ere really susceptible were made decidedly
certain of the impending deliverance. This appears clearly enough from
the relation of this sign to that which Ahaz had before refused,
according to which the difference must not be too great, and must not
refer to the substance. To this may be added the solemn tone which
induces us to expect something grand and important. A mere poetical
image, such as would be before us according to the hypothesis of the
ideal virgin, or of the real virgin and the ideal birth, does [Pg 66]
surely not come up to the demand which in this context must be made in
reference to this _sign_. And if the Prophet had announced so solemnly,
and in words so sublime, the birth _of his own_ child, he would have
made himself ridiculous. _Farther_,--How then did the Prophet know that
after nine months a child would be born to him, or, if the pregnancy be
considered as having already commenced, how did he know that just a son
would be born to him? That is a question to which most of these
Rationalistic interpreters take good care not to give any reply.
_Plueschke_, indeed, is of opinion that, upon a bold conjecture, the
Prophet had ventured this statement. But in that case it might easily
have fared with him as in that well known story in _Worms_,
(_Eisenmenger_, _entdecktes Judenthum_ ii. S. 664 ff.), and his whole
authority would have been forfeited if his conjecture had proved false.
And this argument holds true in reference to those also who do not
share in the Rationalistic view, of Prophetism. Predictions of such a
kind may belong to the territory of foretelling, but not to that of
Prophecy.

[Footnote 1: _Meyer_, _Blaetter fuer hoehere Wahrheit_, iii. S. 101.]

[Footnote 2: _Caspari_ very justly remarks: "Nothing can be clearer
than that 2 Chron. xxviii. 5 ff. comes in between 2 Kings xvi. 5 a.
b.; that the author of the books of the Kings gives a report of the
beginning and end; the author of the Chronicles, of the middle of the
campaign." But we cannot agree with _Caspari_ in his transferring to
Idumea the victory of Rezin. According to Is. vii. 2, Aram was encamped
in Ephraim. According to 2 Kings xvi. 5, _both_ of the kings came up to
Jerusalem and besieged her. The expedition against Elath, 2 Kings xvi.
6, was secondary, and by the way only.]

[Footnote 3: The words: "In threescore and five years more, Ephraim
shall be broken and be no more a people," have, by rationalistic
critics, without