But that you may learn more plainly that even a
virgin is called in Holy Scripture a “damsel,” hear the
Book of the Kings, speaking of Abishag the Shunamite, And the damsel
was very fair 1 Kings i. 4. Cyril’s argument is fully
justified by the actual usage of “Almah,” which certainly
refers to unmarried women in Gen.
xxiv. 43; Ex. ii. 8; Cant. i. 3. The same is probably the meaning
in Ps. lxviii. 25: “in the midst were the
damsels playing with the timbrels.” There is no passage in
which the word can be shewn to mean a married woman.: for that as
a virgin she was chosen and brought to David is admitted.