Isaiah 7:14

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign,.... Whether they would ask one or not; a sign both in heaven and earth, namely, the promised Messiah; who being the Lord from heaven, would take

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Therefore; because you despise me, and the sign which I now offer to you, God of his own free grace will send you a more honourable messenger, and give you a nobler sign, to try whether that will cure you of your infidelity. Or, nevertheless, as this particle seems to be understood, 30:16. Although you deserve no sign nor favour, yet, for the comfort of those few believers which are among you, and to leave you without excuse, I shall mind you or another and a greater sign, which God hath promised, and will in his due time perform; which also is a pledge of the certain accomplishment of all God’ s promises. Or, surely, as this particle is sometimes used, as 5:2 . A sign, to wit, of your deliverance. Quest. How was this birth of a virgin, which was not to come till many ages after, a sign of their deliverance from the present danger? Answ. 1. Because this was a clear demonstration of God’ s infinite power, and goodness, and faithfulness, and consequently of the certain truth of all God’ s promises from time to time, which can never fill so long as those attributes of God stand; and men’ s faith is either strong or weak, as they believe them or doubt of them; of which see 78:19,20 Romans 4:20,21. And so this was a proper remedy for Ahaz’ s disease, which was a secret suspicion that God either could not or would not deliver them. 2. Because that promise, I say not only the actual giving, which was long after, but even the promise, of the Messiah, which had been made long since, and oft renewed, and was universally believed by all the people, was the foundation of all God’ s mercies and promises unto them, , and a pledge of the accomplishment of them. 3. Because this promised birth did suppose and require the preservation of that city, and nation, and tribe, in and of which the Messiah was to be born; and therefore there was no cause to fear that utter ruin which their enemies now threatened to bring upon them. 4. This is one, but not the only sign here given, as we shall see at . Behold; you who will not believe that God alone is able to deliver you from the united force of Syria and Israel, take notice, for your full satisfaction, that God is not only able to do this work, but to do far greater and harder things, which he hath promised, and therefore both can and will accomplish. A virgin; strictly and properly so called. The Jews, that they may obscure this plain text, and weaken this proof of the truth of Christian religion, pretend that this Hebrew word signifies a young woman, and not a virgin. But this corrupt translation is easily confuted, 1.

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.Ver. 14. Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign.] Give it you, ingratiis vestris, without your leave, of his own proffer. "If we believe not, yet God remaineth faithful." The house of David was as it were great with child with Christ and with God’ s promises in him; therefore, to be sure, it could not be rooted out, as these two kings designed, before Christ were come into the world. Hence his wonderful conception and birth is made here a sign of his people’ s safety here and salvation hereafter. And had Ahaz and his people believed this latter, they would not have much doubted of the former, but rather argued with St Paul, "Having given us his Son, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" A sign.] A singular sign - a sign both from above and from beneath; for he joined lumen suae aeternitatis limo tuae mortalitatis, the light of his eternity to the mud of thy mortality, as a father hath it. Behold.] A note of attention and admiration. One compareth it to the sounding of a trumpet before some notable proclamation; another to a hand in the margin pointing to some remarkable matter. So doth this Ecce to Christ’ s incarnation as a thing in God’ s decree and to his people’ s faith already present. A virgin.] Hagnalmah, that famous virgin, so long since spoken of; that female glory, the Virgin Mary, with whom the angel spake concerning man’ s salvation, as the devil before had done with the first woman, concerning the means of his destruction. Of this virgin mother the sybils are said thus to have prophesied also: - “ Virginis in corpus voluit dimittere caelo Ipse Deus prolem, cure nuntiat Angelus almae Matri, quae miseros contracta sorde levabit. ” See more in Virgil’ s 4th Eclog., and Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. x. cap. 27. Some tell us that when this blessed virgin brought forth there was seen at Rome about the sun the likeness of a woman carrying a child in her arms, and a voice heard saying, Pan, the great God, is born into the world. Shall conceive and bear a son.] Shiloh, the son of her secundine the true Melchizedek, as man without father, and as God without mother. But how blank were the Jews when they saw the issue of their late Jewish virgin turned to a daughter! and how silly is that saying of theirs in their Tulmud; For our sins, which are many, the coming of the Messiah is deferred. Jachiades, upon those words in Daniel 12:4, would have us believe that God sealed up the time of Christ’ s coming, revealing it to Daniel only. But why take they not notice that the very time of Messiah the prince’ s coming is set down by Daniel?

