For the main article:  "Why don't the Jewish people recognize the New Testament?"     Look here