Biblical Hebrew Forum

["David Kummerow" <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>]

For me, one of the more convincing potential positions regarding the 
referent of the 'almah is put forward in:

Rice, Gene. "A Neglected Interpretation of the Immanuel Prophecy." ZAW 90 
(1978): 220-227.

This is taken up in the popular commentary of Barry Webb and also in his 
essay, "Zion in Transformation: A Literary Approach to Isaiah," in _The 
Bible in Three Dimensions: Essays in Celebration of Forty Years of Biblical 
Studies in the University of Sheffield_ (ed. D.J.A. Clines et al; JSOTSS 87; 
Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1990), 82.

To quote Webb (p.82): "Given the situation (Jerusalem beset by foes, 7.1) 
and the fact that Isaiah is pointedly told to take his son Shear-jashub ('a 
remnant shall return') as he goes to confront the faithless Ahaz (7.2), 
there can be little doubt that 7.14 refers metaphorically to the emergance 
of a faithful remnant. The young woman who is about to give birth is Zion. 
Her son, symbolically called Immanuel, is the small community of believers 
who gather around the prophet, his 'disciples' or 'children' (8.16-18). They 
are the remnant in the immediate sense anticipated by the name Shear-jashub. 
They are the ones who have returned in repentance to the Lord."

Regards,

David Kummerow.