In 1976 the Good News Translation became the first major translation to depart from translating Isaiah 7:14 as “virgin”, but more importantly also in making the change from “will conceive” to “has conceived”, “is pregnant”:
Isaiah 7:14 Well then, the Lord himself will give you a sign: a young woman who is pregnant will have a son and will name him “Immanuel.’ (Good News 1976)
Many people noted the change of the verse that is quoted by Matthew, and therefore all Christians since, which refers to a child at the time of Ahaz and Isaiah (see Isaiah 7, also 8:8 and 9:6) but Matthew and early Christians saw as foreshadow and type of Jesus.
Then also when the Jewish Publication Society of America revised their English translation of the Tanakh (the Hebrew Old Testament) in 1985 they did the same.
- Hebrew 7:14 לָכֵן יִתֵּן אֲדֹנָי הוּא לָכֶם אוֹת הִנֵּה הָעַלְמָה הָרָה וְיֹלֶדֶת בֵּן וְקָרָאת שְׁמוֹ עִמָּנוּ אֵל׃
- JPS1917 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
- JPS1985 Assuredly, my Lord will give you a sign of His own accord! Look, the young woman is with child and about to give birth to a son. Let her name him Immanuel.
- LXX7:14 διὰ τοῦτο δώσει κύριος αὐτὸς ὑμῖν σημεῖον ἰδοὺ ἡ παρθένος ἐν γαστρὶ ἕξει καὶ τέξεται υἱόν καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Εμμανουηλ
This change is also found in some subsequent translations such as The Message and NRSV:
7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel (NRSV)
Though the majority of versions have stayed with the girl being a maiden and not being pregnant at the time of Isaiah’s words.
It needs to be said that the Hebrew adjective (הָרָה hare, pregnant) here is in itself ambiguous, since adjectives alone do not show tense, and could be read both ways. The verb “she shall give birth” (יֹלֶדֶת yeledet from the verb yalad) obviously is future. But the issue is that the word almah, meaning unmarried woman, means that if she was pregnant when Isaiah spoke then this would be a child conceived outside wedlock. So if she was actually pregnant when Isaiah refers to her as an almah she is not then married. If she were a married woman and Isaiah said “behold a married woman is pregnant and will give birth to a son”, the word almah would be very unusual. It also conflicts with the other non-maiden, non-almah, births described by Isaiah. And also against the legitimate, in wedlock, births in rest of the Old Testament.
Compare the language Isaiah uses regarding the parents of the three children: The first child Shear-jashub, meaning “A remnant shall return” (Isaiah 7:3),
7:3 But the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear-jashub to meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the Upper Pool, by the road of the Fuller’s Field. (JPS1985)
Then the second child Immanuel, meaning “God with us” (Isaiah 7:14)
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. (RSV)
Finally the third child Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, meaning, “Spoil quickly, plunder speedily” (Isaiah 8:3)
8:3 I was intimate with the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son; and the LORD said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz. (JPS1985)
The difference is quite clear. The first and third children are born [or to be born] of a wife, a married woman.
The resolution to this is context. It needs to be remembered that we are talking about a child who is a sign to the deaths of the two kings of Samaria and Damascus in Isaiah 7, and in Isaiah 8:8 it is his land that Assyria invades (not the land of Isaiah’s sons or a random and unmentioned unwed mother), and then most critically in Isaiah 9 the child graduates to be king and leader and saviour of Israel against the Assyrian invader in a passage which Matthew 4:13 again employs as a fore-type of Jesus. For Matthew’s Jewish readers the double usage of Isaiah 7 and 9 is clear. King Hezekiah was a foretype of Jesus.
For more on this see Does the New Testament apply Isaiah 9:6 to Jesus?
Under these circumstances the idea that Ahaz had got the high priest’s daughter Abi pregnant out of wedlock and then Hezekiah became a king conceived out of wedlock is too much. The marriage with the high priest’s daughter was part of Ahaz’ (somewhat forced) repentance and rehabilitation. It was also very likely an arranged marriage, in which Isaiah himself may have had a hand. What we are looking at in Isaiah 7:14 is not a statement about one of Ahaz’ many concubines, but part of Isaiah’s arrangements for a royal-priestly match to bear a suitable king.
Conclusion
So in fact the traditional translation “behold, the young woman shall conceive, and bear a son” is better, because it fits the context and common sense of what Isaiah is saying to Ahaz.
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