What does Isaiah 7:14 mean?
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel.
ISAIAH 7:14 · BEREAN STANDARD BIBLE
Isaiah speaks these words to King Ahaz, who has just refused to ask for a sign while Aram and Israel march against Jerusalem. The verse gives the name Immanuel, and its word for “virgin” carries a translator's footnote in the Berean text. The commentators below discuss what the sign meant for Ahaz and how Matthew 1:23 uses it.
Three commentaries, quoted, not summarized.
JAMIESON, FAUSSET & BROWN · 1871verified
…Evidently the wording is such as to apply more fully to Jesus Christ than to the prophet's son; "virgin" applies, in its simplest sense, to the Virgin Mary, rather than to the prophetess who ceased to be a virgin when she "conceived"; "Immanuel," God with us (Joh 1:14; Rev 21:3), cannot in a strict sense apply to Isaiah's son, but only to Him who is presently called expressly (Isa 9:6), "the Child, the Son, Wonderful (compare Isa 8:18)…
MATTHEW HENRY · 1708–1710verified
…The prophet, in God's name, gives them a sign: "You will not ask a sign, but the unbelief of man shall not make the promise of God of no effect: The Lord himself shall give you a sign (Isa 7:14), a double sign." 1. "A sign in general of his good-will to Israel and to the house of David. You may conclude it that he has mercy in store for you, and that you are not forsaken of your God, how great soever your present distress and danger are; for of your nation, of your family, the Messiah is to be born…
JOHN GILL · 1748–1763verified
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 flesh of a virgin on earth; and who as man, being buried in the heart of the earth, would be raised from thence, and ascend up into heaven; and whose birth, though it was to be many years after, was a sign of present deliverance to Judah from the confederacy of the two kings of Syria and Israel; and of future safety…
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Isaiah 7
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