Isaiah 7:14

the Lord, of His own, shall give you a sign He will give you a sign by Himself, against Your will.

is with child This is actually the future, as we find concerning Manoah’s wife, that the angel said to her (Judges 13:3): “And you shall conceive and bear a son,” and it is written, “Behold, you are with child and shall bear a son.”

the young woman My wife will conceive this year. This was the fourth year of Ahaz.

and she shall call his name Divine inspiration will rest upon her.

Immanuel [lit. God is with us. That is] to say that our Rock shall be with us, and this is the sign, for she is a young girl, and she never prophesied, yet in this instance, Divine inspiration shall rest upon her. This is what is stated below (8:3): “And I was intimate with the prophetess, etc.,” and we do not find a prophet’s wife called a prophetess unless she prophesied. Some interpret this as being said about Hezekiah, but it is impossible, because, when you count his years, you find that Hezekiah was born nine years before his father’s reign. And some interpret that this is the sign, that she was a young girl and incapable of giving birth.

Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a young woman shall conceive, and bear a son, and she shall call His name Immanuel.

Therefore the Lord himself etc. Though you do not ask a sign, He will give it you. It is to me a matter of surprise that there are those who say the prophet here refers to Jesus, since the sign was given to Ahaz, and Jesus was born many years afterwards; besides, the prophet says, For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land shall be forsaken; but the countries of Ephraim and Syria were wasted in the sixth year of Hezekiah, and it is distinctly said of whose two kings, etc. Many make the mistake of identifying Immanuel with Hezekiah; they cannot be the same, granting even this prophecy to have been uttered at the beginning of the reign of Ahaz; he reigned only sixteen years, and Hezekiah was at the death of Ahaz twenty-five years old. According to others, Immanuel is another son of Ahaz, and others again take the names (Immanuel, Maher Shalal and Shear Yashub) as symbolical of the kingdom; but if so, what meaning would be in the child’s knowing good and evil and in Maher Shalal calling father and mother? (8:4). I think that Immanuel is the son of Isaiah, as well as Maher Shalal; the latter is proved by And I went unto the prophetess, etc. (8:3). Shear Yashub is similarly related to the prophet (ver. 3); each of the three sons received a name that contained some hint at future events; Immanuel implied that God would help them and be with them during the troubles caused by the two kings; Maher Shalal, that the time for the exile of Samaria had arrived; and Shear Yashub, that the remnant of Israel would repent; this explanation is well borne out by the words, Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me, are for signs and for wonders. Comp. The children which the Lord hath graciously given to thy servant (Gen. 33:5). Those that in the former passage regard children as equivalent to pupils must produce us some analogy from Scripture. Isaiah himself was a sign and an example concerning Egypt (20:3).—The Gaon says that the sign consisted in the child being a male child; but in my opinion the sign was that the child was to eat butter and honey; for it is not usual that children eat these things immediately after their birth. after its birth.

"Therefore, the Lord will give you a sign," meaning, since you do not want to ask for a sign from Him — even though He is our God, and there is none besides Him — He will give you the sign on His own, without you needing to request it. Pay attention to the fact that it says "sign" (אות) and not "miracle" (נס), "wonder" (פלא), or "portent" (מופת). This is because God was not going to perform an extraordinary, supernatural miracle for Ahaz and his people, given that they had not requested one. Without a request, Ahaz did not merit an exceptional miracle. If he would be saved from the kings of Aram and Israel, it would be due to the merit of his son Hezekiah, his ancestors, and the merit of Jerusalem itself. That salvation would be sufficient, without the need for additional signs, wonders, or great miracles. Thus, the prophet says, "The Lord will give you a sign" — meaning a symbolic sign to ensure the prophecy is not forgotten. I believe this sign could be understood in one of two ways: The sign is what Isaiah says next: "Behold, the young woman is pregnant and will bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel." This could mean that Ahaz's wife, or perhaps his beloved daughter, was at the beginning of her pregnancy — possibly something Ahaz did not yet know. The prophet revealed that she was pregnant and would bear a son, and of her own accord, she would name him Immanuel. This would serve as a sign that God would be with Ahaz, aiding and saving him from these kings. Rashi interpreted "the young woman" as referring to the prophet’s own wife, and the sign would be that she would give birth to a son and name him Immanuel, signaling divine assistance and deliverance. However, this interpretation is difficult, since the text refers to her as "the young woman" (עלמה), not "the prophetess" (נביאה) — as she is later called in Isaiah 8:3. Therefore, it makes more sense to interpret the "young woman" as Ahaz’s wife or daughter.