Commentary on the Holy Bible

Verse 17. Thy children shall make haste — "They that destroyed thee shall soon become thy builders"] Auctor Vulgatas pro yj2 banaijich, videtur legisse

17 Thy children shall make Numajp'o^mpiiii, haste; ' thy destroyers and R- Roman., 4. they that made thee waste shall go forth of

18 ''Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, ' as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth.

yjn bonayich, unde vertit, structores tut; cui et Septuaginta fere consentiunt, qui verterunt uxoSofxriSris, (Bdificata es, prout in Plantiniana editione habetur; in Vaticana sive Romana legitur, oixoSofjiri^rjffT;, adificaheris. Hisce etiam Targum Jonathanis aliquatenus consentit, ubi, et tcdificabunt. Confer infra Esai. liv 13, ad quem locum rabbini quoque notarunt ex tractatu Talmudico Berachot, c. ix., quod non legendum sit ■|':D banayich, id est, filii tui; sed 1'22 bonayich, a:dificatores tui. Confer not. ad librum Prec. Jud. part ii.. p. 226,uteiD. Wagenseil Sot. p. 253, n. 9. "The author of the Vulgate appears to have read yju bonayich for 1"J3 banayich, as he translates it by structores tui, 'thy builders.' The Septuagint is almost the same with the Vulgate, having uxoSo^yj'^rig, art built, as in the Plantin edition: but tlie Vatican or Roman copy reads oixoSofx-ri^T^ffr], thou shalt be built. To these readings the Targum of Jonathan has some sort of correspondence, translating et tedificabunt, ' and they shall build.' See chap. liv. 13; on which place the rabbins also remark, in the Talmudic tract Berachoth, c. 9, that we should not read yjn banayich, thy sons. but yj3 bonayich, thy builders. See the note iaPrec. Jud. part ii., p. 226, and also D. Wagenseil Sot. p. 253, n. 9." See also Breithaupt. not. ad Jarchi in loc.; and the note on this place in De Sac. Poes. Hebr. Praelect. xxxi. Instead of yju or yjD bonayich, thy builders, several MSS. read Jjn baneycha, thy sons. So also the Syriac: see the above note.

Shall go forth of thee — " Shall become thine off spring."] INi" 100 mimmech yetseu, shall proceed, spring, issue, from thee, as thy children. The phrase is frequently used in this sense: see chap. xi. 1; Mic. V. 2; Nah. i. 1 1. The accession of the Gentiles to the Church of God is considered as an addition made to the number of the family and children of Sion: see ver. 21, 22, and chap. Ix. 4. The common rendering. " shall go forth of thee, or depart from thee," is very flat, after their zeal had been expressed by " shall become thy builders:" and as the opposition is kept up in one part of the sentence, one has reason to e.xpect it in the other, which should be parallel to it.

23 'And kings shall be thy

] 9 For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, too narrow by reason of the in- \ they shall bow down to thee with

habitants, and they that swallowed thee up ' their face toward the earth, and " lick up the

dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that 1

20 " The children which thou shalt have, am the Lord: for ^ they shall not be ashamed " after thou hast lost the other, shall say again that wait for me.

in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.

2 1 Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I liave lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?

22 pThus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their i arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.

Sioa clothes herself with her children, as a bride i;lothes herself, — with what ^ some other thing certainly. The Septuagint help us out in this difficulty, and supply the lost word: ug xoii^ov vU(A(p'ij' as a bride her ornaments, vbj il'^JJ kichleyha callah, or T^hJ3 7T'h:s kecallali keleyha. The great similitude of the two words has occasioned the omission of one of them. See chap. Ixi. 10.

Verse 21. These, where had they been — "These then, where were they 1"] The conjunction is added before nbx elleh, that is, nbxi veelleh, in thirty-two MSS. (nine ancient) of Kennicotts, and fifty-four of De Rossi^s; and so the Septuagint, Chaldee, and Vulgate. See on ver. 12.

Verse 22. Thus saith the Lord God — niH' "Jns.idonai Yehnvah. Adonai is wanting in one MS., in the.:\lexandrine copy of the Septuagint, and in the Arabic. Verse 23. Wj^/i their /ace toward the earth — "With their faces to the earth"] It is well known that expressions of submission, homage, and reverence always have been and are still carried to a great degree of extravagance in the eastern countries. When Joseph's brethren were introduced to him, " they bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth," Gen. xlii. 6. The kings of Persia never admitted any one to their presence without exacting this act of adoration; for that was the proper term for it. Necesse est, says the Persian courtier to Conon, si in conspectum veneris, venerari te regem; quod *poS>.\i\ici\i illi vocant. " It is necessary, if thou shouldest come in sight, to venerate thee as king; which they call worshipping." — Nepos in Conone. Alexander, intoxicated with success, affected this piece of oriental pride: Itaque more Persarum Macedonas venerabundos ipsum

24 " Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or ^ the lawful captive delivered?

25 But thus saith the Lord, Even the 7 captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.

26 And I will ^ feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and tliey shall be drunken with their own '^ blood, as with * sweet wine: and all flesh "^ shall knov/ that I the Lord am tliy Saviour and thy Redeemer, tiie Mighty One of Jacob.

salutare, prosternentes liumi corpora. " The Macedonians, after the manner of the Persians, saluted theii monarch with the ceremony of prostration." — Curtius, lib. viii. The insolence of eastern monarchs to conquered princes, and the submission of the latter, is astonishing. Mr. Harmer, Observ. ii. 43, gives the following instance of it from D'Herbelot: " This prince threw himself one day on the ground, and kissed the prints that his victorious enemy's horse had made there; reciting some verses in Persian, which he had composed, to this effect: —

" ' The mark that the foot of your horse has left upon the dust, serves me now for a crown.

'• ' The ring which T wear as the badge of my slavery, is become my richest ornament.

" ' While I shall have the happiness to kiss the dust of your feet, I shall think that fortune favours me ivith its tenderest caresses, and its sweetest kisses.'"

These expressions therefore of the prophet are oidy general poetical images, taken from the manners of the country, to denote great respect and reverence: and such splendid poetical images, which frequently occur in the prophetical writings, were intended only as general amplifications of the subject, not as predictions to be understood and fulfilled precisely according to the letter. For the different kinds of adoration in the east, see the note on chap. xliv. 17.

Verse 24. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty — " Shall the prey seized by the terrible be rescued"]

For pni" tsaddik, read I'nj" arils. A palpable mistake, like (hat in chap. xlii. 19. The correction is self-evident from the very terms of the sentence; from the necessity of the strict correspondence in the expressions between the question and the answer made

to it; — and it is apparent to the blindest and most prejudiced eye. However, if authority is also necessary, there is that of the Si/riac and Vulgate for it; who plaiiUy read Y"\y ari!s, in ver. 24 as well as in ver. 25, rendering it in the former place by the same word as in the latter. — L.

These two last verses contain a glorious promise of deliverance to the persecuted Church of Clirist from the terrible one — Satan, and all his representatives and vicegerents, persecuting antichristian rulers. They shall at last cease from destroying the Church of God, and destroy one another.

m this chapter God vindicates his dealings with his people, whose alienation is owing to themselves, 1. And, by allusion to the temporal deliverances connected with the drying up of the Red Sea and the Euphrates, asserts his power to save, 2, 3; namely, by the obedience and sufferings of the Messiah, 4-6; who was at length to prove victorious over all his enemies, 7—9. The two last verses exhort to faith and trust in God in the most disconsolate circumstances; with a denunciation of vengeance on those who should trust to their own devices, 10, 11.

Numae Pompilii, divorcement, whom 1 have put ^ ^°'"''" • *■ away? or which of my ''creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities ■= have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put

2 Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? ^ when I called, was there none to answer? * Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, f at my rebuke I ° dry up the sea, I make the ^ rivers a wilderness: ' their

Verse 1. Thus saith the Lord] This chapter has been understood of the prophet himself; but it certainly speaks more clearly about Jesus of Nazareth than of Isaiah, the son of Amos.

Where is the bill — " WTiere is this bill"] Husbands, through moroseness or levity of temper, often sent bills of divorcement to their wives on slight occasions, as they were permitted to do by the law of Moses, Deut. xxiv. 1. And fathers, being oppressed with debt, often sold their children, which they might do for a time, till the year of release, Exod. xxi. 7. That this was frequently practised, appears from many passages of Scripture, and that the persons and the liberty of the children were answerable for the debts of the father. The widow, 2 Kings iv. 1., complains "that the creditor is come to take unto him her two sons to be bondmen." And in the parable. Matt xviii. 25: "The lord, forasmuch as his servant had not to pay, commands him to be sold, and his wife and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made." Sir John Chardin"s MS. note on this place of Isaiah is as fol- V)ws: En Orient on paye ses dettes avec ses esclaves.

4 "■ The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to hi?7i that is " weary: he wak^neth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.

5 The Lord God " hath opened mine ear, and I was not p rebellious, neither turned away back.

car ils sont des principau.x meubles; et en plusicurs lieux on les paye aussi de ses enfans. "In the east the)' pay their debts by giving up their slaves, for these are their chief property of a di.sposable kind; and in many places they give their children to their creditors." But this, saith God, cannot be my case; I am not governed by any such motives, neither am I urged by any such necessity. Your captivity therefore and your afflictions are to be imputed to yourselves, and to your own folly and wickedness.

Verse 2. Their fish slinkcth — " Their fish is dried up"] For t^ion tibaosh, stiniclh, read ti"2M tibash, is dried up; so it stands in the Bodl. MS., and it is confirmed by the Septuaginl, fjipav^TjirovTai, they shall be dried up.

A'crse 5. Neither turned away had — " Neither did T withdraw myself backw'arJ"] Eleven BISS. and the oldest edition prefix the conjunction T rau; and so also the Septuaginl and Syriac.

Verse 0. And my cheeks to them that pinched off the 7ini>] The greatest indignity that could possibly be offered. See the note on chap. vii. 20.

/ hid not my face from shame and spitting.] An-

oij-mp. xVii. 1. the hair: I hid not my face from

Numa= PompilU, shame and spittmg. R- ^°°"'°- *■ 7 For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have ' I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.

