Chizuk Emunah Under the Microscope: Chapter 21b

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

Troki objects to this passage being about Jesus, since he argues it is about King Hezekiah. One of the arguments used is that the passage is in the "perfect" tense, which implies that the events are past. This would support the Hezekiah interpretation, as Hezekiah was already a child when this prophecy was told. Many prophecies of the exile are told in this perfect tense, even though they came before the exile.

It is not quite that simple, though. The perfect tense is not only a tense in Hebrew for past events, but there are also future events that use the perfect tense. Prophets sometimes proclaimed so boldly a future event, that they This is like answering a request by saying "consider it done."

Therefore my people go into exile

for lack of knowledge;

their honored men go hungry,

and their multitude is parched with thirst. (Isaiah 5:13)

He has come to Aiath;

he has passed through Migron;

at Michmash he stores his baggage;

they have crossed over the pass;

at Geba they lodge for the night;

Ramah trembles;

Gibeah of Saul has fled.

Cry aloud, O daughter of Gallim!

Give attention, O Laishah!

O poor Anathoth!

Madmenah is in flight;

the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.

This very day he will halt at Nob;

he will shake his fist

at the mount of the daughter of Zion,

the hill of Jerusalem. (Isaiah 10:28-32)

Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord (Jeremiah 23:2).

All three are use the perfect tense to describe future events, so the quote "a son has been born" is far from a prooftext that the event happened in the past.

Another consideration with the verse is the adjectives that are used at the end. Are they all referring to one person? The language used points to "yes" as the answer. The text packages all four terms together. It states: (וַיִּקְרָא שְׁמֹו פֶּלֶא יֹועֵץ אֵל גִּבֹּור אֲבִיעַד שַׂר־שָׁלֹום) "He will call his name Wonderful Counselor Mighty God Everlasting Father Prince of Peace."

If it were meant to be translated as "The Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, and Everlasting Father will call him Prince of Peace" the Hebrew would have changed the word order to something like
וְהַפֶּלֶא יֹועֵץ אֵל גִּבֹּור אֲבִיעַד קָרָא שְׁמֹו שַׂר־שָׁלֹום

Which is like saying "The great, high, and mighty ruler of all of eternity will call his name Bob"
Sort of anticlimactic for a prophecy.

This is why Abraham Ibn Ezra stated "Some say that פלא יועץ אל גבור אבי עד are the names of God, and the name of the Child is שר שלום, but the right opinion to my mind is that all are the names of the Child."

The issue with Troki's interpretation is that the term "Mighty God" is a different term than it is for Hezekiah. The former is אֵל גִּבֹּור while the latter is חִזְקִיָּהוּ. Furthermore, if the term in this verse had been translated literally into a name, the name of the one referenced would be Gabriel, not Hezekiah.

 Another key to the divinity of the person in question is the use of אֵל גִּבֹּור which is a divine title used in only in two other places, and both describing the God of Israel.

A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God (Isaiah 10:21)

You show steadfast love to thousands, but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them, O great and mighty God, whose name is the LORD of hosts (Jeremiah 32:18)

Furthermore, the verses describe great joy at the one who is yet unborn when the prophecy was written. It cannot describe Zerubbabel, either, for we know almost nothing about him, and he did not accomplish much more than rebuilding the second temple, and having Jeconiah's curse reversed. Again, this is why the Aramaic Targum explicitly calls him Messiah, (משיחא דשלמא יסגי עלנא ביומוהי) who is the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.