the giant greater than goliath by lawrence duff-forbes
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Dr. Lawrence Duff-ForbesTRANSCRIPT
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THE GIANT GREATER THAN GOLIATH
by Dr. Lawrence Duff-Forbes
You will recall the historical incident of Goliath recorded in the seventeenth chapter of First
Samuel. The Philistines had gathered together their armies to battle upon territory which
belonged to Judah: "Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle, and were
gathered together at Sochoh, which belongs to Judah . . . "
Note that! The territory belonged to Judah, not the Philistines. The Philistines were intruders.
And across the valley were the armies of Israel. Then there stepped out into the space that
separated the opposing forces nine feet six inches of Philistine bombast bearing the name
Goliath.
Clad in heavy armour of overlapping plates of bronze which allowed him free movement, and
armed with weapons the magnitude of which well matched his gargantuan stature, he uttered
taunting challenges to Israel to produce a man to fight with him. Israel dismayed and greatly
afraid, for apparently their armies lacked a man capable of matching the giant.
We know the rest of the history. Unexpectedly there appeared a champion for Israel, David by
name, a shepherd. Flecks of grey were already showing in his beard and hair, but, although a
little on the good side of the prime of life, he seemed no match for the giant. Gathering his
wife and children round him he disclosed his intention of facing Goliath in combat. They were
frantic with fear, and his eldest son, a stalwart youth, even sought to restrain him by force.
However, David insisted . . .
There! There! I feel I dare not further encroach upon your patience even in a good cause.
Already you are repudiating the false picture of David I have given. "Why!" you say (and you say
correctly), "David was only a youth when he overthrew Goliath." True, and so obviously a youth
that the Philistine was insulted: ". . . . he disdained him; for he was but a youth, ruddy and
good-looking. So the Philistine said to David, 'Am I a dog, that you come to me with
sticks?' And the Philistine cursed David by his gods" (1 Samuel 17:42,43).
The very thought of David being surrounded by wife and children is quite wrong; that a fully
grown young man was his son is equally fantastic. David himself would barely qualify as being a
fully-grown young man. Indeed the words used to translate the Hebrew text are 'stripling',
'youth', and he was the youngest of Jesse's sons.
9704 TheGiantGreaterThanGoliath LDForbes ForPDF Page 3 of 8
From a perusal of the text of the Hebrew Scriptures it is very doubtful if he could have been
regarded even as of marriageable age. So the picture I first painted of David is false to the
Scriptures, and our long held impression of David as a mere lad is the correct one, justified by
those same Scriptures.
Everybody, without a solitary exception, is in full agreement: David was a lad, and the Hebrew
word which gives us the right to regard him as such is ~L[ alem, which means a full-grown
youth or young man.
So we can all relax – no one, unless with an ulterior motive or an axe to grind, would drain out
of that Hebrew word alem its natural and justifiable connotation of lad-ness, with its equally
justifiable corollary of youthful masculine virginity, if I may use such an expression.
THE GIANT PREJUDICE
The Hebrew word for youth generally, in a collective sense is alumim, so that if you were
called to give a lecture to a group of young people, they would be described as alumim. And of
course, if they were all girls you would have to use the feminine plural alamot. If the word 'lad'
had a feminine form of the Hebrew word alem lad is almah.
There is no axe to grind, no controversy, in respect to David's alem-ness, his lad-ness, his boy-
ness with its clear indication of a male youth who is what I have termed a male virgin. The only
giant facing David is Goliath himself. However, when we turn to that same word in its feminine
form there is an axe to grind, there is controversy, there is pre-judgement, blind, deaf, but
painfully vocal.
We face a giant greater than Goliath – the Giant Prejudice.
Prejudice is a busy beaver. Its sharp teeth gnaw through many living tree sap-filled and greenly
beautiful, and from Nature's fallen forests it builds its barricades and swims around in liquid
pools of its own construction.
Prejudice is defined as an unfavourable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without
knowledge, thought or reason. Prejudice is deaf; it is also blind. But none can call it dumb. It
shouts so loudly that it threatens to drown the melodious voice of Truth itself.
