'Almah' Means 'Virgin': The Masoretic Text Vindicated in Isaiah 7:14
'Almah' is closely related to 'alam', meaning 'to hide'
1) The accusation
The prime evidence offered against the received Hebrew text by those who prefer the Septuagint is Isaiah 7:14, where it is said: “The virgin will be with child and bear a son;” in Hebrew: הִנֵּה הָעַלְמָה, הָרָה וְיֹלֶדֶת בֵּן.
The word עַלְמָה (almah) means virgin.
Jews and their rabbis who reject Christ, however, claim that עַלְמָה (almah) merely means a young woman, and that actually, בְּתוּלָה (betulah) should be used instead if Isaiah wanted to reference a virgin. Those adhering to Judaism like to argue that, because Isaiah used עַלְמָה (almah), a virgin isn't necessarily implied.
Because Protestants use the Hebrew text, thus we've been influenced by Judaism, whereas we should prefer the Septuagint (the logic goes), which (correctly) gives us παρθένος for virgin.
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2) Almah does mean “Virgin”
The truth though is that עַלְמָה (almah) does mean virgin. (At this point, I wish to highlight that the letter עַ is commonly today transcribed with a Latin a, but during the Reformation, it was more common to see it rendered gn, so you will see both almah and gnalmah in this article as renderings of עַלְמָה).
John Calvin has an excellent observation on Isaiah 7:14, saying:
“The word עלמה (gnalmah) a virgin, is derived from עלם (gnalam) which signifies to hide, because the shame and modesty of virgins does not allow them to appear in public.”
Similarly, Edward Leigh (Critica Sacra, 1662: P1 p.173):
“The word [עלמה: gnalmah] comes from gnalam which signifies to hide and keep close, and so it signifies one that is kept close and hidden. It is used seven times in Scripture, and three times it hath He demonstrative, as they call it, namely: in Esther 7 and Genesis 24:43, where it is translated the maid, and signifies not only her age, but condition, that she was unmarried, and also Exodus 2:8, Psalm 68:25, Song of Solomon 1:3, and 6:8, and Proverbs 30:16."
The connection between a virgin (עלמה: almah) and her hiddenness (עלם: alam) is natural and logical. Her intimacy is hidden from all men until she is given to her husband; and physically, she is in a sense closed, until she opens for her husband.
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3) Rashi’s Claim that ‘Almah’ Here Means Isaiah’s Wife Disproven
I checked the commentary of the Jews, and Rashi (Rabbi Solomon Jarchi) says on Isaiah 7:14 that Isaiah meant (emphasis mine): “אשתי הרה השנה הזאת והיא היתה שנת ד' לאחז:” “My wife will conceive this year,” which is ridiculous, because an עַלְמָה cannot be an אִשָּׁה or wife. If it did naturally translate to such, Rashi would have easily been able to make reference to it from elsewhere in Scripture.
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4) Kimchi’s Claim that ‘Almah’ Does Not Mean ‘Virgin’ Disproven
A more weighty Judaic authority on language would be Rabbi David Kimchi (Radak), whose linguistic insights were respected by the Reformers.
In his commentary on Isaiah, Kimchi claims that עלמה may or may not mean a virgin. Yet in his Sefer HaShorashim (or Book of Hebrew Roots), Kimchi claims that the almah cannot be a virgin because Proverbs 30:20 references an adulterous woman (אִשָּׁ֗ה), whereas Proverbs 30:19 references the almah, therefore it must be the almah who was adulterous. Kimchi wrote: “כן וְדֶרֶךְ גֶּבֶר בְּעַלְמָֽה (משלי ל, יט), לא יתכן לפרש בתולה כי אמר אחריו כן דרך אִשָּׁה מְנָאפֶת אכלה ומחתה פיה ואמרה לא פעלתי און.”
Let us look at the verses in question:
18 There be three things which are too wonderful for me,
yea, four which I know not:
19 the way of an eagle in the air;
the way of a serpent upon a rock;
the way of a ship in the midst of the sea;
and the way of a man with a maid (עַלְמָֽה).
