Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Jehovah comes forward here, and speaking in the tone in which He already began to speak in ch. xl. 25, invites the idolatrous nations to contend with Him, declares the raising up of the conqueror from the east to be His work, and adduces this as the sign that He has been the Author and Guider of the world's history from the beginning. But what if the question should be asked on the part of the nations, With what right does He do this? The acts of the conqueror prove themselves to be a work of the God who is exalted above the idols, from the fact that they bring destruction to the idolatrous nations, and to the people of Jehovah the long-desired redemption. It is in this that the conclusiveness of the illustration lies. The argument, however, presupposes that Cyrus has already entered upon his victorious course. It is evident at the outset that future events, or events still unfulfilled, would have no force as present proofs. And the words also clearly imply, that the work which Jehovah attributes to Himself, in opposition to the gods of the nations, is already in progress.

Yer. 1. Summons to the contest: " Be silent to me, ye islands; and let the nations procure fresh strength: let them come near, then speak; we will enter into contest together" The words are addressed to the whole of the heathen world, and first of all to the inhabitants of the western islands and coasts. This was the expression commonly employed in the Old Testament to designate the continent of Europe, the solid ground of which is so deeply cut, and so broken up, by seas and lakes, that it looks as if it were about to resolve itself into nothing but islands and peninsulas.?N ^IP?. is a pregnant expression for turning in silence towards a person; just as in Job xiii. 13 it is used with min9 in the sense of forsaking a person in silence. That they may have no excuse if they are defeated, they are to put on fresh strength; just as in ch. xl. 31 believers are spoken of as drawing fresh strength out of Jehovah's fulness. They are to draw near, then speak, i.e. to reply after hearing the evidence, for Jehovah desires to go through all the forms of a legal process with them in pro et contra. The mishpdt is thought of here in a local sense, as a forum or tribunal. But if Jehovah is one party to the cause, who is the judge to pronounce the decision? The answer to this question is the same as at ch. v. 3. " The nations," says Rosenmtiller, " are called to judgment, not to the tribunal of God, but to that of reason." The deciding authority is reason, which cannot fail to recognise the facts, and the consequences to be deduced from them.

The parties invited are now to be thought of as present, and Jehovah commences in ver. 2: " Who hath raised up the man from the rising of the sun, whom justice meets at his foot, He giveth up nations before him, and kings He subdues, giveth men like the dust to his sivord, and like driven stubble to his boiv?" The sentence governed by "who" (ml) ends at leraglo (at his foot); at the same time, all that follows is spoken with the echo of the interrogative accent. The person raised up is Cyrus, who is afterwards mentioned by name. The coming one (if, that is to say, we adhere to the belief in Isaiah's authorship of these addresses) first approaches gradually within the horizon of the prophet's ideal present; and it is only little by little that the prophet becomes more intimately acquainted with a phenomenon which belongs to so distant a future, and has been brought so close to his own eyes. Jehovah has raised up the new great hero " from the east" (mimmizrdch), and, according to ver. 25, " from the north" also. Both of these were fulfilled; for Cyrus was a Persian belonging to the clan of Achagmenes (Hakhdmanis), which stood at the head of the tribe, or of the Pasargadse. He was the son of Cambyses; and even if the Median princess Mandane were not his mother, yet, according to nearly all the ancient accounts, he was connected with the royal house of Media; at any rate, after Astyages was dethroned, he became head and chief of the Medes as well as of the Persians (hence the name of " Mule" which was given to him by the oracle, and that given by Jerome, " agitator biga?"). Now Media was to the north of Babylonia, and Persia to the east; so that his victorious march, in which, even before the conquest of Babylon, he subjugated all the lands from the heights of Hinduku to the shores of the ^Egean Sea, had for its starting-point both the east and north.1 The clause i?r)p VlgnjP p"TO is an attributive clause, and as such a virtual object: " him whom (supply TESTIS) justice comes to meet (N"}P — nnjj, Ges. § 75, vi.) on his track" (cf. Gen. xxx. 30; Job xviii. 11; Hab. iii. 5). The idea of tsedeq is determined by what follows: Jehovah gives up nations before him, and causes kings to be trodden down (causative of rdddh). Accordingly, tsedeq is either to be understood here in an attributive sense, as denoting the justice exercised by a person (viz. the justice executed successfully by Cyrus, as the instrument of Jehovah, by the force of arms); or objectively of the justice awarded to a person (to which the idea of " meeting" is more appropriate), viz. the favourable result, the victory which procures justice for the just cause of the combatant. Rosenmuller, Knobel, and others, are wrong in maintaining that tsedeq (tseddqdh) in ch. xl.-lxvi. signifies primarily justice, and then prosperity and salvation as its reward. The word means straightness, justice, righteousness, and nothing more (from tsddaq, to be hard, firm, extended, straight, e.g. rumh-un-tsadq, sl hard, firm, and straight lance); but it has a double aspect, because justice consists, according to circumstances, of either wrath or favour, and therefore has sometimes the idea of the strict execution of justice, as in this instance, sometimes of a manifestation of justice in fidelity to promises, as in ver. 10. I^ is repeated here in ver. 2 (just like imnOT in ch. xl. 14) with the same subject, but in a different sense. To make sword and bow the subject, in the sense of " his sword gives (sc. i the foe ')," is a doubtful thing in itself; and as cherebh and qesheth are feminines, it is by no means advisable. Moreover, in other instances, the comparative 3 leaves it to the reader to carry out the figure indicated according to his own fancy. And this is the case here: He (Jehovah) makes his sword as if there were dust, his bow as if there were hunted stubble (Bottcher), i.e. pounding the enemy like dust, and hunting it like flying stubble. Our text has 1S$?3, but in certain codices we find "^iQ with tzere; and this reading, which is 1 See Pahle's Geschichte des Oriental. Alterthums. (1864), p. 170 sqq.

contrary to rule, has in its favour the express testimony of Moses the punctuator.1

The conqueror is now still further described in futures, which might be defined by "l*yn, and so express a simultaneous past (synchronistic imperfects), but which it is safer to take as standing traits in the picture drawn of the conqueror referred to. Ver. 8. " He pursueth them, and marcheth in peace by a course which he never trod with his feetV He marches victoriously further and further, " shdlom," Le. " in safety" (or, as an adjective, safely; Job xxi. 9), without any one being able to do him harm, by a course (accus. Ges. § 138, 1) which he has not been accustomed to tread with his feet (ingredi).

The great fact of the present time, which not one of the gods of the heathen can boast of having brought to pass, is now explained. Jehovah is its author. Ver. 4. u Who hath wrought and executed it? He who calleth the generations of men from the beginning j I Jehovah am first, and with the last am I He." The synonyms?VB and ntry are distinguished from each other in the same way as " to work" (or bring about) and " to realize" (or carry out). Hence the meaning is, Who is the author to whom both the origin and progress of such an occurrence are to be referred I It is He who " from the beginning," i.e, ever since there has been a human history, has called into existence the generations of men through His authoritative command. And this is no other than Jehovah, who can declare of Himself, in contrast with the heathen and their gods, who are of yesterday, and to-morrow will not be: I am Jehovah, the very first, whose being precedes all history; and with the men of the latest generations yet to come " I am it." ton is not introduced here to strengthen the subject, ego Me (" I and no other," as in ch. xxxvii. 16, which see); but, as in ch. xliii. 10, 13, xlvi. 4, xlviii. 12, it is a predicate of the substantive clause, ego sum is (Me), viz. 'Eldhim; or even as in Ps. cii. 28 (cf. Job iii. 19 and Heb. xiii. 8), ego sum idem (Hitzig). They are both included, without any distinction in the assertion. He is this, viz. God throughout all ages, and is through all ages He, i.e, the Being who is ever the same in this His deity. It is the full meaning of the name Jehovah which is unfolded here; for God is called

1 In his fci^p:n '•ail (rules of pointing), with which the Masora fnalis is surrounded.

Jehovah as the absolute I, the absolutely free Being, pervading all history, and yet above all history, as He who is Lord of His own absolute being, in revealing which He is purely self-determined; In a word, as the unconditionally free and unchangeably eternal personality.

