Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

Kenneth,

The situation in Isaiah 7:14 is crystal clear.

1. Since the Hebrew HA- is but a variant of the personal pronoun HU,  
HI, 'he, she', HA-ALMAH is surely in reference to a person on which  
the prophet and his listeners were in agreement as to her factual  
identity. Insofar as the prophet did not have you and me in mind at  
that time, he did not elaborate on the status of his ALMAH.

2. The fact that the prophet uses the bare form HARAH and not HA- 
HARAH is a clear indication  that the ALMAH was not yet known by the  
people of Jerusalem to be pregnant. If she had any difficulties  
conceiving, or the nation was just awaiting the good tidings is lost  
on us by the habitual brevity of the biblical text.

3. Now to the etymology of the word ALMAH. It is from the root (LM,  
'pile up, grow up, mature'. The presence of the letter L in the root  
indicates that it refers to an elevated material state. As a verb it  
means 'to cover up, to pile up upon, to wrap over', and hence by  
analogy 'to hide, to conceal'. The derived words (ELEM, and (ALMAH  
mean, to my understanding, correspondingly, a grown boy and a nubile  
girl. Likewise, (ALUMIM is 'the days of youth', as in Job 33:25. It  
is possible that HA-)ALMAH was in deferential use in the sense of Her  
Royal Highness.
(OLAM is the totality of the compiled creation.
The root )LM is a variant of the root (LM. Derived from this root are  
the words )ALUMAH, 'a pile or bundle of cut wheat, a sheaf' [in  
present day spoken Hebrew )ALUMAH is also 'beam, shaft', as in )ALUM- 
AT OR. 'a beam of light'], )ULAM, 'a large hall' and )ILEM, 'mute,  
tight, shut, coiled up, seized, overwhelmed, convulsed, inert, faint,  
unconscious'.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Jun 9, 2007, at 9:41 PM, kenneth greifer wrote:

> Peter,
>
>   You are right that I should have noticed the importance of "a" or  
> "the" in Isaiah 7:14 since I am interested in the idea that there  
> are mistakes in the messianic proof quotes. I don't see this as an  
> important "mistake" and I did not include it in my wacky internet  
> site where I list all of my strange ideas about what I think the  
> messianic proof quotes really say.
>
>   As an amateur crackpot trying to turn pro, I have put many of my  
> weird ideas into one place for people to look at them if they want to.
>
>   Sincerely,
>
>   Kenneth Greifer
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