StrongerBible

almah

עַלְמָה

HebrewH5959“young woman, maiden, ...”

Appears 7 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 24:43Exo 2:8Psa 68:25(26)Pro 30:19Sng 1:3Sng 6:8Isa 7:14
Word studyResearch-gradeal-MAHnoun

What almah means

a young woman who has reached the age to marry and bear children

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested

This is a word about a stage of life, not a sexual status. An עַלְמָה is a girl who has grown past childhood into the years when she can marry and have children:

  • physically mature
  • of an age to be courted
  • typically still unmarried and living under her father's care

The related word for a young man, עֶלֶם, makes the point plain. When King Saul asks whose son the עֶלֶם is, he means a vigorous young fellow, not a chaste one. The feminine simply names the same season of life in a woman.

Because an unmarried young woman in ancient Israel was assumed to be a virgin, the word often does describe one. But that purity comes from the situation, not from the word itself. The same word covers Rebekah before her marriage, the girl Miriam watching over baby Moses, the young women drumming in a festival procession, and the courted woman in the love poetry of the Song. What ties them together is youth and readiness for marriage, not a claim about virginity.

Gen 24:43Exo 2:8Psa 68:25(26)Pro 30:19Sng 1:3Sng 6:8Isa 7:14

What scholars say about almah

The modern lexical consensus, running through BDB, HALOT, DCH, the TDOT entry by H. Niehr, John Walton in NIDOTTE, and R. Laird Harris in TWOT, holds that עַלְמָה denotes a young woman of marriageable, sexually mature age rather than a virgin as such. The masculine counterpart עֶלֶם (a young man, of David in 1 Samuel 17:56) anchors this within Hebrew itself, and the Semitic cognates point the same way: Ugaritic ġlmt appears in a birth announcement nearly identical to Isaiah 7:14 (the Nikkal hymn, studied by Cyrus Gordon), and Arabic and Aramaic relatives mean a youth or, in the verb, sexual ripeness, not chastity. Gordon Wenham and Matitiahu Tsevat showed that even the partner word בְּתוּלָה is largely an age-and-status term, which removes the old argument that Isaiah would have used בְּתוּלָה had he meant a virgin. On Isaiah 7:14 itself, commentators such as Hans Wildberger, J. J. M. Roberts, Joseph Blenkinsopp, H. G. M. Williamson, Marvin Sweeney, Brevard Childs, and Otto Kaiser read the young woman as a specific woman of Ahaz's day; a conservative line including Edward J. Young, John Oswalt, J. Alec Motyer, and Gary Smith grants the lexical point but argues from context that she is nonetheless a virgin. Raymond Brown and Adam Kamesar trace how the Greek rendering παρθένος and Matthew's quotation, together with the later Jewish revisers who changed it to "young woman," shaped the long Christian-Jewish dispute.

Where scholars disagree about almah

At Isaiah 7:14, whether "the young woman" (הָעַלְמָה) who bears Immanuel is presented as a virgin, the reading behind the Greek Old Testament's παρθένος and Matthew 1:23, or simply as a young woman of marriageable age whose virginity is not the point. The lexical question is largely settled (the word means a young woman, not specifically a virgin); the live dispute is whether the context of an eighth-century Judean court and the demand for a "sign" nonetheless implies a virgin, and whether the prophecy looks beyond Ahaz's day.

  • majorityThe young woman is a specific, identifiable woman of Ahaz's own time, most likely of the royal court, and the word makes no claim about virginity; the sign lies in the child's name and the timetable tied to the fall of the two threatening kings.; Hans Wildberger, Isaiah 1-12: A Continental Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991), 306-314; J. J. M. Roberts, First Isaiah, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2015), 117-124; Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1-39, AB 19 (New Haven: Yale, 2000), 232-234; H. G. M. Williamson, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Isaiah 1-27, ICC (London: T&T Clark, 2006-2018)
  • minorityThe word does not by itself mean virgin, but the context, including the cosmic scale of the offered sign and the fact that every identifiable young woman so named in the Hebrew Bible is in fact a virgin, shows the woman here is a virgin, leaving the verse open to its fulfillment in the virgin birth.; Edward J. Young, The Book of Isaiah, NICOT, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), 286-293; John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1-39, NICOT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986), 207-213; J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah (Downers Grove: IVP, 1993), 84-87
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. עַלְמָהlexicon
  • BDB, s.v. עַלְמָהlexicon
  • H. Niehr, 'עֶלֶם / עַלְמָה,' Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, ed. G. J. Botterweck, H. Ringgren, and H.-J. Fabrylexicon
  • John H. Walton, 'עלם,' New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, ed. Willem VanGemeren (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997)lexicon
  • John H. Walton, 'Isa 7:14: What's in a Name?' Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 30 (1987): 289-306article
  • R. Laird Harris, 'בְּתוּלָה,' Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, ed. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, and B. K. Waltke (Chicago: Moody, 1980)lexicon
  • Gordon J. Wenham, 'Bethulah: A Girl of Marriageable Age,' Vetus Testamentum 22 (1972): 326-348article
  • M. Tsevat, 'בְּתוּלָה,' Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975), 338-343lexicon
  • Cyrus H. Gordon, 'Almah in Isaiah 7:14,' Journal of Bible and Religion 21 (1953): 106article
  • Hans Wildberger, Isaiah 1-12: A Continental Commentary, trans. T. H. Trapp (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991), 306-314commentary
  • J. J. M. Roberts, First Isaiah, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2015), 117-124commentary
  • Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1-39, AB 19 (New Haven: Yale, 2000), 232-234commentary
  • Edward J. Young, The Book of Isaiah, NICOT, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), 286-293commentary
  • John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1-39, NICOT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986), 207-213commentary
  • Raymond E. Brown, The Birth of the Messiah, rev. ed., ABRL (New York: Doubleday, 1993), 143-153monograph
  • Adam Kamesar, 'The Virgin of Isaiah 7:14: The Philological Argument from the Second to the Fifth Century,' Journal of Theological Studies NS 41 (1990): 51-75article
  • Marvin H. Pope, Song of Songs, AB 7C (Garden City: Doubleday, 1977), 300-301commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of עַלְמָה

f s absolute

עַלְמָה

Gen 24:43, Exo 2:8, Pro 30:19, Isa 7:14

f p absolute

עֲלָמוֹת

Psa 68:25, Sng 1:3, Sng 6:8