In the following verse we have not a description of the impression made upon the heathen by the argument of Jehovah, but the argument itself is continued. Ver. 5. " Islands have seen it, and shuddered; the ends of the earth trembled; they have approached, and drawn near" We have here a description of the effects which the victorious course of Cyrus had begun to produce in the heathen world. The perfects denote the past, and the futures a simultaneous past; so that we have not to compare ver. 5a with Hab. iii. 10 so much as with Ps. Ixxvii. 17. The play upon the words wyjj • • • ^ pairs together both seeing and fearing. The Cuma3ans, when consulting the oracle, commenced thus: rj/jbels Se ^et^aivovre^ ttjv Uepaecov Bvva/juv. The perfect with the aorist following in ver. 5b places the following picture upon the stage: They have approached and drawn near (from all directions) to meet the threatening danger; and how? Vers. 6, 7. " One helped his companion, and lie said to his brother, Only firm! The caster put firmness into the melter, the hammer-smoother into the anvil-smiter, saying of the soldering, It is good; and made him firm with nails, that he should not shake" Him, viz. the idol. Everything is in confusion, from the terror that prevails; and the gods from which they expect deliverance are not made till now, the workmen stimulating one another to work. The char ash, who casts the image, encourages the tsoreph, whose task it is to provide it with the plating of gold and silver chains (ch. xl. 19), to work more bravely; and the man who smooths with the hammer (pattish, instrumentalis) does the same to the man who smites the anvil (D?in with seghol, whereas in other cases, e.g. Ezek. xxii. 25, the tone generally gives way without any change in the vowelpointing). The latter finds the soldering all right, by which the gold plates of the covering are fastened together, so as to give to the golden idol a massive appearance. He is the last into whose hands it comes; and nothing more is wanting, than that he should forge upon the anvil the nails with which it is fastened, to prevent it from falling. To such foolish, fruitless proceedings have the nations resorted when threatened with subjugation by Cyrus.

The proof adduced by Jehovah of His own deity closes here. But instead of our hearing whether the nations, with which He has entered upon the contest, have any reply to make, the address turns to Israel, upon which deliverance dawns from that very quarter, from which the others are threatened with destruction. Vers. 8-10. u And thou, Israel my servant, Jacob whom 1 have chosen, seed of Abraham my friend, thou whom 1 have laid hold of from the ends of the earth, and called from the corners thereof, and said to thee, Thou art my servant, I have chosen and not despised thee; fear thou not, for I am vnth thee; be not afraid, for I am thy God: I have chosen thee, I also help thee, I also hold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." The \ before nrisi connects together antitheses, which show themselves at once to be antitheses. Whereas the nations, which put their trust in idols that they themselves had made, were thrown into alarm, and yielded before the world-wide commotions that had originated with the eastern conqueror, Israel, the nation of Jehovah, might take comfort to itself. Every word here breathes the deepest affection. The address moves on in soft undulating lines. The repetition of the suffix % with which 1BW forms a relative of the second person, for which we have no equivalent in our language (Ges. § 123, Anm. 1), gives to the address a pressing, clinging, and, as it were, loving key-note. The reason, which precedes the comforting assurance in ver. 10, recals the intimate relation in which Jehovah had placed Himself towards Israel, and Israel towards Himself. The leading thought, " servant of Jehovah," which is characteristic of ch. xl.-xlvi., and lies at the root of the whole spirit of these addresses, more especially of their Christology, we first meet with here, and that in a popular sense. It has both an objective and a subjective side. On the one hand, Israel is the servant of Jehovah by virtue of a divine act; and this act, viz. its election and call, was an act of pure grace, and was not to be traced, as the expression " I have chosen and not despised thee" indicates, to any superior excellence or merit on the part of Israel. On the contrary, Israel was so obscure that Jehovah might have despised it; nevertheless He had anticipated it in free unmerited love with this stamp of the character indelibilis of a servant of Jehovah. On the other hand, Israel was the servant of Jehovah, inasmuch as it acted out what Jehovah had made it, partly in reverential worship of this God, and partly in active obedience. 'miK "DJJ, i.e. "serving Jehovah," includes both liturgical service (also "ny absolutely, ch. xix. 23) and the service of works. The divine act of choosing and calling is dated from Abraham. From a Palestinian point of view, Ur of Chaldaea, within the old kingdom of Nimrod, and Haran in northern Mesopotamia, seemed like the ends and corners of the earth ('dtsilim, remote places, from 'dtsal, to put aside or apart). Israel and the land of Israel were so inseparably connected, that whenever the origin of Israel was spoken of, the point of view could only be taken in Palestine. To the far distant land of the Tigris and Euphrates had Jehovah gone to fetch Abraham, " the friend of God" (Jas. ii. 23), who is called in the East even to the present day, chalil ollah, the friend of God. This calling of Abraham was the furthest terminus a quo of the existence of Israel as the covenant nation; for the leading of Abraham was providentially appointed with reference to the rise of Israel as a nation. The latter was pre-existent in him by virtue of the counsel of God. And when Jehovah adopted Abraham as His servant, and called him " my servant" (Gen. xxvi. 24), Israel, the nation that was coming into existence in Abraham, received both the essence and name of a " servant of Jehovah." Inasmuch then as, on looking back to its past history, it could not fail to perceive that it was so thoroughly a creation of divine power and grace, it ought not to be fearful, and look about with timidity and anxiety; for He who had presented Himself at the very beginning as its God, was still always near. The question arises, in connection with the word spflVBK, whether it means to strengthen (ch. xxxv. 3; Ps. lxxxix. 22), or to lay firm hold of, to attach firmly to one's self, to choose. We decide in favour of the latter meaning, which is established by ch. xliv. 14, cf. Ps. lxxx. 16, 18. The other perfects affirm what Jehovah has ever done, and still continues to do. In the expression " by the right hand of my righteousness," the justice or righteousness is regarded pre-eminently on its brighter side, the side turned towards Israel; but it is also regarded on its fiery side, or the side turned towards the enemies of Israel. It is the righteousness which aids the oppressed congregation against its oppressors. The repeated *)** heaps one synonym upon another, expressive of the divine love; for \ simply connects, D3 appends, *]$> heaps up (cumulat). Language is too contracted to hold all the fulness of the divine love; and for this reason the latter could not find words enough to express all that it desired.

With the exclamation hen (behold) the eyes of Israel are now directed to the saving interposition of Jehovah in the immediate future. Vers. 11-13. "Behold, all they that were incensed against thee must be ashamed and confounded; the men of thy conflict become as nothing, and perish. Thou wilt seek them, and not find them, the men of thy feuds; the men of thy warfare become as nothing, and nonentity. For I, Jehovah thy God, lay hold of thy right hand, He who saith to thee, Fear not; I will help thee." The comprehensive expression omnes inflammati in te (niphal, as in ch. xlv. 24) stands at the head; and then, in order that every kind may be included, the enemies are called by a different name every time. The three substantives bear much the same relation to one another as Us, rixa, helium (milchdmdh, lit. throng = war-tumult, like the epic kXovos), hence adcersarii, inimici, hostes. The suffixes have the force of objective genitives. We have founded our translation upon the reading T^^?. The three names of the enemies are placed emphatically at the close of the sentences, and these are long drawn out, whilst the indignation gives vent to itself; whereas in ver. 13 there follows nothing but short sentences, in which the persecuted church is encouraged and affectionately embraced. Two clauses, which are made to rhyme with em, announce the utter destruction of their foes; then the inflective rhyme eklia is repeated five times; and the sixth time it passes over into llcha.

