When Elisabeth heard It is natural that sudden joy, on the part of a pregnant woman, should cause a motion of the child in her womb; but Luke intended to express an extraordinary occurrence. No good purpose would be served by involving ourselves in intricate questions, if the child was aware of the presence of Christ, or felt an emotion of piety: it is enough for us that the babe started by a secret movement of the Spirit. Luke does not say that the feeling belonged to the child, but rather intimates that this part of the Divine operation took place in the mother herself, that the babe started in her womb The expression, she was filled with the Holy Ghost, means that she was suddenly endued with the gift of prophecy to an unusual extent: for the gifts of the Spirit had not formerly been wanting in her, but their power then appeared more abundant and extraordinary.

Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost - The meaning of this seems to be that she was filled with joy; with a disposition to praise God; with a prophetic spirit, or a knowledge of the character of the child that should be born of her. All these were produced by the Holy Spirit.

Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost - This seems to have been the accomplishment of the promise made by the angel, Luke 1:15, He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. The mother is filled with the Holy Spirit, and the child in her womb becomes sensible of the Divine influence.

And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe (o) leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:
(o) This was no ordinary or usual type of moving.

And it came to pass that when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary,.... Which might be before she saw her, and at some little distance from her:
the babe leaped in her womb: which motion was not natural, but supernatural; being made at hearing the voice of Mary, who had now conceived the Messiah, whose forerunner this babe, John the Baptist, was to be; and who, by this motion, gave the first notice of his conception, which his mother Elisabeth took from hence; as he afterwards pointed him out by his finger, and by his baptism made him manifest to Israel:
and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost not with the ordinary graces of the Spirit, for these she had been filled with before, but with extraordinary gifts, with a spirit of prophecy; by which she knew that the Messiah was conceived, and that Mary was the mother of her Lord; that many things had been told her; that she had believed them; and there would be a performance of them; and perhaps it was at this time that John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Ghost also; see Luke 1:15.

babe leaped--From Luke 1:44 it is plain that this maternal sensation was something extraordinary--a sympathetic emotion of the unconscious babe, at the presence of the mother of his Lord.

When Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary - The discourse with which she saluted her, giving an account of what the angel had said, the joy of her soul so affected her body, that the very child in her womb was moved in an uncommon manner, as if it leaped for joy.