A Virgin Shall Conceive, and Shall Bear a Son

One of Isaiah’s most famous prophecies about the Savior says this: “Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign—Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and shall bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (2 Nephi 17:14).  Here we would of course understand the virgin to be Mary, and the child named Immanuel, or “God with us”, to be Jesus.  This is exactly how the gospel writer Matthew interpreted it.  After recounting the birth of the Savior, he said, “Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 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” (Matt. 1:22-23).  Though “Immanuel” was not the given name for the Savior, certainly His advent on earth was literally to have God with us among men.  The name is not used elsewhere for the Savior in the scriptures except when Joseph Smith used the name “King Immanuel” to refer to the Savior as the one who ordained the way for redemption from the dead (Doctrine and Covenants 128:22). 

            That said, in context this verse from Isaiah is much more understandable as a prophecy to be fulfilled in the days of Isaiah.  Isaiah had asked the wicked King Ahaz of Judah to ask the Lord for a sign that the alliance of his two enemies, Israel and Syria, would fail.  Isaiah told him, “It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass….  Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God.”  When Ahaz refused to ask for a sign, Isaiah responded with the familiar verse: “Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign—Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and shall bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”  He then explained further the sign: “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” (2 Nephi 17:7, 11, 14, 16).  In other words, the sign to Ahaz was that a child would be born, and before that child was very old the two kingdoms in question, Israel to the north and Syria, would see their downfall.  It appears, at least in my mind, that the birth of the child mentioned in the next chapter by Isaiah was the fulfilment of this sign to Ahaz.  Isaiah wrote, “And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived and bare a son. Then said the Lord to me: Call his name, Maher-shalal-hash-baz.  For behold, the child shall not have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, before the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria” (2 Nephi 18:3-4).  Here the prophecy about this son—the son of Isaiah himself—essentially says the same thing: before this child would speak, Syria (Damascus) and Samaria (Israel) would be overtaken by Assyria.  The long name of the child means “to speed to the spoil, he hasteneth the prey,” referring to the destruction of those two nations.  Understood this way, the sign to Ahaz was not very impressive at all—a son would be born that would carry a prophetic name.  And in this context, we might interpret the previous name Immanuel as a prophecy of how the Lord would yet protect Judah in the midst of Assyrian aggression to Jerusalem.  The Assyrians conquered the other nations at this time, but Judah was spared (though still attacked and damaged) during the time of the reign of Ahaz’s son Hezekiah.  God was indeed with them in spirit at that time, just as He was in person 700 years later.