3. It is therefore probable that the sign is of larger significance. Several things must be taken into account. First, that which others would call a national crisis, the prophets, and particularly Isaiah, consider a religious crisis. His statement to Aliaz, 'if ye do not believe ye shall not be established' (v.*), is not the enunciation of a commonplace. It is tlie central thought of his prophetic life (6'"- and often). And this faith is wanting both in prince and people (7'-- '* S'"-). Secondly, throughout this interview the prophet's mind is in a state of extreme exaltation, as his offer to Ahaz of a sign anywhere in all the universe of things shows. And this exaltation is intensified bv the king's rejection of the sign offered him — ' VVill ye weary my God also ' ? (7"). The sign now given will not be a favourable one forced upon Ahaz, but one of a wider kind. Tlie prophet casts his eye forward o»er the whole destiny of the kingdom of .1". He ecus his conceptions of this destiny about to take shape in history. The conditions and the instruments of fulfilling what he had from the beginning foreseen to bo inevit- able are now present. A gieat judgment shall sweep over the land, ' the Lord will bring on thee days that have not been since Ephraim departed from Judah' (v."); 'milk and honey sliall every one eat that is left in the land ' (v.^). The country shall be reduced to a {)asture land, whose scanty inhabitants shall live on milk and wild honey. But this is not the end ; a remnant shall turn : amidst the desolation and behind it there will be tho.se who say, 'God is with us.'* The sign ha-s no reference to Syria and Epiiraim ; it refers to the destiny of the people, though, of
• Whether it can also bo said through the desolation, t«. by ita dl»ciptinc, will depend on whether ^Pjfl/ (v***) '* ^ *>« rcndere<l 'that ho may know'(A\') or ' when ho knows" (It V), fcnd on whether ' to reject evil and chooio good ' he a moral Let, To disposo of the sense ' that he may know * by saying that eating milk and honey will hardly 'promote the formutioti of ethical character," is to use a pleasantry which misses the point. Ealing milk and honey Is a token and synonym of dv!«<v lation and hardship, and it is the teaching; of all the nroplit't.^ from llosea downwarti that it is just thruu^'h the uiscipline of such things that the px)ple shall b« brought to a right •thical mind.
course, to the prophet's mind or his vision this destiny had two steps — the Assyrian devastation, and the repentance and salvation that would follow it. This view is supported by the fact that where Immanuel is mentioned again it is in connexion Avith the A.ssyrian invasion (S*-'"). But does not this interpretation require the omission of v." ' Before the child know to reject evil and choose good, the land shall be de])opuIated, before whose two kings tliou art in terror ' ? (so Budde). Even if this should be the case, we must choose that side on which there appears to lie the greater probability. The chapter and the succeeding ones have not escaped interpolation. V." might be due to the same hand that inserted the words ' within sixty-five years Ephraim shall be broken that it be not a people' (v.*, cf. 8'). The verse in its present form cannot be read along with v.'". Perhaps, however, it might be sufficient to omit the last words of the verse, ' before whose two kings thou art in terror.' With this omission 'the land' would be Judah as in 6", and the whole passage v."*- have reference to the desola- tion of Judah. It is certainly very improbable that Isaiah should have spoken of Syria and Israel as a single 'land,' though a reader mi"ht have so understood the word and helped out the sense by the gloss ' before whose two kin^s,' etc.*
This view still leaves room lor different inter- pretations of Immanuel. The alinah and her eon might be considered merely examples of something general, in which case Immanuel would represent the new generation rising up after the desolation (v."), the ' liolv seed ' of ti" (cf. the change of mind described in 8-^''). The force of the sign to .tVliaz would lie in the threat of invasion and the de- struction of the order of things now existing of which he and his house was a great part, though the prophet's own interest would be chiefly in tliat which was to follow this, the new faith in J ', ex- pressed in the words 'God is with us.' He himself and his children, not by their names, but by their faith amidst the darkness already as good as fallen on the nation, are a ' sign ' of this future faith of the people (8"'"). There are some things, how- ever, which rather suggest a more precise meaning for Immanuel. (1) 'fhe whole passage relates to the 'house of David.' It was the design of the allies to dethrone this house, a purjKjse which could not but awaken wider thoughts m the prophet's mind. As represented in Ahaz this house liad pronounced judgment on itself (7'" '*), and with Ids assured conviction of the imminent destruction of the nation the prophet cannot have helped lore- casting also the fate of the royal family. It, lus is likely, the prophecies, chs. 9. 11, belong to this period, they show that he contemplated its down- fall (IP). (2) The words 'thy land, O Immanuel' (8') suggest that Immanuel, in the prophet's mind, is an individual person, to whom the land in some way belongs. (3) The general line of the prophet's thoughts at this time may be fairly appealed to. In 9'"' the 'child bom' is certainl}' a lueiiiber of the house of Uavid, and he is there introduced in such ft matter of course way as to sugge-st that he had been already referred to and wa-s known. Such tt reference could only bo found in ch. 7. (4) The names given to the child in ch. 9 may all be summed ui> In the name Immanuel, of which they are an analysis. These considerations may suggest that Iiiiinaiiuel is identic^U with the child of cli. 9 and the ' shoot ' of ch. 11. If so, the sign does not lie in the meaning of the word Immanuel, but in the person who was the embodiment of the mean-