it only as an arbitrary weakening of the sense, that several interpreters explain פלא יועץ "extraordinary Counsellor." Parallel is Judges xiii. 18 where the Angel of the Lord, after having announced the birth of Samson, says: "Why askest thou thus after my name?--it is wonderful," פלאי, _i.e._, my whole nature is wonderful, of unfathomable depth, and cannot, therefore, be expressed by any human name. _Farther_--Revel. xix. 12 is to be compared, where Christ has a name written that no man knows but He himself, to intimate the immeasurable glory of His nature. That which is here, in the first instance, said of a single attribute of the King, applies, at the same time, 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 הפליא עצה, "He shows himself wonderful in His counsel."--The second name is אל גבּור "God-Hero." Besides the ability of giving good counsel, a good government requires also גבורה 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_, אל גבור 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 אל גבור is said of the Most High, appears a very inconvenient obstacle,--a parallel passage which does not occur by chance, but where שאר ישוב 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 אל 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