One needs a medley of metaphors to depict this Giant Goliath who roars his challenge not only
to Israel but to all whom God has ceded the right of residence in the Promised Land of revealed
9704 TheGiantGreaterThanGoliath LDForbes ForPDF Page 4 of 8
truth. And because I do not feel myself David enough to make a frontal attack upon this Giant
Prejudice I will encompase his overthrow by other methods.
I will take the five smooth stones of objectivity, honesty, sincerity, sympathy and willingness,
and, armed with the sling of love for truth, prevail over prejudices, and smite the
uncircumcised Philistine.
Here then is the theological "David' against which the Giant Prejudice roars: "Then he said,
'Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary
my God also? Therefore the LORD himself will give you a sign: Behold, the almah shall
conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his name Immanuel (God-with-us)' " (Isaiah 7:13,14).
Does the masculine noun alem mean a male virgin? Does the feminine noun almah mean a
female virgin?
THE BIBLICAL ROOT
Before we attempt an answer, let me call your attention to an important feature of the
Hebrew language: the shoresh or root or stem which consists mostly of three consonants on
which the meaning depends. These three basic consonants are like the prime root of meaning
buried beneath the surface, but always there. Sprouting from this root are the verbs and nouns
that pertain to that root and that retain the flavour and colouring of that root.
So let us now dig beneath and expose the root of those words alem and almah. The classical or
Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic give the root meaning as 'to enwrap', 'to veil', 'to hide', to
conceal', thus implying something hidden, something concealed, something unexposed;
similarly with modern Hebrew. Indeed we further find the verbs 'to vanish', 'to disappear' as
from the same root. And incidentally, in Arabic, which is closely related to Hebrew, the same
root means 'ripe and marriageable'.
Now we are better equipped to answer our question. There may be truth in the contention that
alem and almah do not specifically mean virginity, but when applied to a human being, the
root conveys the thought of one whose conjugal nuptial rights or attributes have remained
potential only, and thus unexpressed, hidden, concealed, virgin. Hence the feminine word
almah receives justification from its root for the word 'virgin'.
Then too in modern Hebrew one of the dictionary meanings of almah is 'girl', which does not
specifically mean a virgin, but to what else could it apply? Obviously a maiden who is, or
certainly morally should be, a virgin.
9704 TheGiantGreaterThanGoliath LDForbes ForPDF Page 5 of 8
THE VOICE OF THE BIBLE
As we turn to the Bible we find that the masculine singular noun alem appears twice in the
Hebrew Scriptures. The first occurrence is on the occasion when Jonathan planned to warn
David of his father Saul's intentions concerning David's wellbeing or otherwise: "But if I say to
the young man, 'Look the arrows are beyond you' . . . " (1 Samuel 20:22), the very 'young
man' translated 'lad' in the previous verse: "and there I will send the lad, saying . . . " where
the Hebrew word is alem.
The second appearance refers to David as a youth whom Saul wished to identify after he had
slain the giant: "And the king said, 'Inquire whose son this young man (alem) is" (1 Samuel
17:56). Some translations use the word 'stripling' or 'youth' for alem.
Thus the Biblical use of the word alem, of which almah is the feminine form, clearly indicates a
youth who is a virgin.
There are only seven pertinent uses of the word in its feminine form almah. The first we find in
the account of Rebekah prior to her marriage with Isaac where she is described as an almah,
and also as a bethulah. Abraham's servant says: "Behold I stand by the well of water; and it
shall come to pass that when the virgin (almah) comes out to draw water . . . " (Genesis
24:43); "and the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin (bethulah); no man had known
her" (24:16).
Here we may digress to make to this latter word bethulah because many contend that it is the
one specific word meaning virgin, and not just implying virgin. The root of bethulah in Hebrew
means 'to separate', 'to divide', and it will readily be admitted that the thought coming from
this can surely be virginity, for separation can conjure such a conception.
However, it should also be as readily admitted that the root though of 'concealment' embedded
in the word almah likewise yields the same thought, even more strongly if anything, as there is
a strong flavour of virginity in 'concealment', 'non-exposure' – the root thought of almah – than
in 'separation' - the root thought of bethulah.