The consolatory words, " Fear not," are now repeated, for the purpose of once more adding the promise that Israel will not succumb to its foes, but will acquire power over its enemies. Vers. 14-16. "Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and handful Israel: I will help thee, saith Jehovah; and thy Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I have made thee a threshing roller, a sharp new one, with double edges: thou ivilt thresh mountains, and pound them; and hills thou wilt make like chaff. Thou will winnow them, and wind carries them away, and tempest scatters them: and thou wilt rejoice in Jehovah, and glory in the Holy One of Israel." Israel, which is now helplessly oppressed, is called "worm of Jacob" (gen. appos.) in compassion, i.e. Jacob that is like a worm, probably with some allusion to Ps. xxii. 7; for the image of the Messiah enriches itself in these discourses, inasmuch as Israel itself is looked upon in a Messianic light, so that the second David does not stand by the side of Israel, but appears as Israel's heart, or true and inmost essence. The people are then addressed as the " people of Israel," with some allusion to the phrase "isplp Tid {i.e. few men, easily numbered) in Gen. xxxiv. 30, Deut. iv. 27 (LXX. oXvyoarbs 'IaparjX; Luther, Ir armer hauffe Israel, ye poor crowd of Israel). They no longer formed the compact mass of a nation; the band of the commonwealth was broken: they were melted down into a few individuals, scattered about hither and thither. But it would not continue so. " I help thee " (perfect of certainty) is Jehovah's solemn declaration; and the Redeemer (redemtor, Lev. xxv. 48, 49) of His now enslaved people is the Holy One of Israel, with His love, which perpetually triumphs over wrath. Not only will He set it free, but He wTill also endow it with might over its oppressors; samtikh is a perfect of assurance (Ges. § 126, 4); morag (roller) signifies a threshing-sledge (Arab, naureg, noreg), which has here the term p"1? (cn« xxviii. 27) as a secondary name along with B*"jn, and is described as furnished on the under part of the two arms of the sledge not only with sharp knives, but with two-edged knives (HW2 a reduplication, like nNDKD in ch. xxvii. 8, whereas W® is a double plural). Just like such a threshing machine would Israel thresh and grind to powder from that time forth both mountains and hills. This is evidently a figurative expression for proud and mighty foes, just as wind and tempest denote the irresistible force of Jehovah's aid. The might of the enemy would be broken down to the very last remnant, whereas Israel would be able to rejoice and glory in its God.

At the present time, indeed, the state of His people was a helpless one, but its cry for help was not in vain. Vers. 17-20. " The poor and needy, who seek for water and there is none, their tongue faints for thirst. I Jehovah will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I open streams upon hills of the field, and springs in the midst of valleys; 1 make the desert into a pond) and dry land into fountains of water. I give in the desert cedars, acacias, and myrtles, and oleasters; I set in the steppe cypresses, plane-trees, and sherbin-trees together, that they may see, and know, and lay to heart and understand all together, that the hand of Jehovah hath accomplished this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it? Kimchi, Hitzig, and others refer these promises to the returning exiles; but there is also a description, without any restriction to the return home, of the miraculous change which would take place in the now comfortless and helpless condition of the exiles. The shephdyim, i.e. bare, woodless hills rising up from the plain, Jer. xii. 12, the beqdroth, or deep valleys, by the sides of which there rise precipitous mountains, and the 'erets tsiyydh, the land of burning heat or drought (cf. Ps. lxiii. 2), depict the homeless condition of Israel, as it wandered over bald heights and through waterless plains about a land with parched and gaping soil. For the characteristics of the object, which is placed before WVK, we may therefore compare such passages as ch. xliv. 3, lv. 1. nwj is either a pausal form for ""^J, and therefore the niphal of nnty (to set, become shallow, dry up), or a pausal form for nwj, and therefore the kal of Ji$3 with dagesh affectuosum, like tini'in Ezek. xxvii. 19 (Olshausen, § 83, b). The form rmm in Jer. li. 30 may just as well be derived fit>m rint? (Ges. § 67, Anm. 11) as from HBO, whereas ttitsfa may certainly be taken as the niphal of AW" after the form?£>}, "in J (Ges. § 67, Anm. 5), though it would be safer to refer it to a kal ftW), which seems to be also favoured by l^W in Jer. xviii. 14 as a transposition of V)B>3\ The root 8M, of which HtM would be a further expansion, really exhibits the meaning to dry up or thirst, in the Arabic nassa; whereas the verbs $tf, £;JN, DDJ (ch. x. 18), HBO, Syr. nas, nos, Arab, ndsa, nasnasa, with the primary meaning to slacken, lose their hold, and N^J, n^j, ypj, to deceive, derange, and advance, form separate families. Just when they are thus on the point of pining away, they receive an answer to their prayer: their God opens streams, i.e. causes streams to break forth on the hills of the field, and springs in the midst of the valleys. The desert is transformed into a lake, and the steppe of burning sand into fountains of water. What was predicted in ch. xxxv. 6, 7 is echoed again here, — a figurative representation of the manifold fulness of refreshing, consolation, and marvellous help which was to burst all at once upon those who were apparently forsaken of God What is depicted in vers. 19, 20, is the effect of these. It is not merely a scanty vegetation that springs up, but a corresponding manifold fulness of stately, fragrant, and shady trees; so that the steppe, where neither foot nor eye could find a resting-place, is changed, as by a stroke of magic, into a large, dense, wellwatered forest, and shines with sevenfold glory, — an image of the many-sided manifestations of divine grace which are experienced by those who are comforted now. Isaiah is especially fond of such figures as these (yid. ch. v. 7, vi. 13, xxvii. 6, xxxvii. 31). There are seven (4 -f 3) trees named; seven indicating the divine character of this manifold development (Psychol, p. 188). 'Erez is the generic name for the cedar; shittdh, the acacia, the Egyptian spina (a/cav6a), Copt. shont; hddas, the myrtle; rets shemen, the wild olive, as distinguished from zayith (rj aypiekaios, opposed to tj iXaia in Rom. xi. 17); berosh, the cypress, at any rate more especially this; tidhdr we have rendered the " plane-tree," after Saad.; and fasshur the (i sherbin " (a kind of cedar), after Saad. and Syr. The crowded synonyms indicating sensual and spiritual perception in ver. 20a (^^, sc. D3?, ver. 22) are meant to express as strongly as possible the irresistible character of the impression. They will be quite unable to regard all this as accidental or self-produced, or as anything but the production of the power and grace of their God.

