Really, I'd like to hear the answer

The question needs to be asked IF there was any fulfillment of the prophecy according to that concerning the time frame of Ahaz's life or is it just another reference to his reign being likened to that of Herod?

Like already established, for Bible believers anyway, that almah always means a virgin.

 

My point is/was that the Hebrews who translated the LXX (Greek) two or three centuries before the coming of Christ used the word parthenos.

This means that they believed that Isaiah was not speaking of just a young girl but a virgin in the sexual sense of the word.

HankD

 

Here's my take on the verse.

In the OT the emphasis isn't on "a virgin" but on "a sign".

The threat:

“Let us go up against Judah and terrorize it, and make for ourselves a breach in its walls and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,”
Isaiah 7:6 NASB95

The fear:

• The destruction of Judah
• The end of God’s chosen people

The promise:

“...within another 65 years Ephraim will be shattered, so that it is no longer a people."
Isaiah 7:8 NASB95

The sign:

• the maiden (virgin) will be with child
• will call his name Immanuel
• before he knows good from evil (3 – 4 years old) Aram (Damascus) and Ephraim (Samaria) will be nothing.

The fulfillment:

• She conceived
• “before the boy knows how to cry out ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ Damascus and Samaria will be taken captive”
• “And the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.” (8:8)
• “For God is with us.” (8:10)

Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.
Isaiah 8:18 NASB95

Continuing threat/fear:

• God’s chosen are lost in sin
• Destruction of God’s chosen people

Continuing promise:

“Immanuel, God with us”

The sign:

Virgin (Greek) with child
"God with us"

The ultimate fulfillment:

“BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which translated means, “GOD WITH US.”
Matthew 1:23 NASB95

Rob

 

Are you now saying that God tempted men to look for a sign? isn't it still, and then, a wicked and perverse generation which seeketh after a sign?

The EMPHASIS is on the miraculous conception, that of the Holy Ghost's inception of a virgin. The "SIGN" is the miracle.

 

Better research the use of the latter "a" a wee bit deeper. It may be considered an indefinite article, but it also denotes the first and one of a kind in singularity.

The letter "a" has one of the longest definitions of ALL English words.

 

From Webster's 1828 dictionary- (emphasis mine)

A has in English, three sounds; the long or slender, as in place, fate; the broad, as in wall, fall, which is shortened in salt, what; and the open, as in father, glass, which is shortened in rather, fancy. Its primitive sound was probably aw. A is also an abbreviation used before words beginning with an articulation; as a table, instead of an table, or one table. This is a modern change.