In a conversation with my Jewish friend, the passage in Isaiah 7:14 came up - Christians understand this as one of the pivotal Messianic passages concerning the virgin birth of the Lord Yeshua.

In the most respected of English translations (eg. KJV, NKJV, ERV (1885), Darby's New Translation, Young's Literal Translation etc.) the text of Isaiah 7:14 retain the word "virgin" in the verse: "Therefore will the Lord himself give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth a son, and call his name Immanuel."

My friend commented that the original Hebrew does not say "virgin". The Hebrew word used is "almah" and according to my friend, this word means, and has always meant a "young woman". The Hebrew word for "virgin" is "betulah" - an entirely different word! The implication, of course, was that in one stroke, my friend had disproved any requirement for the Mashiach to be virgin born; and also discredited the New Testament, since the New Testament, (or Brit Chadashah), takes up this prophesy of Isaiah and connects it with the Lord Yeshua (Matt. 1:23, Lu 1:27).

There is no dispute that the underlying Hebrew text uses the word עלמה (almah) for the word that is translated "virgin" in these Bibles, and "almah" can also mean, literally, a young woman. It is also true that the word בתולה (betulah) is the more commonly used word for virgin (occurring about 50 times). What is false is the idea that "betulah" can only mean virgin and "almah" can only mean a young woman.

First, lets understand why the Holy Spirit did not use the word "betulah" in Isaiah 7:14:

1. The first usage of the word "betulah" in the Scripture is in Gen 24:26, "Now the young woman (na'arah) was very beautiful to behold, a virgin (betulah); no man had known her. And she went down to the well, filled her pitcher, and came up." Dr. James D. Price makes a good observation of this usage: "In this verse Rebekah is referred to as a betulah, but the text adds the qualifying clause "no man had known her." Such a qualifying clause would be unnecessary if betulah unambiguously meant "virgin." Later in the same story, Rebekah is referred to as an "almah" (vs. 43) with no qualifying clause.
   
   
2. Further, Joel 1:8 clearly unravels the argument that "betulah" can only mean a virgin. "Wail like a virgin (betulah) girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth." In this instance "betulah" is clearly used for a married woman.
   
   
3. The eminent scholar W.E. Vine notes that the word "betulah" also appears in Ugaritic litrature where it is frequently used of the goddess Anat, the sister of Baal, and hardly a virgin.
   
   

Now, let's understand why the Holy Spirit did use the word "almah" in Isaiah 7:14:

1. Contextually, every instance this word occurs in its feminine form (9 times) - it refers to a virgin. For example in Songs of Solomon 6:8 "There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, And virgins without number" which refers to ALL the women in the court - queens, concubines and virgins. The 1917 Jewish Publication Society's (JPS) insistance on translating the word "almah" as maiden in the previous verse does not make any contextual sense.
   
   
2. Lord Yeshua came as a fulfillment of prophecies of the Scripture - which prophecies start from the Garden of Eden following the tragic fall of man in his rebellion against YHWEH. It would have been perfectly righteous of YHWEH to wipe the slate clean and start over. However, in the words of Apostle Paul - "where sin abounded grace has overabounded" (Rom 5:20). In HIS Grace and Mercy - YHWEH gave the promise of the woman's Seed who would crush the head of the serpent (Gen 3:15).
   
   The verse says clearly that YHWEH was giving a SIGN. In context, a sign is a "distinguishing mark", a "miraculous sign". If the word "almah" is understood simply as a maiden - where is the sign, where is the wonder? The eminent biblical scholar William Kelly says, "It was from the first known that the Deliverer of man from the serpent-enemy of the race must be born of woman in some distinctive way; it was known that He must be also son of Abraham, in the line of Isaac and Jacob, of Judah and David. It is now narrowed to a virgin therefore, by necessary implication, of that royal house. The virgin should be pregnant and bear Him; a sign indeed! in one sense explained, in another enhanced, by the capital truth that He should be God - of divine nature as truly as the woman's Seed. The virgin's Son is Immanuel, the Lord Jehovah, Whose glory the prophet had seen in connection with the preservation of a holy seed, in spite of their repeated desolations. Thus the person of the Messiah, and specifically the solution of the enigma of His divine being, yet in association with the family of David, is fully cleared up." (An Exposition of Isaiah.)
   
   
3. Unger, in about 1000 AD, made this observation about the text in question - "The Holy Spirit through Isaiah did not use betulah, because both the ideas of virginity and marriageable age had to be combined in one word to meet the immediate historical situation and the prophetic aspect centering in a virgin-born Messiah."

In conclusion, the difference between "almah" and "betulah" is highly exaggerated and vainly too, by those want to discredit the Mashiachship of Lord Yeshua. However, a simple word study is all it takes to realize that Isaiah indeed referred to a virgin - who would conceive and bear a son. Language depends on context for meaning - and a text without a context is a pretext.