According, then, to the interpretation given, this verse before us affirms that, at some future period, the Messiah should be born by a virgin, among the covenant people, who in the truest manner would bring God near to them, and open the treasures of His salvation. In Vol. I. p. 500 ff., we proved that this explanation occurs already in the Gospel according to St. Matthew. According to the interpretation of the Apostle, the passage can refer to Christ only, and finds in him not only the highest, but the only fulfilment. In the Christian Church, throughout all ages, the Messianic explanation was the prevailing one. It was held by all the Fathers of the Church, and by all other Christian commentators down to the middle of the 18th century,--only that some, besides the higher reference to the Messiah, assumed a lower one to some event of that period. With the revival of faith, this view, too, has been revived. It is proved by the parallel passage, chap. ix. 5 (6). That passage presents so remarkable an agreement with the one now under consideration, that we cannot but assume the same subject in both. "Behold, a virgin is with child, and beareth a son"--"A child is born unto us, a son is given;"--"They call him Immanuel," _i.e._, Him in whom God will be with us in the truest manner--"They call Him [Pg 49] Wonder-Counsellor, the God-Hero, Ever-Father, the Prince of Peace." Both of these passages can the less be separated from one another, that chap. viii. 8 is evidently intended to lead from the one to the other. In this passage it is said of the _world's power_, which in the meantime, and in the first place, was represented by _Asshur_: "And the stretchings out of his wings are the fulness of the breadth of thy land, Immanuel," i. e., his wings will cover the whole extent of thy land,--the stretching of the wings of this immense bird of prey, Asshur, comprehends the whole land. In the words: "Thy land, O Immanuel," the prophecy of the wonderful Child, in chap. viii. 23-ix. 6 (ix. 1-7), is already prepared. The land in which Immanuel is to be born, which belongs to Him, cannot remain continually the property of heathen enemies. Every destruction is, at the same time, a prophecy of the restoration. A look to the wonderful Child, and despair must flee. Behind the clouds, the sun is shining. Every attempt to assign the Immanuel to the lower sphere, must by this passage be rendered futile. For how, in that case, could Canaan be called _His_ land? The signification "native country" which ארץ, it is true, sometimes receives by the context, does not suit here. For the passage just points out the contrast of reality and idea, that the world's power takes possession of the land which _belongs_ to Immanuel, and hence prepares for the announcement contained in that which follows, viz., that this contrast shall be done away with, and that this shall be done as soon as the legitimate proprietor comes into His kingdom. Farther,--Decisive in favour of the Messianic explanation is also the passage Mic. v. 1, 2, (2, 3), where, in correspondence to _virgin_ here, we have, _she who is bearing_. The latter, indeed, is not expressly called a virgin; but it follows, as a matter of course, that she be so, as she is to bear the Hero of Divine origin ("_of eternity_"), who, hence, cannot have been begotten by any mortal. Both of the prophecies mutually illustrate one another. "Micah designates the Divine origin of the Promised One; Isaiah, the miraculous circumstances of His birth" (_Rosenmüller_) Just as Isaiah holds up the birth of Immanuel as the pledge that the covenant-people would not perish in their present catastrophe; just as he points to the shining form of Immanuel, announcing the victory over the [Pg 50] world, in order to comfort them in the impending severe oppression by the world's power (viii. 8);--so Micah makes the oppression by the world's power continue only until the time that she who is bearing brings forth. As Micah, in v. 1 (2), contrasts the divine dignity and nature with the birth in time, so, in Isaiah, Immanuel, He in whom God will most truly be with His people, is born by a virgin.