Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ian Hutchesson" <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

Dear Harold,

>Delitzsch, in his commentary on Isaiah, says the following:
>
>Isa 6:14 "Therefore the Lord, He will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin
>conceives, and bears a son, and calls his name Immanuel.
>
>. . . Moreover, the condition of pregnancy, which is here designated by the
>participial adjective HFRFH ("conceives") (cf. 2 Sam 11:5), was not an
>already existing one in this instance, but (as in all probability also in
>Judg 13:5, cf. 4) something future,

Ex 21:22

   When people who are fighting injure a pregnant woman [y$h hrh]
   so that there is a miscarriage...

I don't see much difference here between the hrh in y$h hrh of Ex 21:22 and
in h`lmh hrh of Is 7:14 -- one is an attribute, the other a predicate
(Bathsheba's letter to David, 2 Sam 11:5, has it as a predicate, "I'm
pregnant", and I don't think she's talking in the future) --, and I don't
think there was any chance of the woman in Ex 21:22 conceiving between the
injury and the miscarriage.

   Behold the woman is pregnant and shall bear a son...

>as well as the act of bearing, since
>HIN."H ("behold") is always used by Isaiah to introduce a future
occurrence.

The future occurrence is in v14b-16, especially v16, "For before the child
knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land... will be
deserted."

This is naturally only my humble personal view on the matter. I am only
working from what I can deduce from the traces in the OT/HB. I should
probably defer to experience.


Ian