# H5959 - almah **Strong's:** [H5959](https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h5959/) · BLB lookup **Pronunciation:** al-maw' **Part of speech:** feminine noun (corresponding to masculine *ʿelem*, H5958, "young man") **Frequency:** **9 occurrences** in the Hebrew Bible, [Genesis 24:43](/codex/genesis-24-43/); [Exodus 2:8](/codex/exodus-2-8/); [Psalm 68:25](/codex/psalms-68-25/); [Proverbs 30:19](/codex/proverbs-30-19/); [Song of Songs 1:3](/codex/song-of-solomon-1-3/), [6](/codex/song-of-solomon-1-6/):8; [Isaiah 7:14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/); [1 Chronicles 15:20](/codex/1-chronicles-15-20/); (debated) [Psalm 46](/codex/psalms-46/) superscription. **LXX equivalent at [Isaiah 7:14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/):** παρθένος (*parthenos*, "virgin"). See [G3933 - parthenos](/codex/g3933-parthenos/). ## Semantic range (Brown-Driver-Briggs / HALOT) 1. **Young woman of marriageable age**, the primary lexical sense; describes a sexually mature young woman, typically unmarried, of childbearing potential. 2. **Maiden / virgin**, the strongly-implied secondary sense in cultural context: in the Hebrew honor-shame matrix, an unmarried *almah* would *culturally* be expected to be a virgin; the term carries the social-presumption of virginity even if not lexically *requiring* it. 3. **Distinct from H1330 *bethulah***, which is the more *technical* legal-biblical term for *virgin* (see [H1330 - bethulah](/codex/h1330-bethulah/), the term used in covenantal-legal contexts: virgin-bride pricing, ritual-purity requirements, etc.). The lexical-technical relationship: every *almah* is presumed a *bethulah* in cultural context, but *bethulah* is the term that legally specifies virginity. ## Theological force, the [Isaiah 7:14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/) controversy The most theologically loaded use of *almah* in the entire Hebrew Bible is **[Isaiah 7:14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/)**, "behold, the *almah* shall conceive and bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel." This single occurrence has driven 2,000+ years of Jewish-Christian interpretive controversy. **The Christian apologetic position:** 1. **Lexical:** Every other use of *almah* in the Hebrew Bible refers to a young unmarried woman who would in cultural context be presumed a virgin. There are no clear counter-examples. 2. **LXX precedent (pre-Christian Jewish translation):** The Septuagint rendered *almah* in [Isaiah 7:14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/) as *parthenos* (παρθένος, "virgin") in the 3rd-2nd c. BC, *centuries before* Christianity emerged. This was a Jewish translation choice. [Matthew 1:23](/codex/matthew-1-23/)'s quotation of "*parthenos*" tracks the pre-Christian LXX, not a Christian-imposed alteration. The Jewish translators of the LXX understood *almah* in [Isaiah 7:14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/) to imply virginity strongly enough to translate it *parthenos*. 3. **Sign-context:** [Isaiah 7:14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/) announces a **sign** (*ʾôt*) of unusual character. A young woman conceiving and bearing a son is *not a sign*; it happens routinely. A *virgin* conceiving, that is a sign. The contextual demand for the unusual reinforces the virginity-implied reading. 4. **The dual-fulfillment reading:** Many Christian commentators (Calvin, Motyer, Oswalt) read [Isaiah 7:14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/) with **dual fulfillment**, a near-fulfillment in Isaiah's own day (a young woman of the royal house would conceive a son; Maher-shalal-hash-baz of [Isa 8](/codex/isaiah-8/) is a candidate; the Davidic-line-survives sign for Ahaz) **and** a far-fulfillment in Christ (the virgin-conception as the consummating fulfillment Matthew identifies). The dual reading preserves both the immediate-context relevance and the canonical messianic application. **The Jewish counter-reading** (Rashi, ibn Ezra, and most modern Jewish commentators) holds that *almah* should be translated "young woman" without a virginity-implication, often identifying the *almah* with Isaiah's own wife (cf. [Isa 8:3](/codex/isaiah-8-3/)) or Hezekiah's mother. Reply: this interpretation must (a) override the LXX's pre-Christian *parthenos* rendering, (b) reduce the "sign" to non-miraculous proportions, and (c) treat *almah* as functionally interchangeable with *naʿarah* (young woman) without justification