It is characteristic of Isaiah to introduce a messianic theme at a somewhat general level before spelling it out in unambiguously messianic terms (cf. comments on 4:2 and 42:1; also the Introduction, pp. 455–58). This interpretation, therefore, enables us to see the passage as part of a wider pattern in the book. So, I am contending, Isaiah predicts the coming of a boy who will be a sign from God to his contemporaries and who will foreshadow Christ, in whom the terms of the prophecy—abstracted from