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16 Because before the child shall know

To shun the evil and to choose the good,

Forsaken will that land become,

Before whose two kings thou art filled with fear.

The great questions here are, who is the virgin and who is Immanuel? It must be conceded that the word ny, commonly rendered virgin, denotes a young woman of marriageable age, without determining whether she is married or unmarried. If the virginity of the person designated were intended to be made prominent, it is difficult to conceive why ana, the specific word for virgin, was not employed. Without pausing to examine the non-messianic interpretations,' we notice first the view of Ewald and Cheyne, that the prophet expected Messiah's advent within a few years, and uttered this oracle more for the benefit of his own disciples than for Ahaz, who was already judicially hardened. The virgin was, accordingly, the mother of the Messiah, but unmarried and, indeed, unknown. This view, however, which maintains that Isaiah's hope and prophecy were not fulfiled, empties the Scripture of all worthy significance, and will always be unsatisfactory to evangelical believers. It is out of harmony with the solemn and emphatic manner in which the prophet uttered the divine word. Others (Junius, Calvin) have maintained that two different children are to be understood, and that verse 14 refers to the Messiah and verse 16 to the prophet's son Shearjashub, or to some other child then living. This, however, involves a most unnatural violence. Such a sudden change of reference to another child would have required a more specific form of statement. The most common Messianic interpretation maintains that the prophecy was fulfiled first and only by the birth of Jesus, and is so regarded in Matt. i, 22, 23. It is affirmed that the prediction concerning the forsaking of the land was truly fulfiled in the time of Ahaz, and the birth of Immanuel was a sign only in a sense in which something occurring long after may be called a sign. This, however, is the weak point in the current Messianic explanation. No expositor has succeeded in showing honey up to that time denotes that until then the land will not be cultivated, but used only for pasturing cattle, and the food will consist only of milk-curds and wild honey, though these may be abundant. This is seen more fully from what is said in verses 21-25.

1 These are at least five in number: (1) The virgin was Ahaz' wife, and the son Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii, 2); (2) Isaiah's wife (Hitzig, Gesenius, Knobel); (3) a princess of Ahaz' court and family, unmarried but with child (Nägelsbach); (4) the Jewish people considered as the bride of Jehovah (Hofmann, Weir, Köler); (5) an ideal person-hypothetical case of any young woman who was about to become a mother (Eichhorn, Michaelis, W. R. Smith).

how an event destined to occur centuries later could serve as a sign to Ahaz or to any one living at that period; nor can such a theory be reconciled with a sound belief in the sacred truthfulness of prophecy. The case of Moses (Exod. iii, 12), often cited, is by no means parallel, for Moses had already witnessed the sign of the burning bush, and he led the people out of Egypt, and served God upon that mountain within a short time after the assurance had been given him. But for Israel to have come to Sinai for the first time some seven hundred years afterward could have been no sign to Moses. Moreover, the language of Isa. vii, 14-16 cannot without flagrant violence be explained as referring to an event of the far future. He says that the virgin is about to bear a son, and before the child shall grow up to years of moral accountability the land of Syria and Ephraim (comp. verses 4-9), before whose two kings Ahaz was filled with trembling, should be abandoned. To suppose in the face of this statement that the land was indeed forsaken within the specified time, but that the child was not born until seven centuries later, is exceedingly unnatural, not to say prepos

terous.

