Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lewis Reich" <lewreich AT javanet.com>]

On 29 Oct 99, at 22:16, Ken Litwak wrote:

> a) almah cannot mean virgin or that no reader would have guessed that in
> Isa 7:14 it meant that.

Even if almah did mean virgin you'd have to show that the meaning 
of the text wasn't:

behold this [young woman who is now a] virgin will [marry and then] 
become pregnant and give birth to a son, 

but instead was:

behold a virgin [sometime in the future] will [without having lost her 
virginal status] become pregnant and give birth to a son.


Lewis Reich