We have hitherto looked at the prediction chiefly as ap/ea'se of certain things which its fulfil ment necessarily ensured and presupposed. Be sides this, however, the event was a ' sign' in the more usual sense of the term, not only on account of the child's miraculous birth, but also by reason of his significant name. This latter circumstance, which we think has not received the attention it deserves, might be inferred from the parallel in stances in ch. viii. 1-4 ; Hosea i. 4, 6, 9 ; and is clearly established by the use madc of the designa tion in the following chapter (vers. 8, To), where it is employed, like many of the watchwords of the Greeks and Romans, as well as of modern nations (comp. in particular that of Cynis' army at the battle of Cunaxa, &in Ka2 Ntio2, and that of the Lutherans in the Thirty Years' War, Gott mit uns) as an incentive to courage in the hour of danger ; and, as given by Jehovah himself, was an attestation to his people that, whatever mischief their enemies might cio, their fury would be re strained within due bounds.
It will be seen that the view we have given ot the passage, which is mainly that of Dr. Fairbairn, though differing from his in some minor particulars, is in a great measure free from the difficulty arising from the circumstance of time,' which has been so unduly magnified by many. Still, as the desola tion of Syria and Ephraim actually took plette some seven centuries before the birth of Christ (the inhabitants of Damascus having been carried cap tive by Tiglath-pileser about two years after the date of the prediction (2 Kings xvi. 9), and the removal of the Israelites completed by Esar haddon sixty-three years later (see v. 8, and comp. 2 Kings xvii. 23, 24)), it may be thought strange that Isaiah should seen: to connect the two events chronologically together (ver. 16). The anachronism, however, is only inferential and apparent ; for what is said was strictly true. And so far as there is any ambiguity, it is quite in accordance with the enigmatical character and studied obscurity of prophecy in general. The prophet might have been commissioned to say ` 70o years before,' or `long before.' For wise reasons, however, it was not deemed expedient that thc precise period of Messiah's coming should yet be made known ; the language on this point, therefore, is purpose/y vague. As Dr. Henderson has well observed, ` the uncertainty in regard to thne WaS calculated to exert a salutary influence npon the minds of believers, by keeping- up in them a constant expectation of the event ; just as the uncertainty of the time of our Lord's second ad vent has always been found to operate favourably upon the minds of his people.' We meet with the same commingling of times indeed in reference to the second coming of Christ, which is connected in a similar manner in the N. T. with events that were to precede it by even much greater intervals. Thus our Lord himself (Matt. xxiv. 29) speaks of his coming to judgment as if it were shortly to follow (oVews p.ered the destruction of Jerusalem. So the Apostle Paul, correcting the error into which the Thessalonians had been led as to the day of Christ' being then at hand,' assures them that that day should not come except there should come a falling away first, and the man of sin be revealed ;' yet (assuming with the majority of ex positors that the reference is to the Papacy) fifteen centuries have already elapsed since he that let' was taken out of the way,' and not less than eight centuries since the mystery of iniquity' was fully revealed,' and the pretensions of its head reached their climax.
The limits of this article preclude a more minute criticism of the passage, and refutation of the various opinions from which we dissent. We can only remark upon one or two words in conclu sion :— That one future event was sometimes made the sig-n' (nix) of another anterior to it in point of time, is shewn by Dr. Henderson from Exod. 12 ; Jer. xliv. 29, 30. An example still more appro priate, as occurring in the same author, and relat ing to a parallel case, will be found in chap. xxxvii. of this prophet, ver. 3o, 31 (compared with 2 Kings xix. 29), where the promise, that for two years the people should subsist on the spontaneous produce of the seed of the previous harvest, is constituted a ` sign' that the kingdom of Judah should recover from the effects of the Assyrian invasion, and by inference, that the designs of Sennacherib against Jerusalem should be frustrated, of which a positive assurance is subjoined in yen 33 and following ; just as the sign of Immanuel, which is indirect and indefinite as to time, is supplemented, cla.
by a special and definite token of the downfall of Samaria and Damascus within the space of two years.
In regard to rith.3.1, we are perfectly willing to accept the derivation of Gesenius (from the Arab. c„1.,-*:, pubes full), and the etymological sense thence derived, paella nubilis, a marriageable maid,' along with the admission of its advocates regarding the taus ioquena'i, which is what, after 211, fixes the meaning of a term, that in all the places of the O. T. in which the word occurs, it undoubtedly denotes a young woman who is pro perly and strictly a vi/Arin' (Dr. P. Smith's re.rt. to Mess., sec. 19, note A) ; for in that case it is the most apposite designation that could have been selected for the virgin mother of our Lord.
In fine, with respect to we hold, in accordance with the views above exhibited—(t) That it is an expressive epithet or title, and not a proper name. (2) That it denotes that the pre tence of Goa' should be with his people, to &fend and deliver thent ; the same expression, or others of precisely similar import, being of frequent occurrence in the sacred writers, from Moses down wards, of which it may be sufficient to adduce as examples Gen. xxvi. 24, 28 ; xxxix. 2, 21 ; 21 ; SaM. XVi. IS ; I Yillgr,S Viii. 57 ; Ps. xlvi. 7, it ; Zech. viii. 23, and especially the repetition of the phrase in the immediate context of this pas sage (ch. viii. to), compared with its like use on a similar occasion, 2 Chron. xxxii. 7, 8. (Compare also the use of aitv-ciktt and adsum in the classics, as—ol °col crew a`7)iav go-ovrae, Xen. Anab. iii. I, 21 ; AcIsis 0 ! placidusqzte juves, Virg. --En. iv. 578.) (3) That it is of analog,ous significancy to the name ( Jesus) actually conferred on our Lord in confor mity with the directions of the angel. (4) That the former, no more than the latter, can fairly be considered as implying the divinity of our Lord. In this, as in many other such cases, we have in sensibly brought to the term, from independent sources of information, an idea which is not in it, and which does not harmonize with the context and occasion. All that can be said is, that, as applied to Christ, the title has a peculiar appropri ateness. Let it be enough that divine attributes are explicitly ascribed to him in a prophecy which must have been delivered almost immediately after (ch. ix. 6).—W. S.