And the word bethulah does not always mean virginity even although that is its meaning in the
majority of its sixty odd uses in Scripture. For instance, in Joel 1:8 we read: "Lament like a
virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth" where the word is bethulah.
To return to the word almah, we next find it used of Miriam the sister of Moses at a time when
she would be about ten or twelve years old: "And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, 'Go.' So the
maiden (almah) went and called the child's mother" (Exodus 2:8).
9704 TheGiantGreaterThanGoliath LDForbes ForPDF Page 6 of 8
We encounter the word almah in most enlightening usage in Proverbs 30:19: ". . . and the way
of a man with a virgin (almah)", sometimes translated 'maid', and surely meaning courtship
rather than marriage.
In Psalm 68 with its basic thought of the triumphal march of God through human history via
Israel to the ultimate establishment of His universal kingdom on earth, we are given a view of
what might well be a prophetic portrayal of a joyous procession to the Temple of the future.
"The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after; among them were
the maidens playing timbrels" (verse 25). Here the word 'maidens' is the feminine plural form
alamot.
This same word in the feminine plural is used apparently of a musical instrument. In Psalm 46:1
and in 1 Chronicles 15:20 we find the word alamoth: "A song for alamoth" and "Zechariah,
Aziel . . . and Benaiah, with strings according to alamoth." It is not certain that the word
actually denotes a musical instrument; it may refer to maidens. However, no trace can be
discovered of the existence of what may be described as a female choir as actually functioning
within the Temple. But if a musical instrument existed bearing that name, then the thought
embedded in the word could again suggest purity (virginity) of sound.
In the Song of Solomon (1:3): "Because of the fragrance of your good ointments, your name
is ointment poured forth; therefore the virgins (alamoth) love you", which seems a
reasonable translation, and in 6:8: "There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and
virgins (alamoth) without number", we see three degrees of feminine state and status.
THE SPHERE OF MARRIAGE
Man over the years has allowed official concurrent relationship with three categories of
womanhood, seen even in the Scriptures. There was the principal or first wife, and then
accepted auxiliaries who had lesser roles. In the lesser category was the concubine who was
attached to the household more or less as a slave, but who could be granted her freedom if she
were successful in bearing children to her master.
When we therefore consider the Scripture from the Song of Solomon we are able to assess the
implication of the word almah. The term queen would imply cohabitation within the married
relationship; the term concubine would imply relationship within the sphere of what may be
termed the auxiliary-marriage relationship; so the word alamoth must imply something
different from these other two.
9704 TheGiantGreaterThanGoliath LDForbes ForPDF Page 7 of 8
What remains? Surely nothing other than 'virgins', a state or condition during the maintenance
of which they would answer somewhat like a female eunuch.
There is also a further word for youth, boy, lad – alem – and girl, maid, maiden –almah – and
that is naar, naarah, and it would appear that all these words, almah, bethulah and naarah are
equal in their implication of virginity unless the context indicates otherwise.
POSSESSING OUR POSSESSIONS
All this background and research has been necessary to plough up, soften and sweeten ready
for unbiased harvest that ground trodden hard and unproductive by the heavy stamping of our
Giant Prejudice. Moreover we remind ourselves again that the territory which this Philistine
giant stamps on belongs to Judah by Divine grant.
Up, therefore, Israel! Let us possess our possessions and defy the giant. With the spirit and
armoury of David let us now possess Isaiah 7:14! "Therefore the LORD himself will give you a
sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his name Immanuel."
If this Scripture refers to a married woman, then to say the least of it the word almah was a
very unhappy word to choose when such a choice was quite unnecessary. And it is well to
remind ourselves that the third century B.C. seventy Jewish translators of the Greek Septuagint
version, who certainly had no axe to grind in the third century before the Common Era, did not
hesitate to translate the Isaiah Scripture: "Behold the virgin . . . " with parthenos meaning
virgin.
Moreover, two factors must also be observed in connection with the 'sign'. It was to be a sign
from the Eternal Himself, and it was not a sign to Ahaz; it was to be a sign from God to the
"house of David" (Isaiah 7:13). "Hear now, O house of David!"
