Halma

Isai. vii. 14. עלמה Halma.HALMA, or Halmath; an Hebrew word which signifies a Virgin; a young person kept close shut up, after the manner of the Eastern people, and remote from all conversation with men. The Authors of the books of the Maccabees¹, and Ecclesiasticus², speaking of young unmarried women, give them the Epithets, kept in, and hidden, to distinguish them from married women, who sometimes appear in publick. St. Jerom³ distinguishes Bethula, a young woman, from Halma, a virgin, in that this latter is one who never has been seen by men⁴. This is its proper signification in the Punick or Phœnician language, which, as is well known, is the same as the Hebrew. Thus when Isaiah said, speaking of the birth of the Messiah, A virgin shall conceive, and bear a son; the ancient Jews understood it of a virgin in the strict meaning of the word; and the holy Evangelists have taken care to point out this circumstance to us, as one of the essential marks of the Messiah. See above ALMA

In the title of the xlvth Psalm, according to the Latins, or xlvith, according to the Hebrews, we read, In finem filiis Core, pro arcanis, which is translated, To the end, for the sons of Korah, for the hidden. In the Hebrew, To the chief Musician of the family of Korah, who presides in the Choir of young women; literally, hal-halamoth, over the young women. We have shewn in our Comment on the Psalms, that there were sometimes in the Temple, and generally in publick ceremonies, choirs of young women, who sung, and had their part in the musical performances. We read the same term hal-halamoth in the title of the ninth Psalm, and Interpreters look for some mighty mystery in it; some saying, that Halamoth, or Almoth, signifies a musical instrument; others, that it denotes some hidden mysteries. But we explain it simply, as meaning choirs of young women, according to what we have above mentioned.

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