Isaiah 7:14 is the promise, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Isaiah spoke it around 735 BC to King Ahaz of Judah, who was terrified of an invasion and refused to ask God for a sign. God gave a sign anyway, addressed to the whole house of David: a child whose very name would mean God with us. Matthew 1:22-23 quotes the verse and says it was fulfilled when Jesus was born of the virgin Mary.
Isaiah 7:14 is one of the best-known Christmas verses in the Bible, read in churches every Advent and printed on countless Christmas cards. But it was first spoken in a very unfestive moment: a king shaking with fear, two enemy armies on the march and a prophet standing at the end of a water channel outside Jerusalem. To understand what the verse means, you need that setting. This page walks through the chapter around the verse, the questions people ask about the Hebrew word translated virgin, what verses 15 and 16 add, and how the New Testament reads the promise. If you want the meaning of the name itself, see our page on Emmanuel meaning; for the other Old Testament promises fulfilled at Christmas, see prophecies about Jesus and Micah 5:2. Below are 12 KJV passages, starting with the verse itself.
Isaiah 7:14 and the sign given to the house of David
1. Isaiah 7:14
"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."
This is the verse at the heart of the page. Notice three things. First, the sign comes from the Lord himself, not from Isaiah or from Ahaz. Second, the word you in this verse is plural in Hebrew; Isaiah has just turned from Ahaz to the whole house of David, so the sign is for the royal line and everyone who waits on its promises. Third, the child's name is a message: Immanuel means God with us. A king who would not trust God is told that God's answer to his fear is His own presence. Christians read the verse as finding its full meaning in the birth of Jesus.
2. Isaiah 7:13
"And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?"
Right before the famous promise comes a rebuke. Ahaz had just turned down God's offer of a sign, and Isaiah answers: Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? Ahaz's refusal sounded pious, but it was really a way of keeping God at arm's length while he made his own plans. Isaiah addresses the house of David, reminding Ahaz that he sits on a throne God promised to David for ever (2 Samuel 7:16). The sign of Immanuel is God keeping that promise even when David's heir was faithless.
3. Isaiah 7:11
"Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above."
God's offer to Ahaz was astonishingly generous: Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. Anything, from the deepest place to the highest heaven. Ahaz replied, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD (Isaiah 7:12), quoting the language of Deuteronomy 6:16. But testing God means demanding proof out of unbelief; accepting a sign God freely offers is faith. Ahaz had already decided to trust Assyria instead (2 Kings 16:7), so he did not want a sign that would oblige him to trust God.
4. Isaiah 7:2
"And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind."
This is where the story starts. Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, king of the northern kingdom of Israel (here called Ephraim), had joined forces to march on Jerusalem and put their own man on the throne. When the news reached the palace, his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. It is a vivid picture of panic. Isaiah 7:14 was not first spoken to calm, comfortable people at a Christmas service. It was a word for a nation trembling like leaves in a storm.
The setting: why King Ahaz needed a sign
5. Isaiah 7:4
"And say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah."
God's first message to Ahaz, before any sign, was this: Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands. The two kings looked like a raging fire; God called them the smoking stubs of burnt-out sticks. Within a few years both were gone, as Isaiah said they would be. When you face something that looks overwhelming, the same God who saw through Rezin and Pekah sees the true size of what frightens you. Be quiet is not an instruction to do nothing. It is a call to stop panicking and trust.
6. Isaiah 7:9
"And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established."
Isaiah ends his first message with a warning built on a Hebrew wordplay: If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. The two verbs come from the same root, aman, the root behind the word amen. A paraphrase might be: if you do not stand firm in faith, you will not stand firm at all. That is the real issue in Isaiah 7. The question was not whether Judah had enough soldiers; it was whether the king would trust God's word. The sign of verse 14 is God's answer to a refusal to believe.
7. Isaiah 7:15
"Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good."
Verse 15 describes the child's diet while he is still young: Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. Butter, meaning curds, and wild honey were the food of a land emptied of farms, where people lived off cattle and wild bees. Isaiah 7:21-22 explains that the invasions would leave Judah so depopulated that the few who remained would eat exactly this. So the child grows up in hard times. The Son of God was likewise born into a poor, occupied land, sharing the hardships of His people.
8. Isaiah 7:16
"For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings."
Verse 16 gives a time limit: before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings. In other words, within a few short years, before a child is old enough to tell right from wrong, Syria and Israel would lose their kings. That happened: Assyria killed Rezin around 732 BC and Pekah was assassinated the same year. Many Bible teachers see a near sign for Ahaz's generation here and a full, final fulfillment in Jesus, the child who is truly God with us.
Fulfilled in Jesus: Matthew 1 and Luke 1
9. Matthew 1:20
"But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost."