Could the mere conception and birth of a son by a married woman fill out the requirements for
such a sign? That God intended a miracle to be associated with the sign is clear from the
preceding: "Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth or in
the height above" (7:11). To read the magnitude of God's invitation, and then to read into it a
mere ordinary birth, conveys rather the picture of a little boy strutting round in vain attempt
to fill his pater's pants with his puny person!
And the name, that is the character, of the sign-child should cause very sober reflection:
"Immanuel – God with us." Here surely is the promise and prophecy of Deity incarnate.
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The first promise of the supernatural birth of the Messiah-Redeemer is clearly embedded in the
Hebrew text of genesis 3:15, where God is addressing Satan in the garden of Eden: "And I will
put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed ..." The
form of the Hebrew text shows 'her' to be emphatic; this is the Redeemer whose sinless Being
Deity and Humanity perfectly unite.
Sin's tragic taint in Humanity has flowed, with but one interruption, from Eden to the present
day. That one interruption was the occasion when the Messiah, by virgin birth, appropriated to
Himself a sinless Humanity, and in that perfect state upheld the Law, and gave His sinless life,
by blood atonement, as a ransom for all.
May we of Israel not be like King Ahaz who refused God's offer of a sign with the words: "I will
not ask, nor will I test the LORD!" And God's reply to him was: "Hear now, O house of David!
Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also?" May we not
weary God by refusing such a heaven-granted sign.
Let not the giant's roar place us with those who cry in fear, "My mind is made up. Don't confuse
me with the facts!" May this uncircumcised Philistine, Prejudice, fall prostrate upon the ground
"which belongs to Judah", and may we speedily remove his carcass from our midst.
May we also take possession of the promise and its fulfilment: "But while he thought about
these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph,
son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is
of the Holy spirit. And she will bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Yeshua,
(Jesus) for he will save his people from their sins.'
"Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the
prophet, saying: 'Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and they shall call
his name Immanuel, which is translated, GOD WITH US' " (Matthew 1:20-23).
9704 TheGiantGreaterThanGoliath LDForbes ForPDF Page 2 of 8
THE GIANT GREATER THAN GOLIATH
by Dr. Lawrence Duff-Forbes
You will recall the historical incident of Goliath recorded in the seventeenth chapter of First
Samuel. The Philistines had gathered together their armies to battle upon territory which
belonged to Judah: "Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle, and were
gathered together at Sochoh, which belongs to Judah . . . "
Note that! The territory belonged to Judah, not the Philistines. The Philistines were intruders.
And across the valley were the armies of Israel. Then there stepped out into the space that
separated the opposing forces nine feet six inches of Philistine bombast bearing the name
Goliath.
Clad in heavy armour of overlapping plates of bronze which allowed him free movement, and
armed with weapons the magnitude of which well matched his gargantuan stature, he uttered
taunting challenges to Israel to produce a man to fight with him. Israel dismayed and greatly
afraid, for apparently their armies lacked a man capable of matching the giant.
We know the rest of the history. Unexpectedly there appeared a champion for Israel, David by
name, a shepherd. Flecks of grey were already showing in his beard and hair, but, although a
little on the good side of the prime of life, he seemed no match for the giant. Gathering his
wife and children round him he disclosed his intention of facing Goliath in combat. They were
frantic with fear, and his eldest son, a stalwart youth, even sought to restrain him by force.
However, David insisted . . .
There! There! I feel I dare not further encroach upon your patience even in a good cause.
Already you are repudiating the false picture of David I have given. "Why!" you say (and you say
correctly), "David was only a youth when he overthrew Goliath." True, and so obviously a youth
that the Philistine was insulted: ". . . . he disdained him; for he was but a youth, ruddy and
good-looking. So the Philistine said to David, 'Am I a dog, that you come to me with
sticks?' And the Philistine cursed David by his gods" (1 Samuel 17:42,43).
The very thought of David being surrounded by wife and children is quite wrong; that a fully
grown young man was his son is equally fantastic. David himself would barely qualify as being a
fully-grown young man. Indeed the words used to translate the Hebrew text are 'stripling',
'youth', and he was the youngest of Jesse's sons.
