ramoss writes:
Second of all, if you read the passages in surround this line, you can see that isaiah identifies the young woman as 'the prophetess' (see Isaiah 8:3)
i don't agree that the child is necessarily isaiah's son. for one, the clock has shortened. note that isaha 7 says,
quote:
כִּי בְּטֶרֶם יֵדַע הַנַּעַר, מָאֹס בָּרָע--וּבָחֹר בַּטּוֹב
which is a little more than just saying "no", but knowledge of right and wrong. that would signify, in my opinion, a child just reaching the age of adulthood -- 12 or 13. yet isaiah 8 says,
quote:
כִּי, בְּטֶרֶם יֵדַע הַנַּעַר, קְרֹא, אָבִי וְאִמִּי
being able cry "abi! ami!" is much, much younger. yet these verse are phrased almost exactly the same. if we look at the time between israel and aram waging war against judah (the reason isaiah spoke to ahaz) in 732 BCE, and the destruction israel at the hands of assyria in 720 BCE, you get 12-13 years, the time frame from isaiah 7. yet isaiah 8 is pointing to the same event, with a shorter timeframe.
proto-isaiah seems to have a chiastic structure from chapters 7-11. like so:
- 7: isaiah takes his son, "a remnant will return" with him to meet ahaz
- 7: "god is with us" named as a child
- 8: "hasten for spoil, hurry for plunder" named as a child; "god is with us" meant as judgement (8:8.10)
- 9: "wonderful councilor, mighty judge, everlasting father, prince of peace", davidic/messianic connotations; the child will lead the government
- 10: assyria invades israel (the judgement), takes "spoil" and "plunder" (10:6)
- 11: the "shoot of jesse", again clearly davidic/messianic
- 11: a "remnant" will be recovered by god (11:11)
basically, because of the structure, and the different dates for the prophecies, i think that 7, 9, and 11 are the same child, where 8 and 10 are talking about a different child. 9 and 11 both clearly have davidic language; that child is the next king. and i think based on the context, the child in 7 is as well.
i would say that the young woman is abijah, ahaz's wife, and the child is hezekiah. my understanding is that this is a fairly traditional jewish view as well. the
doctoral thesis i linked up above makes a good case for this.
He confirms that, by saying in Isaiah 8:18 that he and his sons are the signs from God.
to be sure, isaiah has two children who are mentioned in chapters 7 (mirrored in 11) and 8 (mirrored in 10). i think immanuel is a
third child, that isn't his. maybe. it's sort of mysterious that, in the verse directly preceding the one where he has sex with a prophetess, he mentions zechariah, which is probably abijah's father.
אָרַח