pinion as to the explanation of the main
point. One class of interpreters--comprehending _Eusebius_ and _Cyril_,
and by far the greatest number of the ancient Christian expositors; and
among the more recent, _Rosenmueller_, _Ewald_, _Hitzig_, _Maurer_, and
_Caspari_--understand [Pg 514] by "her who is bearing," the mother
of the Messiah. Another class understands thereby the Congregation
of Israel. The latter, however, differ from each other as to the
signification and import of the figure of the birth. Some--_Abendana_,
_Calvin_, and _Justi_--suppose the _tertium comparationis_ to be the
joy following upon the pain. Others--_Theodoret_, _Tarnovius_ ("until
Israel, like a fruitful mother, has brought forth a numerous progeny"),
_Vitringa_ (in his _Commentary on Revel._ S. 534)--suppose it to be the
great increase. Let us first decide between these two modifications of
that view which refers the words to the Congregation of Israel. The
former--the joy following after the pain--appears to be inadmissible
for this single reason, that among the very numerous passages of the
Old Testament where the image of a birth is employed, there does
not occur even one, in which the joy following after the pain is
made prominent, as is the case in the well-known passage in the New
Testament. On the contrary, in all the passages which come into
consideration on this point, it is rather the pain accompanying the
birth which is considered. Thus Mic. iv. 10; Is. xxvi. 17; Jer. iv. 31:
"For I hear a voice as of a woman in travail, anguish as of her that
bringeth forth her first-born child, the voice of the daughter of
Zion, she groaneth, spreadeth her hands: Woe to me, for my soul is
wearied, through them that kill;" xxx. 6, xlix. 24; Hos. xiii. 13. To
consider the pain alone, however, as the _tertium comparationis_,
is inadmissible, because, in that case, we would obtain the absurd
meaning: the suffering shall continue until the suffering cometh. It is
likewise impossible to understand the bringing forth as the highest
degree of affliction,--so that the sense would be: the Lord will give
them up until the distress reaches its highest point,--because this
meaning could apply only in the event of the lower degrees, the pains
before the birth, being also mentioned. They who hold and defend the
second modification of this view, can indeed refer to, and quote, a
large number of parallel passages--almost all of them from the second
part of Isaiah-