9704 TheGiantGreaterThanGoliath LDForbes ForPDF Page 3 of 8
From a perusal of the text of the Hebrew Scriptures it is very doubtful if he could have been
regarded even as of marriageable age. So the picture I first painted of David is false to the
Scriptures, and our long held impression of David as a mere lad is the correct one, justified by
those same Scriptures.
Everybody, without a solitary exception, is in full agreement: David was a lad, and the Hebrew
word which gives us the right to regard him as such is ~L[ alem, which means a full-grown
youth or young man.
So we can all relax – no one, unless with an ulterior motive or an axe to grind, would drain out
of that Hebrew word alem its natural and justifiable connotation of lad-ness, with its equally
justifiable corollary of youthful masculine virginity, if I may use such an expression.
THE GIANT PREJUDICE
The Hebrew word for youth generally, in a collective sense is alumim, so that if you were
called to give a lecture to a group of young people, they would be described as alumim. And of
course, if they were all girls you would have to use the feminine plural alamot. If the word 'lad'
had a feminine form of the Hebrew word alem lad is almah.
There is no axe to grind, no controversy, in respect to David's alem-ness, his lad-ness, his boy-
ness with its clear indication of a male youth who is what I have termed a male virgin. The only
giant facing David is Goliath himself. However, when we turn to that same word in its feminine
form there is an axe to grind, there is controversy, there is pre-judgement, blind, deaf, but
painfully vocal.
We face a giant greater than Goliath – the Giant Prejudice.
Prejudice is a busy beaver. Its sharp teeth gnaw through many living tree sap-filled and greenly
beautiful, and from Nature's fallen forests it builds its barricades and swims around in liquid
pools of its own construction.
Prejudice is defined as an unfavourable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without
knowledge, thought or reason. Prejudice is deaf; it is also blind. But none can call it dumb. It
shouts so loudly that it threatens to drown the melodious voice of Truth itself.
One needs a medley of metaphors to depict this Giant Goliath who roars his challenge not only
to Israel but to all whom God has ceded the right of residence in the Promised Land of revealed
9704 TheGiantGreaterThanGoliath LDForbes ForPDF Page 4 of 8
truth. And because I do not feel myself David enough to make a frontal attack upon this Giant
Prejudice I will encompass his overthrow by other methods.
I will take the five smooth stones of objectivity, honesty, sincerity, sympathy and willingness,
and, armed with the sling of love for truth, prevail over prejudices, and smite the
uncircumcised Philistine.
Here then is the theological "David' against which the Giant Prejudice roars: "Then he said,
'Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary
my God also? Therefore the LORD himself will give you a sign: Behold, the almah shall
conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his name Immanuel (God-with-us)' " (Isaiah 7:13,14).
Does the masculine noun alem mean a male virgin? Does the feminine noun almah mean a
female virgin?
THE BIBLICAL ROOT
Before we attempt an answer, let me call your attention to an important feature of the
Hebrew language: the shoresh or root or stem which consists mostly of three consonants on
which the meaning depends. These three basic consonants are like the prime root of meaning
buried beneath the surface, but always there. Sprouting from this root are the verbs and nouns
that pertain to that root and that retain the flavour and colouring of that root.
So let us now dig beneath and expose the root of those words alem and almah. The classical or
Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic give the root meaning as 'to enwrap', 'to veil', 'to hide', to
conceal', thus implying something hidden, something concealed, something unexposed;
similarly with modern Hebrew. Indeed we further find the verbs 'to vanish', 'to disappear' as
from the same root. And incidentally, in Arabic, which is closely related to Hebrew, the same
root means 'ripe and marriageable'.
Now we are better equipped to answer our question. There may be truth in the contention that
alem and almah do not specifically mean virginity, but when applied to a human being, the
root conveys the thought of one whose conjugal nuptial rights or attributes have remained
potential only, and thus unexpressed, hidden, concealed, virgin. Hence the feminine word
almah receives justification from its root for the word 'virgin'.