20 Such is the way of an adulterous woman (אִשָּׁ֗ה);
she eateth, and wipeth her mouth,
and saith, I have done no wickedness.
The point of Proverbs 30:19 rather is that a man will seek to deflower a virgin עַלְמָה, and this is wicked. So clearly עַלְמָה is a virgin.
Here is Matthew Henry’s commentary:
“The cursed arts which a vile adulterer has to debauch a maid, and to persuade her to yield to his wicked and abominable lust.”
Matthew Poole:
“The various methods and artifices which young men use to entice or persuade young virgins, either to honest love and marriage, or to unlawful lust and uncleanness. Or rather, the impure conversation of a man with one who goeth under the name of a maid, but is not so in truth.”
Clearly, the adulterous woman of verse 20 belongs to a separate proverb. In verse 19, a woman is acted upon, and is an almah. In verse 20, a woman acts — adulterously — and she is ishah.
So Kimchi, in order to deny the obvious meaning of the almah as a virgin, has to make the virgin of Proverbs 30:19 a non-virgin, which ruins the point of the passage, in which the wicked, plotting man is compared to a serpent, and ruins innocence, by dishonestly conflating the almah with the wicked ishah of the following verse.
Revealingly, Kimchi himself sees the connection between the almah and the Hebrew root ayin-lamed-mem (ע-ל-ם), writing (emphasis mine):
"לַם דָּבָר (ויקרא ד, יג), וְֽנֶעֶלְמָה מֵֽעֵינֵי כָל־חָי (איוב כח, כא), תְּהִי נַֽעֲלָמָה (נחום ג, יא), כלומר כאילו לא היית על דרך וְשָׁתוּ וְלָעוּ וְהָיוּ כְּלוֹא הָיֽוּ (עבדיה א, טז)." - "And the thing be hidden (וְנֶעְלַם - Leviticus 4:13), and it is hid from the eyes of all living (וְנֶעֶלְמָה - Job 28:21), thou shalt be hid (נַעֲלָמָה - Nahum 3:11), meaning as if you were not, as in: 'they shall drink and swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been' (Obadiah 1:16)."
As much as Kimchi can relate the root עלם to hiddenness, he won't make the obvious connection between and עַלְמָה and virginity because of the obvious fulfilment in Jesus Christ, which would destroy Kimchi's rabbinic Judaism.
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5) The Meaning of ‘Almah’ as ‘Virgin’ Confirmed by Jerome
Jerome (Prologus Galeatus) was emphatic that his Vulgate translation corresponded to the Hebrew text of Scripture:
“And when you understand something of which you were before ignorant, reckon me a translator if you are grateful, or a paraphraser if ungrateful, although I am not in the least conscious of having deviated from the Hebrew original. At all events, if you are incredulous, read the Greek and Latin manuscripts and compare them with these poor efforts of mine, and wherever you see they disagree, ask some Hebrew in whom you can have more faith, and if he confirm our view, I suppose you will not think him a soothsayer and suppose that he and I have, in rendering the same passage, divined alike.”
His translation of Isaiah 7:14 reads (emphasis mine):
Propter hoc dabit Dominus ipse vobis signum: ecce virgo concipiet, et pariet filium, et vocabitur nomen ejus Emmanuel.
In the 1899 American edition of the Douai-Rheims Bible — a translation into English of Jerome’s Latin Vulgate — we read:
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel.
Thus Jerome clearly took עַלְמָה to mean virgin, in accordance with the Hebrew that he learned through Jewish converts to Christianity.
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6) The Confessional Text Position is Upheld
Essentially, a Jewish rabbi had to destroy the sense of Proverbs 30:19 in order to keep his twisted understanding of one Hebrew word in Isaiah 7:14, and those who dislike the Masoretic Text unwittingly hand over God's Word in Hebrew entirely to that rabbi.
But I believe that by God’s grace, there is a better way to go.
Here is a sound syllogism for Confessional Text Position advocates that has been amply proven in this article:
If עַלְמָה does indeed mean virgin, then clearly our Masoretic Text has not been corrupted in this place.
עַלְמָה means virgin.
Therefore our Masoretic Text is vindicated on Isaiah 7:14.