Field of Mars at Eome, was one of this kind, which served as a sun-dial. The going forward, going down, or declining of the shadow, and its going back, were regulated by the meridian line, and under certain circumstances the same might be said of a vertical dial, i.e. of a sun-dial with a vertical dial-plate; but it applies more strictly to a step-dial, i.e. to a sun-dial in which the degrees that measure definite periods of time are really gradus. The step-dial of Ahaz may have consisted of twenty steps or more, which measured the time of day by halfhours, or even quarters. If the sign was given an hour before sunset, the shadow, by going back ten steps of half-an-hour each, would return to the point at which it stood at twelve o'clock. But how was this effected? Certainly not by giving an opposite direction to the revolution of the earth upon its axis, which would have been followed by the most terrible convulsions over the entire globe; and in all probability not even by an apparently retrograde motion of the sun (in which case the miracle would be optical rather than cosmical); but as the intention was to give a sign that should serve as a pledge, and therefore had no need whatever to be supernatural (vol. i. 214), it may have been simply through a phenomenon of refraction, since all that was required was that the shadow which was down at the bottom in the afternoon should be carried upwards by a sudden and unexpected refraction. Hammdaloth (the steps) in ver. 8 does not stand in a genitive relation to tsel (the shadow), as the accents would make it appear, but is an accusative of measure, equivalent to flOT^n jn the sum of the steps (2 Kings xx. 11). To this accusative of measure there is appended the relative clause: guos (gradus) descendit (n?"£ 5?¥ being used as a feminine) in scala Ahasi per solem, i.e. through the onward motion of the sun. When it is stated that " the sun returned," this does not mean the sun in the heaven, but the sun upon the sun-dial, upon which the illumined surface moved upwards as the shadow retreated; for when the shadow moved back, the sun moved back as well. The event is intended to be represented as a miracle; and a miracle it really was. The force of will proved itself to be a power superior to all natural law; the phenomenon followed upon the prophet's prayer as an extraordinary result of divine power, not effected through his astronomical learning, but simply through that faith which can move mountains, because it can set in motion the omnipotence of God.
As a documentary proof of this third account, a psalm of Hezekiah is added in the text of Isaiah, in which he celebrates his miraculous rescue from the brink of death. The author of the book of Kings has omitted it; but the genuineness is undoubted. The heading runs thus in ver. 9: " Writing of Hizkiyaliu king of Judah, ivhen he was sick, and recovered from his sickness." The song which follows might be headed Mikhtam, since it has the characteristics of this description of psalm (see at Ps. xvi. 1). We cannot infer from bachdlotho (when he was sick) that it was composed by Hezekiah during his illness (see at Ps. li. 1); vayyechi (and he recovered) stamps it as a song of thanksgiving, composed by him after his recovery. In common with the two Ezrahitish psalms, Ps. lxxxviii. and Ixxxix., it has not only a considerable number of echoes of the book of Job, but also a lofty sweep, which is rather forced than lyrically direct, and appears to aim at copying the best models.
Vers. 10-12. " I said. In quiet of my days shall I depart into the gates of Hades: I am mulcted of the rest of my years. I said, I shall not see Jah, Jah, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more, with the inhabitants of the regions of the dead. My home is broken up, and is carried off from me like a shepherd's tent: I rolled up my life like a weaver; He would have cut me loose from the roll: From day to night Thou makest an end of me."
u In quiet of my days" is equivalent to, in the midst of the quiet course of a healthy life, and is spoken without reference to the Assyrian troubles, which still continued, "p^., from HD"!, to be quiet, lit. to be even, for the radical form D*T has the primary idea of a flat covering, of something stroked smooth, of that which is level and equal, so that it could easily branch out into the different ideas of aiquabilitas, equality of measure, oequitas, equanimity, aquitas, equality, and also of destruction
= cojnplanatw, levelling. On the cohortative, in the sense of that which is to be, see Ewald, § 228, a; n^«, according to its verbal idea, has the same meaning as in Ps. xxxix. 14 and 2 Chron. xxi. 20; and the construction with 3 (= PlfcjfaKI rota) is constructio prccgnans (Luzzatto). The pual Wj36 does not mean, " I am made to want" (Rashi, Knobel, and others), which, as the passive of the causative, would rather be Wpan, like wW?, I am made to inherit (Job vii. 3); but, I am visited with punishment as to the remnant, mulcted of the remainder, deprived, as a punishment, of the rest of my years. The clause, " Jah in the land of the living," i.e. the God of salvation, who reveals Himself in the land of the living, is followed by the corresponding clause, vHn "Qt^'DJ^ " I dwelling with the inhabitants of the region of the dead;" for whilst *Pn signifies temporal life (from chdlad, to glide imperceptibly away, Job xi. 17), inn signifies the end of this life, the negation of all conscious activity of being, the region of the dead. The body is called a dwelling (dor, Arab, ddr), as the home of a man who possesses the capacity to distinguish himself from everything belonging to him (Psychol, p. 227). It is compared to a nomadic tent. \p (a different word from that in Zech. xi. 17, where it is the chirek compaginis) is not a genitive (= njn, Ewald, § 151, b), but an adjective in i, like v*W njft in Zech. xi. 15. With nigldh (in connection with J?E>j, as in Job iv. 21), which does not mean to be laid bare (Luzz.), nor to be wrapt up (Ewald), but to be obliged to depart, compare the New Testament itchy fielv etc tov o-co/jlcitos (2 Cor. v. 8). The air. 767/5. ^i? might mean to cut off, or shorten (related to qdphach); it is safer, however, and more appropriate, to take it in the sense of rolling up, as in the name of the badger (ch. xiv. 23, xxxiv. 11), since otherwise what Hezekiah says of himself and of God would be tautological. I rolled or wound up my life, as the weaver rolls up the finished piece of cloth: i.e. I was sure of my death, namely, because God was about to give me up to death; He was about to cut me off from the thrum (the future is here significantly interchanged with the perfect). Dalldli is the thrum, licium, the threads of the warp upon a loom, which becomes shorter and shorter the further the weft proceeds, until at length the piece is finished, and the weaver cuts through the short threads, and so sets it free (V??3, cf. Job vi. 9, xxvii. 8). The strophe closes with the deep lamentation which the sufferer poured out at that time: ne could not help feeling that God would put an end to him (shdlam, syn. kdldh, tdmam, gdmar) from day to night, i.e. in the shortest time possible (compare Job iv. 20).
In strophe 2 the retrospective glance is continued. His sufferings increased to such an extent, that there was nothing left in his power but a whining moan — a languid look for help.
lion, So He broke in pieces all my bones: From day to night Thou makest it all over with me* Like a swallow, a crane, so I chirped; I cooed like the dove: Mine eyes pined for the height. 0 Lord, men assault me! Be bail for me."
The meaning of shivvithi may be seen from Ps. cxxxi. 2, in accordance with which an Arabic translator has rendered the passage, u I smoothed, i.e. quieted (sdweitu) my soul, notwithstanding the sickness, all night, until the morning.,, But the morning brought no improvement; the violence of the pain, crushing him like a lion, forced from him again and again the mournful cry, that he must die before the day had passed, and should not live to see another. The Masora here has a remark, which is of importance, as bearing upon Ps. xxii. 17, viz. that *W3 occurs twice, and w^ nro with two different meanings. The meaning of "W D1D3 is determined by Jer. viii. 7, from which it is evident that "W is not an attribute of Dto here, in the sense of " chirping mournfully," or " making a circle in its flight," but is the name of a particular bird, namely the crane. For although the Targum and Syriac both seem to render DID in that passage (keri D*p, which is the chethib here, according to the reading of Orientals) by ^3"i13 (a crane, Arab. Kurki), and "W by NrpJUp (the ordinary name of the swallow, which Haji Gaon explains by the Arabic chuttaf), yet the relation is really the reverse: siis (sis) is the swallow, and 'dgiir the crane. Hence Rashi, on b. Kiddusm 44a (a then cried Res Lakis like a crane"), gives *dgur, Fr. grue, as the rendering of fcfWia; whereas Parchon (s.v. 'dgftr) confounds the crane with the hoarsely croaking stork (cicorda alba). The verb 9dtsaphtsSph answers very well not only to the flebile murmur of the swallow (into which the penitential Progne was changed, according to the Grecian myth), but also to the shrill shriek of the crane, which is caused by the extraordinary elongation of the windpipe, and is onomatopoetically expressed in its name 'agar.1 Tsiphtseph, like rpl^eiv, is applied to every kind of shrill, penetrating, inarticulate sound. The ordinary meaning of dallu, to hang long and loose, has here passed over into that of pining (syn. kdldh). The name of God in ver. 146 is Adonai, not Jehovah, being one of the 134 V*F}% i*e. words which are really written Adonai, and not merely to be read so.2 It is impossible to take yfjjrtj as an imperative. The pointing, according to which we are to read 'ashqa, admits this (compare shdmrdh in Ps. lxxxvi. 2, cxix. 167; and on the other hand, zochrdlli, in Neh. v. 19, etc.);3 but the usage of the language does not yield any appropriate meaning for such an imperative. It is either the third person, used in a neuter sense, " it is sorrowful with me;" or, what Luzzatto very properly considers still more probable, on account of the antithesis of 'ashqdh and 'drbeni, a substantive (^ashqah for 'osheq), u there is pressure upon me" (compare yTJ, ch. xxiv. 16), Le. it presses me like an unmerciful creditor; and to this there is appended the petition, Guarantee me, i.e. be bail for me, answer for me (see at Job xvii. 3).
In strophe 3 he now describes how Jehovah promised him help, how this promise put new life into him, and how it was fulfilled, and turned his sufferings into salvation.
VOL. II.
Vers. 15-17. u What shall I say, that He promised me, and
He hath carried it out: I should walk quietly all my years, on the trouble of my soul?!
1 The call of the parent cranes, according to Naumann (Vogel Deatschlands, ix. 364), is a rattling krah (grah), which is uncommonly violent ■when close, and has a trumpet-like sound, which makes it audible at a verygreat distance. With the younger cranes it has a somewhat higher tone, which often passes, so to speak, into a falsetto.
' 0 Lord, by such things men revive, and the life of my spirit is always therein: And so wilt Thou restore me, and make me to live!9 Behold, bitterness became salvation to me, bitterness; And Thou, Thou hast delivered my soul in love out of the pit of destruction For Thou hast cast ah my sins behind Thy back?