8 ' He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is "mine advesary? let him come near to me.

9 Behold, the Lord God will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? '' lo, they all

other instance of the utmost contempt and detestation. It was ordered by the law of Moses as a severe punishment, carrying with it a lasting disgrace; Deut. xxv. 9. Among the Medes it was highly offensive to spit in any one's presence, Herod, i. 99; and so likewise among the Persians, Xenophon, Cyrop. Lib. i., p. 18. " They abhor me; they flee far from me; They forbear not to spit in my face." Job xxx. 10.

" And Jehovah said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days'!" Num. xxii. 14. On which place Sir John Chardin remarks, that " spitting before any one, or spitting upon the ground in speaking of any one's actions, is through the east an expression of extreme detestation."— Harmeis Observ. ii. 509. See also, of the same notions of the Arabs in this respect, Niebuhr, Description de I'Arabie, p. 26. It so evidently appears that in those countries spitting has ever been an expression of the utmost detestation, that the learned doubt whether in the passages of Scripture above quoted any thing more is meant than spitting, — not in the face, which perhaps the words do not necessarily imply, — but only in the presence of the person affronted. But in this place it certainly means spitting in the face; so it is understood in St. Luke, where our Lord plainly refers to this prophecy: " All things that are written b;,- the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished; for he shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked and spitefully entreated, and spitted on, SiJ.tt'ni(iir,(f;ra.i" xviii. 31, 32, which ■was in fact fulfdled; xai 'ifSav-ro TivCg SfJ-rrrvsiv auTU, " and some began to spit on him," Mark xiv. 65, xv. 19. If spitting in a person's presence was such an indignity, how much more spitting in his face 1

Verse 7. Therefm-e have I set my face like a flint] The Prophet Ezckiel, chap. iii. S, 9, has expressed this with great force in his bold and vehement manner:

" Behold, I liave made thy face strong against their faces. And thy forehead strong against their foreheads: As an adamant, harder than a rock, have I made

thy forehead; Fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks. Though they be a rebellious house.''

voice of his servant, that ^walketh in darkness, and hath no light? ^ let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.

1 1 Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have Idndled. ^ This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down * in sorrow.

MS. and another add the word Nin hu; 3'T Xin '0 mi hu yarih, as in the like phrase in the next verse; and in the very same phrase Job xiii. 19, and so likewise in many other places. Job xvii. 3, xli. 1. Sometimes on the like occasions it is DI 'n mi zeh, and ni Nin 'n mi hu zeh, "^Vho is this oneV The word has probably been lost out of the present text; and the reading of the MSS. above mentioned seems to be genuine.

Verse 10. Who is among you that feareth the Lord] I believe this passage has been generally, if not dangerously, misunderstood. It has been quoted, and preached upon, to prove that " a man might conscientiously fear God, and be obedient to the words of the law and the prophets; obey the voice of his serrant^ of Jesus Christ liimself, that is, be sincerely and regularly obedient to the moral law and the commands of our blessed Lord, and yet walk in darkness and have no light, no sense of God's approbation, and no evidence of the safety of his state." Tliis is utterly impossible; for Jesus hath said, " He that foUoweth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." If there be some religious persons who, under the influence of morbid melancholy, are continually writing bitter things against themselves, the word of God should not be bent down to their state. There are other modes of spiritual and Scriptural comfort. But does not the text speak of such a case? And are not the words precise in reference to it? I think not: I and Bishop Lowth's translation has set the whole in the clearest light, though he does not appear to have been apprehensive that the bad use I mention had been made of the text as it stands in our common Version. The text contains two questions, to each of which a particular answer is given: —

Q. 1. " Who is there among you that feareth Jehovah?

Q. 2. Who that walketh in darkness and hath no light 1

And lean himself {prop himself) upon his God." Now, a man awakened to a sense of his sin and misery, may have a dread of Jehovah, and tremble at his word; and what should such a person do 1 Wiy he should hear what God's servant saith: " Come unto me, all ye who labour and are heavy laden; and F will give you rest." There may be a sincere penitent, walkiug in darkness, having no light of salvation; for this is the case of all when they first begin to turn to God. \^Tiat should such do? They should trust, believe on, the Lord Jesus, who died for them, and lean upon his all- sufficient merits for the light of salvation which God has promised. Thus acting, they will soon have a sure trust and confidence that God for Christ's sake has forgiven them their sin, and thus they shall have the light of life.

Verse 10. That obeyeth the voice of his servant — " Let him hearken unto the voice of his servant"] For }'r3B> shomea, pointed as the participle, the Septuagint and Hyriac read i'Oty' yishma, future or imperative. This gives a much more elegant turn and distribution to the sentence.

Verse 11. Ye that kindle a fire] The fire of their own kindling, by the light of which they walk with security and satisfaction, is an image designed to express, in general, human devices and mere worldly policy, exclusive of faith, and trust in God; which, though they flatter themselves for a while with pleasing expectations and some appearance of success, shall in the end turn to the confusion of the authors. Or more particularly, as Vitringa explains it, it may mean the designs of the turbulent and factious Jews in the times succeeding those of Christ, w-ho, in pursuit of their own desperate schemes, stirred up the war against the Romans, and kindled a fire which consumed their city and nation.

That compass yourselves about uith sparks — " Who heap the fuel round about"] " '^TUD megozeley, accendentes, Syr.; forte legerunt pro 'Itsa meazzerey 'TNO meirey; nam sequitur ^1N Mr." — Seeker. Lud. Capellus, in his criticism on this place, thinks it should be 'lINa meazzerey, from the Septuagint, xarie'/uovTls.

There are others who are widely different from those already described. Without faith, repentance, or a holy life, they are bold in their professed confidence in God — presumptuous in their trust in the mercy of God; and, while destitute of all preparation for and right to the kingdom of heaven, would think it criminal to doubt their final salvation! Living in this way, what can they have at the hand of God but an endless bed of sorrow! Ye shall lie down in sorroio.

But there is a general sense, and accordant to the design of the prophecy, in which these words may be understood and paraphrased: Behold, all ye that kindle a fire — provoke war and contention; compass yourselves about with sparks — stirring up seditions and rebellions: ivalk in the light of your fire — go on in your lust of power and restless ambition. Ye shall lie down in sorrow — it will turn to your own perdition. See the Targum.. This seems to refer to the restless spirit of the Jews, always stirring up confusion and strife; rebelling against and provoking the Romans, till at last their city was taken, their temple burnt to the ground, and upwards of a million of themselves destroyed, and the rest led into captivity!

The prophet exhorts the children of Abraham to trust in the Lord; and briefly, but beautifully, describes the great blessedness which should be the consequence, 1-3. Then, turning to the Gentiles, encourages them to look for a portion in the.^ame salvation, 4, 5; the everlasting duration of lohich is majestically described, 6. And as it is everlasting, so is it sure to the righteous, notwithstanding all the machinations of their enemies, 7, 8. The faithful, then, with exultation and joy, lift their voices, reminding God of his wondrous works of old, which encourage them to look now for the like glorious accomplishment of' these promises, 9-11. In answer to this the Divinity is introduced comforting them under their trials, and telling them that the deliverer was already on his way to save and to establish them, 12-16. On this the prophet turns to Jerusalem to comfort and congratulate her on so joyful a prospect. She is represented, hy a bold image, as a person lying in the streets, under the intoxicating effects of the cup of the Divine wrath, without a single person from among her own people appointed to give her consolation, and trodden under the feet of her enemies; but, in the time allotted by the Divine providence, the cup of trembling shall be taken out of her hand, and put into that of her oppressors; and she shall drink it no more again for ever, 17-22.

NumiB Pompiiii, ye that seek the Lord: look —. — °'°^"- unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the jjit tvhence ye are digged.

NOTES ON CIL\P. LI. Verse 1. Ye that follow after righteousness] The people who, feeling the want of salvation, seek the Lord in order to be justified.

2 " Look unto Abraham your -^^ *[; ^^■'^-?,2M father, and unto Sarah that bare Oiymp. xvii.'i you: •! for I called him alone, Nu and " blessed him, and increased him.

3 For the Lord ' shall comfort Zion: he

The hole of the pit] Sarah; as explained in ver. 2. Verse 2. I called him alone] As I have made out of one a great nation; so, although ye are brought low oiymp. xvn. 1. and he will make her wilderness.\imiffi p'o''mpiiii, like Eden, and her desert s like R. Roman., 4. jj^g garden of the Lord: joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.

4 Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, 0 my nation: ^ for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest ' for a light of the people.

5 '' My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, ^ and mine arms shall judge the people: " the isles shall wait upon me, and " on mine arm shall they trust.

6 ° Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for p the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, « and the earth shall wa.'s old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.

7 'Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people ^ in whose heart is my law; 'fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.

and minished, yet I can restore you to happiness, and greatly multiply your number.

Verse 4. My people — O my nation — " O ye peoples — 0 ye nations"] For 'Dj; ammi, my people, the Bodleian MS. and another read □'ni? ammim, ye peoples; and for '^Disb leumi, my nation, tlie Bodleian MS. and eight others, {two of them ancient,) and four of Dc Rossi's, read O'OnS leummim, ye nations; and so the Syriac in both words. The difference is very materia!; for in this case the address is made, not to the Jews, but to the Gentiles, as in all reason it ought to be; for this and the two following verses express the call of the Gentiles, the islands, or the distant lands on the coasts of the Mediterranean and other seas. It is also to be observed that God in no other place calls his people •3X^ leummi, my nation. It has been before remarked that transcribers frequently omitted the tinal □ mem of nouns plural, and supplied it, for brevity's sake, and sometimes for want of room at the end of a line, by a small stroke thus '■:dj'; which mark, being effaced or overlooked, has been the occasion of many mistakes of this kind.

.4 law shall proceed from me] The new law, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. Kimchi says, " After the war witli Gog and Magog the King Messiah will teach the people to walk in the ways of the Lord."

up like a garment, and the worm oiymp. xvii. i. shall eat them like wool: but my Numse Pompiiii righteousness shall be for ever, R- Roman., 4. and my salvation from generation to generation

9 " Awake, awake, '" put on strength, 0 arm of the Lord; awake, ^ as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. y Art thou not it that hath cut ^ Rahab, and wounded the * dragon?