(14) Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son . . .—Better, behold, the young woman, or perhaps the bride, shall conceive. The first noun has the definite article in the Hebrew, and the word, though commonly used of the unmarried, strictly speaking denotes rather one who has arrived at marriageable age. “Bride,” in the old English and German sense of the word as applied to one who is about to become a wife, or is still a young wife, will, perhaps, best express its relation to the two Hebrew words which respectively and distinctively are used for “virgin” and for “wife.” In Psalms 68:26, the Authorised Version gives “damsels.” The mysterious prophecy which was thus delivered to Ahaz has been very differently interpreted.

Verse 14. The Lord - "JEHOVAH"] For אדני Adonai, twenty-five of Kennicott's MSS., nine ancient, and fourteen of De Rossi's, read יהוה Jehovah. And so Isaiah 7:20, eighteen MSS. Immanuel.] For עמנואל Immanuel, many MSS. and editions have עמנו אל immanu El, God with us.

Additional Note on Chap. Isaiah 7:14-16 Probably no single passage of the Old Testament has been so variously interpreted or has given rise to so much controversy as the prophecy contained in these verses. The difficulties arise mainly from the fact that while the terms of the prediction are so indefinite as to admit a wide range of possibilities, we have no record of its actual fulfilment in any contemporary event. The purpose of this note will be to indicate the chief lines along which a solution has been sought for, and to consider how far they satisfy the conditions of a reasonable historical exegesis. But before entering on this survey, it will be well to enquire what sort of fulfilment the context would lead us to expect, or in other words what kind of sign would serve the immediate objects of the prophet’s mission to Ahaz. We are not entitled to assume as a matter of course that the sign here given will be in all respects such a sign as Ahaz might have asked at an earlier stage of the interview (Isaiah 7:11). In the first place it need not involve an objective miracle, although a miracle of the most stupendous order was originally put within the option of Ahaz. Any of the senses in which the word “sign” is used (see on Isaiah 7:11) in connexion with a prediction, would satisfy the requirements of Isa 7:14. But further there is a presumption that the import of the sign will have been changed by what has taken place in the interval. Isaiah’s first message to Ahaz is an unqualified assurance of deliverance from the designs of Rezin and Pekah, and the sign first offered would be a sign of that and that alone. The prospect of an Assyrian invasion was no doubt in the background of the prophet’s horizon, but his message to Ahaz is complete in itself and takes no account of that final catastrophe. It is manifest, however, that in Isaiah’s mind the whole aspect of affairs is altered by the king’s refusal. The Assyrian invasion is brought into immediate connexion with the attack of the allies, and a new forecast of the future is presented by the prophet in which three great events follow closely on one another: (1) the collapse of the project of the allied princes, (2) the total destruction of Syria and Ephraim by the Assyrians, and (3) the devastation of Judah by the same ruthless conquerors. And the most natural supposition is that the new sign will be an epitome of this new and darker outlook, that is to say it will be a pledge at once of the immediate deliverance and of the judgment that lies behind it. Indeed this view is so obviously implied by Isaiah 7:14-16 that we are shut up to it unless, with some critics, we remove Isaiah 7:15 as an interpolation.

Therefore - Since you will not “ask” a pledge that the land shall be safe, Yahweh will furnish one unasked.

14. The Lord himself — Ahaz has refused to choose, and Jehovah will now present a “sign” of his own choosing. It will not be for Ahaz alone, but for the “house of David” and all believers in Judah.