The question, "What shall I say?" is to be understood as in 2 Sam. vii. 20, viz. What shall I say, to thank Him for having promised me, and carried out His promise? The Vav in "lDfctt introduces the statement of his reason (Ges. § 155, 1, c). On rmn ( = rvrnnn), from nrm (= fcHtfj), see at Ps. xlii. 5. The future here, in ver. 156, gives the purpose of God concerning him. He was to walk (referring to the walk of life, not the walk to the temple) gently (without any disturbance) all his years upon the trouble of his soul, i.e. all the years that followed upon it, the years that were added to his life. This is the true explanation of?V, as in ch. xxxviii. 5, xxxii. 10, Lev. xv. 25; not "in spite of" (Ewald), or "with," as in Ps. xxxi. 24, Jer. vi. 14, where it forms an adverb. A better rendering than this would be " for," or " on account of," i.e. in humble salutary remembrance of the way in which God by His free grace averted the danger of death. What follows in ver. 16 can only be regarded in connection with the petition in ver. 165, as Hezekiah's reply to the promise of God, which had been communicated to him by the prophet. Consequently the neuters Dpy5! and |H3 (cf. ch. lxiv. 4, Job xxii. 21, Ezek. xxxiii. 18, 19) refer to the gracious words and gracious acts of God. These are the true support of life QV as in Deut. viii. 3) for every man, and in these does the life of his spirit consist, i.e. his inmost and highest source of life, and that "on all sides" (OT, which it would be more correct to point w, as in 1 Chron. vii. 5; cf. bakkol, in every respect, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5). With this explanation, the conjecture of Ewald and Knobel, that the reading should be inn, falls to the ground. From the general truth of which he had made a personal application, that the word of God is the source of all life, he drew this conclusion, which he here repeats with a retrospective glance, " So wilt Thou then make me whole (see the kal in Job xxxix. 4), and keep me alive" (for WTpl; with the hope passing over into a prayer). The praise for the fulfilment of the promise commences with the word hinneh (behold). His severe illness had been sent in anticipation of a happy deliverance (on the radical signification of mar, which is here doubled, to give it a superlative force, see Job, vol. i. 279). The Lord meant it for good; the suffering was indeed a chastisement, but it was a chastisement of love. Casting all his sins behind Him, as men do with things which they do not wish to know, or have no desire to be reminded of (compare e.g. Neh. ix. 26), He "loved him out," i.e. drew him lovingly out, of the pit of destruction (chdshaq, love as a firm inward bond; beli, which is generally used as a particle, stands here in its primary substantive signification, from bdldh, to consume).
In strophe 4 he rejoices in the preservation of his life as the highest good, and promises to praise God for it as Jpng as he lives.
Vers. 18-20. "For Hades does not praise Thee; death does not sing praises to Thee: They that sink into the grave do not hope for Thy truth. The living, the living, he praises Thee, as I do to-day; The father to the children makes known Thy truth. Jehovah is ready to give me salvation; Therefore will we play my stringed instruments all the days of my life In the house of Jehovah"
We have here that comfortless idea of the future state, which is so common in the Psalms (yid. Ps. vi. 6, xxx. 10, lxxxviii. 12, 13, cf. cxv. 17), and also in the book of Ecclesiastes (Eccles. ix. 4, 5, 10). The foundation of this idea, notwithstanding the mythological dress, is an actual truth (vid. Psychol, p. 409), which the personal faith of the hero of Job endeavours to surmount (Comment, pp. 150-153, and elsewhere), but the decisive removal of which was only to be effected by the progressive history of salvation. The verse is introduced with "for" (ki), inasmuch as the gracious act of God is accounted for on the ground that He wished to be still further glorified by His servant whom He delivered. &6, in ver. 18a, is written onlv once instead of twice, as in ch. xxiii. 4. They " sink into the grave," i.e. are not thought of as dying, but as already dead. " Truth" (fgmeth) is the sincerity of God, with which He keeps His promises. Ver. 19& reminds us that Manasseh, who was twelve years old when he succeeded his father, was not yet born (cf. ch. xxxix. 7). The WBnr6 njrT!, fiiXKei <ra>&iv fju€y is the same as in ch. xxxvii. 26. The change in the number in ver. 20b may be explained from the fact that the writer thought of himself as the choral leader of his family; ay is a suffix, not a substantive termination (Ewald, § 164, p. 427). The impression follows us to the end, that we have cultivated rather than original poetry here. Hezekiah's love to the older sacred literature is well known. He restored the liturgical psalmody (2 Chron. xxix. 30). He caused a further collection of proverbs to be made, as a supplement to the older book of Proverbs (Prov. xxv. 1). The "men of Hezekiah" resembled the Pisistratian Society, of which Onomacritos was the head.
On vers. 21, 22, see the notes at the close of vers. 4-6, where these two verses belong.
From this point onwards the text of the book of Kings (2 Kings xx. 12-19, cf. 2 Chron. xxxii. 24-31) runs parallel to the text before us. Babylonian ambassadors have an interview with the convalescent king of Judah. Ver. 1. "At that time Merodacli BaV adan (K. Berodach BaVadan), son of BaVadan king of Babel, sent writings and a present to Hizkiyahu, and heard (K.for he had heard) that he (K. Hizkiyahu) had been sick, and was restored again," The two texts here share the original text between them. Instead of the unnatural WW* (which would link the cause on to the effect, as in 2 Sam. xiv. 5), we should read y^W ^, whereas P!£!J1 in our text appears to be the genuine word out of which "liTprn in the other text has sprung, although it is not indispensable, as r6n has a pluperfect sense. In a similar manner the name of the king of Babylon is given here correctly as Tl^® (Nissel, TTflD without X, as in Jer. 1. 2), whilst the book of Kings has Sfl^S (according to the Masora with k), probably occasioned by the other name Bal'adan, which begins with Beth. It cannot be maintained that the words ben BaVdddn are a mistake; at the same time, Bal'adan (Jos. Baiadcui) evidently cannot be a name by itself if M'rodukh BaVdddn signifies " Merodacli (the Babylonian Bel or Jupiter1) jilium dedit"'2 In the Canon Ptol. Mardokempados is preceded by a Jugcvus; and the inscriptions, according to G. Kawlinson, Mon. ii. 395, indicate Merodach-Baladan as the u son of Yahin" They relate that the latter acknowledged Tiglath-pileser as his feudal lord; that, after reigning twelve years as a vassal, he rose in rebellion against Sargon in league with the Susanians and the Aramaean tribes above Babylonia, and lost everything except his life; that he afterwards rebelled against Sennacherib in conjunction with a Chaldean prince named Susub, just after Sennacherib had returned from his first3 Judsean campaign to Nineveh; and that having been utterly defeated, he took refuge in an island of the Persian Gulf. He does not make his appearance any more; but Susub escaped from his place of concealment, and being supported by the Susanians and certain Aramaean tribes, fought a long and bloody battle with Sennacherib on the Lower Tigris. This battle he lost, and Nebo-som-iskun, a son of Merodacli Baladan, fell into the hands of the conqueror. In the midst of these details, as given by the inscriptions, the statement of the Can. Ptol. may still be maintained, according to which the twelve years of Mardokempados (a contraction, as Ewald supposes, of Mardokempalados) commence with the year 721. From this point onwards the biblical and extra-biblical accounts dovetail together; whereas in Polyhistor (Eus. chron. arm.) the following Babylonian rulers are mentioned: " a brother of Sennacherib, Acises, who reigned hardly a month; Marodach Baladan, six months; Elibus into the third year; Asordan, Sennacherib's son, who was made king after the defeat of Elibus." Now, as the Can. Plolem. also gives a Belibos with a three years' reign, the identity of Mardokempados and Marodach Baladan is indisputable. The Can. Ptol. seems only to take into account his legitimate reign as a vassal, and Pojyhistor (from Berosus) only his last act of rebellion. At the same time, this is very far from removing all the difficulties that lie in the way of a reconciliation, more especially the chronological difficulties. Rawlinson, who places the commencement of the (second) Judsean campaign in the year 698, and therefore transfers it to the end of the twentyninth year of Hezekiah' s reign instead of the middle, sets himself in opposition not only to ch. xxxvi. 1, but also to ch. xxxviii. 5 and 2 Kings xviii. 2. According to the biblical accounts, as compared with the Can. PtoL, the embassy must have been sent by Merodach Baladan during the period of his reign as vassal, which commenced in the year 721. Apparently it had only the harmless object of congratulating the king upon his recovery (and also, according to 2 Chron. xxxii. 31, of making some inquiry, in the interests of Chaldean astrology, into the mopheth connected with the sun-dial); but it certainly had also the secret political object of making common cause with Hezekiah to throw off the Assyrian yoke. All that can be maintained with certainty beside this is, that the embassy cannot have been sent before the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign; for as he reigned twenty-nine years, his illness must have occurred, according to ch. xxxviii. 5, in the fourteenth year itself, i.e. the seventh year of Mardokempados. Such questions as whether the embassy came before or after the Assyrian catastrophe, which was still in the future at the time referred to in ch. xxxviii. 4-6, or whether it came before or after the payment of the compensation money to Sennacherib (2 Kings xviii. 14-16), are open to dispute. In all probability it took place immediately before the Assyrian campaign,1 as Hezekiah was still able to show off the abundance of his riches to the Babylonian ambassadors.
Yer. 2. u And Hezekiah rejoiced (K. heard, which is quite inappropriate) concerning them, and showed them (K. all) his storehouse: the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the fine oil (liasshdmen, K. shemen), and all his arsenal, and all that was in his treasures: there was nothing that Hezekiah had not shown them, in his house or in all his kingdom" Although there were
1 A reviewer in the Theol. L. Bl. 1857, p. 12, inquires: " How could the prophet have known that all that Hezekiah showed to the Babylonian ambassador would one day be brought to Babylon, when in a very short time these treasures would all have been given by Hezekiah to the king of Assyria? " Answer: The prophecy is so expressed in ch. xxxix. 6, 7? that this intervening occurrence does not prejudice its truth at all.
spices kept in WJ n% rDJ is not equivalent to n«D3 (from K33, to break to pieces, to pulverize), which is applied to gum-drao-on and other drugs, but is the niphal flbj from ffi3 (piel, Arab. kayyata, to cram full, related to W3 (D^p), D33 (DM), and possibly also to DH3, katama (Hitzig, Knobel, Fiirst), and consequently it does not mean " the house of his spices/' as Aquila, Symmachus, and the Vulgate render it, but his "treasurehouse or storehouse" (Targ., Syr., Saad.). It differs, however, from bath kelim, the wrood house of Lebanon (ch. xxii. 8). He was able to show them all that was worth seeing " in his whole kingdom," inasmuch as it was all concentrated in Jerusalem, the capital.