10 Art thou not it which hath ''dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?

1 1 Therefore ° the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.

12 I, even I, am he ^ that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid " of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made ^ as grass;

1 3 And forgettest the Lord thy Maker, ^ that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the

tsedek, righteousness, is used in such a great latitude of signification, for justice, truth, faithfulness, goodness, mercy, deliverance, salvation, &c., that it is not easy sometimes to give the precise meaning of it without much circumlocution; it means here the faithful completion of God's promises to deliver his people.

Averse 6. My salvation shall be for ever] Aben Ezra says, From this verse divines have learnt the immortality of the soul. Men shaU perish as the earth does, because they are formed from it; but they who are filled with the salvation of God shaU remain for ever. See Kiinchi.

Verse 11. They shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall fee away.] Nineteen MSS. and the two oldest editions have IJij;'' yasign; anA fortysix MS.S. of Kennicotf's and ten of De Rossi's, and the same two editions, and agreeably to them the Chaldee and Syriac, have 10^1 venasu; and so both words are expressed, chap. xxxv. 10, of which place this is a repetition. And from comparing both together it appears that the 1 van in this place is become by mistake in the present text final [ nun of the preceding word.

Verse 13. Of the oppressor, as if he, <f"r-] "The:) caph in TiffS^ keasher seems clearly to have changed its situation from the end of the preceding word to the beginning of this; or rather, to have been omitted

A.M. cir. 3292. foundations of the earth; and hast Oiymp.xvii. i. feared continuall)- every day be- Numa; Pompiiii, cause of the fuTy of the oppressor, R. Roman, 4. ^^^ -f jjg ^yfeie ready to destroy? ' and where is the furj^ of the oppressor?

14 The captive exile hastenetli that he may be loosed, ^ and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.

15 But I am the Lord thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The Lord of hosts is his name.

1 6 And ■" I have put my words in thy mouth, and " I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, " that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people. I

which ' hast drunk at the hand of the Lord

by mistake there, because it was here. That it was there the Septuagint show by rendering 1p"VDn ham- '. metsikech &Xi/3o»toj (fs, of him that oppressed thee. And so they render this word in both its places in this verse. The Vulgate also has the pronoun in the first instance; furoris ejus qui te tnbulahai.''' Dr. Jubb. The correction seems well founded; I have not conformed the translation to it, because it makes little difference in the sense. I

Verse 1 i. The captive exile hasleneth that he may be loosed — " He marcheth on with speed, who cometh to set free the captive"] Cyrus, if understood of the temporal redemption from the captivity of Babylon; in the spiritual sense, the Messiah, who comes to open the | prison to them that are bound. |

Verse 16. That I may plant the heavens — "To j stretch out the heavens'"] In the present text it is; i'Cih lintoa, " to plant the heavens:" the phrase is cer- ] tainly very obscure, and in all probability is a mistake for r.iu;'7 lintolh. This latter is the word used in ver. 13 just before, ia the very same sentence; and this phrase occurs very frequently in Isaiah, chap. xl. 22, xlii. 5, xliv. 24, xlv. 12; the former in no other place. It is also very remarkable, that in the Samaritan text, Num. xxiv. 6, these two words are twice changed by mistake, one for the other, in the same

Verse 17. The cup of Iremblins;] TThj;'\r\T\ O^I! cos hattarelah, " the cup of mortal poison," veneni mortiferi. — MoNTAN. This may also allude to the ancient custom of takins; off criminals by a cup of poison. Socrates is well known to have been sentenced by the Areopagus to drink a cup of the juice of hemlock, which <..!casioHed his death. See the note on Heb. ii. 9, and see also Bishop Lo\vth's note on ver. 21.

Verse 19. These two things — desolation, arid destruction, and the famine, and the svjord] That is,

18 There is none to guide her ^' """"'• '*' among all the sons ichom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that slie hath brought up.

19 * These two things *are come unto thee, who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and " destruction, and the famine, and the sword: " by whom shall I comfort thee?

20 " Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of thy God.

21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, '^ but not with wine.

desolation by famine, and destruction by the sword, taking the' terms alternately: of which form of construction see other examples. Dc S. Poesi, Heb. Prsl. xij;., and Prelim. Dissert, p. xxx. The Chaldce paraphrast, not rightly understanding this, has had recourse to the following expedient: " Two afflictions are come upon thee, and when four shall come upon thee, depredation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sivord — •" Five MSS. have 2>Mn haraab, without the conjunction 1 vav,; and so the Septuagint and Syriac.

By whom shall I comfort thee — " ^A^lo shall comfort thee"] A MS., the Septuagint, Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate have it in the third person, "^onj'' yenachamcch, which is evidently right.

Verse 20. As a wild hull in a net: they arc full, ifc. — " Like the orvx taken in the toils; drenched to the full"] " Perhaps □"nSo HT^D-^ michmerah meleim." Secker. The demonstrative n he, prefixed to uU'xS'D meleim, full, seems improper in this place.

Aoivoig e,a|jiav£ij &ufi.ij(j,aCi' Eumen. 863. Intoxicated with passion, not with wine. Schultens thinks that this circumlocution, as he calls it, gradum adfert incomparabiliter majorem; and that it means, not simply without wine, but much more than with wine. Gram. Heb. p. 1S2. See his note on Job X.XX. 38.

The bold image of the cup of God's wratli. often employed bv the sacred «Titers, (see note on chap. i. 22.) is nowhere handled with greater force and sublimity than in this passage of Isaiah, ver. 17-23. Jerusalem is represented in person as staggering under the effects of it, destitute of that assi.^itance which she might expect from her children; not one of them being li»9

A.^ M. cir. 3292. 22 Thus saith thy Lord the Oiymp. xVii. i. Lord, and thy God y that pleadeth NumEePmnpiiii, the cause of his people, Behold I R. Roman., 1. j^g^g \,z^en out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:

able to support or to lead her. They, abject and amazed, lie at the head of every street, overwhelmed with the greatness of their distress; like the oryx entangled in a net, in vain struggling to rend it, and extricate himself. This is poetry of the first order, sublimity of the highest character.

Plato had an idea something like this: " Suppose," says he, " God had given to men a medicating potion inducing fear, so that the more any one should drink of it, so much the more miserable he should find himself at every draught, and become fearful of every thing both present and future; and at last, though the most courageous of men, should be totally possessed by fear: and afterwards, having slept off the effects of it, should become himself again." De Leg. i., near the end. He pursues at large this hypothesis, appl3ring it to his own purpose, which has no relation to the present subject. Homer places two vessels at the disposal of Jupiter, one of good, the other of evil. He gives to some a potion mixed of both; to others from the evil vessel only: these are completely miserable. Iliad xxiv. 527-533.

" Ttvo urns by Jove's high throne have ever stood. The source of evil one, and one oi good; From thence the cup of mortal man he fills.

23 But ^ I will put it into the A^™. cir. 3292. hand of them that afflict thee; oiymp. xvii. i. which have "said to thy soul, Numa; Pompiiii Bow down, that we may go over: R R°"""'^- and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.

Blessings to these, to those distributes ills; To most he mingles loth: the wretch decreed To taste the bad unmixed, is cursed indeed: Pursued by wrongs, by meagre famine driven, He wanders outcast both of earth and heaven."

Pope. Verse 23. Them that afflict thee — " Them who oppress thee"] " The Septuaginl, Chaldee, Syriac. and Vulgate appear to have read yjlD monayich, as in chap, xl. 26." — Secker.

Which have said to thy soul, Bow down — "Who say to thee. Bow down thy body"] A very strong and most expressive description of the insolent pride of eastern conquerors; which, though it may seem greatly exaggerated, yet hardly exceeds the strict truth. An example has already been given of it in the note to chap. xlix. 23. I will here add one or two more. " Joshua called for all the men of Israel; and said unto the captains of the men of war that went with him. Come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings," Josh. X. 24. " Adonibezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: As I have done, so hath God requited me," Judg. i. 7. The Emperor Valerianus, being through treachery taken prisoner by Sapor king of Persia, was treated by him as the basest and most abject slave: for the Persian monarch commanded the unhappy Roman to bow hunself down, and offer him his back, on which he set his foot, in order to mount his chariot or horse, whenever he had occasion. — Lactantius, De Mort. Persec. cap. v. Acrel. Victor. Epitome, cap. xxxii. — L.

Jerusalem, in manifest allusion to the strong figure employed in the close of the preceding chapter, is represented as fallen asleep in the dust, and in that helpless state hound hy her enemies. The prophet, with all the ardour natural to one loho had such joyful news to communicate, bids her awake, arise, put on her best attire, (holiness to the Lord,) and ascend her lofty seat; and then he delivers the 7nessage he had in charge, a very consolatory part of which tvas, that " no more should enter into her the unclrcumcised and the polluted,'' 1-6. Awaking from her stupefaction, Jerusalem sees the messenger of such joyful tidings on the eminence from which he spied the coming deliverance. She expresses, in beautiful terms, her joy at the news, repeating with peculiar elegance the words of the crier, 7. The rapturous intelligence, that Jehovah was returning to resume his residence on his holy mountain, immediately spreads to others on the watch, who all jmn in the glad acclamation, 8; and, in the ardour of their joy, they call to the very ruins of Jerusalem to sing along with them, because Jehovah maketh hare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth are about to see the salvation of Israel's God, 9, 10. To complete the deliverance, they are commanded to march in triumph out of Babylon, earnestly exhorted to hare nothing to do with any of her abominations, and assured that Jehovah will guide them in all their ivey, 11, 12. The prophet then passes to the procuring cause of this great blessedness to the house of Israel in particular, and to the world in general, viz., the humiliation, sufferings, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ; a very celebrated and clear prophecy, which takes up the remainder of this and the wkoU of the following chapter.

'■ the holy city: for *" henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised ^ and the unclean.

2 " Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: ^ loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, 0 captive daughter of Zion.

3 For thus saith the Lord, s Ye have sold yom-selves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.

Verse I. There shall no more come into thee — For Ky yabo, " shall come," N^'? leho, " to come," is the reading oi five of KennicotCs and two of De Rossi's MSS. This is the better reading, aJl rj'DV xS O /ci lo yosiph leho, " There shaU not add to come."

