Psalms 45:17

45:17 I will proclaim your greatness through the coming years, ¹ 

then the nations will praise you ²  forever.

Psalms 89:36

89:36 His dynasty will last forever. ³ 

His throne will endure before me, like the sun, ⁴ 

Isaiah 7:14

7:14 For this reason the sovereign master himself will give you a confirming sign. ⁵  Look, this ⁶  young woman ⁷  is about to conceive ⁸  and will give birth to a son. You, young woman, will name him ⁹  Immanuel. ¹⁰ 

Matthew 1:21

1:21 She will give birth to a son and you will name him ¹¹  Jesus, ¹²  because he will save his people from their sins.”

Matthew 1:23

1:23 “Look! The virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call him ¹³  Emmanuel,” ¹⁴  which means ¹⁵  “God with us.” ¹⁶ 

Luke 1:31-33

1:31 Listen: ¹⁷  You will become pregnant ¹⁸  and give birth to ¹⁹  a son, and you will name him ²⁰  Jesus. ²¹  1:32 He ²²  will be great, ²³  and will be called the Son of the Most High, ²⁴  and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father ²⁵  David. 1:33 He ²⁶  will reign over the house of Jacob ²⁷  forever, and his kingdom will never end.”

Philippians 2:10

2:10 so that at the name of Jesus

every knee will bow

– in heaven and on earth and under the earth –

[45:17]  ¹ tn Heb “I will cause your name to be remembered in every generation and generation.” The cohortative verbal form expresses the poet’s resolve. The king’s “name” stands here for his reputation and character, which the poet praised in vv. 2-7.

[45:17]  ² sn The nations will praise you. As God’s vice-regent on earth, the king is deserving of such honor and praise.

[89:36]  ³ tn Heb “his offspring forever will be.”

[89:36]  ⁴ tn Heb “and his throne like the sun before me.”

[7:14]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ sn The name Immanuel means “God [is] with us.”

[1:21]  ¹¹ tn Grk “you will call his name.”

[1:21]  ¹² sn The Greek form of the name Ihsous, which was translated into Latin as Jesus, is the same as the Hebrew Yeshua (Joshua), which means “Yahweh saves” (Yahweh is typically rendered as “Lord” in the OT). It was a fairly common name among Jews in 1st century Palestine, as references to a number of people by this name in the LXX and Josephus indicate.

[1:23]  ¹³ tn Grk “they will call his name.”

[1:23]  ¹⁴ sn A quotation from Isa 7:14.

[1:23]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “is translated.”

[1:23]  ¹⁶ sn An allusion to Isa 8:8, 10 (LXX).

[1:31]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “And behold.”

[1:31]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “you will conceive in your womb.”

[1:31]  ¹⁹ tn Or “and bear.”

[1:31]  ²⁰ tn Grk “you will call his name.”

[1:31]  ²¹ tn See v. 13 for a similar construction.

[1:32]  ²² tn Grk “this one.”

[1:32]  ²³ sn Compare the description of Jesus as great here with 1:15, “great before the Lord.” Jesus is greater than John, since he is Messiah compared to a prophet. Great is stated absolutely without qualification to make the point.

[1:32]  ²⁴ sn The expression Most High is a way to refer to God without naming him. Such avoiding of direct reference to God was common in 1st century Judaism out of reverence for the divine name.

[1:32]  ²⁵ tn Or “ancestor.”

[1:33]  ²⁶ tn Grk “And he.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style. A new sentence is begun here in the translation because of the length of the sentence in Greek.

[1:33]  ²⁷ tn Or “over Israel.”