Matthew 1:23

Behold, a virgin] RV 'the virgin': see on Isaiah 7:14. It does not appear that the Jews regarded the passage as Messianic; but St. Matthew, writing for Christians, applies it to the Messiah, in accordance with the rabbinical maxim, 'All the prophets prophesied only of the days of the Messiah.' St. Matthew quotes the passage as a prophecy not of the Virgin Birth, but of the giving to our Lord of a name expressing His divinity. He was called 'Jesus' (i.e. 'God is Salvation') to fulfil the prophecy which assigned to Him the name 'Emmanuel' ('God with us'). There is no indication that the evangelist, who was acquainted with Hebrew, attached importance to the word 'virgin' in this passage. In the Heb. it is 'almah, i.e. 'a young woman,' not necessarily a virgin. The LXX, however, renders it parthenos, i.e. 'virgin,' and hence many have incorrectly supposed that Isaiah prophesied the Virgin Birth.

Emmanuel] i.e. 'God with us.' This is a descriptive title rather than a name. It was never borne by our Lord, but He received instead a name ('Jesus') which expressed its meaning, and thus the prophecy was fulfilled. In the mind of Isaiah the title Emmanuel indicated that the bearer of it would deliver Israel from all their enemies. In the mind of the evangelist, who believed in the Incarnation (see especially Matthew 27:19), it meant that in Jesus God assumed human nature to save the children of men, and to dwell with and in them for ever (Matthew 27:20).