There follows now the second stage in the suit. Vers. 21-23. " Bring hither your cause, saith Jehovah; bring forward your pi'oofs, saith the king of Jacob. Let them biding forward, and make known to us what will happen: make known the beginning, what it is, and we will fix our heart upon it, and take knowledge of its issue; or let us hear what is to come. Make known what is coming later, and we will acknowledge that ye are gods: yea, do good, and do evil, and we will measure ourselves, and see together? In the first stage Jehovah appealed, in support of His deity, to the fact that it was He who had called the oppressor of the nations upon the arena of history. In this second stage He appeals to the fact that He only knows or can predict the future. There the challenge was addressed to the worshippers of idols, here to the idols themselves; but in both cases both of these are ranged on the one side, and Jehovah with His people upon the other. It is with purpose that Jehovah is called the " King of Jacob," as being the tutelar God of Israel, in contrast to the tutelar deities of the heathen. The challenge to the latter to establish their deity is first of all addressed to them directly in ver. 21, and then indirectly in ver. 22a, where Jehovah connects Himself with His people as the opposing party; but in ver. 22b He returns again to a direct address. nSDXV are evidences (lit. robora, cf. o^vpco/xara, 2 Cor. x. 4, from tOT, to be strong or stringent; mishn. B¥yro? to contend with one another pro et contra); here it signifies proofs that they can foresee the future. Jehovah for His part has displayed this knowledge, inasmuch as, at the very time when He threatened destruction to the heathen at the hands of Cyrus, He consoled His people with the announcement of their deliverance (vers. 8-20). It is therefore the turn of the idol deities now: " Let them bring forward and announce to us the things that will come to pass." The general idea of what is in the future stands at the head. Then within this the choice is given them of proving their foreknowledge of what is afterwards to happen, by announcing either rnlSWO, or even rriN3. These two ideas, therefore, are generic terms within the range of the things that are to happen. Consequently rm&'Kin cannot mean " earlier predictions," prius prcedicta, as Hitzig, Knobel, and others suppose. This explanation is precluded in the present instance by the logic of the context. Both ideas lie upon the one line of the future; the one being more immediate, the other more remote, or as the expression alternating with nixnn implies "linsp rris)li<n? ventura in posterum (" in later times," compare ch. xlii. 23, " at a later period; " from the participle nnk, radical form *nk, vid. Ges. § 75, Anm. 5, probably to distinguish it from rrinx). This is the explanation adopted by Stier and Hahn, the latter of whom has correctly expounded the word, as denoting " the events about to happen first in the immediate future, which it is not so difficult to prognosticate from signs that are discernible in the present." The choice is given them, either to foretell " things at the beginning " (Jiaggldu in our editions is erroneously pointed with kadma instead of geresh), i.e. that which will take place first or next, "ichat they le" (qua? et qualia sint), so that now, when the acharith, " the latter end " {i.e. the issue of that which is held out to view), as prognosticated from the standpoint of the present, really occurs, the prophetic utterance concerning it may be verified; or " things to come," i.e. things further off, in later times (in the remote future), the prediction of which is incomparably more difficult, because without any point of contact in the present. They are to choose which they like (itf from HJtf, like vel from velle): " ye do good, and do evil," i.e. (according to the proverbial use of the phrase; cf. Zeph. i. 12 and Jer. x. 5) only express yourselves in some way; come forward, and do either the one or the other. The meaning is, not that they are to stir themselves and predict either good or evil, but they are to show some sign of life, no matter what. " And we will measure ourselves (i.e. look one another in the face, testing and measuring), and see together," viz. what the result of the contest will be. njntfn like n&onn in 2 Kings xiv. 8, 11, with a cohortative ah, which is rarely met with in connection with verbs n"b, and the tone upon the penultimate, the ah being attached without tone to the voluntative JJWJ in ver. 5 (Ewald, § 228, c). For the chethib nt031? the keri has the voluntative KT31.

Jehovah has thus placed Himself in opposition to the heathen and their gods, as the God of history and prophecy. It now remains to be seen whether the idols will speak, to prove their deity. By no means; not only are they silent, but they cannot speak. Therefore Jehovah breaks out into words of wrath and contempt. Ver. 24. u Behold, ye are of nothing, and your doing of nought: an abomination whoever chooseth you." The two |» are partitive, as in ch. xl. 17; and ys*J» is not an error of the pen for DDXO, as Gesenius and others suppose, but ysx from y?>i< = ns (from which comes ns), nys? ch. xlii. 14 (from which comes nys«, ch. lix. 5), to breathe, stands as a synonym to |JK, fan, jrh. The attributive clause &J2 "inn* (supply "IKW wn) is a virtual subject (Ewald, § 333, b): ye and your doings are equally nil; and whoever chooses you for protectors, and makes you the objects of his worship, is morally the most degraded of beings.

The more conclusively and incontrovertibly, therefore, does Jehovah keep the field as the moulder of history and foreteller of the future, and therefore as God above all gods. Ver. 25.

" I have raised up from the north, and he came: from the rising of the sun one ivho invokes my name; and he treads upon satraps as mud, and like a potter kneadeth clayT The object of the verb halrothl (I have wakened up) is he who came when wakened up by Jehovah from the north and east, i.e. from Media and Persia (ris*5 = Iji&W for HfcjMj with evasion of the auxiliary pathach, Ges. § 76, 2, c), and, as the second clause affirms, who invokes or will invoke the name of Jehovah (at any rate, qui invocabit is the real meaning of qui invocat). For although the Zarathustrian religion, which Cyrus followed, was nearest to the Jehovah religion of all the systems of heathenism, it was a heathen religion after all. The doctrine of a great God (baga vazarka), the Creator of heaven and earth, and at the same time of a great number of Bagas and Yazatas, behind whose working and worship the great God was thrown into the shade, is (apart from the dualism condemned in ch. xlv. 7) the substance of the sacred writings of the Magi in our possession, as confirmed by the inscriptions of the Achemenides.1 But the awakened of Jehovah would, as is here predicted, " call with the name, or by means of the name, of Jehovah," which may mean either call upon this name (Zeph. iii. 9; Jer. x. 25), or call out the name (compare Ex. xxxiii. 19, xxxiv. 5, with Ex. xxxv. 30) in the manner in which he does make use of it in the edict setting the exiles free (Ezra i. 2). The verb N3J which follows (cf. ver. 2) designates him still further as a conqueror of nations; the verb construed with an accusative is used here, as is very frequently the case, in the sense of hostile attack. The word Sdgdn, which is met with first in Ezekiel — apart, that is to say, from the passage before us — may have owed its meaning in the Hebrew vocabulary to its similarity in sound to sokhen (ch. xxii. 15); at any rate, it is no doubt a Persian word, which became naturalized in the Hebrew (%coydvns in Athenseus, and Neo-Pers. sichne, a governor: see Ges. Thes.), though this comparison is by no means so certain2 as

2 Spiegel has the following remarks upon the subject: There is but very little probability in the etymologies which can be suggested for the word sdgan through the help of the old Persian. The new Persian shihne cannot be traced beyond Neo-Persian, and even there it is somewhat suspicious on account of the -. which it contains, and which is not Persian. The only that craT/oa7T7;? is the same as the Ksatrapdvan of the inscriptions, i.e. protector of the kingdom.1 Without at all overlooking the fact that this word segdnvm, so far as it can really be supposed to be a Persian word, favours the later composition of this portion of the book of Isaiah, we cannot admit that it has any decisive weight, inasmuch as the Persian word pardis occurs even in the Song of Solomon. And the indications which might be found in the word segdnim unfavourable to Isaiah's authorship are abundantly counterbalanced by what immediately follows.

As ver. 25 points back to the first charge against the heathen and their gods (vers. 2-7), so vers. 26-28 point back to the second. Not only did Jehovah manifest Himself as the Universal Ruler in the waking up of Cyrus, but as the Omniscient Ruler also. Vers. 26-28. " Who hath made it known from the beginning, we will acknowledge it, and from former time, we will say He is in the right t! Yea, there was none that made known; yea, none that caused to hear; yea, none that heard your words. As the first I said to Zion, Behold, behold, there it is: and I bestow evangelists upon Jerusalem, And I looked, and there was no man; and of these there was no one answering whom I could ask, and who would give me an answer." If any one of the heathen deities had foretold this appearance of Cyrus so long before as at the very commencement of that course of history real Persian word to which I could think of tracing it is shahr, a city (old Bactrian khshathra, or shoithra, a place of abode); or it might possibly have sprung from shoithraka, a supposititious word, in the sense of governor of a district, but with the r changed into n (a change which only occurs in

Huzvaresh) and the & into,_. There are also difficulties in the comparison of the old Bactrian ganh, to say or express solemnly. An adjective ganhdna (expressing, commanding), formed from this verb, would be pronounced gahdna or even gdna in old Persian; and from this Sdgdn would have to be obtained, so that we should still want the n to take the place of the Gimel. At the same time, there is a still harsher form of the root ganh in the Gatha dialect, namely gak (not the same as the Sanskrit gak, to be strong, as Haug supposes), from which the Neo-Persian sachan, sachan, a word, is derived; so that it appears to have been also current in old Persian. Accordingly, the form gakdna may also have been used in the place of ganhdna, and this might suit in some degree for sdgdn.

