And after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying,
All Commentaries on Luke 1:24 Go To Luke 1
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Elizabeth, who undoubtedly desired sons, hid herself for five months. What was the reason for this concealment if not modesty? For there is a prescribed age for each duty, and what is fitting at one time is unseemly at another, and a change of age often changes the nature of every act…. She, who once hid because she had conceived a son, began to carry herself with confidence because she bore a prophet—she who blushed before was blessed, she who doubted before was strengthened. “For, behold,” she said, “as soon as the voice of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.” Therefore she cried out with a loud voice when she perceived the coming of the Lord, because she believed in the divine birth. There was no cause for shame when she accepted the birth of the prophet as a given, not a desired, generation. ,
