Except that it does, as I just showed you.
Bs"d
Show me a Hebrew-English dictionary where "almah" is translated as "virgin".
Then why is the word almah not correctly translated in Isaiah 7 as "young women", and why in the majority of other places is it correct translated as young women or maid?
Now answer the first question: Why make such a prophecy? Women have children all the time. What's so special about the one in Isaiah?
I answered that already, but I'll do it again:
And how would the people being able to ascertain that the pregnant woman is a virgin? Did they come to look between her legs to see whether or not the hymen was still intact?
It is obvious that that is not a sign.
The sign was what God said to king Achaz: "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Imman'u-el. 15: He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16: For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted."
We see here in Isaiah 7, that king Achaz, the king of Judah, is afraid of two neighboring kings.
It is important to know that after the death of king Solomo the kingdom of Israel split up into two parts; into the kingdom of Judah, and the kingdom of Israel.
The kingdom om Judah was made up of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and a part of the Levites. The kingdom of Israel was made up of the other ten tribes. Achaz was king over Judah, and in this prophecy the king of Israel is Pekah, the son of Remaliah. And Pekah had made a covenant with the king of Syria, called Resin, to attack together the kingdom of Judah.
This news caused king Achaz considerable stress, because he had a dark suspicion that things could very well turn out not so very rosy for him.
Therefore God sent Isaiah to Achaz, in order to tell him that things would work out just fine for him. God tells Achaz that he will give him a sign. Here is the sign: "14: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman is pregnant and is giving birth to a son, and she called his name Imman'u-el. 15: He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16: For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted."
God says that before the child of the young woman who is pregnant will grow up, the land of the two kings, Resin of Syria, and Pekah of Israel, will be deserted, that is devoid of people. Those two nations will be led into exile.
So the sign is the fact that before the young boy Immanuel will grow up, the lands of the enemies of king Achaz will be deserted. That sign is given to king Achaz, who lived about 700 years before JC.
And the Bible tells us that that sign has been fulfilled.
So God gave a sign to Achaz.
In the days of Achaz.
About 700 years before JC.
So this prophecy has no bearing what so ever on the messiah, and NOWHERE in this prophecy is spoken about a virgin.
It is, but that is wrong. It is a corruption of the translations.
Was Rebekah a girl of marriagable age?
Was she a virgin?
Did not God have a very long time between Abraham telling his servant about the conditions for finding a woman for Isaac to marry,
Did he say anywhere she had to be a virgin?
Fair point. However, wooing a woman doesn't leave a trail... "the way of a man with a virgin/maiden" leads to the marriage bed, no?
We are not talking about wooing here, we are talking about intercourse.
Saying it doesn't make it so.
Then explain how somebody can ascertain that a certain woman is a virgin. Do they check out her private parts, or do they have to believe her on her word?
And Matthew 1:23 (which quotes Isaiah 7:14) uses "parthenos," the greek word for, you guessed it, "virgin."
The Hebrew word for virgin is not almah, it is betulah.
You claim that 'almah' does mean virgin. The word "almah' means 'young woman', 'girl', and that is how even the modern Christian Bible translators translate it. Even the 400 year old King James translation translates 'almah' as 'maid' or 'damsel', except for Isaiah 7:14, because the translation has to fit the Christian religion.
'Almah' is the female form of the Hebrew word 'elem', that means 'young man'. Both words are made up of the three letter root ayin, lamed, mem (a-l-m), and the female form has a hee (h) added which makes it female. The female form of young man is young woman. It does not indicate anything about the woman being a virgin whatsoever.
When the Bible wants to indicate a woman who is a virgin, then the Bible uses the word 'Betulah'. A Jewish high priest may only marry a virgin woman, Leviticus 21:13-14; "And he shall take a wife in her virginity. A widow, or one divorced or a woman who has been defiled, or a harlot, these he shall not marry; but he shall take to wife a virgin of his own people."
Here both times where the word 'virgin' is used, the Bible uses the word 'betulah'.
Deuteronomy 22:13-21 speaks about a man marrying a virgin, and complaining that he didn't find the tokens of virginity in her. Then the parents will take the sheet with the bloodstains and show it to the judges of the city, and they will fine the man that made that false accusation. Also in this story the Hebrew word for virgin is 'betulah', and not 'almah'. When there is spoken about the 'signs of virginity', the Hebrew word 'betuliem' is used. 'Betuliem' is the plural of 'betulah'.
Nowhere where the Bible wants to denote virginity is the word 'almah' used.
They would present their bedding. If it had blood on it (from the hymen breaking), she was clearly a virgin prior to having sex. If there was no blood, then she was not a virgin.
That has nothing to do with our case, because you claim a virgin birth, so no bloody sheets to show. And where the Bible speaks about that, in Deut 22, there it uses the word "betulah", and not "almah".
Look, I'm not denying that what was said in Isaiah wasn't to King Achaz.
I'm saying that it was a prophecy, contained within those words, of the Messiah.
So what you do is when God gives a sign to king Achaz, you rip that out of context, mistranslate it, and then claim that it is a messianic prophecy, bound to be fulfilled 700 years later.
But saying it doesn't make it so. It is a sign for king Achaz, a sign that has been fulfilled for king Achaz, 700 years before your messiah, and there is no indication whatsoever that it is also supposed to speak about the messiah, and about a virgin birth, to be fulfilled 700 years later.
It just isn't there.
And saying it just doesn't make it so.
So you're calling the authors of the New Testament liars?
Just read this:
https://sites.google.com/view/ntprophecies/home and then draw your own conclusions.