which had thus reached its goal, Jehovah with His people, being thus taught by experience, would admit and acknowledge their divinity. B>N"iO is used in the same sense as in ch. xlviii. 16: and also in ch. xli. 4 and xl. 21, where it refers, according to the context in each case, to the beginning of the particular line of history. P^V signifies either " he is right," i.e. in the right (compare the Arabic siddik, genuine), or in a neuter sense, " it is right" (= true), i.e. the claim to divine honours is really founded upon divine performances. But there was not one who had proclaimed it, or who gave a single sound of himself; no one had heard anything of the kind from them. pK receives a retrospective character from the connection; and bearing this in mind, the participles may be also resolved into imperfects. The repeated *|N, passing beyond what is set down as possible, declares the reality of the very opposite. What Jehovah thus proves the idols to want, He can lay claim to for Himself. In ver. 27 we need not assume that there is any hyperbaton, as Louis de Dieu, Rosenmuller, and others have done: " I first will give to Zion and Jerusalem one bringing glad tidings: behold, behold them." After what has gone before in ver. 26 we may easily supply ^1^^, " I said," in ver. 27a (compare ch. viii. 19, xiv. 16, xxvii. 2), not "i£M? for the whole comparison drawn by Jehovah between Himself and the idols is retrospective, and looks back from the fulfilment in progress to the prophecies relating to it. The only reply that we can look for to the question in ver. 26 is not, "I on the contrary do it," but " I did it." At the same time, the rendering is a correct one: " Behold, behold them" (ilia; for the neuter use of the masculine, compare ch. xlviii. 3, xxxviii. 16, xlv. 8). "As the first," Jehovah replies (i.e. without any one anticipating me), " have I spoken to Zion: behold, behold, there it is," pointing with the finger of prophecy to the coming salvation, which is here regarded as present; "and I gave to Jerusalem messengers of joy;" i.e. long ago, before what is now approaching could be known by any one, I foretold to my church, through the medium of prophets, the glad tidings of the deliverance from Babylon. If the author of ch. xl.-lxvi. were a prophet of the captivity, his reference here would be to such prophecies as Isa. xL 11 (where Shinar is mentioned as a land of dispersion), and more especially still Mic. iv. 10,

" There in Babylon wilt thou be delivered, there will Jehovah redeem thee out of the hand of thine enemies;" but if Isaiah were the author, he is looking back from the ideal standpoint of the time of the captivity, and of Cyrus more especially, to his own prophecies before the captivity (such as ch. xiii. 1-xiv. 23, and xxi. 1-10), just as Ezekiel, when prophesying of Gog and Magog, looks back in ch. xxxviii. 17 from the ideal standpoint of this remote future, more especially to his own prophecies in relation to it. In that case the mebhasser, or evangelist, more especially referred to is the prophet himself (Grotius and Stier), namely, as being the foreteller of those prophets to whom the commission in ch. xl. 1, " Comfort ye, comfort ye," is addressed, and who are greeted in ch. lii. 7, 8 as the bearers of the joyful news of the existing fulfilment of the deliverance that has appeared, and therefore as the mebhasser or evangelist of the future Dn^OD. In any case, it follows from vers. 26, 27 that the overthrow of Babylon and the redemption of Israel had long before been proclaimed by Jehovah through His prophets; and if our exposition is correct so far, tho futures in ver. 28 are to be taken as imperfects: And I looked round (fr\|^1, a voluntative in the hypothetical protasis, Ges. § 128, 2), and there was no one (who announced anything of the kind); and of these (the idols) there was no adviser (with regard to the future, Num. xxiv. 14), and none whom I could ask, and who answered me (the questioner). Consequently, just as the raising up of Cyrus proclaimed the sole omnipotence of Jehovah, so did the fact that the deliverance of Zion- Jerusalem, for which the raising up of Cyrus prepared the way, had been predicted by Him long before, proclaim His sole omniscience.

This closing declaration of Jehovah terminates with similar words of wrath and contempt to those with which the judicial process ended in ver. 24. Ver. 29. " See them all, vanity; nothingness aw their productions, ivind and desolation their molten images." BAWD are not the works of the idols, but, as the parallel shows, the productions (plural, as in Ezjk. vi. 6, Jer. i. 16) of the idolaters, — in other words, the idols themselves, — a parallel expression to Bns3pJ (from?jD3, as in ch. xlviii. 5 = massekhdh, ch. xlii. 17). DS« |JK is an emotional asyndeton (Ges. § 155, 1, a). The address is thus rounded off by returning to the idolaters, with whom it first started. The first part, vers. 1-24, contains the judicial pleadings; the second part, vers. 25 sqq., recapitulates the evidence and the verdict.

THIRD PROPHECY.— Chap, xlii. 1-xliii. 13. THE MEDIATOR OF ISRAEL AND SAVIOUR OF THE GENTILES.

The hen (behold) in ch. xli. 29 is now followed by a second hen. With the former, Jehovah pronounced sentence upon the idolaters and their idols; with the latter, He introduces His " servant." In ch. xli. 8 this epithet was applied to the nation, which had been chosen as the servant and for the service of Jehovah. But the servant of Jehovah who is presented to us here is distinct from Israel, and has so strong an individuality and such marked personal features, that the expression cannot possibly be merely a personified collective. Nor can the prophet himself be intended; for what is here affirmed of this servant of Jehovah goes infinitely beyond anything to which a prophet was ever called, or of which a man was ever capable. It must therefore be the future Christ; and this is the view taken in the Targum, where the translation of our prophecy commences thus: " Hd* 'abhdi Meshichd\" Still there must be a connection between the national sense, in which the expression "servant of Jehovah " was used in ch. xli. 8, and the personal sense in which it is used here. The coming Saviour is not depicted as the Son of David, as in ch. vii.-xii., and elsewhere, but appears as the embodied idea of Israel, i.e, as its truth and reality embodied in one person. The idea of u the servant of Jehovah " assumed, to speak figuratively, the form of a pyramid. The base was Israel as a whole; the central section was that Israel, which was not merely Israel according to the flesh, but according to the spirit also; the apex is the person of the Mediator of salvation springing out of Israel. And the last of the three is regarded (1) as the centre of the circle of the promised kingdom— the second David; (2) the centre of the circle of the people of salvation — the second Israel; (3) the centre of the circle of the human race — the second Adam, Throughout the whole of these prophecies in ch. xl.— lxvi. the knowledge of salvation is still in its second stage, and about to pass into the third. Israel's true nature as a servant of God, which had its roots in the election and calling of Jehovah, and manifested itself in conduct and action in harmony with this calling, is all concentrated in Him, the One, as its ripest fruit. The gracious purposes of God towards the whole human race, which were manifested even in the election of Israel, are brought by Him to their full completion. Whilst judgments are inflicted upon the heathen by the oppressor of the nations, and display the nothingness of idolatry, the servant of Jehovah brings to them in a peaceful way the greatest of all blessings. Ver. 1. " Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, whom my soul loveth: I have laid my Spirit upon Him; He will bring out right to the Gentiles" We must not render the first clause u by whom I hold." Tdmahh by means to lay firm hold of and keep upright (sustinere). ^w nmn (supply in or in«, Job xxxiii. 26) is an attributive clause. The amplified subject extends as far as naphshi; then follows the predicate: I have endowed Him with my Spirit, and by virtue of this Spirit He will carry out mishpdt, i.e. absolute and therefore divine right, beyond the circle in which He Himself is to be found, even far away to the Gentiles. Mishpdt is the term employed here to denote true religion regarded on its practical side, as the rule and puthority for life in all its relations, i.e. religion as the law of life, vofio?.

