multitude--partly because the help of the Lord (_thou_ hast broken) was
at that time specially visible. "I will be with thee," says the Lord to
Gideon in Judges vi. 16, "and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one
man;" and Judges vii. 2: "The people that are with thee are too many,
as that I could give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt
themselves against me, saying: Mine own hand hath saved me."

Vers. 4, (5). "_For every war-shoe put on with noise, and the garment
rolled in blood: it is for burning, food of fire._"

We have here the reason why the tyranny is broken: _for_ the enemies of
the Kingdom of God shall entirely and for ever be rendered incapable of
carrying on warfare. If the noisy war-shoes, and their blood-stained
garments are to be burned, they themselves must, of course, have been
previously destroyed. But, if that be the case, then all war and
tyranny are come to an end, "for the dead do not live, and the shades
do not rise," chap. xxvi. 14. The parallel passages, Ps. xlvi. 10, and
Ezek. xxxix. 9, 10, do not permit us to doubt that the burning of the
war-shoes and of the bloody garments come into consideration here as a
consequence of the destruction of [Pg 85] the conquerors. Nor can we,
according to these passages, entertain, for a moment, the idea of
_Meier_, that those bloody garments belong to _Israel_.

Vers. 5 (6). "_For unto us a child is horn, unto us a son is given, and
the government is upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called
Wonder-Counsellor, God-Hero, Ever-Father, Prince of Peace._"

The Prophet had hitherto spoken only of the salvation which is to
spread from Galilee over the rest of the country; it is first here that
its author, in all His sublime glory, comes before him; and, having
come to him, the prophecy rises to exalted feelings of joy. In chap.
vii. 14, the Prophet beholds the Saviour as being already born; hence
the Preterites [Hebrew: ild] and [Hebrew: ntN]. If any one should
imagine that from the use of these Preterites he were entitled to infer
that the subject of the prophecy must, at that time, already have been
born, he must also, on account of the Preterites in vers. 1 (2) suppose
that the announced salvation had at that time been already bestowed
upon Israel,--which no interpreter does. _Hitzig_ correctly remarks:
"Because He is still _future_, the Prophet in His first appearance,
beholds Him as a child, and as the son of another." _Whose_ son