And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And this shall be a sign, [ to (G3588 ) seemeion (G4592 ), 'the sign,'] unto you; Ye shall find the babe, х brefos (G1025)] - 'a Babe.' Pity that our translators so often insert the definite article where it is emphatically wanting in the original, and omit it where in the original it is emphatically inserted.
Wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Here the article, though existing in the received text, ought not to be there, having but weak authority: our translators, therefore, are right here. The sign, it seems, was to consist solely in the over-powering contrast between the lofty things just said of Him and the lowly condition in which they would find Him. 'Him whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting, ye shall find a Babe: Whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain ye shall find "wrapped in swaddling bands and lying in a manger!"' Thus, early were those amazing contrasts, which are His chosen style, held forth. (See 2 Corinthians 8:9.)