The whole discussion about the word 'bethulah' in Isaiah with plenty of citations is given by a bible scholar here:
Matthew 1:23 quotes the 2nd century BC(E) Greek Septuagint text of
Isaiah 7:14: The
virgin shall be with child
and shall bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanu-El. The Greek word for "virgin" in both the Greek Septuagint and Matthew is
parthenos, which means a virgin female.
The Hebrew word in
Isaiah 7:14 is
almah. This rare noun (used 7x in Hebrew Bible) signifies a young woman, a girl, or an unmarried maiden (Gen 24:43; Exod 2:8; Isa 7:14; Ps 68:26; Prov 30:19; Song 1:3; 6:8). The focus of
almah is on youth, not virginity.
The verbal root of the noun
almah [
alam] often means to be concealed, hidden, or covered. For example, God
hides his eyes from looking on the sins of his people (Isa 1:15). God
hides certain facts from his prophet (
2 Kings 4:27). And the psalmist asks why God
hides himself in times of trouble (Ps 10:1).
Moses' sister, Miryam, is an
almah or "girl" (Exod 2:8) who followed her brother's basket-ark down the Nile. The Bible doesn't say how much older she was than Moses, but the story implies Miryam was not yet a teenager who had reached puberty. Presumably, she was a virgin, concealed by her family from inappropriate experiences before marriage.
Just after killing Goliath, the shepherd boy David is called an
elem, the masculine form of
almah (1 Sam 17:56). English Bibles render the word "young man, youth, young fellow, stripling [adolescent]." Whether the word, in the case of males, denotes virginity is not clear. But it connotes a measure of innocence or lack of adult experience, perhaps even in battle.
Twice, the Jewish translators who produced the Greek Septuagint (LXX) in the 2nd century BCE rendered
almah as
parthenos:
Gen 24:43 — Isaac's future wife Rebekah is "the maiden/virgin [Heb. ha'almah]"
Isa 7:14 — Isaiah's wife is "the maiden/virgin" [Heb. ha'almah]
In the five other occurences of almah the LXX translators used
neanis (young girl) (Exod 2:8; Ps 68:26; Prov 30:19; Song 1:3; 6:8).
At Isa 7:14 the Great Isaiah Scroll (pictured at top) reads
ha'almah harah, "the maiden has conceived" or "shall conceive" [prophetic perfect]:
Who is the Almah in Isaiah 7:14?
Full discussion of this prophecy about the Almah who will bear a son is beyond the scope of this word study. But its wider context is noteworthy.
Isaiah's wife gives him two sons with symbolic, prophetic names (Isa 7:3 Shear-Yashuv; 8:3 Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz). Perhaps the
almah in 7:14 who bears the son named Immanu-El is also Isaiah's wife, though the one definition for almah of
unmarried female does not apply to her. The text says she was a "prophetess" (
nevi'ah, 8:3): a declarer of the word of God, and her sons were prophetic signs or messages to Israel.
If Isaiah's wife is the
almah in 7:14, her son Immanu-El was
not born to a virgin mother.
Of course, Isaiah may have been describing
another almah, who was indeed a
betulah. Her giving birth to a son would indeed be a miracle "sign" (
ot). But the prophecy here doesn't make her identity clear. This is why commentators still differ about the meaning of almah in this passage.
