severed from those passages where it occurs as an attribute of the Most High God; comp. besides chap. x. 21; Deut. x. 17; Jer. xxxii. 18. The third name is _Father of eternity_. That admits of a double explanation. Several interpreters refer to the Arabic _usus loquendi_, according to which he is called the father of a thing who possesses it; _e.g._, Father of mercy, _i.e._, the merciful one. This _usus loquendi_, according to the supposition formerly very current, occurs in Hebrew very frequently, especially in proper names, _e.g._, טוב אבי. "Father of goodness," _i.e._, the good one. According to this view. Father of eternity would be equivalent to Eternal one. According to the opinion of others. Father of eternity is _he who will ever be a Father_, _an affectionate provider_, comp. chap. xxii. 21, where Eliakim [Pg 90] is called "_Father_ to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;" Job xxix. 16; Ps. lxviii. 6. _Luther_, too, thus explains: "Who at all times feeds His Kingdom and Church, in whom there is a fatherly love without end." The _latter_ view is to be preferred unconditionally. Against the former view is the circumstance that all the other names stand in direct reference to the salvation of the covenant-people, while, in the mere eternity, this reference would not distinctly enough appear. And it has farther been rightly remarked by _Ewald_, that that _usus loquendi_ in Arabic always belongs to the artificial, often to jocular discourse. Whether it occur in Hebrew at all is still a matter of controversy; _Ewald_, § 27, denies that it occurs in proper names also. On the other hand, the paternal love, the rich kindness and mercy, exceedingly well suit the first two names which indicate unfathomable _wisdom_, and divine _heroic strength_. The rationalistic interpreters labour very hard to _weaken_ the idea of _eternity_. But the "Provider for life" agrees very ill with the _Wonder-Counsellor_, and the _God-hero_. The absolute eternity of the Messiah's dominion is, on the foundation of 2 Sam. vii., most emphatically declared in other passages also (comp. vol. i., p. 132, 133), and meets us here again immediately in the following verse. The name Ever-Father, too, leads us to _divine Majesty_, comp. chap. xlv. 17: "Israel is saved by the Lord with an _everlasting_ salvation; ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded in all _eternity_" chap. lvii. 15, where God is called שכן עד "the ever dwelling;" farther, Ps. lxviii. 6: "A _Father_ of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows is God in His holy habitation," where the providence of God for the _personae miserabiles_ is praised with a special reference to that which He does for His poor people.--_Hitzig's_ explanation: "Father of prey," does not suit the prophetic style, and has, in general, no analogy from Hebrew to adduce in its favour. The circumstance that, in the verse immediately following, the eternity of the government is mentioned, shows that עד