: hrh]. The fundamental passage, Gen. xvi.
11, where the angel of the Lord says to Hagar: "Behold thou art with
child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael, because
the Lord has heard thy affliction," shows that we must translate: The
virgin _is_ with child, and not: becomes with child. The allusion to
that passage in Genesis is very significant. In that case, as well as
in the one under consideration, salvation is brought into connection
with the birth of a child. To the birth of Ishmael, the despairing
Hagar is directed as to a security for the divine favour; to the birth
of Immanuel, the desponding people are directed as to the actual proof
that God is with them. If the _Almah_ represents herself to the Prophet
as being already with child, then passages such as Is. xxix. 8, Matt.
xi. 5, are not applicable. A virgin who is with child cannot be one who
was a virgin.--The form [Hebrew: qrat] may be 3d fem. for [Hebrew:
qrah], comp. Jer. xliv. 23; but the fundamental passage in Gen. xvi. 11
is decisive for considering it as the 2d fem.: "_thou_ callest," as an
address to the virgin; in which case the form is altogether regular. It
was not a rare occurrence in Israel that mothers gave the name to
children, Gen. iv. 1, 25, xix. 37, xxix. 32. The circumstance,
therefore, that the giving of the name is assigned to the mother (the
virgin) affords no ground for supposing, as many of the older
expositors do, that this is an intimation that the child would not have
a human father. "Thou callest" can, on the contrary, according to the
custom then prevalent, be substantially equivalent to: they shall name,
Matt. [Greek: kalesousi], _Jerome_: _vocabitur_. The name is, of
course, not to be considered as an ordinary _nomen proprium_, but as a
designation of his nature and character. It may be understood in
different ways. Several interpreters, _e. g._, _Jerome_, referring to
passages such as Ps. xlvi. 8, lxxxix. 25, Is. xliii. 2, Jer. i. 8, see
[Pg 48] in it nothing else than an appeal to, and promise of divine
aid. According to others, the name is to be referred to God's becoming
man in the Messiah; thus _Theodoret_ says: "The name reveals the God
who is with us, the God who became man, the God who took upon Him the
human nature." In a similar manner _Irenaeus_, _Tertullian_,
_Chrysostom_, _Lactantius_, _Calvin_, and others, express themselves.
But those very parallel passages just quoted show that the name in
itself