The consequences of this coqueting with the children of the stranger, and this vain display, are pointed out in vers. 3-8: " Tlien came Isaiah the prophet to king Hizkiyahu, and said to him, What have these men said, and whence come they to thee? Hizkiyahu said, TJiey came to me from a far country (K. omits to me), out of Babel. He said further, What have they seen in thy house f Hizkiyahu said, All that is in my house have they seen: there ivas nothing in my treasures that I had not shown them. Then Isaiah said to Hizkiyahu, Hear the word of Jehovah of hosts (K. omits tsebhaoth); Behold, days come, that all that is in thy house, and all that thy fathers have laid up unto this day, will be carried away to Bdbel {/^, K. n^??): nothing will be left behind, saith Jehovah. And of thy children that proceed from thee, whom thou shalt beget, will they take (K. chethib, ' will he take '); and they will be courtiers in the palace of the king of Babel. Then said Hizkiyahu to Isaiah, Good is the word of Jehovah ivhich thou hast spoken. And he said further, Yea (s3, K. DK Kvn), there shall be peace and stedfastness in my days." Hezekiah's two candid answers in vers. 3 and 4 are an involuntary condemnation of his own conduct, which was sinful in two respects. This self-satisfied display of worthless earthly possessions would bring its own punishment in their loss; and this obsequious suing for admiration and favour on the part of strangers, would be followed by plundering and enslaving on the part of those very same strangers whose envy he had excited. The prophet here foretells the Babylonian captivity; but, in accordance with the occasion here given, not as the destiny of the whole nation, but as that of the house of David.
Even political sharp-sightedness might have foreseen, that some such disastrous consequences would follow Hezekiah's imprudent course; but this absolute certainty, that Babylon, which was then struggling hard for independence, would really be the heiress to the Assyrian government of the world, and that it was not from Assyria, which was actually threatening Judah with destruction for its rebellion, but from Babylon, that this destruction would really come, was impossible without the spirit of prophecy. We may infer from ver. 7 (cf. ch. xxxviii. 19, and for the fulfilment, Dan. i. 3) that Hezekiah had no son as yet, at least none with a claim to the throne; and this is confirmed by 2 Kings xxi. 1. So far as the concluding words are concerned, we should quite misunderstand them, if we saw nothing in them but common egotism. *3 (for) is explanatory here, and therefore confirmatory. DX KvH, however, does not mean " yea, if only," as Ewald supposes (§ 324, b), but is also explanatory, though in an interrogative form, "Is it not good (i.e. still gracious and kind), if," etc.? He submits with humility to the word of Jehovah, in penitential acknowledgment of his vain, shortsighted, untheocratic conduct, and feels that he is mercifully spared by God, inasmuch as the divine blessings of peace and stability (A^K a self-attesting state of things, without any of those changes which disappoint our confident expectations) would continue. "Although he desired the prosperity of future ages, it would not have been right for him to think it nothing that God had given him a token of His clemency, by delaying His judgment " (Calvin).
Over the kingdom of Judah there was now hanging the very same fate of captivity and exile, which had put an end to the kingdom of Israel eight years before. When the author of the book of Kings prefaces the four accounts of Isaiah in 2 Kings xviii. 13-20, with the recapitulation in 2 Kings xviii. 9-12 (cf. ch. xvii. 5, 6), his evident meaning is, that the end of the kingdom of Israel, and the beginning of the end of the kingdom of Judah, had their meeting-point in Hezekiah's time. As Israel fell under the power of the Assyrian empire, which foundered upon Judah, though only through a miraculous manifestation of the grace of God (see Hos. i. 7); so did Judah fall a victim to the Babylonian empire. The four accounts are so arranged, that the first two, together with the epilogue in Isa. xxxvii. 36 sqq., which contains the account of the fulfilment, bring the Assyrian period of judgment to a close; and the last two, with the eventful sketch in ch. xxxix. 6, 7, open the way for the great bulk of the prophecies which now follow in ch. xl.-lxvi., relating to the Babylonian period of judgment. This Janus-headed arrangement of the contents of ch. xxxvi.-xxxix. isa proof that this historical section formed an original part of the " vision of Isaiah." At any rate, it leads to the conclusion that, whoever arranged the four accounts in their present order, had ch. xl.-lxvi. before him at the time. We believe, however, that we may, or rather, considering the prophetico-historical style of ch. xxxvi.-xxxix., that we must, draw the still further conclusion, that Isaiah himself, when he revised the collection of his prophecies at the end of Hezekiah's reign, or possibly not till the beginning of Manasseh's, bridged over the division between the two halves of the collection by the historical trilogy in the seventh book.
The first half consisted of seven parts; the second consists of three. The trilogical arrangement of this cycle of prophecies has hardly been disputed by any one, since Riickert pointed it out in his Translation of the Hebrew Prophets (1831). And it is equally certain that each part consists of 3 X 3 addresses. The division of the chapters furnishes an unintentional proof of this, though the true commencement is not always indicated. The first part embraces the following nine addresses: ch. xl.; xli.; xlii. 1-xliii. 13; xliii. 14-xliv. 5; xliv. 6-23; xliv. 24-xlv.; xlvi.; xlvii.; xlviii. The second part includes the following nine: ch. xlix.; 1.; li.; lii. 1-12; Hi. 13-liii.; liv.; lv.; lvi. 1-8; lvi. 9-1 vii. The third part the following nine: ch. lviii.; lix.; lx.; lxi.; lxii.; lxiii. 1-6; lxiii. 7-lxiv.; lxv.; Ixvi. It is only in the middle of the first part that the division is at all questionable. In the other two it is hardly possible to err. The theme of the whole is the comforting announcement of the approaching deliverance, and its attendant summons to repentance. For the deliverance itself was for the Israel, which remained true to the confession of Jehovah in the midst of affliction and while redemption was delayed, and not for the rebellious, who denied Jehovah in word and deed, and thus placed themselves on the level of the heathen. " There is no peace, saith Jehovah, for the wicked:" with these words does the first part of the twenty-seven addresses close in ch. xlviii. 22. The second closes in ch. Ivii. 21 in a more excited and fuller tone: u There is no peace, saith my God, for the wicked" And at the close of the third part (ch. Ixvi. 24) the prophet drops this form of refrain, and declares the miserable end of the wicked in deeply pathetic though horrifying terms: " Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh;" just as, at the close of the fifth book of the Psalms, the shorter form of Ifrdkhdh (blessing) is dropt, and an entire psalm, the Hallelujah (Ps. cl.), takes its place.
The three parts, which are thus marked off by the prophet himself, are only variations of the one theme common to them all. At the same time, each has its own leading thought, and its own special key-note, which is struck in the very first words. In each of the three parts, also, a different antithesis stands in the foreground: viz. in the first part, ch. xl.-xlviii., the contrast between Jehovah and the idols, and between Israel and the heathen; in the second part, ch. xlix.-lvii., the contrast between the present suffering of the Servant of Jehovah and His future glory; in the tliird part, ch. lviii.-lxvi., the contrast observable in the heart of Israel itself, between the hypocrites, the depraved, the rebellious, on the one side, and the faithful, the mourning, the persecuted, on the other. The first part sets forth the deliverance from Babylon, in which the prophecy of Jehovah is fulfilled, to the shame and overthrow of the idols and their worshippers; the second part, the way of the Servant of Jehovah through deep humiliation to exaltation and glory, which is at the same time the exaltation of Israel to the height of its world-wide calling; the third part, the indispensable conditions of participation in the future redemption and glory. There is some truth in Hahn's opinion, that the distinctive characteristics of the three separate parts are exhibited in the three clauses of ch. xl. 2: " that her distress is ended, that her debt is paid, that she has received (according to his explanation, ' will receive") double for all her sins" For the central point of the first part is really the termination of the Babylonian distress; that of the second, the expiation of guilt by the self-sacrifice of the Servant of Jehovah; and that of the third, the assurance that the sufferings will be followed by " a far more exceeding weight of glory." The promise rises higher and higher in the circular movements of the 3x9 addresses, until at length it reaches its zenith in ch. lxv. and lxvi., and links time and eternity together.
So far as the language is concerned, there is nothing more finished or more elevated in the whole of the Old Testament than this trilogy of addresses by Isaiah. In ch. i.-xxxi\. of the collection, the prophet's language is generally more compressed, chiselled (lapidarisch), plastic, although even there his style passes through all varieties of colour. But here in ch. xl.-lxvi., where he no longer has his foot upon the soil of his own time, hut is transported into the far distant future, as into his own home, even the language retains an ideal and, so to speak, ethereal character. It has grown into a broad, pellucid, shining stream, which floats us over as it were into the world beyond, upon majestic yet gentle and translucent waves. There are only two passages in which it becomes more harsh, turbid, and ponderous, viz. ch. liii. and lvi. 9-lvii. 11a. In the former it is the emotion of sorrow which throws its shadow upon it; in the latter, the emotion of wrath. And in every other instance in which it changes, we may detect at once the influence of the object and of the emotion. In ch. Ixiii. 7 the prophet strikes the note of the liturgical tfpliilldh; in ch. Ixiii. 195-lxiv. 4 it is sadness which chokes the stream of words; in ch. lxiv. 5 you hear, as in Jer. iii. 25, the key-note of the liturgical vidduy, or confessional prayer.
And when we turn to the contents of his trilogy, it is more incomparable still. It commences with a prophecy, which gave to John the Baptist the great theme of his preaching. It closes with the prediction of the creation of a new heaven and new earth, beyond which even the last page of the New Testament Apocalypse cannot go. And in the centre (ch. Iii. 13— liii.) the sufferings and exaltation of Christ are proclaimed as clearly, as if the prophet had stood beneath the cross itself, and had seen the Risen Saviour. He is transported to the very commencement of the New Testament times, and begins just like the New Testament evangelists. He afterwards describes the death and resurrection of Christ as completed events, with all the clearness of a Pauline discourse. And lastly, he clings to the heavenly world beyond, like John in the Apocalypse. Yet the Old Testament limits are not disturbed; but within those limits, evangelist, apostle, and apocalvptist are all condensed into one. Throughout the whole of these addresses we never meet with a strictly Messianic prophecy; and yet they have more christological depth than all the Messianic prophecies taken together. The bright picture of the coming King, which is met with in the earlier Messianic prophecies, undergoes a metamorphosis here, out of which it issues enriched by many essential elements, viz. those of the two status, the mors vicaria, and the munus tiiplex. The dark typical background of suffering, which the mournful Davidic psalms give to the figure of the Messiah, becomes here for the first time an object of direct prediction. The place of the Son of David, who is only a King, is now taken by the Servant of Jehovah, who is Prophet and Priest by virtue of His self-sacrifice, and King as well; the Saviour of Israel and of the Gentiles, persecuted even to death by His own nation, but exalted by God to be both Priest and King. So rich and profound a legacy did Isaiah leave to the church of the captivity, and to the church of the future also, yea, even to the New Jerusalem upon the new earth. Hengstenberg has very properly compared these prophecies of Isaiah to the Deuteronomic " last words " of Moses in the steppes of Moab, and to the last words of the Lord Jesus, within the circle of His own disciples, as reported by John. It is a thoroughly esoteric book, left to the church for future interpretation. To none of the Old Testament prophets who followed him was the ability given perfectly to open the book. Nothing but the coming of the Servant of Jehovah in the person of Jesus Christ could break all the seven seals. But was Isaiah really the author of this book of consolation f Modern criticism visits all who dare to assert this with the double ban of want of science and want of conscience. It regards Isaiah's authorship as being quite as impossible as any miracle in the sphere of nature, of history, or of the spirit. No prophecies find any favour in its eyes, but such as can be naturally explained. It knows exactly how far a prophet can see, and where he must stand, in order to see so far. But we are not tempted at all to purchase such omniscience at the price of the supernatural. We believe in the supernatural reality of prophecy, simply because history furnishes indisputable proofs of it, and because a supernatural interposition on the part of God in both the inner and outer life of man takes place even at the present day, and can be readily put to the test. But this interposition varies greatly both in degree and kind; and even in the far-sight of the prophets there were the greatest diversities, according to the measure of their charisma. It is quite possible, therefore, that Isaiah may have foreseen the calamities of the Babylonian age and the deliverance that followed " by an excellent spirit," as the son of.Sirach says (Ecclus. xlviii. 24), and may have lived and moved in these " last things," even at a time when the Assyrian empire was still standing. But we do not regard all that is possible as being therefore real. We can examine quite impartially whether this really was the case, and without our ultimate decision being under the constraint of any unalterable foregone conclusion, like that of the critics referred to. All that we have said in praise of ch. xl -Ixvi. would retain its fullest force, even if the author of the whole should prove to be a prophet of the captivity, and not Isaiah.
