Yesaya 7:11

7:11 “Ask for a confirming sign from the Lord your God. You can even ask for something miraculous.” ¹ 

Yesaya 7:14

7:14 For this reason the sovereign master himself will give you a confirming sign. ²  Look, this ³  young woman ⁴  is about to conceive ⁵  and will give birth to a son. You, young woman, will name him ⁶  Immanuel. ⁷ 

Yesaya 8:18

8:18 Look, I and the sons whom the Lord has given me ⁸  are reminders and object lessons ⁹  in Israel, sent from the Lord who commands armies, who lives on Mount Zion.

Yesaya 19:20

19:20 It ¹⁰  will become a visual reminder in the land of Egypt of ¹¹  the Lord who commands armies. When they cry out to the Lord because of oppressors, he will send them a deliverer and defender ¹²  who will rescue them.

Yesaya 20:3

20:3 Later the Lord explained, “In the same way that my servant Isaiah has walked around in undergarments and barefoot for the past three years, as an object lesson and omen pertaining to Egypt and Cush,

Yesaya 37:30

37:30 ¹³ “This will be your reminder that I have spoken the truth: ¹⁴  This year you will eat what grows wild, ¹⁵  and next year ¹⁶  what grows on its own. But the year after that ¹⁷  you will plant seed and harvest crops; you will plant vines and consume their produce. ¹⁸ 

Yesaya 38:7

38:7 Isaiah replied, ¹⁹  “This is your sign from the Lord confirming that the Lord will do what he has said:

Yesaya 38:22

38:22 Hezekiah said, “What is the confirming sign that I will go up to the Lord’s temple?”

Yesaya 55:13

55:13 Evergreens will grow in place of thorn bushes,

firs will grow in place of nettles;

they will be a monument to the Lord, ²⁰ 

a permanent reminder that will remain. ²¹ 

Yesaya 66:19

66:19 I will perform a mighty act among them ²²  and then send some of those who remain to the nations – to Tarshish, Pul, ²³  Lud ²⁴  (known for its archers ²⁵ ), Tubal, Javan, ²⁶  and to the distant coastlands ²⁷  that have not heard about me or seen my splendor. They will tell the nations of my splendor.

[7:11]  ¹ tn Heb “Make it as deep as Sheol or make it high upwards.” These words suggest that Ahaz can feel free to go beyond the bounds of ordinary human experience.

[7:14]  ² tn The Hebrew term אוֹת (’ot, “sign”) can refer to a miraculous event (see v. 11), but it does not carry this sense inherently. Elsewhere in Isaiah the word usually refers to a natural occurrence or an object/person vested with special significance (see 8:18; 19:20; 20:3; 37:30; 55:13; 66:19). Only in 38:7-8, 22 does it refer to a miraculous deed that involves suspending or overriding natural laws. The sign outlined in vv. 14-17 involves God’s providential control over events and their timing, but not necessarily miraculous intervention.

[7:14]  ³ tn Heb “the young woman.” The Hebrew article has been rendered as a demonstrative pronoun (“this”) in the translation to bring out its force. It is very likely that Isaiah pointed to a woman who was present at the scene of the prophet’s interview with Ahaz. Isaiah’s address to the “house of David” and his use of second plural forms suggests other people were present, and his use of the second feminine singular verb form (“you will name”) later in the verse is best explained if addressed to a woman who is present.

[7:14]  ⁴ tn Traditionally, “virgin.” Because this verse from Isaiah is quoted in Matt 1:23 in connection with Jesus’ birth, the Isaiah passage has been regarded since the earliest Christian times as a prophecy of Christ’s virgin birth. Much debate has taken place over the best way to translate this Hebrew term, although ultimately one’s view of the doctrine of the virgin birth of Christ is unaffected. Though the Hebrew word used here (עַלְמָה, ’almah) can sometimes refer to a woman who is a virgin (Gen 24:43), it does not carry this meaning inherently. The word is simply the feminine form of the corresponding masculine noun עֶלֶם (’elem, “young man”; cf. 1 Sam 17:56; 20:22). The Aramaic and Ugaritic cognate terms are both used of women who are not virgins. The word seems to pertain to age, not sexual experience, and would normally be translated “young woman.” The LXX translator(s) who later translated the Book of Isaiah into Greek sometime between the second and first century b.c., however, rendered the Hebrew term by the more specific Greek word παρθένος (parqenos), which does mean “virgin” in a technical sense. This is the Greek term that also appears in the citation of Isa 7:14 in Matt 1:23. Therefore, regardless of the meaning of the term in the OT context, in the NT Matthew’s usage of the Greek term παρθένος clearly indicates that from his perspective a virgin birth has taken place.