It remains, therefore, that we understand the prophecy to have been truly fulfiled in the time of Ahaz and Isaiah by the birth of a child who was a type of the Messiah. This does not involve the doctrine of a double sense in the Scripture. The language has no double or occult meaning. Its application to Christ in Matt. i, 23 is to be explained typically, just as we explain the passage cited from Hosea in Matt. ii, 15. The most simple explanation is that which identifies the virgin with the prophet's young wife, called in chap. viii, 3 the prophetess, and the child Immanuel is no other than Maher-shalal-hash-baz, whose name and birth were so solemnly attested (see chap. viii, 1-3). We understand this latter as but another symbolical name of the child Immanuel, for the same great sign is to be at once a proof that GOD IS WITH his people, and that he also HASTENS THE SPOLIATION of the two kingdoms of which Ahaz was so much afraid. In less than three years from the beginning of Ahaz' reign, Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, broke the power of Damascus, and spoiled the cities of Ephraim as described in 2 Kings xv, 29; xvi, 9. The language of Isa. viii, 4, when compared with Isa. vii, 16, confirms this interpretation, for it shows that the significant sign, which the child Immanuel was to be to the house of David, was also to be fulfiled in Maher-shalal-hash-baz. This is still further incidentally confirmed by the repetition in Isa. viii, 8 and 10 of the name Immanuel. It may further be shown that the whole passage, beginning with Isa. vi, 1 and ending with

ix, 7 is an apocalypse of symbolical names, in which the prophet's children figure as "signs and portents in Israel" (Isa. viii, 18). The difficulties which some have felt in the way of this exposition, owing to the change of names and appellatives, is obviated when we see that the prophet, in chap. viii, 1-4, following the manner of apocalyptic repetitions, presents the Immanuel revelation of chap. vii, 14-16, from another point of view, and in connection with another symbolical name.

THE GALILEAN KING.

The apocalyptic passage beginning with Isa. vi, 1 concludes most magnificently with a prophecy of the Prince of Peace, destined to reign forever (Isa. ix, 1-7; Heb. text, viii, 23-ix, 6). In contrast with the gloom and anguish sure to come on such as reject the "law and testimony" of divine revelation (viii, 20), and resort unto heathen oracles, the light and joy of the true Israel are portrayed. We thus translate :

1 But there shall be no gloom to her who was in straits.

As the former time despised the land of Zebulun and Naphtali,
The latter honours the way of the sea beyond the Jordan,
The circle of the nations.

1

2 The people who walked in darkness saw great light, Dwelling in a land of death-shade, light beamed on them. 3 Thou hast increased the nation and magnified its joy,

They have rejoiced before thee like joy in harvest time, 4 Even as men exult when they distribute spoil.

For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder,

The rod of his oppressor thou hast broken as the day of Midian.* 5 For every boot of warrior in the fray, and garment rolled in blood, Even it shall be for burning, food of fire.

6 For a child is born to us, a son is given to us,

And the dominion is upon his shoulder,

And his name is called Pele-yo‘ets-'el-gibbor-abi-ad-sar-shalom."

4

7 Great the dominion, and for peace no end;

Commonly rendered Galilee, but, strictly, any circuit of country surrounded by here it is applied to the tribe territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, and afterward to the entire northern section of the Holy Land.

hills;

2 As when Gideon so signally overthrew the hosts of Midian (Judg. vii, 19–25 comp. Psa. lxxxiii, 9; Isa. x, 26).

3 Consistency of translation and interpretation requires that this symbolical name be retained in the same manner as Immanuel and Maher-shalal-hash-baz in chap. vii, 14; viii, 1, 3. The interpreter is to show that as one means God with us, and another, hasten-spoil, speed-prey, so this means wonderful-counsellor, God-hero, fathereternal, prince of peace.

4 For 70 at the beginning of this verse read 77. The letters ▷ have every appearance of a copyist's repetition from the close of the preceding verse.

Over the throne of David and over his kingdom,

To confirm it and to strengthen it in righteousness and judgment,
Henceforward even unto eternity.

The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this.

In this passage the prophet's eye sweeps far beyond his own time, and contemplates the Messianic future as a perfected triumph.' The essential contents may be stated in seven propositions: (1) The Galilean region, formerly despised, shall in the latter time be greatly honoured (comp. Matt. iv, 14-16); (2) the people formerly in darkness shall see great light; (3) the nation shall be increased and made joyful; (4) their yoke of oppression shall be thrown off as triumphantly as when Gideon defeated Midian; (5) military clothing will be needed no more and be fit only for burning; (6) the Messiah is announced as if already born and bearing a name of manifold significance; (7) he is destined to reign as if over David's throne in righteousness forever. Here we observe how both the kingdom and person of the Messiah are made prominent, and the Christian expositor has no difficulty in showing that the prophecy is wonderfully fulfiled in the birth of Jesus Christ, and his enthronement to reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet (1 Cor. xv, 25).