The uncircumcised and the unclean.'\ Christians nave turned many passages of the prophets against the Jews; and it is not to be wondered at, that in support of their obstinate and hopeless cause, they should press a prophecy into their service, and make it speak against the Christians. This Kimchi does in this place; for he says, by the uncircumcised, the Christians are meant; and by the unclean, the Turks. The Christians are uncircumcised; and the Turks, though circumcised, and using many ablutions, are unclean in their works.

lofty seat, O Jerusalem"] The literal rendering here is, according to our English translation, " arise, sit;" on which a very learned person remarks: " So the old versions. But sitting is an expression of mourning in Scripture and the ancients; and doth not well agree with the rising just before." It does not indeed agree, according to our ideas; but, considered in an oriental Lght, it is perfectly consistent. The common manner of sitting in the eastern countries is upon the ground or the floor with the legs crossed. The people of better condition have the floors of their chambers or divans covered with carpets for this purpose; and round the chamber broad couches, raised a little above the floor, spread with mattresses handsomely covered, which are called sofas. When sitting is spoken of as a posture of more than ordinary state, it is quite of a ditferent kind; and means sitting on high, on a chair of state or throne called the musnud; for which a footstool was necessary, both in order that the person might raise himself up to it, and for supporting the legs when he was placed in it. " Chairs," says Sir John Chardin, " are never used in Persia, but at the coronation of their kings. The king is seated in a chair of gold set with jewels, three feet high. The chairs which are used by the people in the east are always so high as to make a footstool necessary. And this proves the propriety of the style of Scripture, which always joins the footstool to the throne." (Isa. Ixvi. 1; Psa. ex. 1.) Voyages,

4 For thus saith the Lord God, ^^^\; <=j;/^ ^m My people went down aforetime Oiymp.xvii. i into ''Egypt to sojourn there; Numip"o"m|uiu, and the Assyrian oppressed them R- Roman., 4. without cause.

5 Now therefore, what have I here, saith the Lord, that my people is taken away for nought ' they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the Lord; and my name continually every day is ' blasphemed.

6 Therefore my people shall know my name. therefore they shall know in that day that I

torn. ix. p. 85, 12mo. Besides the six steps to Solomon's throne, there was a footstool of gold fastened to the seat, 2 Chron. ix. 18, which would otherwise have been too high for the king to reach, or to sit on conveniently.

When Thetis comes to wait on Vulcan to request armour for her son, she is received with great respect, and seated on a silver-studded throne, a chair of ceremony, with a footstool: —

Iliad.XV iii. 389.

" High on a throne, with stars of silver graced.

And various artifice, the queen she placed;

A footstool at her feet." Pope.

Verse 4. Thus saith the Lord God] rwrv "JIN Adonai Yehovah; but Adonai is wanting in twelve o{ Kennicotl's,five of De Rossi's, and two of my own MSS.; and by the Septuagint and Arabic. Some M.SS. have niNDV nirr Yehovah tsehaoth, " Lord of hosts;" and others have DTiSn niri' Yehovah Elohim, " Lord God."

Verse 5. They that rule over them — " They that are lords over them."] For iSiyo moshelo, singular, in the text, more than a hundred and twenty MSS. (De Rossi says, codices innumeri, " numberless copies") have Viii/:^ 7noshelaiv, plural, according to the Masoretical correction in the margin; which shows that the Masoretes often superstitiously retained apparent mistakes in the text, even when they had sufficient evidence to authorize the introduction of the true reading.

Make them to howl — " Make their boast of it"] For iV^TT' yeheililu, " make them to howl," five MSS., (two ancient,) have "rhTY yehalehi, " make their boast;" which is confirmed by the Chaldce paraphrast, who renders it pnuniyo mishtabbechin. Ulaloo is not only the cry itself but also the name of the funeral song of the Irish. The Arabs have a cry very much resembling this.

Verse 6- Therefore my people shall know] The word pS lachen, occurring the second time in this verse, seems to be repeated by mistake. It has no

that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth sah-alion; that saith imto Zion, ' Thy God reigneth!

the voice; with the voice together Olymp. xvii. shall they sing: for they shall Num'sPom^iu., see eye to eye, when the Lord R- Roman., -i shall bring again Zion.

9 Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: ™ for the Lord hath comforted his people, "he hath redeemed Jerusalem.

force nor emphasis as a repetition; it only embarrasses the construction and the sense. It was not in the copies from which the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate were translated; it was not in the copy of the Septuagint from which the Arabic was translated; but in the Aldine and Complutensian editions biO. touto is repeated; probably so corrected, in order to make it conformable with the Hebrew text.

/ am he that doth speak — " I am he, Jehovah, that promised"] For Nin hu, the Bodleian MS. and another have nirr Yehovah; " For I am Jehovah that promised;" and another ancient MS. adds mn'' Yehmah after Xin hu. The addition of Jehovah seems to be right in consequence of what was said in the preceding line, " My people shall know my name.''''

Verse 7. How beautiful] The watchmen discover afar off, on the mountains, the messenger bringing the expected and much-wished-for news of the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity. They immediately spread the joyful tidings, ver. 8, and ■with a loud voice proclaim that Jehovah is returning to Zion, to resume his residence on his holy mountain, which for some time he seemed to have deserted. This is the literal sense of the place.

" How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the joyful messenger," is an expression highly poetical: for, how welcome is his arrival! how agreeable are the tidings which he brings!

Nahum, chap. i. 15, who is generally supposed to have lived after Isaiah, has manifestly taken from him this very pleasing unage; but the imitation does not equal the beauty of the original: —

" Behold upon the mountain llie feet of the joyful messenger. Of him that announceth peace! Celebrate, O Judah, thy festivals; perform thy vows: For no more shall pass through thee the wicked one; He is utterly cut off."

But it must at the same time be observed that Isaiah's subject is infinitely more interesting and more sublime than that of Nahum; the latter denounces the destruction of the capital of the Assyrian empire, the most ftrmidable enemy of Judah; the ideas of the former are in their full extent evangelical; and accordingly St. Paul has, with the utmost propriety, applied this passage to the preaching of the Gospel, Rom. x. 15. The joyful tidings here to be proclaimed, " Thy God, O Zion, reigneth," arc the same that John the Baptist, the messenger of Christ, and Christ himself, published: " The kingdom of heaven is at hand."

apostles, we may rest assured that the preachers of the Gospel are particularly intended. Mountains are put for the whole land of Judea, where the Gospel was first preached. There seems to be an allusion to a battle fought, and the messengers coming to announce the victory, which was so decisive that a peace was the consequence, and the king's throne established in the land.

There appear to have been two sorts of messengers among the Jews: one sort always employed to bring evil tidings; the other to bring good. The names also and persons of these different messengers appear to have been well known; so that at a distance they could tell, from seetng the messenger, what sort of tidings he was bringing. See a case in point, 2 Sam. xviii. 19—27. Ahimaaz and Cushi running to bring tidings of the defeat of Absalom and his rebel army Ahimaaz is a good man, and bringeth good tidings

Verse 8. Thy watchmen lift up the voice — " All thy watchmen lift up their voice"] There is a difficulty in the construction of this place which, I think, none of the ancient versions or modern interpreters have cleared up satisfactorily. Rendered word for word it stands thus: " The voice of thy watchmen: they lift up their voice." The sense of the first member, considered as elliptical, is variously supplied by various expositors; by none, as it seems to me, in any way that is easy and natural. I am persuaded there is a mistake in the present text, and that the true reading is Tijy h'2 col tsophayich, all thy watchmen, instead of "i'Si" Sip hoi tsophayich, the voice of thy watchmen. The mistake was easy from the similitude in sound of the two letters 2 caph and p hoph. And m one MS the p hoph is upon a rasure. This correction perfectly rectifies the sense and the construction. — L.

They shall see eye to eye] May not tliis be applied to the prophets and apostles; the one predicting, and the other discovering in the prediction the truth of the prophecy. The meaning of both Testaments is best understood by bringing them /ace to face.

When the Lord shall bring again Zion — " When Jehovah returneth to Zion"] So the Chaldee: ^2 JVsS n'nJDty 3'n' cad yethib shechinteih letsiyon, " when he shall place the shechinah in Zion." God is considered as having deserted his people during the captivity; and at the restoration, as returning himself with them to Zion, his former habitation. See Psa. Ix. 1; Isa. xl. 9, and note.

Verse 9. He hath redeemed Jemsalem — " He hath redeemed Israel."] For the word DSiriT yervshalaiw, which occurs the second time in this verse, IMS. Bodleian and another read h^fia" yisracl. It is upon a

Oiymp. XVII. I. his holy arm in the eyes of all that bear the vessels of the Lord. Oiymp. xvii. 1. NuTisp"om!JiUi, the nations; and p all the ends' 12 For ''ye shall not go out NumaPmnluiii, ^ '^''■"''"- •»• of the earth shall see the salva- 1 with haste, nor go by flight: ' for R- «<>""■" ■ *■ tion of our God. the Lord will go before you; and " the God

11 1 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from of Israel luiJl ' be your rereward. thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out 13 Behold, "'my servant shall '= deal pra-

rasure in a third; and left unpointed at first, as suspected, in a fourth. It was an easy mistake, by the transcriber casting his eye on the hne above: and the propriety of tlie correction, both in regard to sense and elegance, is evident.

Verse 1 1. Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence} The Prophet Jeremiah seems to have had his eye on this passage of Isaiah, and to have applied it to a subject directly opposite. It is here addressed by the prophet in a way of encouragement and exhortation to the Jews coming out of Babylon. Jeremiah has given it a different turn, and has thrown it out, as a reproach of the heathen upon the Jews when they were driven from Jerusalem into captivity: —

" Depart; ye are polluted, depart; depart ye, forbear to touch. Yea, they are fled, they are removed: they shall dwell here no more." Lam. iv. 15.

Of the metrical distribution of these lines, see the Prelim. Dissert., p. Iviii. note.

