1. The words preceding have been proved to be confined to the
Messiah, whose birth was then distant above seven hundred years:
whereas, the words _here_ are confined to some child who was not to
arrive at years of discretion before the two kings, then advancing
against Jerusalem, should be themselves cut off.
2. Some end was undoubtedly to be answered by the presence of
Isaiah's son, whom God commanded to take with him on this visit to
Ahaz; and yet no use at all appears to have been made of this son,
unless he is referred to here.
3. These prophecies are manifestly distinguished by their being
addressed to different persons: the first being _plural,_ and
addressed to the house of David; but the second is _singular,_ and
therefore is addressed to Ahaz.
We see, then, that the prophet addressed himself at large to the
"house of David," when he foretold the birth of the Messiah; which,
though the event might be very distant, would give present
consolation, as it assured them of the preservation of the house of
David; but that he addressed himself in particular to the king, when
he foretold the speedy destruction of the two kings, his enemies.
Note also, that King Ahaz is the person addressed in the very words
which immediately follow, "The Lord shall bring upon thee and upon
thy people, and upon thy father's house, days," &c.
This transition will be the more evident if we render the first word
_But,_ as the same word is rendered just before in the same passage:
"Is it a small thing for you to weary men, _but_ will ye weary my God
also?" It is so rendered in this very place in our old English
Bibles, printed in 1535, 1537, 1539, 1549, 1550.
The word now rendered _"the child,"_ should be here rendered "THIS
_child;_" and the sense of the verse may be then clearly ascertained.
The necessity for this last rendering has been observed by more than
one expositor, but perhaps no one has quoted any parallel instance,
or produced proper authority for this necessary change of our
translation. But, that we may not be charged with offering violence
to an expression, in order to defend the Evangelists or to confute
their adversaries, some authority should be produced in a point on
which so much depends, and I shall mention several passages similar
to the case now before us.
When Jacob blessed Joseph's two sons, he laid his hands upon their
heads, and used the very same word in the plural number which Isaiah
here uses in the singular; and as that word is rendered "_these_
children" by the authors of the Greek and other very ancient
versions, we have their joint authorities for rendering the word here
"_this_ child."
The authors of our own translation have not indeed rendered the word
in the text "_this_ child," but they have shown that it _may_ be so
rendered, because they have themselves, in several other places,
expressed the emphatic article by _this_ and _that_ in the singular
number, and by _these_ in the plural. Thus in Jeremiah xxiii. 21, "I
have not sent _these_ prophets;" in Numbers xi. 6, "There is nothing
before our eyes, but _this_ manna;" in 1 Samuel xxix. 4, "Make _this_
fellow to return;" and, to omit other instances, we read in Jeremiah
xxviii. 16 (what it is impossible to translate otherwise), "_This_
year thou shalt die."
But besides these instances, in which similar words _may_ and _must_
be so rendered, agreeably to our present translation, in this same
verse of Isaiah there is the authority of our old English translation
for both the alterations here proposed; for the very first printed
edition, and at least two others, render these words, "_But_ or ever
_that_ child," &c. And, to obviate any prejudice against the other
alteration before proposed, it should be observed that so far from
their being now first thought of to favour any new opinions, almost
all of them are the very readings in our former English Bibles, from
which our present has varied in this and other instances very
improperly.
The translation of the principal word here by _this child_ being thus
vindicated, it may perhaps be asked who this child was, and the
answer is, A son of Isaiah, called _Shear-jashub,_ whom God had
commanded the prophet to take with him upon this occasion, but of
whom no use was made, unless in the application of these words;--whom
Isaiah might now hold in his arm, and to whom therefore he might
point with his hand when he addressed himself to Ahaz, and said, "But
before _this_ child shall grow up to discern good from evil, the land
that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings." There is an
absolute necessity of attending to this action in several other
sacred passages, as in John ii. 18, 19. "What sign showest
Thou? . . . Destroy this temple;" our Lord there pointing to His own
body.
The child's name is evidently prophetical, for it signifies, _a
remnant,_ or the remainder, _shall return._ And probably he was so
called because born the year before, when such multitudes were
carried captives into the land of Israel; and this by way of
prediction to the Jews that, though they had lost 100,000 men by the
sword in one day, and double that number by captivity, yet those who
remained alive--the _remnant_--certainly should return to their own
country.
This prophecy was soon after fulfilled. And therefore, this son,
whose name had been so consolatory the year before, was with the
utmost propriety brought forth now, and made the subject of a second
prophecy--namely, that before _that_ child, then in the second year
of his age, should be able to distinguish natural good from
evil--before he should be about four or five years old--the lands of
Syria and Israel, spoken of here as one kingdom, on account of their
present union and confederacy, should be "forsaken of both her
kings:" which, though at the time highly improbably, came to pass
about two years afterwards, when those two kings, who had in vain
attempted to conquer Jerusalem, were themselves destroyed, each in
his own country.
* * * * * * * *
"If the miraculous birth of Christ were true, yet how could an event
so very distant be properly a _sign,_ at the time when the prophecy
was delivered?"