g._, that of boldness, cunning, or secrecy, it [Pg 47] ought to have been pointed at. The way of the man with the maid is the secret of which mention is made as early as in Gen. ii. 24,--the union of the strong with the weak and tender (comp. the parallel passage, Jer. xxxi. 22), the secret attraction which connects with one another the hearts, and at last, the bodies. The end of the way is marriage. It is the _young_ love which specially bears the character of the mysterious; after the relation has been established, it attracts less wonder.--הָרָה is the femin. of the verbal adj. הָרֶה. 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 קראת may be 3d fem. for קראה, 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. καλέσουσι, _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.