Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Definite Article 7:14

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Harold Holmyard <hholmyard3 AT earthlink.net>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Definite Article 7:14
  • Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2007 19:39:39 -0500

Dear Kevin,
Does the prophecy really work with a generic young woman? If the child is
the sign, and it is specifically his age that is important as the end-point
of the prophecy, wouldn't we need to know which child, and therefore which
young woman?

HH: No, we don't need to know any specifics because the timing is in the identity of the woman and child. She is an "almah," a young woman, presumably a virgin, I think. She needs to get pregnant and have a child. That involves a certain temporal calculability, nine months. The rest of the immediate timing, or the first part of the prophecy that concerns the northern kingdom and Damascus, is given in the next two verses:

Is. 7:15 He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right.
Is. 7:16 But before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.

HH: So the boy has to grow up, but not to the point where he can discern good and evil. This is obviously not an exact timing, but it is in the ballpark of three to four years, perhaps: pregnancy plus two or more years of growth in the child. At age three we are teaching children right and wrong in Sunday school, and they can learn it.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page