as in
the Messianic Psalms. But it is found, in sharply defined outlines, in
Isaiah, and specially in ix. 5, where, just as in the passage before
us, the divine glory of the Messiah is contrasted with the lower aspect
of His existence; and the closer the points of contact are between
Isaiah and Micah, the less can we refuse to acknowledge such here. This
circumstance also must prevent us from doing so, that immediately
afterwards, in ver. 3 (4), the divine dignity and nature of the Messiah
meet us anew. This passage requires, as its foundation, the one upon
which we are now commenting. Moreover, the eternity which, in contrast
with His birth in time, is here ascribed to the Messiah, corresponds
with the eternity of His existence and dominion after His birth, which
is repeatedly ascribed to the Messiah, and, most prominently, in Is.
ix. 5, where He receives the name "Father of eternity," _i.e._, He who
will be Father in all eternity.--Some one, perhaps, would infer from
the subjoined words, "of the days," that [Hebrew: evlM] is here to be
understood in a limited sense. But who does not know that, when
eternity is predicated in contrast with a limited duration of time,
just to make the contrast the more striking, those measures of time,
which are properly applicable to the latter only, are transferred to
the former? For in order to be able to compare things, a certain
resemblance between them must necessarily be first established. Thus in
Dan. vii. 9, God is called "the Ancient of Days;" thus it is said of
Him in Ps. cii. 28, "Thy years have no end;" and the New Testament
frequently speaks in the same way of eternal times. We are, in our
thoughts, generally so much bound to time, that we can conceive of
eternity only as "time without time." It cannot by any means be
satisfactorily or incontrovertibly proved from vii. 14, 20, that
[Hebrew: qdM] and [Hebrew: imi evlM] here designate merely the
ancient time. All which that passage proves is, that such a sense is
possible--and this, no one probably has ever doubted--but not that it
is applicable in this connection. If the connection be considered,
Prov. viii. 22, 23, will then be acknowledged to be parallel,--a
passage in which the eternal existence of Wisdom is spoken of in a
similar manner.

3. That, in the prophecy under consideration, Bethlehem is [Pg 496]
marked out as the birth-place of the Messiah, was held as an undoubted
truth by the ancient Jews. This appears from