, to all others, holds true of
His whole nature; the King is a Wonder as a Counsellor, because His
whole person is wonderful. A proof, both of the connection of the two
words, and against the weakening of the sense, is afforded by the
parallel passage, chap. xxviii. 29, where it is said of the Most
High God [Hebrew: hplia ech], "He shows himself wonderful in His
counsel."--The second name is [Hebrew: al gbvr] "God-Hero." Besides the
ability of giving good counsel, a good government requires also
[Hebrew: gbvrh] strength, heroic power: comp. chap. xi. 2, according to
which the spirit of counsel and strength rest upon the Messiah. What
may not be expected from a King who not only, like a David in a higher
degree, possesses the greatest _human measure_ of heroic strength, but
who is also a _God-Hero_, and a _Hero-God_, so that with His appearance
there _disappears_ completely the contrast of the invisible Head of the
people of God, and of His visible substitute,--a contrast which so
often manifested itself, to the great grief of the covenant-people? The
God-Hero forms the contrast to a human hero whose heroic might is,
after all, always _limited_, [Hebrew: al gbvr] can signify God-Hero
only, a Hero who is infinitely exalted above all human heroes [Pg 88]
by the circumstance that He is _God_. To the attempts at weakening the
import of the name, chap. x. 21, where [Hebrew: al gbvr] is said of the
Most High, appears a very inconvenient obstacle,--a parallel passage
which does not occur by chance, but where [Hebrew: war iwvb] stands
with an intentional reference to chap. vii.: "The remnant shall return,
the remnant of Jacob, unto the Hero-God," who is furnished with
invincible strength for His people; comp. Ps. xxiv. 8: "The Lord strong
and a hero, the Lord a hero of war." The older Rationalistic exposition
endeavoured to set aside the deity of the Messiah by the explanation:
"strong hero." So also did _Gesenius_. This explanation, against which
chap. x. 21 should have warned, has been for ever set aside by the
remark of _Hitzig_: "Commonly, in opposition to all the _usus
loquendi_, the word is translated by: _strong hero_. But [Hebrew: al]
is always, even in passages such as Gen. xxxi. 29, "God," and in all
those passages which are adduced to prove that it means "_princeps_,"
"_potens_," the forms are to be derived not from [Hebrew: al], but from
[Hebrew: ail], which properly means 'ram,'then 'leader,''prince.'" By
this explan