The prophet then proceeds to describe how the servant of Jehovah will manifest Himself in the world outside Israel by the promulgation of this right. Ver. 2. " He will not cry, nor lift up, nor cause to be heard in the street, His voice." " His voice " is the object of u lift up," as well as " cause to be heard." With our existing division of the verse, it must at least be supplied in thought. Although he is certain of His divine call, and brings to the nations the highest and best, His manner of appearing is nevertheless quiet, gentle, and humble; the veiy opposite of those lying teachers, who endeavoured to exalt themselves by noisy demonstrations. He does not seek His own, and therefore denies Himself; He brings what commends itself, and therefore requires no forced trumpeting.

With this unassuming appearance there is associated a tender pastoral care. Ver. 3. " A bruised reed He does not break, and a glimmering wick He does not put out: according to truth He brings out right" " Bruised: " rdtsuts signifies here, as in ch. xxxvi. 6, what is cracked, and therefore half-broken already. Glimmering: keheh (a form indicative of defects, like "tt.y), that which is burning feebly, and very nearly extinguished. Tertullian understands by the " bruised reed " (arundinem contusam) the faith of Israel, and by the "glimmering wick" (linum ardens) the momentary zeal of the Gentiles. But the words hardly admit of this distinction; the reference is rather a general one, to those whose inner and outer life is only hanging by a slender thread. In the statement that in such a case as this He does not completely break or extinguish, there is more implied than is really expressed. Not only will He not destroy the life that is dying out, but He will actually save it; His course is not to destroy, but to save. If we explain the words that follow as meaning, " He will carry out right to truth," i.e. to its fullest efficacy and permanence (LXX. et? aXrfdeiav; instead of which we find et? vlkos, " unto victory," in Matt. xii. 20,1 as if the reading were nyj?, as in Hab. i. 4), the connection between the first and last clauses of ver. 3 is a very loose one. It becomes much closer if we take the 7 as indicating the standard, as in ch. xi. 3 and xxxii. 1, and adopt the rendering " according to truth " (Hitzig and Knobel). It is on its subjective and practical side that truth is referred to here, viz. as denoting such a knowledge, and acknowledgment of the true facts in the complicated affairs of men, as will promote both equity and kindness.

The figures in ver. 3a now lead to the thought that the servant of God will never be extinguished or become broken Himself. Ver. 4. " He will not become faint or broken, till He establish rigid upon earth, and the islands wait for His instruction." As nnpi (become faint) points back to nro nn^a (the faint or glimmering wick), so JTIJ must point back to yvn rup (the bruised or broken reed); it cannot therefore be derived from p") (to run) in the sense of " He will not be rash or impetuous, but execute His calling with wise moderation," as Hengstenberg supposes, but as in Eccles. xii. 6, from rVl = P^T (Ges. § 67, Anm. 9), in the neuter sense of infringetur (will break). His zeal will not be extinguished, nor will anything break His strength, till He shall have secured for right a firm standing on the earth (D"b^ is afut. ex. so far as the meaning is concerned, 1 "Ad victorlam enim Kpiow perducit qui ad veritatem perducit." — Axger.

like y?y in ell. x. 12). The question arises now, whether what follows is also governed by *W, in the sense of " and until the islands shall have believed his instruction," as Hitzig supposes; or whether it is an independent sentence, as rendered by the LXX. and in Matt. xii. 21. We prefer the latter, both because of ch. li. 5, and also because, although 'fl "\TO?n\ may certainly mean to exercise a believing confidence in the word of God (Ps. cxix. 74, 81), SmSrh *?n\ can only mean "to wait with longing for a person's instruction" (Job xxix. 23), and especially in this case, where no thought is more naturally suggested, than that the messenger to the Gentile world will be welcomed by a consciousness of need already existing in the heathen world itself. There is a gratia pra?para?is at work in the Gentile world, as these prophecies all presuppose, in perfect harmony with the Gospel of John, with which they have so much affinity; and it is an actual fact, that the cry for redemption runs through the whole human race, i.e. an earnest longing, the ultimate object of which, however unconsciously, is the servant of Jehovah and his instruction from Zion (ch. ii. 3), — in other words, the gospel.

The words of Jehovah are now addressed to His servant himself. He has not only an exalted vocation, answering to the infinite exaltation of Him from whom he has received his call; but by virtue of the infinite might of the caller, he may be well assured that he will never be wanting in power to execute his calling. Vers. 5-7. " Thus saith God, Jehovah, who created the heavens, and stretched them out; who spread the earth, and its productions; who gave the spirit of life to the people upon it, and the breath of life to them that walk upon it: 1, Jehovah, I have called thee in righteousness, and grasped thy hand; and I keep thee, and make thee the covenant of the people, the light of the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners out of the prison, them that sit in darkness out of the prisonhouse." The perfect 'dmar is to be explained on the ground that the words of God, as compared with the prophecy which announces them, are always the earlier of the two.?KH (the absolutely Mighty) is an anticipatory apposition to Jehovah (Ges. § 113**). The attributive participles we have resolved into perfects, because the three first at least declare facts of creation, which have occurred once for all. B?^- is n°t to be vol. ir. m regarded as a plural, after ch. liv. 5 and Job xxxv. 10; but as ton precedes it, we may take it as a singular with an original quiescent Yod, after ch. v. 12, xxii. 11, xxvi. 12 (cf. vol. i. p. 108). On yp/i (construct of Vi?i), see ch. xl. 19. The 1 of (™?gg! (a word found both in Job and Isaiah, used here in its most direct sense, to signify the vegetable world) must be taken in accordance with the sense, as the Vav of appurtenance; since Jjjn may be affirmed of the globe itself, but not of the vegetable productions upon it (cf. Gen. iv. 20; Judg. vi. 5; 2 Chron. ii. 3). N'shamah and ruach are epithets applied to the divine principle of life in all created corporeal beings, or, what is the same thing, in all beings with living souls. At the same time, tfshdmdh is an epithet restricted to the self-conscious spirit of man, which gives him his personality (Psychol, p. 76, etc.); whereas ruach is applied not only to the human spirit, but to the spirit of the beast as well. Accordingly, DV signifies the human race, as in ch. xl. 7. What is it, then, that Jehovah, the Author of all being and all life, the Creator of the heaven and the earth, says to His servant here? "I Jehovah have called thee ' in righteousness'" (bHsedeq: cf. ch. xlv. 13, where Jehovah also says of Cyrus, " I have raised him up in righteousness"). P1>%, derived from P1^, to be rigid, straight, denotes the observance of a fixed rule. The righteousness of God is the stringency with which He acts, in accordance with the will of His holiness. This will of holiness is, so far as the human race is concerned, and apart from the counsels of salvation, a will of wrath; but from the standpoint of these counsels it is a will of love, which is only changed into a will of wrath towards those who despise the grace thus offered to them. Accordingly, tsedeg denotes the action of God in accordance with His purposes of love and the plan of salvation. It signifies just the same as what we should call in New Testament phraseology the holy love of God, which, because it is a holy love, has wrath against its despisers as its obverse side, but which acts towards men not according to the law of works, but according to the law of grace. The word has this evangelical sense here, where Jehovah says of the Mediator of His counsels of love, that He has called Him in strict adherence to the will of His love, which will show mercy as right, but at the same time will manifest a right of double severity towards those who scornfully repel the offered mercy. That He had been called in righteousness, is attested to the servant of Jehovah by the fact that Jehovah has taken Him by the hand (ptRfctt contracted after the manner of a future of sequence), and guards Him, and appoints Him D?ia "nW Dy fi^TO. These words are a decisive proof that the idea of the expression " servant of Jehovah" has been elevated in ch. xlii. 1 sqq., as compared with ch. xli. 8, from the national base to the personal apex. Adherence to the national sense necessarily compels a resort to artifices which carry their own condemnation, such as that Dj; JVQ signifies the " covenant nation," as Hitzig supposes, or " the mediating nation," as Ewald maintains, whereas either of these would require n^3 Dy; or " national covenant" (Knobel), in support of which we are referred, though quite inconclusively, to Dan. xi. 28, where cnp JTH3 does not mean the covenant of the patriots among themselves, but the covenant religion, with its distinctive sign, circumcision; or even that DV is collective, and equivalent to D*Dy (Rosenmuller), whereas DJJ and D^l, when standing side by side, as they do here, can only mean Israel and the Gentiles; and so far as the passage before us is concerned, this is put beyond all doubt by ch. xlix. 8 (cf. ver. 6). An unprejudiced commentator must admit that the " servant of Jehovah" is pointed out here, as He in whom and through whom Jehovah concludes a new covenant with His people, in the place of the old covenant that was broken, — namely, the covenant promised in ch. liv. 10, lxi. 8, Jer. xxxi. 31-34, Ezek. xvi. 60 sqq. The mediator of this covenant with Israel cannot be Israel itself, not even the true Israel, as distinguished from the mass (where do we read anything of this kind?); on the contrary, the remnant left after the sweeping away of the mass is the object of this covenant.1 Nor can the expression refer to the prophets a9 a body, or, in fact, have any collective meaning at all: the form of the