Verse 13. My servant shall deal prudently] ^'3\S^ yashl, shall prosper, or act prosperously. The sub-

ject of Isaiah's prophecy, from the fortieth chapter inclusive, has hitherto been, in general, the deliverance «f the people of God. This includes in it three distinct parts; which, however, have a close connexion with one another; that is, 1. The deliverance of the Jews from the captivity of Babylon; 2. The deliverance of the Gentiles from their miserable state of ignorance and idolatry; and, 3. The deliverance of mankind from the captivity of sin and death. These three subjects are subordinate to one another; and the two latter are shadowed out under the image of the former. They are covered by it as by a veil; which however is transparent, and suffers them to appear through it. Cyrus is expressly named as the immediate agent of God in effecting the first deliverance. A greater person is spoken of as the Agent who is to effect the two latter deliverances, called the servant, the elect, of God, in whom his soul delighteth; Israel, in whom God will be glorified. Now these three subjects have a very near relation to one another; for as the Agent who was to effect the two latter deliverances, — that is, the Messiah, — was to be born a Jew, with particular limitations of time, family, and other circumstances; the first deliverance was necessary in the order of providence, and according to the determinate counsel of God, to the accomplishment of the two latter deliverances; and the second deliverance was necessary to the third, or rather was involved in it, and made an

essential part of it. This being the case, Isaiah has not treated the three subjects as quite distinct and.separale in a methodical and orderly manner, like a philosopher or a logician, but has taken them in their connective view. He has handled them as a prophet and a poet; he has allegorized the former, and under the image of it has shadowed out the two latter: he has thrown them all together, has mixed one with another, has passed from this to that with rapid transi tions, and has painted the whole with the strongest and boldest imagery. The restoration of the Jews from captivity, the call of the Gentiles, the redemption iy Messiah, have hitherto been handled interchangeably and alternately. Babylon has hitherto been kept pretty much in sight; at the same time, that strong intimations of something much greater have frequently been thrown in. But here Babylon is at once dropped, and 1 think hardly ever comes in sight again; urjess perhaps in chap. Iv. 12, and Ivii. 14. The prophet's views are almost wholly engrossed by the superior part of his subject. He introduces the Mcs.siah as appearing at first in the lowest state of humiliation, which he had just touched upon before, (chap. 1. 5, 6,) and obviates the offence which would be occasioned by it, by declaring the important and neccs.iary cause of it, and foreshowing the glory which should follow it.

This seems to me to be the nature and the true design of this part of Isaiah's prophecies; and this view of them seems to afford the best method of resolving difficulties, in which expositors are frequently engaged, being much divided between what is called the literal and the mystical sense, not verj' properly; for the mystical or spiritual sense is very often the most literal sense of all.

Abarbanel seems to have had an idea of this kind, as he is quoted by Vitringa on chap. xlix. 1, who thus represents his sentiments: Censet Abarbanel prophetam hie transitum facere a liberatione ex exilio Babylonico ad liberationem ex exilio Romano; et, quod hie animadversu dignum est, observat liberationem ex exilio Babylonico esse n'N"\l niN oth veraayah, signum et argumentum liberationis futurse; atque adeo orationem prophetas du duabus hisce liberationibus in superioribus concionibus sfcpe inter se permisceri. Verba ejus: " Et propterea verba, sive res, in prophetia superiore inter se permixtffi occurrunt; modo de liberatione Babylonico, modo de liberatione extrema accipicndsp, ut orationis necessitas ckigit." Nullum hie vitium, nisi quod redemptionem veram et spiritualem a Messia vero Je.su adductam, non agnoscat. " Abarbanel supposes thai the prophet here makes a transition from the deliver

marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.

15 ="80 shall he sprinkle many ^g'^'^j^^ ^292. nations; ''the kings shall shut Oiymp. xVii. i. their mouths at him: for that Num* PompiUi, <= which had not been told them ^ R°man., 4. shall they see; and that which they iiad not heard shall they consider.

ance from the Babylonish captivity to the deliverance from the Roman captivity; and (which is worthy of particular note) he observes that the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity is a sign and pledge of the future redemption; and that on this account it is we find in the preceding prophecies the circumstances of the two captivities intimately blended together. His words are the following; ' And, therefore, the words or subjects in the foregoing prophecy are very much intermixed; in one pas.sage the redemption from the Babylonish captivity being treated of, in another the redemption from the general dispersion, as may be collected from the obvious import of the words.' No fault can be found with the above remark, except that the true and spiritual redemption procured by Jesus the Messiah is not acknowledged." — L.

Verse 14. As many were astonished at thee — "As many were astonished at him "] For yhv aleicha read vhy alaiv. So the Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate in a MS.; and so likewise two ancient MSS.

His visage was so marred more than any man] Most interpreters understand this of the indignities offered to our blessed Lord: but Kimchi gives it another turn, and says, " It means the Jewish people, who are considered by most nations as having an appearance different from all the people of the earth." Poor Jews! they have m general a very disagreeable look, partly affected, and partly through neglect of neatness and cleanliness. Most Christians think they carry the impress of their reprobation on every feature of their face. However this may be, it should never be forgotten that the greatest men that ever flourished as kings, judges, magistrates, lawgivers, heroes, and poets, were of Jewish extraction. Isaiah was a Jew; so was Paul; and so was Jesus of Nazareth.

A'erse 15. So shall he sprinkle many nations] I retain the common rendering, though I am by no means satisfied with it. " Hi' yazzeh, frequent in the law, means only to sprinkle: but the water sprinkled is the accusative case; the thing on which has 't; al or bx el. Qanfiaiovrai, 6, makes the best apodosis. in:' yenahag would do. nnr yinharu, is used chap. ii. 2, Jer. xKxi. 12, chap. Ii. 14, but is unlike. ' Kings shall shut,' &c., is good, but seems to want a first part." — Secker. Munster translates it, faciei loqui, (de se;) and in his note thus explains it: nr yazzeh proprie significat spargere et stiUas dlsseminare; hie vera capitur pro loqui, et verbum disseminare. " Hi' yazzeh propi rly signifies to sprinkle, and to scatter about drops; but it here means to speak, and to disseminate the word." This is pretty much as the Rabbins Kimchi and Sal. ben Melee explain it, referring to the expression of " dropping the word." But the same objection lies to this as to the common rendering; it ought to be □'U 7J' (131) nr yazzeh (debar) al goyim. Bishop Chandler, Defence, p. 148, says, "that to sprinkle is used for to surprise and astonish, as people are that have much water thrown upon them. And this sense is followed by the Septuagint.'^ This is ingenious, but rather too refined. Dr. Durell conjectures that the true reading may be IITT' yechezu, they shall regard, which comes near to the SaufAatfovrai of the Septuagint, who seem to give the best sense of any to this

" I find in my papers the same conjecture which Dr. Durell made from ^aufAatfovrai in the Septuagint. -4nd it may be added that nitl chazah is used to express ' looking on any thing with admiration,' Psa. xi. 7; xvii. 15; xxvii. 4; Ixiii. 2; Cant. vi. 13. It is particularly applied to 'looking on God,' Exod. xxiv. 11, and Job xLx. 26. Gisbert Cuper, in Observ. lib. ii. 1, though treating on another subject, has some observations which show how nearly o|aw and &au(j.a^u are allied, which, with the peculiar sense of the verb nin chazah above noted, add to the probability of ^aujj.a- (Tovrai being the version of lin'' yechezu in the text: oi Sb m Xkoi Jlavrss sg auTov optjo'i. Hesiod., id est, cum veneratione (juadam admirantur. Hinc opau et 'haufj.ai^u juniit Themisiius Or. i. Eira ■rauCtivTai ol av^^uiroi *pof rf£ (Aovov opwvrEj, xai di (aovov (Jau/Aa^ov- TSf. Theophraslus in Charact. c. 3. Ev^ujaii us affo- [SKsfauiiv Eis tfe oi av^puiroi. Hence the rendering of this verse seems to be — " So many nations shall look on him with admiration;

Does not sprinkling the nations refer to the conversion and baptism of the Gentiles 1 Many nations shall become proselytes to his religion.

Kings shall shut their mouths at him] His Gospel shall so prevail that all opposition shall be finally overcome; and kings and potentates shall be overwhelmed with confusion, and become speechless before the doctrines of his truth. When they hear these declared they shall attentively consider them, and their conviction of their truth shall be the consequence.

For that which had?)ot been told them] The mys ■ tery of the Gospel so long concealed. See Rom. xv. 21; xvi. 25.

Shall they see] With the eyes of their faith; God enlightening both organ and object.

And that which they had not heard] The redemp. tion of the world by Jesus Christ; the conversion of the Gentiles, and making them one flock with the converted Jews. — Tr.\pp.

This chapter foretells the sufferings of the Messiah, the end for which he was to die, and the advantages resulting to mankind from that illustrious event. It begins with a complaint of the infidelity of the Jews, 1; the offence they took at his 7nean and humble appearance, 2; and the coyitempt with which they trtated him, 3. The prophet then shows that tlie Messiah leas to suffer for sins not his own; but that our iniquities were laid on him, and the punishment of them exacted of him, which is the meritorious cause of our obtaining pardon and salvation, 4—6. He shows the meekness and placid submission with luhich he suffered a violent and unjust death, loilh the circumstances of his dying with the wicked, and being buried with the great, 7—9; and that, in consequence of his atonement, death, resurrection, and intercession, he should procure pardon and salvation to the multitudes, insure increasing prosperity to his Church, and ultimately triumph over all Ms foes, 10, 11. This chapter contains a beautiful summary of the most peculiar and distinguishing doctrines of Christianity.

Num» Pompiiii, arm 01 the Lord revealed; ^- ^""^^ ■ ^- 2 For ' he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a

That this chapter speaks of none but Jesus must be evident to every unprejudiced reader who has ever heard the history of his sufferings and death. The Jews have endeavoured to apply it to tlieir sufferings in captivity; but, alas for their cause! they can make nothing out in this way. Allowing that it belongs to our blessed Lord, (and the best men and the best scholars agree in this,) then who can read verses 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, without being convinced that his death was a vicarious sacrifice for the sins of mankind? On the first and second verses of this chapter I have received the following remarks from an unknown hand.