We have already given a cursory glance at the general and particular grounds upon which we maintain the probability, or rather the certainty, that Isaiah was the author of ch. xl.-lxvi. (yid. vol. i. pp. 57-62); and we have explained them more fully in the concluding remarks to Drechsler's Commentary (vol. iii. pp. 361-416), to which we would refer any readers who wish to obtain a complete insight into the pro and con of this critical question. All false supports of Isaiah's authorship have there been willingly given up; for the words of Job to his friends (xiii. 7, 8) are quite as applicable to a biblical theologian of the present day.
We have admitted, that throughout the whole of the twenty-seven prophecies, the author of ch. xl.-lxvi. has the captivity as his fixed standpoint, or at any rate as a standpoint that is only so far a fluctuating one, as the eventual deliverance approaches nearer and nearer, and that without ever betraying the difference between the real present and this ideal one; so that as the prophetic vision of the future has its roots in every other instance in the soil of the prophet's own time, and springs out of that soil, to all appearance he is an exile himself. But notwithstanding this, the following arguments may be adduced in support of Isaiah's authorship. In the first place, the deliverance foretold in these prophecies, with all its attendant circumstances, is referred to as something beyond the reach of human foresight, and known to Jehovah alone, and as something the occurrence of which would prove Him to be the God of Gods. Jehovah, the God of the prophecy, knew the name of Cyrus even before he knew it himself; and He demon* itrated His Godhead to all the world, inasmuch as He caused the name and work of the deliverer of Israel to be foretold (ch. xiv. 4-7). Secondly, although these prophecies rest throughout upon the soil of the captivity, and do not start with the historical basis of Hezekiah's time, as we should expect them to do, with Isaiah as their author; yet the discrepancy between this phenomenon and the general character of prophecy elsewhere, loses its full force as an argument against Isaiah's authorship, if we do not separate ch. xl.-lxvi. from ch. i.-xxxix. and take it as an independent work, as is generally done. The whole of the first half of the collection is a staircase, leading up to these addresses to the exiles, and bears the same relation to them, as a whole, as the Assyrian pedestal in ch. xiv. 24-27 to the Babylonian massd' in ch. xiii.-xiv. 26 (see vol. i. 317). This relation between the two — namely, that Assyrian prophecies lay the foundation for Babylonian — runs through the whole of the first half. It is so arranged, that the prophecies of the Assyrian times throughout have intermediate layers, which reach beyond those times; and whilst the former constitute the groundwork, the latter form the gable. This is the relation in which ch. xxiv.-xxvii. stand to ch. xiii.-xxiii., and ch. xxxiv. xxxv. to ch. xxviii.-xxxiii. And within, the cycle of prophecies against the nations, three Babylonian prophecies — viz. ch. xiii.-xiv. 23, xxi. 1-10, and xxiii. — form the commencement, middle, and end. The Assyrian prophecies lie within a circle, the circumference and diameter of which consist of prophecies that have a longer span. And are all these prophecies, that are inserted with such evident skill and design, to be taken away from our prophet f The oracle concerning Babel, in ch. xiii.-xiv. 23, has all the ring of a prophecy of Isaiah's, as we have already seen; and in the epilogue, in ch. xiv. 24-27, it has Isaiah's signature. The second oracle concerning Babel, in ch. xxi. 1-10, is not only connected with three passages of Isaiah's that are acknowledged as genuine, so as to form a tetralogy; but in style and spirit it is most intimately bound up with them. The cycle of prophecies of the final catastrophe (ch. xxiv.-xxvii.) commences so thoroughly in Isaiah's style, that nearly every word and every turn in the first three verses bears Isaiah's stamp; and in ch. xxvii. 12, 13, it dies away, just like the book of Immanuel, ch. xi. 11 sqq. And the genuineness of ch. xxxiv. and xxxv. has never yet been disputed on any valid grounds. Knobel, indeed, maintains that the historical background of this passage establishes its spuriousness; but it is impossible to detect any background of contemporaneous history. Edom in this instance represents the world, as opposed to the people of God, just as Moab does in ch. xxv. Consider, moreover, that these disputed prophecies form a series which constitutes in every respect a prelude to ch. xl.-lxvi. Have we not in ch. xiv. 1, 2, the substance of ch. xl.-lxvi., as it were, in nuce f Is not the trilogy " Babel," in ch. xlvi.-xlviii., like an expansion of the vision in ch. xxi. 1-10? Is not the prophecy concerning Edom in ch. xxxiv. the sidepiece to ch. lxiii. 1-6 I And do we not hear in ch. xxxv. the direct prelude to the melody, which is continued in ch. xl.-lxvi.? And to this we may add still further the fact, that prominent marks of Isaiah are common alike to the disputed prophecies, and to those whose genuineness is acknowledged. The name of God, which is so characteristic of Isaiah, and which we meet with on every hand in acknowledged prophecies in ch. i.-xxxix., viz. " the Holy One of Israel," runs also through ch. xl.-lxvi. (vol. i. 193). And so again do the confirmatory words, " Thus saith Jehovah," and the interchange of the national names Jacob and Israel (compare, for example, ch. xl. 27 with ch. xxix. 23).1 The rhetorical figure called epanaphora, which may be illustrated by an Arabic proverb,2 —
" Enjoy the scent of the yellow roses of Negd; For when the evening is gone, it is over with the yellow roses," —
1 The remark which we made at vol. i. p. 117, to the effect that Isaiah prefers Israel, is therefore to be qualified, inasmuch as in ch. xl.-lxvi. Jacob takes precedence of Israel.
does ch. xxviii. 5 ring in harmony with ch. Ixii. 3, and ch. xxix. 28 (cf. v. 7) with ch. lx. 21! And does not the leading thought which is expressed in ch. xxii. 11, xxxvii. 26 (cf. ch. xxv. 1), viz. that whatever is realized in history has had its pre-existence as an idea in God, run with a multiplied echo through ch. xl.-lxvi. % And does not the second half repeat, in ch. lxv. 25, in splendidly elaborate paintings, and to some extent in the very same words (which is not unlike Isaiah), what we have already found in ch. xi. 6 sqq., xxx. 26, and other passages, concerning the future glorification of the earthly and heavenly creation? Yea, wre may venture to maintain (and no one has ever attempted to refute it), that the second half of the book of Isaiah (ch. xl.-lxvi), so far as its theme, its standpoint, its style, and its ideas are concerned, is in a state of continuous formation throughout the whole of the first (ch. i.-xxxix.). On the frontier of the two halves, the prediction in ch. xxxix. 5, 7 stands like a sign-post, with the inscription, " To Babylon." There, viz. in Babylon, is henceforth Isaiah's spiritual home; there he preaches to the church of the captivity the way of salvation, and the consolation of redemption, but to the rebellious the terrors of judgment.
