Immanuel and the child who is born: Isaiah 7 to 9

Isaiah 7 to 9 comes from the reign of Ahaz of Judah, in the years around 735 to 732 BC. Two small neighbours, Aram (Syria), under King Rezin, and the northern kingdom of Israel, under King Pekah, had formed a coalition against the Assyrian empire. When Ahaz of Judah would not join, they marched on Jerusalem to remove him and put a puppet on the throne, 'the son of Tabeel' (7:6). The house of David was threatened with extinction by its own neighbours. The second book of Kings (chapter 16) tells the other side of the story: Ahaz sent silver and gold from the temple to the king of Assyria and asked for help.

Isaiah meets Ahaz at the end of the water channel of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washer's Field (7:3), perhaps while inspecting Jerusalem's water supply against a siege. The prophet brings his son Shear-jashub, whose name means 'a remnant will return'. Chapters 7 to 12 are sometimes called the Book of Immanuel, since the name comes up in 7:14, 8:8 and 8:10, and the child promised in 9:6-7 and the shoot of 11:1 belong to the same cluster of hope.

The date of these chapters is not widely disputed, since they are tied to events known from Kings and from Assyrian records. What scholars debate is how far the text was edited later: critical scholars often see layers added during the reign of Hezekiah or after the exile, while others hold that Isaiah himself arranged the material, perhaps by writing it down and sealing it, as 8:16 describes. Either way the chapters are meant to be read as a unit: three scenes in which Judah is offered trust in the LORD and chooses fear of the nations.

These chapters mix prophetic narrative (7:1-17; 8:1-4) with oracles in poetry. The text is dated, placed and addressed to specific people, so the first question is always what Ahaz and the people of Judah would have understood. The second is how the New Testament reads it, since Matthew quotes two passages from this section.

The key interpretive problem is the sign of 7:14. The Hebrew says that the almah will conceive, bear a son and call his name Immanuel, 'God with us'. Almah means a young woman of marriageable age; the definite article ('the' young woman) suggests someone in view. The more specific Hebrew word for virgin, bethulah, is not used here, but almah in the Old Testament describes women who are in fact unmarried (as in Genesis 24:43, Rebekah). The Greek translation made in the centuries before Christ rendered it parthenos, which can mean virgin. The word alone therefore does not settle the question, and the context has to be weighed. Verses 15 and 16 speak of a child who will be weaned within a few years, before which the two threatening kings will lose their lands, so the sign must have meaning for Ahaz's own day. At the same time, the sign is addressed to 'the house of David' (7:13), and the child returns in 9:6-7 on David's throne.

Three broad readings are held: a child born in Isaiah's day only (Hezekiah, a son of Isaiah, or another); a prediction of Christ alone; and a double fulfillment, in which a child born in Ahaz's time signals God's presence and is also a pattern pointing to the greater Immanuel. This class follows the third as the reading that best accounts for both the context and Matthew, and gives the others in the tradition note.

7:1-9. The danger is plain: Ahaz's heart and the people's hearts 'shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind'. Isaiah's message is not a plan but a command: be calm, do not fear. Rezin and Pekah are two smoking stumps of firewood, and their plan will not stand. The point of verse 9 turns on a wordplay in Hebrew: if you do not stand firm in faith, you will not stand at all. The two Hebrew verbs come from the same root as the word 'amen' (to be firm). Faith is the ground Judah must stand on.

7:10-17. The LORD offers Ahaz a sign, as large as he likes, 'as deep as Sheol or high as heaven'. Ahaz refuses with pious words: he will not test the LORD. This looks like humility, but in context it is a refusal of an open invitation, since he has already decided to rely on Assyria. Isaiah answers sharply and addresses the whole house of David: the LORD himself will give a sign. The child will eat curds and honey, the food of a land that has been emptied of agriculture, and before he can tell good from evil, the land of the two kings will be abandoned. The child is a sign of both judgment and presence. The name Immanuel is a statement of promise and also, as chapter 8 will show, a threat to those who rely on something other than God.

7:18-25. The hope is wrapped in warning. The LORD will whistle for Assyria, the very power Ahaz trusts, as a fly and a bee, and Assyria will be a hired razor that shaves the land. What Ahaz buys protection from will become the agent of judgment.