"Verse 1. Who hath believed our report?} The report of the prophets, of John the Baptist, and Christ''s own report of himself. The Jews did not receive the report, and for this reason he was not manifested to them as the promised Messiah. ' He came unto his own, but his own received him not.' Before the F.\- TBER he gretv up as a tender plant: but to the Jews he was as a root out of a dry ground. ' He liath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.'

" ^'erse 2. For he shall grow up} Supposes something to have preceded; as it might be asked, what or who shall ' grow up before him,' &c. As the translation now stands, no correct answer can be given to this question. The translation then is wrong, the connexion broken, and the sense obscured. J'ni zeroa, translated the arm, from the root zara. 1. To sow, or plant; also seed, &c. 2. The limb which reaches from the shoulder to the hand, called the arm; or more properly beginning at the shoulder and -ending at the elbow. The translator has given the wrong sense of the word. It would be very improper to say, the arm of the Lord should grow up before him; but by taking the word in its former sense, the connexion and metaphor would be restored, and the true sense given to the text. J?1T zero signifies, not only the seed of herbs, but children, offspring, or posterity. The same word we find Gen.

3 s He is despised and rejected of men; a

Seed of the icoman, the Seed promised to the patriarchs is, according to Isaiah, the Seed of the Lord, the Child born,.and the Son given; and according to St. John, ' the Son of God, the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.' I'll then, in this place, should be understood to mean Jesus Christ, and him alone. To speak here of the manifestation of the arm or power of God would be irregular; but to suppose the text to speak of the manifestation of Jesus Christ would be very proper, as the whole of the chapter is written concerning him; particularly his humiliation and sufferings, and the reception he should meet with from the Jewish nation.

" The first verse of this chapter is quoted John xii. 38, and the former part of the same verse Rom. x. 16. But no objection of importance can be brought forward from either of these quotations against the above explanation, as they are quoted to show the unbelief of the Jews in not receiving Christ as the promised Messiah."

He hath no form nor comeliness — " He hath no form nor any beauty"] Oux siSog avru, oxiSs a|iwfjia, ha ei5w(j,ev aUTOv ovSs &supia., ha s*i^u(ji.w(j.£« auTov. " He hath no form, nor any beauty, that we should regard him; nor is his countenance such that we should desire him." Symmachus; the only one of the ancients that has translated it rightly.

Verse 3. Acquainted with grief] For j'lTl vidua, familiar with grief, eight MSS. and one edition have J>T1 veyada, and knowing grief; the Septuaginf, Syriac, and Vulgate read it yin veyodea.

We hid as it were our faces from him — " As one that liideth his face from us"] For i,iD"3^1 urhemaster,four MSS. {two ancient) have Tn^ODl uchctnastir, one MS. TnDTl umastir. For dJ-JD panim, two MSS. have Vj3 panaiv; so likewise the SeptunginI and Vulgate. Mourners covered up the lower part of their faces, and their heads, 2 Sam. xv. 30; Ezek. xxiv

Numse Pompiiii, were our taces irom him; he R. Roman., 4. ^^^ dcspised, and ^ we esteemed liim not.

4 Surely ™ he hath borne our gi'iefs, and earned our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But he was "wounded "for our transgressions, he luas bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and witli his p stripes i we are healed.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet ' he opened not his mouth: "^he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

8 " He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for ■" he was cut off out of the land of the

1 7; and lepers were commanded by the law. Lev. xii. 45, to cover their upper lip. From which circtraistance it seems that the Vulgate, Aquila, Symmacktis, and the Jewish commentators have taken the word I'Mi nagua, strichen, in the next verse, as meaning stricken with the leprosy: S'j a^fj] ov-ra, Sym.; a;pv),acvDv, Ag.; Icprosum, Vulg. So my old MS. Bible. [ will insert the whole passage as curious: —

Verse 4. Surely he hath borne our griefs — " Surely our iniirmities he hath borne"] Seven MSS. (two ancient) and three editions have ly;n cholayeynu in the plural number.

And carried our sorrows — " And our sorrows, he hath carried them"] Seventeen MSS. {two ancient) of Dr. KcnnicotCs, two of Be Rossi^s, and two editions have the word Nin hu, he, before CdS^D selalam, ' carrieth them," in the text; four other MSS. have 11 in the margin. This adds force to the sense, and elegance to the construction.

Verse 5. The cha.Uisement of our peace — " The chastisement by which our peace is effected"] Twenty one MSS. and six editions have the word fuUy and fLgidarly expressed, trnSK' shelomeynu; pacificationuin nostrarum, " our pacification;" that by which we are brought into a state of peace and favour with God. At. Montan.

Verse 6. The iniquity of us all.] For pj? avnn, made the iniquities of us all to meet on him. 1 Matt. xxvi. 63;

to meet in him the iniquities of us all. He was the subject on which all the rays collected on the focal point fell. These fiery rays, which should have fallen on all mankind, diverged from Divine justice to the east, west, north, and south, were deflected from them, and converged in him. So the Lord hath caused to meet in him the punishment due to the iniquities of all. Verse 8. And who shall declare his generation — "And his manner of life who would declare"] A learned friend has comnmnicated to me the following passages from the Mishna, and the Gemara of Babylon, as leading to a satisfactory explication of tliis difficult place. It is said in the former, that before any one was punished for a capital crime, proclamation was made before the prisoner by the public crier, in these words;

zachoth yabo vayilmad alaiv, " Whosoever loiows any thing of this man's innocence, let him come and declare it." Tract. Sanhedrim. Surenhus. Part iv. p. 233. On which passage the Gemara of Babylon adds, that " before the death of Jesus this proclamation was made for forty days; but no defence could be found." On wliich words Lardner observes: " It is truly surprising to see such falsities, contrary to well-known facts." Testimonies, A'ol. I. p. 198. The report is certainly false; but this false report is founded on the supposition that there was such a custom, and so far confirms the account given from the Mishna. The Mishna was composed in the middle of the second century according to Prideaux; Lardner ascribes it to the year of Christ 180.

Casaubon has a quotation from Maimonides wltich farther confirms this account; — Exercitat. in Baronii

Annates, Art. Ixxvi. Ann. 34. Num. 119. Auctor est Maimonides in Perek xiii. ejus libri ex opere Jad, solitum fieri, ut cum reus, sententiam mortis passus, a loco judicii exibal ducendus ad supplicium, prascederet, ipsum in3n X7;pu|, prsco; et haee verba diceret: llle exit occidendus morte ilia, quia transgressus est transgressione ilia, in loco illo, tempore illo, et sunt ejus rei testes ille et ille. Qui noverit aliquid ad ejus innocentiam probandam, veniat, et loquatur pro eo. " It was customary when sentence of death was passed upon a criminal, and he was led out from the seat of

Oiymp. XVII. 1. of my people ^ was he rich in his ^ death; because he oiymp. xvii. i.

judgment to the place of punishment, a crier went before, and spoke as follows: — ' This man is going out

to suffer death by because he has transgressed

by such a transgression, in such a place, in such

a time; and the witnesses against him are. He

who may know any thing relative to his innocence, let him come and speak in his behalf.' "

Now it is plain from the history of the four Evangelists, that in the trial and condemnation of Jesus no such rule was observed; though, according to the account of the Mishna, it must have been in practice at that time, no proclamation was made for any person to bear witness to the innocence and character of Jesus; nor did any one voluntarily step forth to give his attestation to it. And our Saviour seeins to refer to such a custom, and to claim the benefit of it, by his answer to the high priest, when he asked him of his disciples and of his doctrine: " I spoke openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing. Why askest thou me? ask them who heard me, what I have said unto them: behold, they know what I said;" John.xviii. 90, 21. This, therefore, was one remarkable instance of hardship and inj'istice, among others predicted by the prophet, which o li Saviour underwent in his trial and sufferings.

St. Paul likewise, in similar circumstances, standing before the judgment seat of Festus, seems to complain of the same unjust treatment; that no one was called, or would appear, to vindicate his character. " My manner of life (tj;v /Siuijiv fiou, 'in dori, ' my generation') from my youth, which was at the first among my own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews, who knew me from the beginning, if they would testify; that after the straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee;" Acts xxvi. 4, 5.

"in dor signifies age, duration, the time which one man or many together pass in this world, in this place; the course, tenor, or manner of life. The verb in dor signifies, according to CasteU, ordinatam vitam sive aetatem egit, ordinavit, ordine constituit. " He passed a certain course of life, he ordained," &c. In Arabic, airavit, administravit, " he took care of, administered to."

Was he stricken — " He was smitten to death"] The Sepluagint read nioS lemaveth, sij SavaTov, " to death." And so the Coptic and Saidic Versions, from the Septuagint; MSS. St. Germain de Prez.

" Origen," {Contra Celsum, lib. i. p. 370, edit. 1733,) after having quoted at large this prophecy concerning the Messiah, " tells us, that having once made ■jse of this passage in a dispute against some that were accounted wise among the Jews, one of them replied, that the words did not mean one man, but one people, the Jews, who were smitten of God and dispersed among the Gentiles for their conversion; that he then urged many parts of this prophecy to show the absur-

had done no violence, neither was Num^ Pompihi, aiiy "deceit in his mouth. ' ^°""'' '■

dity of this interpretation, and that he seemed to press them the hardest by this sentence, aim ruv avofxiciv Tou Xaou fiou ■>1X^1 615 Savarov, ' for the iniquity of my people was he smitten to death.' " Now as Origen, the author of the He.xapla, must have understood Hebrew, we cannot suppose that he would have urged this last quotation as so decisive if the Greek Version had not agreed here with the Hebrew text; nor that these wise Jews would have been at all distressed by this quotation, unless their Hebrew text had read agreeably to £ij Savarov, " to death," on which the argument principally depended; for, by quoting it immediately, they would have triumphed over him, and reprobated liis Greek version. This, whenever they could do it, was their constant practice in their disputes with the Christians. Jerome, in his Preface to the Psalms, says, Nuper ctmi Hebreeo disputans, qua;- dam pro Domino Salvatore de Psalmis testiinonia protulisti: volensque ille te Uludere, per sermones fere singulos asserebat, non ita haberi in Hebraeo, ut tu de LXX. opponebas. " Lately disputing with a Hebrew, — thou advqncedst certain passages out of the Psalms which bear testimony to the Lord the Saviour; but he, to elude thy reasoning, asserted that almost all thy quotations have an import in the Hebrew text different from what they have in the Greek." And Origen himself, who laboriously compared the Hebrew text with the Septuagint, has recorded the necessity of arguing with the Jews from such passages only as were in the Septuagint agreeable to the Hebrew: iva •s'po.c louiJaiois SittKsyri^tvm ixi) '!rpo(pEpu}<.sv au-roi Tct |Xt) jtsiasva £v Tois avTiypaqjoij auTijv, xai iva (l'uj'^j»]0'ufi,£^a toiJ (ps^ojxlvmg wap' Exsivoiff. See Epist. ad African, p. 15, 17. Wherefore as Origen had carefuUy compared the Greek version of the Septuagint with the Hebrew text, and speaks of the contempt with which the Jews treated all appeals to the Greek version where it differed from their Hebrew text; and as he puzzled and confounded the learned Jews by urging upon them the reading lig Savarov, " mito death," in this place; it seems abnost impossible not to conclude, both from Origen's argument and the silence of his Jewish adversaries, that the Hebrew text at that time actually had nnh lemaveth, " to death," agreeably to the ver sion of the Sepluagint. — Dr. Kennicott.