[7:14]  ⁵ tn Elsewhere the adjective הָרָה (harah), when used predicatively, refers to a past pregnancy (from the narrator’s perspective, 1 Sam 4:19), to a present condition (Gen 16:11; 38:24; 2 Sam 11:5), and to a conception that is about to occur in the near future (Judg 13:5, 7). (There is some uncertainty about the interpretation of Judg 13:5, 7, however. See the notes to those verses.) In Isa 7:14 one could translate, “the young woman is pregnant.” In this case the woman is probably a member of the royal family. Another option, the one followed in the present translation, takes the adjective in an imminent future sense, “the young woman is about to conceive.” In this case the woman could be a member of the royal family, or, more likely, the prophetess with whom Isaiah has sexual relations shortly after this (see 8:3).

[7:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “and you will call his name.” The words “young lady” are supplied in the translation to clarify the identity of the addressee. The verb is normally taken as an archaic third feminine singular form here, and translated, “she will call.” However the form (קָרָאת, qara’t) is more naturally understood as second feminine singular, in which case the words would be addressed to the young woman mentioned just before this. In the three other occurrences of the third feminine singular perfect of I קָרָא (qara’, “to call”), the form used is קָרְאָה (qar’ah; see Gen 29:35; 30:6; 1 Chr 4:9). A third feminine singular perfect קָרָאת does appear in Deut 31:29 and Jer 44:23, but the verb here is the homonym II קָרָא (“to meet, encounter”). The form קָרָאת (from I קָרָא, “to call”) appears in three other passages (Gen 16:11; Isa 60:18; Jer 3:4 [Qere]) and in each case is second feminine singular.

[7:14]  ⁷ sn The name Immanuel means “God [is] with us.”

[8:18]  ⁸ sn This refers to Shear-jashub (7:3) and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (8:1, 3).

[8:18]  ⁹ tn Or “signs and portents” (NAB, NRSV). The names of all three individuals has symbolic value. Isaiah’s name (which meant “the Lord delivers”) was a reminder that the Lord was the nation’s only source of protection; Shear-jashub’s name was meant, at least originally, to encourage Ahaz (see the note at 7:3), and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz’s name was a guarantee that God would defeat Israel and Syria (see the note at 8:4). The word מוֹפֶת (mofet, “portent”) can often refer to some miraculous event, but in 20:3 it is used, along with its synonym אוֹת (’ot, “sign”) of Isaiah’s walking around half-naked as an object lesson of what would soon happen to the Egyptians.

[19:20]  ¹⁰ tn The masculine noun מִזְבֵּחַ (mizbbeakh, “altar”) in v. 19 is probably the subject of the masculine singular verb הָיָה (hayah) rather than the feminine noun מַצֵּבָה (matsevah, “sacred pillar”), also in v. 19.

[19:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a sign and a witness to the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts] in the land of Egypt.”

[19:20]  ¹² tn רָב (rav) is a substantival participle (from רִיב, riv) meaning “one who strives, contends.”

[37:30]  ¹³ tn At this point the word concerning the king of Assyria (vv. 22-29) ends and the Lord again addresses Hezekiah and the people directly (see v. 21).

[37:30]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and this is your sign.” In this case the אוֹת (’ot, “sign”) is a future reminder of God’s intervention designated before the actual intervention takes place. For similar “signs” see Exod 3:12 and Isa 7:14-25.

[37:30]  ¹⁵ sn This refers to crops that grew up on their own (that is, without cultivation) from the seed planted in past years.

[37:30]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and in the second year” (so ASV).

[37:30]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in the third year” (so KJV, NAB).

[37:30]  ¹⁸ tn The four plural imperatival verb forms in v. 30b are used rhetorically. The Lord commands the people to plant, harvest, etc. to emphasize the certainty of restored peace and prosperity.

[38:7]  ¹⁹ tn The words “Isaiah replied” are supplied in the translation for clarification. In the present form of the Hebrew text v. 7 is joined directly to v. 6, but vv. 21-22, if original to Isaiah 38, must be inserted here. See 2 Kgs 20:7-8.

[55:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “to the Lord for a name.” For שֵׁם (shem) used in the sense of “monument,” see also 56:5, where it stands parallel to יָד (yad).

[55:13]  ²¹ tn Or, more literally, “a permanent sign that will not be cut off.”

[66:19]  ²² tn Heb “and I will set a sign among them.” The precise meaning of this statement is unclear. Elsewhere “to set a sign” means “perform a mighty act” (Ps 78:43; Jer 32:20), “make [someone] an object lesson” (Ezek 14:8), and “erect a [literal] standard” (Ps 74:4).

[66:19]  ²³ tn Some prefer to read “Put” (i.e., Libya).

[66:19]  ²⁴ sn That is, Lydia (in Asia Minor).

[66:19]  ²⁵ tn Heb “drawers of the bow” (KJV and ASV both similar).

[66:19]  ²⁶ sn Javan is generally identified today as Greece (so NIV, NCV, NLT).

[66:19]  ²⁷ tn Or “islands” (NIV).