(1) And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aram, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it; but could not prevail against it.
(2) And it was told the house of David (king Ahaz), saying: 'Aram is confederate with Ephraim.' And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest are moved with the wind. (Ahaz and the people of Judah were terrified of the defeat they expected from the united efforts of Syria and the northern Kingdom, Israel)
(3) Then said YHWH unto Isaiah: 'Go forth now to meet Ahaz (Isaiah sent to talk to Ahaz), thou, and Shear-jashub (lit. "a remnant shall return") thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fullers' field;
(4) and say unto him: Keep calm, and be quiet; fear not (Isaiah sent to calm the fears of the king of Judah), neither let thy heart be faint, because of these two tails of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram, and of the son of Remaliah.
(5) Because Aram hath counselled evil against thee, Ephraim also, and the son of Remaliah, saying:
(6) Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set up a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeel;
(7) thus saith the Lord YHWH: it shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. (the defeat of Judah by Rezin of Syria and Pekah of the northern Kingdom of Israel)
(8) For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people; (NOTE! a clear timeframe was given from THAT time)
(9) And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If ye will not have faith, surely ye shall not be established.'
(10) And YHWH spoke again unto Ahaz, saying:
(11) 'Ask thee a sign of YHWH thy God: (Ahaz is asked to ask for a sign) ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.'
(12) But Ahaz said: 'I will not ask, neither will I try YHWH.'
(13) And he said: 'Hear ye now, O house of David: (Ahaz is of the house of David) Is it a small thing for you to weary men, that ye will weary my God also?
(14) Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: behold, the young woman shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (the birth - or the name - was to be a sign to Ahaz. This couldn't possibly be the birth of Messiah, since it was hundreds of years later, long after Ahaz had died! A "sign" to a dead man is useless.)
(15) Curd and honey shall he eat, when he knoweth to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
(16) Yea, before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two kings thou hast a horror of shall be forsaken. (those united against Judah)
(17) YHWH shall 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.' (Judah would be chastised severely through Assyria because of the wicked rule of Ahaz and other kings that forsook YHWH's Torah; however, Assyria would not be the end for Judah.)
(18) And it shall come to pass in that day, that YHWH shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
(19) And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the rugged valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all brambles.
(20) In that day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired in the parts beyond the River, even with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also sweep away the beard.
(21) And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall rear a young cow, and two sheep;
(22) and it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give, he shall eat curd; for curd and honey shall every one eat that is left in the midst of the land.
(23) And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, shall even be for briers and thorns.
(24) With arrows and with bow shall one come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns.
(25) And all the hills that were digged with the mattock, thou shalt not come thither for fear of briers and thorns, but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of sheep.
Isaiah 8
(1) And YHWH said unto me: 'Take thee a great tablet, and write upon it in common script: The spoil speedeth, the prey hasteth; (2) and I will take unto Me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.'
(3) And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bore a son. Then said YHWH unto me: 'Call his name Maher-shalal-hashbaz. (THIS IS THE FULFILLMENT OF 7:14!)
(4) For before the child shall have knowledge to cry: My father, and: My mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be carried away before the king of Assyria.' (repeat of 7:16, further proving this birth to be the fulfillment of Is. 7:14!)
(5) And YHWH spoke unto me yet again, saying:
(6) Forasmuch as this people hath refused the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoiceth with Rezin and Remaliah's son;
(7) Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the River, mighty and many, even the king of Assyria and all his glory; and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks;
(8) And he shall sweep through Judah overflowing as he passeth through he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel. (The use of this term (Immanuel) in 7:14 was part of the sign which was "God with us" during the time to soon come when Judah feels threatened from Assyria. Here the name is applied to Judah to insure that divine protection will be extended to it, which of course, it was at that time.)
There are several unambiguous facts seen in the context of these verses.
First, Isaiah is talking to King Ahaz of Judah and tells HIM (Ahaz) that the sign of a birth will be for HIM. This fact alone makes application of Isaiah 7:14 to the birth of Yehoshua impossible, since Ahaz was long dead by the time Yehoshua/Jesus was born; thus proving it is not a Messianic prophesy.
The ENTIRE context of these verses refer to the specific issue of the prophecy regarding what will happen to those that were plotting to destroy Judah, of which Ahaz was King. Even the term Immanuel, "God with us", was to assure Judah, as shown in 8:8, that YHWH would be "with them" during the time of trial that was to come when Syria and Israel strove against Judah and Assyria invaded. Only a few verses after Isaiah 7:14, in verse 8:3, we probably see the birth he was speaking of in Is. 7:14. It was a birth of a son to Isaiah and his young wife.
Furthermore, even the term "virgin" would apply to the prophetess if the information shown earlier regarding the use of almah to mean "a young woman" (i.e., "sexually mature female of marriageable age, which may or may not be sexually active") is considered.
Thus, the context is clear that the "virgin" (young woman) was probably
Isaiah's wife, the "prophetess", mentioned in Is. 8:3. This is crystal
clear when bias is removed and the Scripture is actually allowed
to speak for itself. The newborn child being prophesied
was for THAT PARTICULAR TIMEFRAME as a sign to Ahaz. The prophecy
was NOT for a timeframe 700 years after Ahaz was dead. Yehoshua/Jesus was
born about 700 years after this prophecy!
Mahershalalhashbaz
from the Hebrew
4122 Maher Shalal Chash Baz mah-hare' shaw-lawl' khawsh baz
= Maher-shalal-hash-baz "swift is booty, speedy is prey"
1) symbolic name given by Isaiah by the Lord's direction to Isaiah's
son; prophetic indication that Damascus and Samaria were soon to be
plundered by the king of Assyria
Additionally, Isaiah 7:16 and 8:4 are almost identical, proving them to reference the same event, which was that while the newborn son of Isaiah was yet young, the prophecy would be accomplished, which was that God would eliminate the threat posed to Ahaz by the combined efforts of Ephraim and Damascus. This provides further evidence that the birth foretold as a sign TO AHAZ was fulfilled by the birth of Isaiah's newborn son with the prophetess (Isaiah's wife) as the mother.
The common sense context is clear. The ONLY way Isaiah 7:14 can be a Messianic verse referring to Yehoshua is to completely rip it free of the clear context in which it resides. The ONLY evidence that this is a Messianic prophecy is the evidence supplied by Constantinian Christian tradition and probable scribal manipulation of the Gospels.Isaiah 7 (RSV)
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.
|