That this is the case, is confirmed by the reciprocal relation in which ch. xl.-lxvi. stand to all the other literature of the Old Testament with which we are acquainted. In ch. xl.-lxvi. wre find reminiscences from the book of Job (compare ch. xl. 23 with Job xii. 24; xliv. 25 with Job xii. 17, 20; xliv. 24 with Job ix. 8; xl. 14 with Job xxi. 22; lix. 4 with Job xv. 35 and Ps. vii. 15). And the first half points back to Job in just the same manner. The poetical words VT3, "laarin, CKVNV, are only met with in the book of Isaiah and the book of Job. Once at least, namely ch. lix. 7, we are reminded of misJile (Prov. i. 16); whilst in the first half wre frequently met with imitations of the maslial of Solomon. The two halves stand in exactly the same relation to the book of Micah; compare ch. lviii. 1 with Mic. iii. 8, like ii. 2-4 with Mic. iv. 1-4, and xxvi. 21 with Mic. i. 3. And the same relation to Nahum runs through the two; compare Nah. iii. 4, 5 with ch. xlvii., ii. 1 with Hi. 7a, 16, and ii. 11 with xxiv. 1, iii. 13 with xix. 16. We leave the question open, on which side the priority lies. But when we find in Zephaniah and Jeremiah points of contact not only with ch. xl.-lxvi., but also with ch. xiii.-xiv. 23, xxi. 1-10, xxxiv.- xxxv., which preclude the possibility of accident, it is more than improbable that these two prophets should have been imitated by the author of ch. xl.-lxvi., since it is in them above all others that we meet with the peculiar disposition to blend the words and thoughts of their predecessors with their own. Not only does Zephaniah establish points of contact with Isa. xiii. and xxxiv. in by no means an accidental manner, but compare ch. ii. 15 with Isa. xlvii. 8, 10, and ch. iii. 10 with Isa. lxvi. 20. The former passage betrays its derivative character by the fact that Ppy is a word that belongs exclusively to Isaiah; whilst the latter is not only a compendium of Isa. lxvi. 20, but also points back to Isa. xviii. 1, 7, in the expression ^"•nro "QJttJ. In Jeremiah, the indication of dependence upon Isaiah comes out most strongly in the prophecy against Babylon in Jer. L li.; in fact, it is so strong, that Movers, Hitzig, and De Wette regard the anonymous author of ch. xl.-lxvi. as the interpolator of this prophecy. But it also contains echoes of Isa. xiii., xiv., xxi., and xxxiv., and is throughout a Mosaic of earlier prophecies. The passage in Jer. x. 1-16 concerning the nothingness of the gods of the nations, sounds also most strikingly like Isaiah's; compare more especially Isa. xliv. 12-15, xli. 7, xlvi. 7, though the attempt has also been made to render this intelligible by the interpolation hypothesis. It is not only in vers. 6-8 and 10, which are admitted to be Jeremiah's, that we meet with the peculiar characteristics of Jeremiah; but even in passages that are rejected we find such expressions of his as Hfi*? Drritf for DFW, "lin?, BWJm, rripsi, a penal visitation, such as we never meet with in Isaiah n. And the whole of the consolatory words in Jer. xxx. 10, 11, and again in xlvi. 27, 28, which sound so much like the deutero- Isaiah, are set down as having been inserted in the book of Jeremiah by Isaiah II. But Caspari has shown that this is impossible, because the concluding words of the promise, " I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished," would have no meaning at all if uttered at the close of the captivity; and also, because such elements as are evidently Jeremiah's, and in which it coincides with prophecies of Jeremiah that are acknowledged to be genuine, far outweigh those of the deutero-Isaiah. And yet in this passage, when
Israel is addressed as "my servant," we hear the tone of the deutero-Isaiah. Jeremiah fuses in this instance, as in many other passages, the tones of Isaiah with his own. There are also many other passages which coincide with passages of the second part of Isaiah, both in substance and expression, though not so conclusively as those already quoted, and in which we have to decide between re^ardin^ Jeremiah as an imitator, or Isaiah II. as an interpolator. But if we compare Jer. vi. 15 with Isa. lvi. 11, and Isa, xlviii. 6 with Jer. xxxiii. 3, where Jeremiah, according to his usual custom, gives a different turn to the original passages by a slight change in the letters, we shall find involuntary reminiscences of Isaiah in Jeremiah, in such parallels as Jer. iii. 16, Isa. Ixv. 17; Jer. iv. 13, Isa. lxvi. 15; Jer. xi. 19, Isa. liii.; and shall hear the ring of Isa. li. 17-23 in Jeremiah's qinoth, and that of Isa. lvi. 9-lvii. 11a in the earlier reproachful addresses of Jeremiah, and not vice versa. In conclusion, let us picture to ourselves the gradual development of Isaiah's view of the captivity, that penal judgment already threatened in the law. (1.) In the Uzziah-Jotham age the prophet refers to the captivity, in the most general terms that can be conceived, in ch. vi. 12, though he mentions it casually by its own name even in ch. v. 13. (2.) In the time of Alxaz we already see him far advanced beyond this first sketchy reference to the captivity. In ch. xi. 11 sqq. he predicts a second deliverance, resembling the Egyptian exodus. Asshur stands at the head of the countries of the diaspora, as the imperial power by which the judgment of captivity is carried out. (3.) In the early years of Hezekiali, ch. xxii. 18 appears to indicate the carrying away of Judah by Asshur. But when the northern kingdom had succumbed to the judgment of the Assyrian banishment, and Judah had been mercifully spared this judgment, the eyes of Isaiah were directed to Babylon as the imperial power destined to execute the same judgment upon Judah. We may see this from ch. xxxix. 5-7. Micah also speaks of Babylon as the future place of punishment and deliverance (Mic. iv. 10). The prophecies of the overthrow of Babylon in ch. xiii. 14, 21, are therefore quite in the spirit of the prophecies of Hezekiah's time. And ch. xl— lxvi. merely develop on all sides what was already contained in germ in ch. xiv 1, 2, xxi. 10. It is well known that in the time of
Hezekiah Babylon attempted to break loose from Assyria; and so also the revolt of the Medes from Asshur, and the union of their villages and districts under one monarch named Deyoces, occurred in the time of Hezekiah.1 It is quite characteristic of Isaiah that he never names the Persians, who were at that time still subject to the Medes. He mentions Madai in ch. xiii. 17 and xxi. 2, and Koresh (Kurus), the founder of the Persian monarchy; but not that one of the two leading Iranian tribes, which gained its liberty through him in the time of Astyages, and afterwards rose to the possession of the imperial sway.
But how is it possible that Isaiah should have mentioned Cyrus by name centuries before this time (210 years, according to Josephus, Ant. xi. 1, 2) f Windischmann answers this question in his Zoroastrische Studien, p. 137. a No one," he says, " who believes in a living, personal, omniscient God, and in the possibility of His revealing future events, will ever deny that He possesses the power to foretell the name of a future monarch." And Albrecht Weber, the Indologian, finds in this answer " an evidence of self-hardening against the scientific conscience," and pronounces such hardening nothing less than "devilish."
It is not possible to come to any understanding concerning this point, which is the real nerve of the prevailing settled conclusion as to ch. xl.-lxvi. We therefore hasten on to our exposition. And in relation to this, if we only allow that the prophet really was a prophet, it is of no essential consequence to what age he belonged. For in this one point we quite agree with the opponents of its genuineness, namely, that the standpoint of the prophet is the second half of the captivity. If the author is Isaiah, as we feel constrained to assume for reasons that we have already stated here and elsewhere, he is entirely carried away from his own times, and leads a pneumatic life among the exiles. There is, in fact, no more " Johannic" book in the whole of the Old Testament than this book of consolation. It is like the product of an Old Testament gift of tongues. The fleshly body of speech has been changed into a glorified body; and we hear, as it were, spiritual voices from the world beyond, or world of glory.
1 Spiegel (Evan, p. 313 sqq.) places the revolt of the Medes in the year 714, and Deyoces in the year 708.
FIRST PROPHECY.— Chap. xl. WORDS OF COMFORT, AND THE GOD OF COMFORT.
In this first address the prophet vindicates his call to be the preacher of the comfort of the approaching deliverance, and explains this comfort on the ground that Jehovah, who called him to this comforting proclamation, was the incomparably exalted Creator and Ruler of the world. The first part of this address (vers. 1-11) may be regarded as the prologue to the whole twenty-seven. The theme of the prophetic promise, and the irresistible certainty of its fulfilment, are here declared. Turning to the people of the captivity, whom Jehovah has neither forgotten nor rejected, the prophet commences thus in ver. 1: u Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God" This is the divine command to the prophets. Nachamu (piel, literally, to cause to breathe again) is repeated, because of its urgency (anadijjlosis, as in ch. xli. 27, xliii. 11, xxv., etc.). The word "lEN'1, which does not mean " will say " here (Hofmann, Stier), but " saith " (LXX., Jerome), — as, for example, in 1 Sam. xxiv. 14, — affirms that the command is a continuous one. The expression " saith your God " is peculiar to Isaiah, and common to both parts of the collection (ch. i. 11, 18, xxxiii. 10, xl. 1, 25, xli. 21, Ixvi. 9). The future in all these passages is expressive of that which is taking place or still continuing. And it is the same here. The divine command has not been issued once only, or merely to one prophet, but is being continually addressed to many prophets. " Comfort ye, comfort ye my people," is the continual charge of the God of the exiles, who has not ceased to be their God even in the midst of wrath, to His messengers and heralds the prophets.
The summons is now repeated with still greater emphasis, the substance of the consoling proclamation being also given Ver. 2. " Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her affliction is ended, that her debt is paid, that she has received from the hand of Jehovah double for all her sins" The holy city is thought of here in connection with the population belonging to it. 3?"^ Wl (to speak to the heart) is an expression applied in Gen. xxxiv. 3 and Judg. xix. 3 to words adapted to win the heart; in Gen. 1. 21, to the words used by Joseph to inspire his brethren with confidence; whilst here it is used in precisely the same sense as in Hos. ii. 16, and possibly not without a reminiscence of this earlier prophecy.?N fcOjJ (to call to a person) is applied to a prophetic announcement made to a person, as in Jer. vii. 27, Zech. i. 4. The announcement to be made to Jerusalem is then introduced with s2, on, which serves as the introduction to either an indirect or a direct address (Ges. § 155, 1, e). (1.) Her affliction has become full, and therefore has come to an end. K2X, military service, then feudal service, and hardship generally (Job vii. 1); here it applies to the captivity or exile — that unsheltered bivouac, as it were, of the people who had been transported into a foreign land, and were living there in bondage, restlessness, and insecurity. (2.) Her iniquity is atoned for, and the justice of God is satisfied: nirtsdh, which generally denotes a satisfactory reception, is used here in the sense of meeting with a satisfactory payment, like }"W i"^n in Lev. xxvi. 41, 43, to pay off the debt of sin by enduring the punishment of sin. (3.) The third clause repeats the substance of the previous ones with greater emphasis and in a fuller tone: Jerusalem has already suffered fully for her sins. In direct opposition to nnfpp, which cannot, when connected with two actual perfects as it is here, be taken as a perfect used to indicate the certainty of some future occurrence, Gesenius, Hitzig, Ewald, Umbreit, Stier, and Halm suppose hiphlayim to refer to the double favour that Jerusalem was about to receive (like misJineh in ch. lxi. 7, and possibly borrowed from Isaiah in Zech. ix. 12), instead of to the double punishment which Jerusalem had endured (like mishneh in Jer. xvi. 18). It is not to be taken, however, in a judicial sense; in which case God would appear over-rigid, and therefore unjust. Jerusalem had not suffered more than its sins had deserved; but the compassion of God regarded what His justice had been obliged to inflict upon Jerusalem as superabundant. This compassion also expresses itself in the words " for all" Qfkhol, c. Beth pretii): there is nothing left for further punishment. The turning-point from wrath to love has arrived. The wrath has gone forth in double measure. With what intensity, therefore, will the love break forth, which has been so long restrained!
There is a sethume in the text at this point. The first two verses form a small parashah by themselves, the prologue of the prologue. After the substance of the consolation has been given on its negative side, the question arises, What positive salvation is to be expected? This question is answered for the prophet, inasmuch as, in the ecstatic stillness of his mind as turned to God, he hears a marvellous voice. Ver. 3. " Hark, a crier! In the wilderness prepare ye a way for Jehovah, make smooth in the desert a road for our God." This is not to be rendered "a voice cries" (Ges., Umbreit, etc.); but the two words are in the construct state, and form an interjectional clause, as in ch. xiii. 4, lii. 8, lxvi. 6: Voice of one crying! Who the crier is remains concealed; his person vanishes in the splendour of his calling, and falls into the background behind the substance of his cry. The cry sounds like the long-drawn trumpet-blast of a herald (cf. ch. xvi. 1). The crier is like the outrider of a king, who takes care that the way by which the king is to go shall be put into good condition. The king is Jehovah; and it is all the more necessary to prepare the way for Him in a becoming manner, that this way leads through the pathless desert. Bammidhdr is to be connected with pannu, according to the accents on account of the parallel {zakeph katan has a stronger disjunctive force here than zakeph gadol, as in Deut. xxvi. 14, xxviii. 8, 2 Kings i. 6), though without any consequent collision with the New Testament description of the fulfilment itself. And so also the Targum and Jewish expositors take "Dim fcOlp 5>lp together, like the LXX., and after this the Gospels. We may, or rather apparently we must, imagine the crier as advancing into the desert, and summoning the people to come and make a road through it. But why does the way of Jehovah lie through the desert, and whither does it lead? It was through the desert that He went to redeem Israel out of Egyptian bondage, and to reveal Himself to Israel from Sinai (Deut. xxxiii. 2; Judg. v. 4; Ps. lxviii. 8); and in Ps. lxviii. 4 (5) God the Redeemer of His people is called hdrokhebh baardhhoth. Just as His people looked for Him then, when they were between Egypt and Canaan; so was He to be looked for by His people again, now that they were in the " desert of the sea" (ch. xxi. 1), and separated by Arabia deserta from their fatherland. If He were coming at the head of His people, He Himself would clear the hindrances out of His way; but He was coming through the desert to Israel, and therefore Israel itself was to take care that nothing should impede the rapidity or detract from the favour of the Coming One. The description answers to the reality; but, as we shall frequently find as we go further on, the literal meaning spiritualizes itself in an allegorical way.