1 This is equally applicable to V. F. Oehler (Der Kneclit Jeliovcfs im Deuterojesaia, 2 Theile, 1865), who takes the " servant of Jehovah" as far as ch. lii. 14 in a national sense, and supposes " the transition from the 'servant' as a collective noun, to the 'servant' as an individual," to be effected there; whereas two younger theologians, E. Schmutz (Le Serviteur de Je'hova, 1858) and Ferd. Philippi (Die bill Lehre vom KnecJite Gottes, 1864), admit that the individualizing commences as early as ch. xlii. 1.

word, which is so strongly personal, is in itself opposed to this. It cannot, in fact, denote any other than that Prophet who is more than a prophet, namely, Malachi's " Messenger of the covenant" (ch. iii. 1). Amongst those who suppose that the " servant of Jehovah" is either Israel, regarded in the licjht of its prophetic calling, or the prophets as a body, Umbreit at any rate is obliged to admit that this collective body is looked at here in the ideal unity of one single Messianic personality; and he adds, that " in the holy countenance of this prophet, which shines forth as the ideal of future realization, we discern exactly the loved features of Him to whom all prophecy points, and who saw Himself therein." This is very beautiful; but why this roundabout course? Let us bear in mind, that the servant of Jehovah appears here not only as one who is the medium of a covenant to the nation, and of light to the Gentiles, but as being himself the people's covenant and heathen's light, inasmuch as in his own person he is the band of a new fellowship between Israel and Jehovah, and becomes in his own person the light which illumines the dark heathen world. This is surely more than could be affirmed of any prophet, even of Isaiah or Jeremiah. Hence the " servant of Jehovah" must be that one Person who was the goal and culminating point to which, from the very first, the history of Israel was ever pressing on; that One who throws into the shade not only all that prophets did before, but all that had been ever done by Israel's priests or kings; that One who arose out of Israel, for Israel and the whole human race, and who stood in the same relation not only to the wider circle of the whole nation, but also to the inner circle of the best and noblest within it, as the heart to the body which it animates, or the head to the body over which it rules. All that Cyrus did, was simply to throw the idolatrous nations into a state of alarm, and set the exiles free. But the Servant of Jehovah opens blind eyes; and therefore the deliverance which He brings is not only redemption from bodily captivity, but from spiritual bondage also. He leads His people (cf. ch. xlix. 3, 9), and the Gentiles also, out of night into light; He is the Redeemer of all that need redemption and desire salvation.

Jehovah pledges His name and honour that this work of the Servant of Jehovah will be carried into effect. Yer. 8. " 1 am Jehovah; thiat is my name, and my glory I give not to another, nor my renown to idols" That is His name, which affirms how truly lie stands alone in His nature, and recals to mind the manifestations of His life, His power, and His grace from the very earliest times (cf. Ex. iii. 15). He to whom this name belongs cannot permit the honour due to Him to be permanently transferred to sham gods. He has therefore made preparations for putting an end to idolatry. Cyrus does this provisionally by the tempestuous force of arms; and the Servant of Jehovah completes it by the spiritual force of His simple word, and of His gentle, unselfish love.

First the overthrow of idolatry, then the restoration of Israel and conversion of the Gentiles: this is the double work of Jehovah's zeal which is already in progress. Yer. 9. " The first, behold, is come to pass, and new things am I proclaiming; before it springs up, I let you hear it" The " first " is the rise of Cyrus, and the agitation of the nations which it occasioned, — events which not only formed the starting-point of the prophecy in these addresses, whether the captivity was the prophet's historical or ideal standpoint, but which had no less force in themselves, as the connection between the first and second halves of the verse before us imply, as events both foreknown and distinctly foretold by Jehovah. The "new things " which Jehovah now foretells before their visible development (ch. xliii. 19), are the restoration of Israel, for which the defeat of their oppressors prepares the way, and the conversion of the heathen, to which an impulse is given by the fact that God thus glorifies Himself in His people.

The prediction of these " new things," which now follows, looks away from all human mediation. They are manifestly the work of Jehovah Himself, and consist primarily in the subjugation of His enemies, who are holding His people in captivity. Vers. 10-13. " Sing ye to Jehovah a new song, His praise from the end of the earth, ye navigators of the sea, and its fulness; ye islands, and their inhabitants. Let the desert and the cities thereof strike up, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit; the inhabitants of the rock-city may rejoice, shout from the summits of the mountains. Let them give glory to Jehovah, and proclaim His praise in the islands. Jehovah, like a hero will He go forth, kindle jealousy like a man of war; He will break forth into a war-cry, a yelling war-cry, prove Himself a hero upon His enemies." The "new things" furnish the impulse and materials of " a new song," such as had never been heard in the heathen world before. This whole group of verses is like a variation of ch. xxiv. 14, 15. The standingplace, whence the summons is uttered, is apparently Eziongeber, at the head of the Elanitic Gulf, that seaport town from which in the time of the kings the news of the nations reached the Holy Land through the extensive commerce of Israel. From this point the eye stretches to the utmost circle of the earth, and then returns from the point where it meets with those who u go down to the sea," i.e. who navigate the ocean which lies lower than the solid ground. These are to sing, and everything that lives and moves in the sea is to join in the sailors' song. The islands and coast lands, that are washed by the sea, are likewise to sing together with their inhabitants. After the summons has drawn these into the net of the song of praise, it moves into the heart of the land. The desert and its cities are to lift up (viz. "their voice"), the villages which Kedar inhabits. The reference to Sela9 the rock-city of Edomitish Nabatsea, which is also mentioned in ch. xvi. 1 (the Wadi 3fusa, which is still celebrated for its splendid ruins), shows by way of example what cities are intended. Their inhabitants are to ascend the steep mountains by which the city is surrounded, and to raise a joyful cry (yitsvdchii, to cry out with a loud noise; cf. ch. xxiv. 11). Along with the inhabitants of cities, the stationary Arabs, who are still called Hadariye in distinction from Wabariye, the Arabs of the tents, are also summoned; hadar (chdtser) is a fixed abode, in contrast to bedu, the steppe, where the tents are pitched for a short time, now in one place and now in another. In ver. 12 the summons becomes more general. The subject is the heathen universally and in every place; they are to give Jehovah the glory (Ps. lxvi. 2), and declare His praise upon the islands, i.e. to the remotest ends of the whole world of nations. In ver. 13 there follows the reason for this summons, and the theme of the new song in honour of the God of Israel, viz. His victory over His enemies, the enemies of His people. The description is anthropomorphically dazzling and bold, such as the self-assurance and vividness of the Israelitish idea of

God permitted, without any danger of misunderstanding. Jehovah goes out into the conflict like a hero; and like a "man of war," i.e. like one who has already fought many battles, and is therefore ready for war, and well versed in warfare, He stirs up jealousy (see at ch. ix. 6). His jealousy has slumbered as it were for a long time, as if smouldering under the ashes; but now He stirs it up, i.e. makes it burn up into a bright flame. Going forward to the attack, T?T, " He breaks out into a cry," n*rcr*l$, " yea, a yelling cry " (kal Zeph. i. 14, to cry with a yell; hiphil, to utter a yelling cry). In the words, " He will show Himself as a hero upon His enemies," we see Him already engaged in the battle itself, in which He proves Himself to possess the strength and boldness of a hero (hithgabbar only occurs again in the book of Job). The overthrow which heathenism here suffers at the hand of Jehovah is, according to our prophet's view, the final and decisive one. The redemption of Israel, which is thus about to appear, is redemption from the punishment of captivity, and at the same time from all the troubles that arise from sin. The period following the captivity and the New Testament times here flow into one.