Seven centuries later, a carpenter named Joseph had a decision to make. His betrothed, Mary, was expecting a child that was not his. As he planned to end the engagement quietly, an angel spoke to him in a dream: fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. Like Ahaz, Joseph faced a situation that looked like a disaster. Unlike Ahaz, he believed. Matthew presents Joseph, the son of David, as the man in David's house who finally did what Ahaz would not do: take God at His word.
10. Matthew 1:23
"Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."
Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14 directly and adds the translation of the name: Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Matthew follows the Greek Septuagint, made about two hundred years before Jesus by Jewish scholars, which translated the Hebrew almah with parthenos, a word that clearly means virgin. So the reading virgin is not a Christian invention; Jewish translators chose it before Christ was born. Matthew's Gospel begins with God with us and ends with Jesus promising, lo, I am with you alway (Matthew 28:20). Isaiah's sign frames the whole Gospel.
11. Luke 1:35
"And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."
Luke tells the same event from Mary's side. When she asked how she could have a child, being a virgin, the angel answered: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Luke never quotes Isaiah 7:14, but his account matches it exactly: a virgin conceives and bears a son of David's line. Two independent Gospel writers, using different sources, agree on the virgin birth that Isaiah's sign points to.
12. Galatians 4:4
"But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,"
Paul sums up Christmas in one sentence: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. Isaiah's promise waited about seven hundred years. Generations lived and died without seeing it. Yet God was not late; He sent His Son at exactly the right time. That is worth remembering in Advent, a season about waiting. The God who kept His word to the house of David across seven centuries will keep every promise He has made to you, in His own fullness of time.
A short prayer
Lord God, You offered a frightened king a sign and he refused it, yet You gave it anyway. Thank You that Your answer to our fear is Your own presence: Immanuel, God with us. When I am shaken like the trees of the wood, help me to take heed and be quiet and to stand firm in faith. Thank You for sending Your Son, born of the virgin Mary in the fulness of time. Make me like Joseph, quick to believe and to obey when Your plans look nothing like mine. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Go deeper: a SOAP study prompt
Pick one verse above and write: - Scripture: copy the verse by hand. - Observation: what does it say? Who is speaking, to whom? - Application: what does it mean for you today? - Prayer: turn it into a two-line prayer.
New to this method? See our Bible study guide or pick a Bible reading plan.
Read the Christmas prophecies in the free Advent reading plan · Print the free Names of Jesus page, including Immanuel · Memorize Isaiah 7:14 with Scripture memory cards
Frequently asked questions
What does Isaiah 7:14 mean?
Isaiah 7:14 is God's sign to the house of David at a time when King Ahaz refused to trust Him: a virgin will conceive and bear a son, and he will be called Immanuel, God with us. In its first setting it promised that God was still with Judah and that the threat from Syria and Israel would soon be gone. The New Testament (Matthew 1:22-23) teaches that the sign found its full and final meaning in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, who is literally God with us.
Does almah in Isaiah 7:14 mean virgin or young woman?
The Hebrew word almah means a young woman of marriageable age, and in every other place it appears in the Old Testament it refers to an unmarried girl, where virginity is assumed (for example Genesis 24:43, describing Rebekah). The Jewish translators of the Septuagint rendered it with the Greek parthenos, virgin, about two centuries before Jesus, and Matthew follows that reading. The KJV translates it virgin, as do most traditional English Bibles.
Who was Isaiah 7:14 written to?
Isaiah spoke it to King Ahaz of Judah around 735 BC, during the Syro-Ephraimite crisis, when Syria and the northern kingdom of Israel threatened Jerusalem. But the verse turns from Ahaz to the house of David, and the word you is plural, so the sign was addressed to the whole royal line and the people waiting on God's promise to David. Christians believe it was ultimately written for everyone who would one day meet Jesus, the Son of David.
Is Isaiah 7:14 a Christmas verse?
Yes. It is one of the most-read Scriptures of Advent and Christmas because Matthew quotes it in the Christmas story (Matthew 1:23). It is often read with Isaiah 9:6, Micah 5:2 and Luke 2 in lessons and carols services, and it lies behind carols such as O Come, O Come, Emmanuel and Hark the Herald Angels Sing (Veil'd in flesh the Godhead see, hail th'incarnate Deity). It makes a good verse to memorize during Advent.
Sources: All Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (KJV), public domain in the United States. References were checked against the KJV text from bible-api.com.
Related: Emmanuel Meaning · Prophecies About Jesus · Micah 5:2 Meaning · The Christmas Story in the Bible · Mary, the Mother of Jesus · O Come, O Come, Emmanuel · Advent · The Genealogy of Jesus
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