The summons proceeds in a commanding tone. Ver. 4. u Let every valley be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low; and let the rugged be made a plain, and the ledges of rocks a valley" rffltj, which takes its tone from the two jussive verbs, is also itself equivalent to WJ. Instead of N\a (from fc03), the pointing in Zech. xiv. 4, we have here (according to Kimchi) the vowel-pointing 8*3; at the same time, the editions of Brescia, Pesaro, Venice 1678, have 603 (with tzere), and this is also the reading of a codex of Luzzatto without Masoretic notes. The command, according to its spiritual interpretation, points to the encouragement of those that are cast down, the humiliation of the self-righteous and self-secure, the changing of dishonesty into simplicity, and of unapproachable haughtiness into submission (for 'dqobh, hilly, rugged,1 compare Jer. xvii. 9 together with Hab. ii. 4). In general, the meaning is that Israel is to take care, that the God who is coming to deliver it shall find it in such an inward and outward state as befits His exaltation and His purpose.
The cry of the crier proceeds thus in ver. 5: u And the glory of Jehovah will be revealed, and all flesh seeth together: for the month of Jehovah hath spoken it." The pret. cons. TOI31 is here apodosis imper. When the way is prepared for Jehovah the Coming One, the glory of the God of salvation will unveil itself (on the name Jehovah, which is applied to God, the absolute I, as living and revealing Himself in history, more especially in the history of salvation, see vol. i. p. 67). His parousia is the revelation of His glory (1 Pet. iv. 13). This revelation is made for the good of Israel, but not secretly or exclusively;
1 In this ethical sense Essex applied the word to Queen Elizabeth. See Hefele, Ximenes, p. 90 (ed. 2).
for all the human race, called here designedly "all flesh" (kol bdsdr), will come to see it (compare Luke iii. 6, "the salvation of God"). Man, because he is flesh, cannot see God without dying (Ex. xxxiii. 20); but the future will fill up this gulf of separation. The object to the verb "see" is not what follows, as Rosenmuller supposes, viz. " that the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken," for the word of promise which is here fulfilled is not one addressed to all flesh; nor does it mean, "see that Jehovah hath spoken with His own mouth," i.e. after having become man, as Stier maintains, for the verb required in this case would be "^ID, not "i^i. The clause, " for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it," is rather Isaiah's usual confirmation of the foregoing prophecy (see vol. i. p. 425). Here the crier uses it to establish the certainty of what he foretells, provided that Israel will do what he summons it to perform.
The prophet now hears a second voice, and then a third, entering into conversation with it. Vers. 6—8. " Hark, one speaking, Cry! And lie answers, What shall I cry f All flesh is grass, and all its beauty as the flower of the field. Grass is withered, flower faded: for the breath of Jehovah has blown upon it. Surely grass is the people; grass withereth, flower fadeth: yet the word of our God will stand for ever" A second voice celebrates the divine word of promise in the face of the approaching fulfilment, and appoints a preacher of its eternal duration. The verb is not "iftfcO (et dixi, LXX., Vulg.), but 1D8J1; so that the person asking the question is not the prophet himself, but an ideal person, whom he has before him in visionary objectiveness. The appointed theme of his proclamation is the perishable nature of all flesh (ver. 5 rracra crdp^, here iraaa rj crdpj;), and, on the other hand, the imperishable nature of the wrord of God. Men living in the flesh are universally impotent, perishing, limited; God, on the contrary (ch. xxxi. 3), is the omnipotent, eternal, all-determining; and like Himself, so is His word, which, regarded as the vehicle and utterance of His willing and thinking, is not something separate from Himself, and therefore is the same as He. Chasdo is the charm or gracefulness of the outward appearance (LXX.; 1 Pet. i. 24, Sofa: see Schott on the passage, Jas. i. 11, evirpeireta). The comparison instituted with grass and flower recals ch. xxxvii. 27 and Job viii. 12, and still more Ps. xc. 5, G, and Job xiv. 2.
Ver. la describes what happens to the grass and flower. The preterites, like the Greek aoristus gnomicus (cf. ch. xxvi. 10), express a fact of experience sustained by innumerable examples: exaruit gramen, emarcuit flos; consequently the *3 which follows is not hypothetical (granting that), but explanatory of the reason, viz. " because ruach Jehovah hath blown upon it," i.e. the " breath " of God the Creator, which pervades the creation, generating life, sustaining life, and destroying life, and whose most characteristic elementary manifestation is the wind. Every breath of wind is a drawing of the breath of the whole life of nature, the active indwelling principle of whose existence is the ruach of God. A fresh verse ought to commence now with f5y*. The clause B#n l^n |3N is genuine, and thoroughly in Isaiah's style, notwithstanding the LXX., which Gesenius and Hitzig follow. pK is not equivalent to a comparative I? (Ewald, § 105, a), but is assuring, as in ch. xlv. 15, xlix. 4, liii. 4; and ha dm (the people) refers to men generally, as in ch. xlii. 5. The order of thought is in the form of a triolet. The explanation of the striking simile commences with 'dkhen (surely); and then in the repetition of the words, " grass withereth, flower fadeth," the men are intended, who resemble the grass and the flower. Surely grass is the human race; such grass withereth and such flower fadeth, but the word of our God (Jehovah, the God of His people and of sacred history) ydqiim Foldm, i.e. it rises up without withering or fading, and endures for ever, fulfilling and verifying itself through all times. This general truth refers, in the present instance, to the word of promise uttered by the voice in the desert. If the word of God generally has an eternal duration, more especially is this the case with the word of the parousia of God the Redeemer, the word in which all the words of God are yea and amen. The imperishable nature of this word, however, has for its dark foil the perishable nature of all flesh, and all the beauty thereof. The oppressors of Israel are mortal, and their chesed with which they impose and bribe is perishable; but the word of God, with which Israel can console itself, pre-
1?33 has munach here and in ver. 8 attached to the penultimate in all correct texts (hence mild, on account of the monosyllable which follows), and metlieg on the tzere to sustain the lengthening.
serves the field, and ensures it a glorious end to its history. Thus the seal, which the first crier set upon the promise of Jehovah's speedy coming, is inviolable; and the comfort which the prophets of God are to bring to His people, who have now been suffering so long, is infallibly sure.
The prophet accordingly now takes, as his standpoint, the time when Jehovah will already have come. Ver. 9. u Upon a high mountain get thee up, 0 evangelistess Zion; lift up thy voice ivith strength, evangelistess Jerusalem: lift up9 be not afraid; say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God." Knobel and others follow the LXX. and Targum, and regard Zion and Jerusalem as accusatives of the object, viz. " preacher of salvation {i.e. a chorus of preachers) to Zion-Jerusalem;" but such parallels as ch. lii. 7 and lxii. 11 are misleading here. The words are in apposition (A. S. Th. evayyeXc^Ofievrj Sioov). Zion-Jerusalem herself is called an evangelistess: the personification as a female renders this probable at the outset, and it is placed beyond all doubt by the fact, that it is the cities *of Judah (the daughters of Zion-Jerusalem) that are to be evangelized. The prophet's standpoint here is in the very midst of the parousia. When Jerusalem shall have her God in the midst of her once more, after He has broken up His home there for so long a time; she is then, as the restored mothercommunity, to ascend a high mountain, and raising her voice with fearless strength, to bring to her daughters the joyful news of the appearance of their God. The verb bisser signifies literally to smooth, to unfold, then to make glad, more especially with joyful news.1 It lies at the root of the New Testament evayye\i£etv (evangelize), and is a favourite word of the
1 The verb bisser signifies primarily to stroke, rub, shave, or scratch the surface of anything; then to stroke off or rub off the surface, or anything which covers it; then, suggested by the idea of " rubbing smooth " (glatt), "to smooth a person" (jemanden gldtten; compare the English, to gladden a person), i.e. vultum ejus diducere, to make him friendly and cheerful, or " to look smoothly upon a person," i.e. to show him a friendly face; and also as an intransitive, " to be glad" to be friendly and cheerful; and lastly, in a general sense, aliquid attingere, tractare, attrectare, to grasp or handle a thing (from which comes basar, the flesh, as something tangible or material). In harmony with the Hebrew bisser (Jer. xx. 15), they say in Arabic basaraliu (or intensive, bassarahu) bi-mauludin, he has gladdened him with the news of the birth of a son.
author of ch. xl.— lxvi., that Old Testament evangelist, though it is no disproof of Isaiah's authorship (cf. Nahum ii. 1). Hitherto Jerusalem has been in despair, bowed down under the weight of the punishment of her sins, and standing in need of consolation. But now that she has Jehovah with her again, she is to lift up her voice with the most joyful confidence, without further anxiety, and to become, according to her true vocation, the messenger of good tidings to all Judaea.
In ver. 10 the prophet goes back from the standpoint of the fulfilment to that of the prophecy. u Beheld the Lord, Jehovah, as a mighty one will He come, His arm ruling for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His retribution before Himr We must not render the first clause " with strong," i.e, with strength, as the LXX. and Targum do. The Beth is Beth essentia? (cf. ch. xxvi. 4; Ges. § 154, 3, a). He will come in the essence, strength, and energy of a strong one; and this is still further defined by the participial, circumstantial clause, " His arm ruling for Him" (brachio suo ipsi dominante). It is His arm that rules for Him, i.e, that either brings into subjection to Him, or else overthrows whatever opposes Him. Nevertheless, ver. 10b does not present Him merely in one aspect, namely as coming to judge and punish, but in both aspects, viz. that of the law and that of the gospel, as a righteous rewarder; hence the double name of God, Adonai Jehovah (compare ch. iii. 15, xxviii. 16 xxx. 15, all in the first part), which is used even in the Pentateuch, and most frequently by Amos and Ezekiel, and which forms, as it were, an anagram. npyQ is already met with in Lev. xix. 13 as a synonym of "9^ passing from the general idea of work to that of something earned and forfeited. Jehovah brings with Him the penal reward of the enemies of His people, and also the gracious reward of the faithful of His people, whom He will compensate for their previous sufferings with far exceeding joys (see ch. lxii. 11).
