Salvation through this child may have been fulfilled through Hezekiah, for Hezekiah was king when Assyria left Jerusalem standing. However, the titles assigned to the child do not fit. While the prophecy of the child Immanuel may have misapplied a limited prophecy as a Messianic one (see commentary accompanying 2 Nephi 17:14), the child called “Wonderful, Counselor,” etc., appears in a context of purposefully dual prophetic/poetic language. Given the future meanings inherent for other verses in this chapter, references to the Messiah seem unmistakable.
However, Stuart A. Irvine, associate professor of philosophy and religious studies at Louisiana State University, identifies some problematic aspects of this passage. He translates the verse as: “For a child has been born for us, a son has been appointed for us. And authority has fallen upon his shoulder and he has been named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” He then explains:
This translation highlights Isaiah’s conspicuous return to the past tense. The Hebrew verbs are either perfect forms or imperfect consecutives. The verse, then, does not predict a future “child” but reflects on a past event and its significance for the present.
Many scholars defend a future messianic interpretation but this understanding must be ruled out, if the verbs genuinely refer to a past event.
It is not unknown in prophetic literature to view a future event as through it had already happened. Indeed, the combination of such past/future expectations is interestingly combined in a different translation of this passage from the Targum of Isaiah: “The prophet saith to the house of David. A child has been born to us, a son has been given to us: and he has taken the law upon himself to keep it, and his name has been called from of old, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, he who lives for ever, the Anointed one (or messiah), in whose days peace shall increase upon us.”
This translation retains the past tense of the Hebrew verbs but also identifies the Messiah as the child who fulfills the promise. Such a reading is not possible without seeing the past tense as speaking of an assured future. Blenkinsopp adds a similar interpretation: “It was said in the prophetic perfect tense—i.e., these results that have not yet come about are assured now that the child is born; the birth of the heir to the throne is the necessary condition for these great events to unfold.”