THE SHOOT OF JESSE AND THE FINAL EXODUS.

2

The Messianic prophecy and song which occupy Isa. xi and xii are too long for full citation here. We have space only for a statement of the principal Messianic ideals which form the essential prophetic thoughts of the entire passage. (1) The Messiah is a shoot from the stock of Jesse; (2) he is endued with the wise and holy spirit of Jehovah; (3) he is a righteous and holy judge; (4) he is to effect a universal peace like that of Eden; (5) this peace will be accompanied by a universal knowledge of Jehovah; (6) nations and peoples will seek his glorious rest; (7) the result will involve a redemption more glorious than that of the exodus from Egypt; (8) the redeemed people shall triumph over their enemies; (9) all old tribal rivalry and disputes will cease; (10) the song in chap. xii is an ideal Messianic ode of triumph, designed to be analogous to that which Israel sang on the shore of the Egyptian sea after their deliverance from the house of bondage (Exod. xv, 1-19), and should also be compared with the song of Moses and of the Lamb by the glassy sea, in Rev. xv, 2, 3.

'Hence the use of the prophetic perfect so noticeable in this passage. See Gesenius, Heb. Gram., § 126, 4.

Hebrew andy, Comp. My in chap. iv, 2.

Messianic

ganic series.

The student of prophecy should not fail to notice how largely this last oracle of the five now cited corresponds with prophecy an or- the first one (in chap. ii, 2–4), and is a fuller elaboration of its main ideals. It should also be observed that these five Messianic prophecies as here arranged constitute a progressive series, beginning with the comparatively indefinite but comprehensive one of the exaltation of the temple-mountain, and ending with this full and glowing picture of ultimate redemption to be realized in the Son of David's everlasting reign. This organic structure of Messianic prophecy may be exhibited on a broader scale by a collation and comparison of all the Old Testament oracles belonging to this class.

prophet.

Messianic prophecy seems to have been often prompted by the Prompted by Wrongs and discouragements of the times, and was wont the times of the to soar above the evils which the prophet saw about him, and idealize a future golden age, in which all such wrongs should be abolished. Accordingly, in portraying the Messianic future, each prophet was naturally limited by his historical position and outlook, and the great events of his own time would give a tone and colour to his language. Thus Isaiah, in chaps. viixii, seems to connect the glorification of Israel with the fall of Assyria, as if it were to follow immediately after the next great political catastrophe and commotion among the nations. So the "day of the Lord" is near in the prophets' visions, and out of its darkness and terrors dawns the triumphant reign of the Prince of Peace, whose kingdom is everlasting.

We observe further how Messianic prophecy appropriates the Cast in meta- facts and forms of Old Testament history and theocratic phorical forms. conceptions, and makes them serve the purpose of metaphorical allusion. The Messiah himself is a branch, a shoot, an ensign, a prince, a governor, a king, a judge, a conqueror, a priest, a prophet, etc., and his rule is associated with what is great and noble in Jewish thought. In the foregoing examples we have the Gospel age predicted under the imagery of the temple-mountain exalted above all others, and Zion as the starting-place of a new revelation (chap. ii, 2–4). A chosen remnant is to be the nucleus of the Messianic kingdom (x, 22; xi, 16). The ultimate restoration of the true Israel and their blessedness and glory are set forth under the imagery of the miracles of the exodus (iv, 5, 6; xi, 15, 16). So, too, in other similar Scriptures the ultimate glory is portrayed as a recreation of Jerusalem, and a perfect keeping of new moons and Sabbaths, and, in short, as a new land and heavens (Isa. lxv, 17, 18; lxvi, 22, 23; comp. Ezek. xl-xlviii). It is also noticeable that immortality

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