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David (pbuh) . Indeed, until late in his life we find him
always having recourse to other prophets. According to
the Biblical accounts, therefore, it would seem that the
gift of prophecy came to him after he had thoroughly
repented of his sin.

In one of the previous articles I remarked that after the
split of the Kingdom into two independent States which
were often at war with each other, the ten tribes which
formed the Kingdom of Israel were always hostile to
the dynasty of David (pbuh) and never accepted any other
portion of the Old Testament except the Torah - or the
Law of Moses (pbuh) as contained in the Pentateuch. This is
evident from the Samaritan version of the first five books
of the Old Testament. We do not meet with a single word
or prophecy about David’s posterity in the discourses of
the great prophets, like Elijah, Elisha, and others, who
flourished in Samariah during the reigns of the wicked
kings of Israel. It is only after the fall of the Kingdom of
Israel and the transportation of the ten tribes into Assyria
that the Prophets of Judah began to predict the advent of
some Prince from the House of David (pbuh) who was soon
to restore the whole nation and subdue its enemies. There
are several of these obscure and ambiguous sayings in the
writings or discourses of these later prophets, which have
given a rapturous and exotic exultation to the Fathers of the
Church; but in reality, they have nothing to do with Jesus
Christ (pbuh) . I shall briefly quote two of these prophecies.
The first is in Isaiah (Chap. vii.verse 14), where that Prophet
predicts that “a damsel already pregnant with child shall
bear forth a son, and thou shalt name him Emmanuel.” The
Hebrew word a’lmah does not mean “virgin,” as generally
interpreted by the Christian theologians and therefore
applied to the Virgin Mary, but it signifies “a marriageable
woman, maiden, damsel.” The Hebrew word for “virgin” is
bthulah. Then the child’s name is to be Emmanuel, which