Verse 9. With the rich in his death — " With the rich man was his tomb"] It may be necessary to introduce Bishop Lowlh's translation of this verse before we come to his very satisfactory criticisms; —

And his grave was appointed with the wicked; But with the rich man was his tomb: Although he had done no wrong. Neither was there any guile in his mouth.

cal, and renders it excelsa sua. This is mentioned by Aben Ezra as receiyed by some in his time; and has been long since approved by Schindler, Drusius, and many other learned Christian interpreters.

The most simple tombs or monuments of old consisted of hillocks of earth heaped up over the grave; of which we have numerous examples in our own country, generally allowed to be of very high antiquity. The Romans called a monument of this sort very properly tumulus; and the Hebrews as properly nnD bamoth, " high place," for that is the form of the noun in the singidar number; and sixteen MSS. and the two oldest editions express the word fully in this place, vniOD bamothaiv. Tumulus et collem et sepulchi-um fuisse signiiicat. Potest enim tumulus sine sepulchro interpretatione coUis interdum accipi. Nam et terra; congestio super ossa tumulus dicitur. " Tumulus signifies a sepulchre with a hillock of earth raised over it. The word is sometimes restrained to the bank of earth; for the heaping up of the earth over the bones is named the tumulus.'' — Servius, 2E.n. iii. 22. And to make the tumulus still more elevated and conspicuous, a pillar or some other ornament was often erected upon it: —

Odt/ss. xii. 14. " A rising tomb, the silent dead to grace. Fast by the roarings of the main we place; The rising tomb a lofty columii bore. And high above it rose the tapering oar.'''' — Pope. The tomb therefore might with great propriety be called the high place. The Hebrews might also call such a tomb nra3 bamoth, from the situation, for they generally chose to erect them on eminences. The sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea, in which the body of Christ was laid, was upon a hill. Mount Calvary. See chap. xxii. 16, and the note there.

" It should be observed that the word rm03 bamothaiv is not formed from rm3 bamoth, the plural of n02 bamah, the femmine noun, but from □'riia3 bamothim, the plural of a masculine noun, rm3 bamoth. This is noted because these two nouns have been negligently confounded with one another, and absurdly reduced to one by very learned men. So Buxtorf, Lex. in voc. 7133 bamah, represents \-in3 bamotey, though plainly without any pronoun suffixed, as it governs the word |"1N arets following it, as only another form of j-1133 bamoth; whereas the truth is, that rra3 bamoth and □'^133 bamothim are different words, and have through the whole Bible very different significations; n03 bamah, whether occurring in the singular or plural number, always signifying a place or places of worship; and □"no^ bamothim always signifying heights. Thus in Deut. xxxii. 13; Isa. Iviii. 14:.\mos iv. 13; and Micah i. 3, viN 'niD3 bamothey

arets signifies 'the heights of the earth;' Isa. xiv. 14, 3y 'ni03 bamothey ab, ' the heights of the clouds;' and in Job ix. 8, D' ^"1133 bamothey yam, ' the heights of the sea,' i. e., the high waves of the sea, as Virgil calls a wave prteruptus aquai mons, ' a broken mountain of water.' These being all the places where this word occurs without a suffix, the sense of it seems nearly determined by them. It occurs in other instances with a pronoun suffixed, which confirm this signification. Unluckily, our English Bible has not distinguished the feminine noun nD3 bamah from the mas culine singular noun r\ia3 bamoth; and has consequently always given the signification of the latter to the former, always rendering it a high place; whereas the true sense of the word appears plainly to be, in the very numerous passages in which it occurs, ' a place of worship,' or ' a sacred court,' or ' a sacred inclosure;' whether appropriated to the worship of idols or to that of the true God, for it is used of both, passim. Now as the Jewish graves are shown, from 2 Chron. xxxii. 33, and Isa. xxii. 16, to have been in high situations, to which may be added the custom of another eastern nation from Osbeck''s Travels, who says, vol. i. p. 339, ' the Chinese graves are made on the side of hills;' ' his heights' becomes a very easy metaphor to express ' his sepulchre.' " — Jubb.

The exact completion of this prophecy will be fully shown by adding here the several circumstances of the burial of Jesus, collected from the accounts of the evangelists: —

" There was a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph, a member of the sanhedrin, and of a respectable character, who had not consented to their counsel and act; he went to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus; and he laid it in his own new tomb, which had been hewn out of the rock, near to the place where Jesus was crucified; having first wound it in fine linen with spices, as the maimer of the Jews was to bury the rich and great."

It has been supposed that n3p kihro, his grave, and VnrD3 bemothaiv, in his death, may have been transposed, as also the prefLx 3 be originally placed before □''i'B'T reshaim, the wicked. Thus: —

By these alterations it is supposed the text would be freed from all embarrassment. But see the preceding notes of Bishop Lowth, and the various readings of De Rossi, in loc.

Verse 10. To ^n>/—" With affliction"] For •'7nn hecheli, the verb, the construction of which seems to

11 Hg shall see of the travail sat- Pompiiii, isfied: ^ by his knowledge ""^ ' '*• shall s my righteous

with the gi-eat, " and he shall ^^ M. cir. 3292. divide the spoil with the strong; Olymp. xvii. i. because he hath poured out his Numa; Pomjiiiii, soul unto death: and he was R- Roman., 4, " numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and ° made intercession for the transETessors.

be hard and inelegant in this place, the Vulgate reads 'Vn^ bocholi, in infirmiiate, " with infirmity."

When thou shall make his soul — " If his soul shall make"] For a^-^Pt tasim, a MS. has CDB'n tase7n, which may be taken passively, " If his soul shall be made — " agreeably to some copies of the Septuagint, which have 5uTai. See likewise the Syriac.

When thou shall make his soul an offering^ The word 'ky3J nephcsh, soul, is frequently used in Hebrew to signify life. Throughout the New Testament the salvation of men is uniformly attributed to the death of Christ.

He shall prolong his dai/s] Or this spiritual progeny shall prolong their days, i. e., Christianity shaU endure to the end of time.

And the pleasure of the Lord] To have all men saved and brought to the knowledge of the truth.

Shall prosper in his hand.] Shall go on in a state of progressive prosperity; and so completely has this been thus far accomplished, that every succeeding century has witnessed more Christianity in the world than the preceding, or any former one.

Verse 1 1. Shall be satisfied — " And be satisfied "] The Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, and a MS. add the conjunction to the verb, J'-B''l vaiyisba.

Shall my righteous servant Justify — " Shall my servant justify"] Three MSS., (two of them ancient,) omit the word p"lS tsaddik; it seems to be only an imperfect repetition, by mistake, of the preceding word.

It makes a solecism in this place; for according to the constant usage of the Hebrew language, the adjective, in a phrase of this kind, ought to follow the substantive; and ^f2}^ pHi* tsaddik ahdi, in Hebrew, would be as absurd as " shall my servant righteous justify," in English. Add to this, that it makes the hemistich too long.

Verse 12. He bare ike sin of many] tZJ^ai rabbim. the mulliludes, the many that were made sinners by the offences of one; i. e., the whole human race; for all have sinned — all have fallen; and for all that have sinned, and for all that have fallen, Jesus Christ died. The CD'^l rabbim of the prophet answers to the oi iroXXoi, of the apostle, Rom. v. 15, 19. As the iroXXoi of the apostle means all that have sinned; so the Q"3T rabbim of the prophet means those for whom Christ died J i. e., all that have sinned.

And made intercession for the transgressors.] For i"J3' yaphgia, in the future, a MS. has;7''J3n hiphgia, preterite, rather better, as agreeable with the other verbs immediately preceding in the sentence.

He made intercession for the transgressors. — This was literally fulfilled at his death, " Father, forgive them; they know not what they do!" Luke xxiii. 34. And to make intercession for transgressors is one part of his mediatorial office. Heb. vii. 35, and ix. 24.

In this chapter the incarnation, preaching, humiliatimi, rejection, sufferings, death, atonement, resurrection, and mediation of Jesus Christ are all predicted, together with the prevalence of his Gospel, and the extension of his kingdom through aU ages

Some suppose this chapter to have been addressed to the Gentiles; some, to the Jewish Church; and some, to the Christian, in its first stage. On comparing the different parts of it, particularly the seventh and eighth verses, with the remainder, the most obvious import of the prophecy loxll be that which refers it to the future conversion of the Jews, and to the increase and prosperity of that nation, when reconciled to God after their long rejection, when their glory and security will far surpass what they were formerly in their most favoured state, 1—17.

^- """"'"' ''■ that didst not travail with child:

Gracious promises of A. M. cir. 3292. 2 "^ Enlarge llie place of ihy tent, O^ymp-^xVii/i. and let them sUetch forth the Kun,i~mi, curtains of thine habitations; R. Reman.. 4. ^^are not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;

3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left: *• and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

4 Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shah not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.