The prophet dwells upon this, the redeeming side not the judicial, as he proceeds to place the image of the good shepherd by the side of that of the Lord Jehovah. Ver. 11. " He will feed His flock like a shepherd, take the lambs in His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are giving auckr The flock is His people, now dispersed in a foreign land. The love with which He tends this flock is shown, by way of example, in His conduct towards the D^?p (= D^vD from 79 = iyD), the young lambs that have not long been born, and the ni^ those giving suck, lactantes (Vulg. fetce), not those that are sucking, sugentes (from h\y med. Vav, to nourish, cf. vol. i. p. 138). Such as cannot keep pace with the flock he takes in his arms, and carries in the bosom of his dress; and the mothers he does not overdrive, but?[W (see at Ps. xxiii. 2), lets them go gently along, because they require care (Gen. xxxiii. 13). With this loving picture the prologue in vers. 1-11 is brought to a close. It stands at the head of the whole, like a divine inauguration of the prophet, and like the quintessence of what he is commanded to proclaim. Nevertheless it is also an integral part of the first address. For the questions which follow cannot possibly be the commencement of the prophecy, though it is not very clear how far they form a continuation.
The connection is the following: The prophet shows both didactically and parametically what kind of God it is whose appearance to redeem His people has been prophetically announced in vers. 1-11. He is the incomparably exalted One. This incomparable exaltation makes the ignorance of the worshippers of idols the more apparent, but it serves to comfort Israel. And Israel needs such consolation in its present banishment, in which it is so hard for it to comprehend the ways of God.
In order to bring His people to the full consciousness of the exaltation of Jehovah, the prophet asks in ver. 12, " Who hath measured the waters ivith the hollow of his hand, and regulated the heavens with a span, and taken up the dust of the earth in a third measure, and weighed the mountains with a steelyard, and hills with balances? " Jehovah, and He alone, has given to all these their proper quantities, their determinate form, and their proportionate place in the universe. How very little can a man hold in the hollow of his hand (shoal) I1 how very small is the space which a man's span will cover! how little is contained in
1 The root ^ J-j has the primary meaning of easily moving or being easily moved; then of being loose or slack, of hanging down, or sinking, — a meaning which we meet with in ^yp and {p^. Accordingly, shoal signifies the palm (i.e. the depression made by the hand), and sh^ol not literally a hollowing or cavity, but a depression or low ground.
the third of an ephah (shdlish; see at Ps. lxxx. 6)! and how trifling in either bulk or measure is the quantity you can weigh in scales, whether it be a peles, i.e. a steelyard (statera), or mo zenayim, a tradesman's balance (bilances), consisting of two scales.1 But what Jehovah measures with the hollow of His hand, and with His span, is nothing less than the waters beneath and the heavens above. He carries a scoop, in which there is room for all the dust of which the earth consists, and a scale on which He has weighed the great colossal mountains.
A second question follows in vers. 13, 14. " Who regulated the Spirit of Jehovah, and (who) instructed Him as His counsellor? With whom took He counsel, and who would have explained to Him and instructed Him concerning the path of right, and taught Him knowledge, and made known to Him a prudent course?'9 The first question called to mind the omnipotence of Jehovah; this recalls His omniscience, which has all fulness in itself, and therefore precludes all instruction from without. " The Spirit of Jehovah " is the Spirit which moved upon the waters at the creation, and by wrhich chaos was reduced to order. (i Who," inquires this prophet, — " who furnished this Spirit with the standard, according to which all this was to be done?" |2n as in ver. 12, to bring into conformity with rule, and so to fit for regulated working. Instead of mercha tifchah athnach, which suggests the Targum rendering, " guis direxit spiritum? Jehova'* (vid. Prov. xvi. 2), it would be more correct to adopt the accentuation tifchah munach athnach (cf. Ex. xxi. 24, xxiii. 9), and there are certain codices in which we find this (see Dachselt). In ver. 135 we might follow the Septuagint translation, koX rt? avrov avfi^ov\o<; iyevero, o? (Tv/A/Sifta (Rom. xi. 34; 1 Cor. ii. 16, <TVfu,f3i/3daei,) avrov, but in this case we miss the verb ^. The rendering we have given above is not so harsh, and the accentuation is indifferent here, since silluk is never written without tifchah if only a single word precedes it. In ver. 14 the reciprocal }TO is connected with riN = DK. The futt. cons, retain their literal meaning: with whom did He
1 According to the meaning, to level or equalize, which is one meaning of pilles, the noun peles is applied not only to a level used to secure equilibrium, which is called mishqeleth in ch. xxviii. 17, but also to a steelyard used for weighing, the beam of which consists of a lever with unequal arms, which flies up directly the weight is removed.
consult, so that he supplied Him with understanding in consequence (hebhln, generally to understand, here in a causative sense). The verbs of instruction are sometimes construed with 3 of the lesson taught, sometimes with a double accusative. In reply to the questions in vers. 13, 14, which are essentially one, Israel must acknowledge that its God is the possessor of absolute might, and also of absolute wisdom.
From His exaltation as Creator, the prophet now proceeds to His exaltation as Governor of the world. Ver. 15. " Behold, nations like a little drop on a bucket, and like a grain of sand in a balance, are they esteemed; behold, islands like an atom of dust that rises in the air" Upon Jehovah, the King of the world, does the burden rest of ruling over the whole human race, which is split up into different nations; but the great masses of people over whom Jehovah rules are no more burden to Him than a drop hanging upon a bucket is a burden to the man who carries it (min is used in the same sense as in Song of Sol. iv. 1, vi. 5), no more than the weight in a balance is perceptibly increased or diminished by a grain of sand that happens to lie upon it (shachaq, from shdchaq, to grind to powder). The islands, those fragments of firm ground in the midst of the ocean QX = ivy, from njx, to betake one's self to a place, and remain there), upon which the heathen world was dispersed (Gen. x.), are to Him who carries the universe like the small particle of dust (PI from Pi?'5], to crush or pulverize), which is lifted up, viz. by the slightest breath of wind (fi®\ metaplastic fuL niph. of tul = natal, ch. Ixiii. 9). The rendering of Knobel, u dust which is thrown," would require "IBP (ch. xli. 2); and neither that of Gesenius, viz. " He takes up islands like a particle of dust," nor that of Hitzig, " He carries islands," etc., is admissible, for ^tt =?DJ signifies tollere, not portare; and the former, viz. insulas tollit, furnishes no answer to the question, " How so, and to what end 1 "
By the side of this vanishing diminutiveness on the part of man as contrasted with Jehovah, everything by which man could express his adoration of the exalted One comes incomparably short of His exaltation. Ver. 16. " And Lebanon is not a sufficiency of burning, nor its game a sufficiency of burntofferings;1 i.e. there is not enough wood to sustain the fire, nor a sufficient supply of sacrificial animals to be slaughtered, and to ascend in fire. *! (constr. **) signifies that which suffices (and then that which is plentiful); it differs therefore from to Biov, what is requisite.1
From the obverse of the thought in ver. 15 the prophet returns to the thought itself, and dwells upon it still further. Ver. 17. u All the nations are as nothing before Him; they are regarded by Him as belonging to nullity and emptiness." 'Ephes is the end at which a thing ceases, an,d in an absolute sense that at which all being ceases, hence non-existence or nullity. Tohu (from tdhdh, related to sha*dh; vid. Job, vol. ii. p. 296), a horrible desolation, like the chaos of creation, where there is nothing definite, and therefore as good as nothing at all (see p. 25); min is hardly comparative in the sense of "more nothing than nothing itself " (like Job. xi. 17, where " brighter" is to be supplied, or Mic. vii. 4, where u sharper " is similarly required), but is used in the same partitive sense as in ch. xli. 24 (cf. xliv. 11 and Ps. Ixii. 10).
The conclusion drawn from ver. 17, that Jehovah is therefore the matchless Being, shapes itself into a question, which is addressed not to idolaters, but to such of the Israelites as needed to be armed against the seductive power of idolatry, to which the majority of mankind had yielded. Ver. 19. " And to whom can ye liken God, and what kind of image can ye place beside Him! " The \ before bw\ is conclusive, as in ch. xxviii. 26, and the futures are modi potent.: with what can ye bring into comparison (?K as in ch. xiv. 10) El, Le. God, the one Being who is absolutely the Mighty? and what kind of d'muth (i.e. divine, like Himself) can ye place by His side?
Least of all can an idol bear comparison with Him. Ver. 19. " Tlie idol, when the smith has cast it, the melter plates it with gold, and melteth silver chains for it." The object (Jiappesel, the idol), which is here placed first as the theme in the accusative (lit. the image hewn out), denotes in this instance an idol generally, fcnn is as comprehensive asfaber. 3TO yjT) signifies here to cover over with a 3HT Vi?"i {lamina auri), the verb being used in a denominative sense, and not in its primary meaning.
1 The derivation of *n is still more obscure than that of hi, which signifies, according to Benfey (Wurzelworterbitch, ii. 205), u there needs; " according to Sonne, " it binds, scil. *j avay-n.1'
As we must assume, according to ver. 20, that the prophet intends to carry us into the midst of the process of manufacturing the idol, the paratactic expression is to be pointed as above, viz. " after the (a) smith has cast it (compare Arab. nasik, a piece of cast metal), the (a) melter (goldsmith) covers it with gold plate;" and tsoreph, which is palindromically repeated, according to Isaiah's custom (p. 134), is not the third pers. poel (on the poel of strong stems, see at Job ix. 15 and Ps. cix. 10), but a participle, equivalent to Kftfl Sftto (as in ch. xxix. 8, which see; and also, according to the accents, ch. xxxiii. 5), u and he melteth chains of silver," viz. to fasten the image.
This is the origin of a metal idol. The wooden idol is described in ver. 20: "The man who is impoverished in oblations, he chooseth a block of wood that will not rot; he seeketh for himself a skilful smith, to prepare an idol that will not shake." He who has fallen into such poverty that he can only offer to his God a poor oblation (frumdh, accusative, according to Ewald, § 284, c), has an idol cut for himself out of a block of wood. That sdkhan (Arab, sakana or sakana) l is an ancient word, is evident from Deut. viii. 9. The verb yimmot, like yittol in ver. 15, is a fat. niphal, to be made to shake. A wooden image, which is planed at the bottom, and made heavier below than above, to prevent its falling over with every shock, is to be a god! The thing carries its own satire, even when described with the greatest seriousness.