Then too in modern Hebrew one of the dictionary meanings of almah is 'girl', which does not
specifically mean a virgin, but to what else could it apply? Obviously a maiden who is, or
certainly morally should be, a virgin.
9704 TheGiantGreaterThanGoliath LDForbes ForPDF Page 5 of 8
THE VOICE OF THE BIBLE
As we turn to the Bible we find that the masculine singular noun alem appears twice in the
Hebrew Scriptures. The first occurrence is on the occasion when Jonathan planned to warn
David of his father Saul's intentions concerning David's wellbeing or otherwise: "But if I say to
the young man, 'Look the arrows are beyond you' . . . " (1 Samuel 20:22), the very 'young
man' translated 'lad' in the previous verse: "and there I will send the lad, saying . . . " where
the Hebrew word is alem.
The second appearance refers to David as a youth whom Saul wished to identify after he had
slain the giant: "And the king said, 'Inquire whose son this young man (alem) is" (1 Samuel
17:56). Some translations use the word 'stripling' or 'youth' for alem.
Thus the Biblical use of the word alem, of which almah is the feminine form, clearly indicates a
youth who is a virgin.
There are only seven pertinent uses of the word in its feminine form almah. The first we find in
the account of Rebekah prior to her marriage with Isaac where she is described as an almah,
and also as a bethulah. Abraham's servant says: "Behold I stand by the well of water; and it
shall come to pass that when the virgin (almah) comes out to draw water . . . " (Genesis
24:43); "and the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin (bethulah); no man had known
her" (24:16).
Here we may digress to make to this latter word bethulah because many contend that it is the
one specific word meaning virgin, and not just implying virgin. The root of bethulah in Hebrew
means 'to separate', 'to divide', and it will readily be admitted that the thought coming from
this can surely be virginity, for separation can conjure such a conception.
However, it should also be as readily admitted that the root though of 'concealment' embedded
in the word almah likewise yields the same thought, even more strongly if anything, as there is
a strong flavour of virginity in 'concealment', 'non-exposure' – the root thought of almah – than
in 'separation' - the root thought of bethulah.
And the word bethulah does not always mean virginity even although that is its meaning in the
majority of its sixty odd uses in Scripture. For instance, in Joel 1:8 we read: "Lament like a
virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth" where the word is bethulah.
To return to the word almah, we next find it used of Miriam the sister of Moses at a time when
she would be about ten or twelve years old: "And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, 'Go.' So the
maiden (almah) went and called the child's mother" (Exodus 2:8).
9704 TheGiantGreaterThanGoliath LDForbes ForPDF Page 6 of 8
We encounter the word almah in most enlightening usage in Proverbs 30:19: ". . . and the way
of a man with a virgin (almah)", sometimes translated 'maid', and surely meaning courtship
rather than marriage.
In Psalm 68 with its basic thought of the triumphal march of God through human history via
Israel to the ultimate establishment of His universal kingdom on earth, we are given a view of
what might well be a prophetic portrayal of a joyous procession to the Temple of the future.
"The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after; among them were
the maidens playing timbrels" (verse 25). Here the word 'maidens' is the feminine plural form
alamot.
This same word in the feminine plural is used apparently of a musical instrument. In Psalm 46:1
and in 1 Chronicles 15:20 we find the word alamoth: "A song for alamoth" and "Zechariah,
Aziel . . . and Benaiah, with strings according to alamoth." It is not certain that the word
actually denotes a musical instrument; it may refer to maidens. However, no trace can be
discovered of the existence of what may be described as a female choir as actually functioning
within the Temple. But if a musical instrument existed bearing that name, then the thought
embedded in the word could again suggest purity (virginity) of sound.
In the Song of Solomon (1:3): "Because of the fragrance of your good ointments, your name
is ointment poured forth; therefore the virgins (alamoth) love you", which seems a
reasonable translation, and in 6:8: "There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and
virgins (alamoth) without number", we see three degrees of feminine state and status.