5 ' For thy Maker is thine Husband; the fLoRD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; '^ The God of the whole earth shall he be called.

6 For the Lord *" hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.

7 ' For a small moment have I forsaken diee; but with great mercies will I gather

8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee

9 For this is as the waters of ' Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be \vroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.

10 For ™the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed: "but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.

1 1 0 thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with ° fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.

1 2 And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.

13 And all thy children shall be "taught of the Lord; and i great shall be the peace of thy children.

14 In righteousness shalt thou be established:

true believers, and which sometimes seemed to be deserted of God her husband, is t!ie barren woman, that did not bear, and was desolate. She is exhorted to rejoice, and to express her joy in the strongest manner, on the reconciliation of her husband, (see ver. 6,) and on the accession of the Gentiles to her family- The converted Gentiles are all along considered by the prophet as a new accession of adopted children, admitted into the original Church of God, and united with it. See chap. xlix. 30, 21.

Verse 4. For thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth] That is, " The bondage of Egypt: widotohood, the captivity of Babylon." — Seeker.

Verse 7. For a small moment — " In a little anger"] So the Chaldee and Sijriae, either reading i;i regaz, for JU1 rega; or understanding the latter word as meaning the same with the former, which they both make

Ye.T%e 9. For this is as the icaters of Aoah unto „ie — " The same will I do now, as in the days of Noah'"] '"3'3 kimey, in one word, in a IMS., and some editions; and so the Syriac, Chaldee, Vulgate, Symmachus, Theodotion, Abarbanel, Sal. ben Melee, and Kimchi acknowledge that their copies vaiy in this place.

It is certain that these two words '3 '2 ki mey, were written formerly as one. Taken as two '3 O ki mey, they signify /or as the waters — when as one, •"30 kimey, they signify as the days. This latter reading is found in about four of KcnnicotCs and De Rossi's MSS. In one of my own it appears to have been intended as one word: but he who added the points, which are by a much later hand than the MS. itself.

use of. See Psa. xxx. 5, xxxv. 20, in the Septua- has pointed the letters so as to make the two words gint, where they render;'il rega, by opyrj, anger

Verse 8. I hid my face from thee for a moment] The word JU"* rega is omitted by the Septuagint, Syriac, and two MSS. of KennicotCs, and two of De RossPs. It seems to embarrass rather than to help the sentence. Forte reponi debet pro f]VU' shetseph, ipiod potest a HVp ketsrph errore scribae originem duxisse. " Perhaps it ought to be substituted for t^SB" shetseph, an error probably made by some scribe from its similarity to t^Sp ketscph." — Seeker.

Thy Redeemer — "pHi goalech: but for this word which are commonly found in the text. For the; ters, Symmachus, Theodotion, the Syriac, Vulgate, and Arabic have days. The former seems to make the best sense; and the ancient Versions, except the Septuagint, support it.

Verse 11. Behold, I will lay thy stones — " Behold, I lay thy stones"] These seem to be general images to express beauty, magnificence, purity, strength, and solidity, agreeably to the ideas of the eastern nations; and to have never been intended to be strictly scrutinized, or mLnutelv and particularly explained, as if " ( 14*)

g M- cir- 3292. (jjou shalt be far from oppression; oiymp. xvn. i. for thou shalt not fear: and from

1 5 Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake.

16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bring-

they had each of them some precise, moral, or spiritual meaning. Tobit, in his prophecy of the final restoration of Israel, describes the New Jerusalem in the same oriental maimer; '■ For Jerusalem shall be buUt up with sapphires, and emeralds, and precious stones; thy walls, and towers, and battlements, with pure gold. And the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with be-

17 No weapon that is formed R- R""""". *■ against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, ^ and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.

Verse 15. Shall fall for thy sake — "Shall come over to thy side."] For '713'' yippol, twenty-eight MSS. (eight ancient) have hii" yipal, in its more commoH form. For the meaning of the word in this place, see Jer. xxxvii. 13.

This chapter first displays the fulness, freeness, excellence, and everlasting nature of the blessings of the Gospel, and foretells again the enlargement of Messiah's kingdom, 1-5. This view leads the prophet to exhort all to seize the precious opportunity of sharing in such blessings, which, were not, however, to be expected without repentance and reformation, 6, 7. And as the things now and formerly predicted were so great as to appear incredible, the prophet points to the omnipotence of God, who would infallibly accomplish his word, and bring about those glorious deliverances which he had promised; the happy effects of which are again set forth by images beautiful and poetical in the highest degree, S— 13.

XTO, " every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; ^ come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

2 Wherefore do ye " spend money for that which is not bread? and vom- labour for

Verse 1. Ho, every one that thirsteth] "Water," says Kimchi, " is a metaphor for the law and wisdom: as the world cannot.subsist without water, so it is impossible that it can subsist without icisdom. The law is also compared to wine and milk: to wine because wine rejoiceth the heart, as it is written: ' The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart,' Psa. xix. 8. It is compared also to mijk, because milk is the subsistence of the child; so are the words of the law the nourishment of hi.s soul who walks in the Divine teaching, and grows up under it."

Come, buy tijine and milk] In ancient times our forefathers used what is now called the old third person singular, ending in eth, for the imperative mood. We have a fine example of this in the first verses of this chapter. I shall present them as they stand in diligently unto me, and eat ye Oiymp. xvii. i. that ivhich is good, and let your NuTn=e Pompnii, soul delight itself in fatness. R. Roman., 4.

3 Incline your ear, and "^ come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live: "= and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the ^ sure mercies of David.

Verse 2. Wherefore do ye spind] Why should vo be so zealously att.ached to a doctrine from which your souls derive neither conifurt nor nnui-isliment?

Verse 3. I ivill make an everlasting covenant] Ileb. dSiJ' JT">:i 03*^ nmJN cchrethah lachem berith olam, " I will cut the old or everlasting covenant sacrifice with you." That covenant sacrifice which was pointed out of old from the very beginning: and which is to last

4 Behold, I have given him

Oiymp.xvii. 1. efor a witness to the people, NummplTmlJiiii, leader and commander to the

5 ' Behold, thou shall call a nation that thou knowest not, ''and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; ' for he hath glorified thee.

6 " Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

7 "Let the wicked forsake his way, and "the unrighteous man p his thoughts: and let him retm-n unto the Lord, i and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for ' he will abundantly pardon.

8 ^ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither ore your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

9 ' For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

to the consummation of ages; viz., the Lamb of God that was slain from the foundation of the world.

The sure mercies of David] That is, says Kimchi, " The Messuh," called here David; as it is written, " David my servant shall be a prince over you."

Verse 6. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found] Rah. David Kimchi gives the true sense of this passage: " Seek ye the Lord, because he may be found: call upon him, because he is near. Repent before ye die, for after death there is no conversion of the soul."

Verse 9. For as the heavens are higher] I am persuaded that J caph, the particle of comparison, is lost in this place, from the likeness of the particle '2 ki, immediately preceding it. So Houbigant and Seeker. -A.nd their remark is confirmed by all the ancient Aversions, which express it; and by the following passage of Psa. ciii. 11, which is almost the same: —

So high is his goodness over them that fear him." AVhere, by the nature of the sentence, the verb in the second line ought to be the same with that in the first; n3J gabah, not 12J gabar: so Archbishop Seeker conjectured; referring however to Psa. cxvii. 2.

1 0 For " as the rain down, and the snow from heaven, and

watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

11 ^ So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

12 "For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall ^ break forth before you into singing, and y all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

13 ^Instead of =-the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the mjrrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord ^ for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

highly poetical images to e.vpress a happy state attended with joy and exultation.

Ipsi laetilia voces ad sidera jactant Intonsi monies: ipsae jam carmina rapes. Ipsa sonant arbusta. Virg. Eel. v. 61.

" The mountain tops unshorn, the rocks rejoice; The lowly shrubs partake of human voice."

Verse 13. Instead of the thorn — "Instead of the thorny bushes"] These likewise (see note on the preceding verse, and on chap. liv. 11) are general poetical images, expressing a great and happy change for the better. The wilderness turned into a paradise, Lebanon into Carmel: the desert of the Gentiles watered with the heavenly snow and rain, which fail not to have their due effect, and becoming fruitful in piety and righteousness: or, as the Chaldee gives the moral sense of the emblem, " instead of the wicked shall arise the just; and instead of sinners, such as fear to sin." Compare chap. xxxv. 1, 2; xli. 19.

And instead of] The conjunction 1 vau is added, nnni vetachath, in forty-five MSS. of Kennicott's, several of De Bossies, and five editions; and it is acknowledged by all the ancient Versions. The Masoretes therefore might have safely received it into the text, and not have referred us for it to the margin. But this is no uncommon case with them. Even in our own Version the best reading is very often found in the margin.

Whoever would partake of the blessings of the Gospel is required to be holy m all manner of life and conversation. And he that tvill be so is declared to be accepted according to this gracious dispensation, the blessings of which are large as the human race, without any respect to persons or to nations, 1-8. At the ninth verse begins a different subject, or new section of prophecy. It opens with calling on the enemies of the Jews, {the Chaldeans, or perhaps the Romans,) as beasts of prey against them, for the sins of their rulers, teachers, and other profane people among them, whose guilt drew down judgments on the nation.,

'PHUS saith the Lord, Keep ye ^judgment, and do justice: ^ for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.

2 Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; " that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.

3 Neither let '^ the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying. The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eimuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.

4 For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant;

5 Even unto them will I give in * mine house and within my walls a place ^and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I

NOTES ON CHAP. LVI. Verse 9. That keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it'\ Kimchi has an excellent note here. " The Sabbath is sanctified when it is distinguished in dignity; and separated from other days. 1. As to the body, in meat, drink, and clean clothing. 2. As to the soul, that it be empty of worldly occupations, and be busily employed in the words of the law and wisdom, and in meditation on the works of the Lord." The rabbins say, " Jerusalem had never been destroyed, had not the Sabbaths been profaned in it."

Verse 5. I unll give them an everlasting name^ For lb lo, him, in the singular, it is evident that we ought to read n'l lamo, them, in the plural: so read the Septuagint, Syrinc, Chaldee, and Vulgate.