Having thus depicted in a few strokes the infatuation of idolatry, the prophet addresses the following question to such of the Israelites as are looking at it with longing eyes, even if they have not already been deluded by it. Ver. 21. u Do ye not know f Do ye not hear? Is it not proclaimed to you from the beginning? Have ye not obtained an insight into the foundations of the earth?" We have here four questions chiastically
1 Both forms occur in this sense, according to the evidence of original sources, with the common imperative yaskunu, the infinitive sukune passed over by Freytag, the verbal substantive maskane, and the adjective miskin or meskin, primarily to be forced to inactivity through veakness, destitution, or outward influences, not to be able to move and exert one's self; or, more particularly, not to be able to defend one's self (as it were to be obliged to sit still or keep still). Hence more especially opibus et facultatibus carens, being in distress, destitute, poor.
arranged. The absolute being of God, which is above all created things, is something which may be either inferred per ratiocinationem, or learned per traditionem. When Israel failed to acknowledge the absolute distinctness and unequalled supremacy of Jehovah its God, it hardened itself against the knowledge which it might acquire even in a natural way (cf. Ps. xix. and Rom. i. 20), and shut its ears against the teaching of revelation and tradition, which had come down from the very beginning of its history. The first two questions are construed with futures, the other two with perfects; the former refer to what is possible, the latter to what is an actual fact. Have you — this is the meaning of the four questions — have you obtained no knowledge of the foundations of the earth, namely, as to the way in which they were laid?
The prophet now proceeds to describe the God whom both His works and word proclaim. The participles which follow are predicates of the subject, which filled the consciousness of the prophet as well as that of every believer. Ver. 22. " He who is enthroned above the vault of the earth, and its inhabitants resemble grasshoppers; who has spread out the heavens like gauze, and stretched them out like a tent-roof to dwell in." He, the manifested and yet unknown, is He who has for His throne the circle of the heavens (chug shdmayim, Job xxii. 14), which arches over the earth, and to whom from His inaccessible height men appear as diminutive as grasshoppers (Num. xiii. 33); He who has spread out the blue sky like a thin transparent garment (dog, a thin fabric, like daq, fine dust, in ver. 15), and stretched it out above the earth like a tent for dwelling in ('ohel1 lashebheth). The participle brings to view the actions and circumstances of all times. In the present instance, where it is continued in the historical sense, it is to be resolved into the perfect; in other cases, the preservation of the world is evidently thought of as a creatio continua (see Psychol, p. 111).
1 The noun 'ohel is derived from the root ">tf, from which come J J, coaluitj cohzesit, to thicken within or gain consistency (hence, regarded on another side, to lose in outward extent or outward bulk, to shrink; to go back to its original or essential condition; to issue in something as the final result; or generally, to draw back or return from a distance), and h>\ to attach one's self or accustom one's self to a person or thing, equiva-
Thia is followed by a scries of predicates of God the Ruler of the universe. Vers. 23, 24. " He ivho giveth up rulers to annihilation; maketh judges of the earth like a desolation. They arc hardly planted, hardly sown, their stem has hardly taken root in the earth, and Tie only bloivs upon them, and they dry up, and the storm carries them away like stubble." There is nothing so high and inaccessible in the world, that He cannot bring it to nothing, even in the midst of its most self-confident and threatening exaltation. Roz'mm are solemn persons, aefivol, possessors of the greatest distinction and influence (vol. i. p. 207); shdphetim, those who combine in themselves the highest judicial and administrative power. The former He gives up to annihilation; the latter He brings into a condition resembling the negative state of the tohu out of which the world was produced, and to which it can be reduced again. We are reminded here of such descriptions as Job xii. 17, 24 (p. 135). The suddenness of the catastrophe is depicted in ver. 24.?3 *|K (which only occurs here), when followed by DJ1 in the apodosis (cf. 2 Kings xx. 4), signifies that even this has not yet taken place when the other also occurs: hence vixdum plantati sunt, etc. The niphal V&) and the pual V}f denote the hopeful commencement; the poel VFW the hopeful continuation. A layer or seed excites the hope of blossom and fruit, more especially when it has taken root; but nothing more is needed than a breath of Jehovah, and it is all over with it (the verb ndshaph is used in this verse, where plants with stems are referred to; a verb with a softer labial, ndshabh, was employed above in connection with grass and flowers). A single withering breath lays them at rest; and by the power of Jehovah there rises a stormy wind, which carries them away like light dry stubble (Nb'J; compare, on the other hand, the verb used in ver. 15, viz. till = natal, to lift up, to keep in the air).
lent to alifa and anisa; to take up one's abode in a place, or absolutely, to commence housekeeping by marrying, like the Italian accasarsi, Turkish ewlenmek (from ew, a house); or, when applied to a place itself, to be habitable, inhabited, and cultivated (= pass, uhila, more especially in the participle ahil,='amir = mdmur). Hence ahl, one who belongs to a person or place, with its numerous applications, and also ^HN, a tent (primarily a dwelling generally, Engl, abode), which stands at the end of this etymological series.
The thought of ver. 18 now recurs like a refrain, a conclusion being appended to the premises by means of % as was the case there. Ver. 25. "And to whom will ye compare mey to whom I can be equal? saith the Holy One." Not hagqddosh, because a poetical or oratorical style omits the article wherever it can be dispensed with. The Holy One asks this, and can ask it, because as such He is also exalted above the whole world (Job xv. 15, xxv. 5).
After the questions in vers. 18 and 25, which close syllogistically, a third start is made, to demonstrate the incomparable nature of Jehovah. Ver. 26. " Lift up your eyes on high, and see: who hath created these things? It is He who bringeth out their host by number, calleth them all by names, because of the greatness of (His) might, and as being strong in power: there is not one that is missing" Jehovah spoke in ver. 25; now the prophet speaks again. We have here the same interchange which occurs in every prophetic book from Deuteronomy downwards, and in which the divine fulness of the prophets is displayed. The answer does not begin with N^^L1, in the sense of " He who brings them out has created them;" but the participle is the predicate to the subject of which the prophet's soul is full: Jehovah, it is He who brings out the army of stars upon the plane of heaven, as a general leads out his army upon the field of battle, and that bemispdr, by number, counting the innumerable stars, those children of light in armour of light, which meet the eye as it looks up by night. The finite verb *Oj?* denotes that which takes place every night. He calls them all by name (comp. the derivative passage, Ps. cxlvii. 4): this He does on account of the greatness and fulness of His might (^onlm, vires, virtus), and as strong in power, i.e. because He is so. This explanation is simpler than Ewald's (§ 293, c), viz. " because of the power (to uparephv) of the Strong One." The call addressed to the stars that are to rise is the call of the Almighty, and therefore not one of all the innumerable host remains behind. B^K individualizes; "nyj (participle), as in ch. xxxiv.. 16, suggests the idea of a sheep that is missed from the flock through staying behind. The second part of the address closes here, having demonstrated the folly of idolatry from the infinite superiority of God; and from this the third part deduces consolation for Israel in the midst of its despair.
Such of the Israelites as require first of all to be brought to a consciousness of the folly of idolatry are not called Israel at all, because they place themselves on a par with the goylm. But now the prophet addresses those of little faith, who nevertheless desire salvation; those who are cast down, but not in utter despair. Ver. 27. " Why say est thou, 0 Jacob, and speakest, 0 Israel, My way is hidden from Jehovah, and my right is overlooked by my God?" The name Jacob stands here at the head, as in ch. xxix. 22, as being the more exquisite name, and the one which more immediately recalled their patriarchal ancestor. They fancied that Jehovah had completely turned away from them in wrath and weariness. " My way" refers to their thorny way of life; " my right" (rnishpdti) to their good right, in opposition to their oppressors. Of all this He appeared to take no notice at all. He seemed to have no thought of vindicating it judicially (on the double min, away from him, see Ges. § 154, 3, c).
The groundlessness of such despondency is set before them in a double question. Ver. 28. " Is it not known to thee, or hast thou not heard, an eternal God is Jehovah, Creator of the ends of the earth: He faiuteth not, neither becomes weary; His understanding is unsearchable" Those who are so desponding ought to know, if not from their own experience, at least from information that had been handed down, that Jehovah, who created the earth from one end to the other, so that even Babylonia was not beyond the range of His vision or the domain of His power, was an eternal God, i.e. a God eternally the same and never varying, who still possessed and manifested the power which He had displayed in the creation. Israel had already passed through a long history, and Jehovah had presided over this, and ruled within it; and He had not so lost His power in consequence, as to have now left His people to themselves. He does not grow faint, as a man would do, who neglected to take the repeated nourishment requisite to sustain the energy of his vital power; nor does He become weary, like a man who has exhausted his capacity for work by over-exertion. And if He had not redeemed His people till then, His people were to know that His course was pure tfbliundh or understanding, which was in the possession of infallible criteria for determining the right point of time at which to interpose with His aid.
Jehovah is so far from becoming faint, that it is He who gives strength to the fainting. Ver. 29. " Giving power to the faint, and to the incapable He giveth strength in abundance" m\& P*6 is equivalent to WlH P« 155*6; f« is used exactly like a privative to form a negative adjective (e.g. Ps. lxxxviii. 5; Prov. xxv. 3).
Faith is all that is needed to ensure a participation in the strength (p®XV after the form •""?"??)> which He so richly bestows and so powerfully enhances. Vers. 30, 31. "And youths grow faint and weary, and young men suffer a fall. But they who wait for Jehovah gain fresh strength; lift up their icings like eagles; run, and are not weary; go forward, and do not faint." Even youths, even young men in the early bloom of their morning of life (bachurim, youths, from "inn, related to "133, 133), succumb to the effects of the loss of sustenance or over-exertion (both futures are defective, the first letter being dropped), and any outward obstacle is sufficient to cause them to fall («H??3 with inf. abs. leal, which retains what has been stated for contemplation, according to Ges. § 131, 3, Anm. 2). In ver. 30a the verb stands first, ver. 30 being like a concessive clause in relation to ver. 31. " Even though this may happen, it is different with those who wait for Jehovah," i.e. those who believe in Him; for the Old Testament applies to faith a number of synonyms denoting trust, hope, and longing, and thus describes it according to its inmost nature, asfiducia and as hope, directed to the manifestation and completion of that which is hoped for. The Vav cop. introduces the antithesis, as in ver. 8. CT?!"!'"!, to cause one to pursue, or new to take the place of the old (Lat. recentare). The expression '131 W is supposed by early translators, after the Sept., Targ. Jer., and Saad., to refer to the moulting of the eagle and the growth of the new feathers, which we meet witli in Ps. ciii. 5 (cf. Mic. i. 16) as a figurative representation of the renewal of youth through grace. But Hitzig correctly observes that r6yn is never met with as the causative of the hal used in ch. v. 6, and moreover that it would require nvij instead of "OK. The proper rendering therefore is, " they cause their wings to rise, or lift their wings high, like the eagles" ('ebher as in Ps. lv. 7). Their course of life, which has Jehovah for its object, is as it were possessed of wings. They draw from Him strength upon strength (see Ps. lxxxiv. 8); running does not tire them, nor do they become faint from going ever further and further.
The first address, consisting of three parts (vers. 1-11, 12-26, 27-31), is here brought to a close.