THE SPHERE OF MARRIAGE
Man over the years has allowed official concurrent relationship with three categories of
womanhood, seen even in the Scriptures. There was the principal or first wife, and then
accepted auxiliaries who had lesser roles. In the lesser category was the concubine who was
attached to the household more or less as a slave, but who could be granted her freedom if she
were successful in bearing children to her master.
When we therefore consider the Scripture from the Song of Solomon we are able to assess the
implication of the word almah. The term queen would imply cohabitation within the married
relationship; the term concubine would imply relationship within the sphere of what may be
termed the auxiliary-marriage relationship; so the word alamoth must imply something
different from these other two.
9704 TheGiantGreaterThanGoliath LDForbes ForPDF Page 7 of 8
What remains? Surely nothing other than 'virgins', a state or condition during the maintenance
of which they would answer somewhat like a female eunuch.
There is also a further word for youth, boy, lad – alem – and girl, maid, maiden –almah – and
that is naar, naarah, and it would appear that all these words, almah, bethulah and naarah are
equal in their implication of virginity unless the context indicates otherwise.
POSSESSING OUR POSSESSIONS
All this background and research has been necessary to plough up, soften and sweeten ready
for unbiased harvest that ground trodden hard and unproductive by the heavy stamping of our
Giant Prejudice. Moreover we remind ourselves again that the territory which this Philistine
giant stamps on belongs to Judah by Divine grant.
Up, therefore, Israel! Let us possess our possessions and defy the giant. With the spirit and
armoury of David let us now possess Isaiah 7:14! "Therefore the LORD himself will give you a
sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his name Immanuel."
If this Scripture refers to a married woman, then to say the least of it the word almah was a
very unhappy word to choose when such a choice was quite unnecessary. And it is well to
remind ourselves that the third century B.C. seventy Jewish translators of the Greek Septuagint
version, who certainly had no axe to grind in the third century before the Common Era, did not
hesitate to translate the Isaiah Scripture: "Behold the virgin . . . " with parthenos meaning
virgin.
Moreover, two factors must also be observed in connection with the 'sign'. It was to be a sign
from the Eternal Himself, and it was not a sign to Ahaz; it was to be a sign from God to the
"house of David" (Isaiah 7:13). "Hear now, O house of David!"
Could the mere conception and birth of a son by a married woman fill out the requirements for
such a sign? That God intended a miracle to be associated with the sign is clear from the
preceding: "Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth or in
the height above" (7:11). To read the magnitude of God's invitation, and then to read into it a
mere ordinary birth, conveys rather the picture of a little boy strutting round in vain attempt
to fill his pater's pants with his puny person!
And the name, that is the character, of the sign-child should cause very sober reflection:
"Immanuel – God with us." Here surely is the promise and prophecy of Deity incarnate.
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The first promise of the supernatural birth of the Messiah-Redeemer is clearly embedded in the
Hebrew text of genesis 3:15, where God is addressing Satan in the garden of Eden: "And I will
put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed ..." The
form of the Hebrew text shows 'her' to be emphatic; this is the Redeemer whose sinless Being
Deity and Humanity perfectly unite.
Sin's tragic taint in Humanity has flowed, with but one interruption, from Eden to the present
day. That one interruption was the occasion when the Messiah, by virgin birth, appropriated to
Himself a sinless Humanity, and in that perfect state upheld the Law, and gave His sinless life,
by blood atonement, as a ransom for all.
May we of Israel not be like King Ahaz who refused God's offer of a sign with the words: "I will
not ask, nor will I test the LORD!" And God's reply to him was: "Hear now, O house of David!
Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also?" May we not
weary God by refusing such a heaven-granted sign.
Let not the giant's roar place us with those who cry in fear, "My mind is made up. Don't confuse
me with the facts!" May this uncircumcised Philistine, Prejudice, fall prostrate upon the ground
"which belongs to Judah", and may we speedily remove his carcass from our midst.
May we also take possession of the promise and its fulfilment: "But while he thought about
these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph,
son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is
of the Holy spirit. And she will bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Yeshua,
(Jesus) for he will save his people from their sins.'
"Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the
prophet, saying: 'Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and they shall call
his name Immanuel, which is translated, GOD WITH US' " (Matthew 1:20-23).