8:1-10. A second child is announced. Isaiah writes a large tablet and then fathers a son named Maher-shalal-hash-baz, 'swift is the plunder, speedy is the spoil', which tells that Damascus and Samaria will be plundered by Assyria before the child can say 'my father'. Because Judah despised the quiet waters of Shiloah, the slow stream from the spring that fed Jerusalem, the LORD will bring on them the mighty waters of the Euphrates, the king of Assyria. The flood will reach up to the neck of the land, and the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of the land, 'O Immanuel'. The land belongs to Immanuel. The chapter ends with a taunt: nations may plan, but their plans fail, 'for God is with us' (the same words as the name).

8:11-22. Isaiah is told not to call everything a conspiracy as the people do and not to fear what they fear. The LORD of Hosts is to be regarded as holy, and he will be a sanctuary to the faithful and 'a stone of stumbling' and a rock of offence to both houses of Israel (8:14). Isaiah then seals the testimony among his disciples (8:16), which pictures a faithful circle of disciples who preserve the words. He rejects mediums and spirits and appeals to 'the law and the testimony' (8:19-20). The chapter closes in distress and darkness.

9:1-7. In the Hebrew Bible this section starts one verse earlier (English 9:1 is Hebrew 8:23). The darkness lifts. Zebulun and Naphtali, the northern districts of Galilee that Assyria overran first in 732 BC (2 Kings 15:29), are those who will see a great light. The language of joy is that of harvest and of dividing plunder. The yoke and the rod of the oppressor are broken 'as on the day of Midian' (the victory of Gideon, Judges 7), and the soldier's boot and bloody garment are burned. The reason is given in verse 6: 'a child is born to us, a son is given to us.' The government rests on his shoulder, and he bears four names. Wonderful Counselor speaks of wisdom in rule. Mighty God (El Gibbor) uses a title that Isaiah uses for the LORD himself in 10:21. Everlasting Father (Avi Ad) pictures a ruler who cares for his people as a father, forever. Prince of Peace speaks of a reign whose peace has no end. His throne is David's, upheld with justice and righteousness. The chapter closes with a line that carries the entire hope: the zeal of the LORD of Hosts will do this.

The passage teaches that God keeps his covenant with David even when David's heir is faithless. Ahaz is a poor king, yet the line is preserved, because God had sworn to David (2 Samuel 7). The Immanuel theme means that God's presence is not an automatic comfort. In Exodus and Psalms, his presence saves his people. In chapter 8 it threatens those who depend on someone else.

The chapters also teach faith as the alternative to fear. Ahaz is told to trust a word, not a coalition, and the lesson recurs when Hezekiah faces Assyria (chapters 36 to 37). The doctrine of the remnant is again present in the name Shear-jashub, as is Isaiah's disciples preserving the teaching, the beginning of a faithful community around the word. And 9:6-7 develops the royal hope of the Old Testament. A greater son of David will rule with justice and peace, which is the line on which Micah 5:2-5, Isaiah 11 and Psalm 72 also build.

The divine titles of 9:6 raise the question of how the Old Testament understands the king. Psalm 45:6 and Psalm 110:1 also hint at a Davidic king who is more than a king. The New Testament takes these hints to be fulfilled in the Son who is both David's heir and the Lord.

Matthew makes the connection in the first chapter of his Gospel: he says the events surrounding Jesus' birth took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through the prophet, that the virgin will conceive and 'they will call Him Immanuel', which means 'God with us' (Matthew 1:22-23). Matthew uses the Greek text with parthenos. For Matthew the pattern is fulfillment: a child born under the threat to David's house in Ahaz's day was a sign of presence that finds its full measure in Jesus, who is God dwelling with his people. The book closes with the promise 'I am with you always' (Matthew 28:20), which turns Immanuel into a framing device for the Gospel.

Matthew also quotes 9:1-2 at the start of Jesus' public ministry: Jesus settles in Capernaum, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that the great light shines in Galilee of the nations (Matthew 4:12-16). The region first humiliated by Assyria is the region where Jesus begins to preach. The child of 9:6, who bears the government on his shoulder, is a promise of the Davidic king; Luke 1:32-33 echoes it in Gabriel's message to Mary.

The stone of stumbling in 8:14 is applied to Christ by Paul (Romans 9:32-33) and Peter (1 Peter 2:8), where those who disbelieve him stumble over him while those who trust are not put to shame.