from usage. ## Notable verses ### All 9 occurrences of *almah* - **[Genesis 24:43](/codex/genesis-24-43/)**, Rebekah at the well: "behold, I am standing by the spring, and may it be that the *almah* who comes out to draw water..." Rebekah is described as both *naʿarah* (24:14) and *bethulah* (24:16: "very beautiful, *bethulah*; no man had had relations with her") in the *same passage*. *Almah* in 24:43 is interchangeable with the explicit-virgin description in 24:16. Strong evidence for *almah* carrying the virginity-implication. - **[Exodus 2:8](/codex/exodus-2-8/)**, Miriam, sister of Moses, called *almah*. She is unmarried, young, and (implicitly) a virgin. - **[Psalms 68:25](/codex/psalms-68-25/)**, *almahot* (plural) playing tambourines in procession; young women. - **[Proverbs 30:19](/codex/proverbs-30-19/)**, "the way of a man with an *almah*", the parallel-listed mysteries (eagle in air, serpent on rock, ship at sea, man with *almah*) suggests an *almah* whose virginity is presumed (the wonder is sexual initiation, plausibly first-encounter). - **[Song of Songs 1:3](/codex/song-of-solomon-1-3/), [6](/codex/song-of-solomon-1-6/):8**, *almahot* in the bride-and-bridegroom poetry; presumed-virgins in the harem-context of 6:8. - **[Isaiah 7:14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/)**, the controversy verse; "the *almah* shall conceive." - **[1 Chronicles 15:20](/codex/1-chronicles-15-20/)**, musical superscription (*ʿal-ʿalamot*); ambiguous (possibly soprano-range or "for the maidens"). ### Matthew's NT activation - **[Matthew 1.23](/codex/matthew-1-23/)**, "behold, the virgin (*parthenos*) shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel", directly quotes [Isaiah 7:14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/) LXX ## Patristic / scholarly note The *almah*-vs-*bethulah* debate is one of the oldest text-critical / translation disputes between Jews and Christians. **[Justin Martyr](/codex/justin-martyr/)** (*Dialogue with Trypho* 71-72) records that Trypho objects to the *parthenos* rendering, claiming it's a Christian alteration; Justin replies that the LXX (a pre-Christian Jewish translation) already had *parthenos*, and that the Jewish revisions of Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus rendering *almah* as *neanis* (young woman) are *post-Christian* polemical responses. The historical record supports Justin: the LXX's *parthenos* is centuries pre-Christian. **Origen** (*Contra Celsum* I.34-35) develops the argument with extensive Hebrew lexical engagement. **Jerome** (*Commentary on Isaiah* III) defends the *parthenos* rendering against Jewish objections. **Modern conservative scholarship** (Edward Young, *The Book of Isaiah*, 1965; J.A. Motyer, *The Prophecy of Isaiah*, 1993; John Oswalt, *[Isaiah 1](/codex/isaiah-1/)-39* NICOT, 1986) defends the virginity-implication on lexical, contextual, and LXX-attestation grounds. **The dual-fulfillment reading** is widely held in modern Reformed and conservative-evangelical scholarship (Calvin's *Commentary on Isaiah*; Geerhardus Vos, *Biblical Theology*; Walter Kaiser, *The Messiah in the Old Testament*, 1995): a near-fulfillment validates the sign for Ahaz; the canonical Matthean-fulfillment identifies the virgin conception of Christ as the consummating reality the prophecy was always pointing toward. Edward J. Young argues the *full* fulfillment is exclusively Messianic; J. Barton Payne similarly. The exact balance of near-vs-far fulfillment is a live exegetical debate among orthodox Christians; the *parthenos* rendering and Christ-fulfillment are not. ## Verses in this codex _See Obsidian's backlinks pane for every verse page linking here._ Central anchors: [Isaiah 7.14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/), [Matthew 1.23](/codex/matthew-1-23/), [Genesis 24:43](/codex/genesis-24-43/) (where *almah* and *bethulah* describe the same person, Rebekah). ## See also - [H1330 - bethulah](/codex/h1330-bethulah/), *bethulah* (virgin, technical-legal term), companion / contrast - [G3933 - parthenos](/codex/g3933-parthenos/), *parthenos* (virgin), the LXX / NT correspondent - [Mary Sinless](/codex/mary-sinless/), adjacent Marian-doctrine territory - [Argument from Prophecy Fulfillment](/codex/argument-from-prophecy-fulfillment/), the apologetic frame [Isaiah 7:14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/) sits in - Passages: [Isaiah 7.14](/codex/isaiah-7-14/), [Matthew 1.23](/codex/matthew-1-23/), [Genesis 24:43](/codex/genesis-24-43/)