The period of punishment has now lasted sufficiently loner; it is time for Jehovah to bring forth the salvation of His people. Ver. 14. " / have been silent eternally long, was stilly restrained myself; like a travailing woman, I now breathe again, snort and snuff together." The standpoint of these prophecies has the larger half of the captivity behind it. It has already lasted a long time, though only for several decades; but in the estimation of Jehovah, with His love to His people, this time of long-suffering towards their oppressors is already an "eternity" (see ch. lvii. 11, lviii. 12, lxi. 4, lxiii. 18, 19, lxiv. 4, cf. vers. 10, 11). He has kept silence, has still forcibly restrained Himself, just as Joseph is said to have done to prevent himself from breaking out into tears (Gen. xliii. 31). Love impelled Him to redeem His people; but justice was still obliged to proceed with punishment.

Three real futures now take the place of imperfects regulated by WBfan. They are not to be understood as denoting the violent breathing and snorting of a hero, burning with rage and thirsting for battle (Knobel); nor is tiwx to be derived from DW, as Hitzig supposes, through a mistaken comparison of Ezek. xxxvi. 3, though the latter does not mean to lay waste, but to be waste (see Hitzig on Ezek. xxxvi. 3). The true derivation is from MM, related to *H&, tip), n«J. To the figure of a hero there is now added that of a travailing woman: nya is short breathing (with the glottis closed); D^J the snorting of violent inspiration and expiration; ^N'^ the earnest longing for deliverance pressing upon the burden in the womb; and inj expresses the combination of all these several strainings of the breath, which are associated with the so-called labourpains. Some great thing, with which Jehovah has, as it were, long been pregnant, is now about to be born.

The delivery takes place, and the whole world of nature undergoes a metamorphosis, which is subservient to the great work of the future. Ver. 15. " I make waste mountains and hills, and all their herbage I dry up, and change streams into islands, and lakes I dry up." Here is another example of Isaiah's favourite palindromy, as Nitzsch calls this return to a word that has been used before, or linking on the close of a period to its commencement (see p. 134). Jehovah's panting in labour is His almighty fiery breath, which turns mountains and hills into heaps of ruins, scorches up the vegetation, condenses streams into islands, and dries up the lakes; that is to say, turns the strange land, in which Israel has been held captive, into a desert, and at the same time removes all the hindrances to His people's return, thus changing the present condition of the world into one of the very opposite kind, which displays His righteousness in wrath and love.

The great thing which is brought to pass by means of this catastrophe is the redemption of His people. Ver. 16. "And I lead the blind by a way that they know not; by steps that they know not, I make them ivalk: I turn dark space before them into light, and rugged places into a plain. TJiese are the things that I carry out, and do not leave." The " blind " are those who have been deprived of sight by their sin, and the consequent punishment. The unknown ways in which Jehovah leads them, are the ways of deliverance, which are known to Him alone, but which have now been made manifest in the fulness of time. The "dark space" (machshdk) is their existing state of hopeless misery; the "'rugged places" (ma ttqasshim) the hindrances that met them, and dangers that threatened them on all sides in the foreign land. The mercy of Jehovah adopts the blind, lights up the darkness, and clears every obstacle away. " These are the things" (Jiaddebhdilm): this refers to the particulars already sketched out of the double manifestation of Jehovah in judgment and in mercy. The perfects of the attributive clause are perfects of certainty.

In connection with this, the following verse declares what effect this double manifestation will produce among the heathen. Ver. 17. " They fall back, are put deeply to shame, that trust in molten images, that say to the molten image, Thou art our God" Bosheth takes the place of an inf. intens.; cf. Hab. iii. 9. Jehovah's glorious acts of judgment and salvation unmask the false gods, to the utter confusion of their worshippers. And whilst in this way the false religions fall, the redemption of Israel becomes at the same time the redemption of the heathen. The first half of this third prophecy is here brought to a close.

The thought which connects the second half with the first is to be found in the expression in ver. 16, "I will bring the blind by a way." It is the blind whom Jehovah will lead into the light of liberty, the blind who bring upon themselves not only His compassion, but also His displeasure; for it is their own fault that they do not see. And to them is addressed the summons, to free themselves from the ban which is resting upon them. Ver. 18. " Ye deaf, hear; and ye blind, look up, that ye may see." D^cnnn and D^W (this is the proper pointing, according to the codd. and the Masora1) are vocatives. The relation in which tt^n and HfcO stand, to one another is that of design and accomplishment (ch. Ixiii. 15, Job xxxv. 5, 2 Kings iii. 14, etc.); and they are used interchangeably with V:sy nj?3 and ns*j (e.g. 2 Kings xix. 16), which also stand in the same relation of design and result.

The next verse states who these self-willed deaf and blind are, and how necessary this arousing was. Ver. 19. " Who is blind, but my servant? and deaf, as my messenger whom I send? who blind as the confidant of God, and blind as the servant of Jehovah?" The first double question implies that Jehovah's servant and messenger is blind and deaf in a singular and un-

1 The Masora observes expressly |Tin21 pSTI |"»D 5>D, omnes cxci raphati et pathachali; but our editions have both here and in 2 Sain. v. 6, 8, paralleled way. The words are repeated, the questioner dwelling upon the one predicate elvv8r} u blind," in which everything is affirmed, and, according to Isaiah's favourite custom, returning palindromically to the opening expression "servant of Jehovah" (cf. ch. xl. 19, xlii. 15, and many other passages). Dp^'p does not mean " the perfect one," as Vitringa renders it, nor " the paid, i.e. purchased one," as Rosenmuller supposes, but one allied in peace and friendship, the confidant of God. It is the passive of the Arabic muslim, one who trusts in God (compare the hophal in Job v. 23). It is impossible to read the expression, " My messenger whom I send," without thinking of ch. xlii. 1 sqq., where the "servant of Jehovah" is represented as a messenger to the heathen. (Jerome is wrong in following the Jewish commentators, and adopting the rendering, ad quern nuntios?neos misi.) With this similarity both of name and calling, there must be a connection between the " servant" mentioned here, and the "servant" referred to there. Now the " servant of Jehovah" is always Israel. But since Israel might be regarded either according to the character of the overwhelming majority of its members (the mass), who had forgotten their calling, or according to the character of those living members who had remained true to their calling, and constituted the kernel, or as concentrated in that one Person who is the essence of ^Israel in the fullest truth and highest potency, statements of the most opposite kind could be made with respect to this one homonymous subject. In ch. xli. 8 sqq. the "servant of Jehovah" is caressed and comforted, inasmuch as there the true Israel, which deserved and needed consolation, is addressed, without regard to the mass who had forgotten their calling. In ch. xlii. 1 sqq. that One person is referred to, who is, as it were, the centre of this inner circle of Israel, and the head upon the body of Israel. And in the passage before us, the idea is carried from this its highest point back again to its lowest basis; and the servant of Jehovah is blamed and reproved for the harsh contrast between its actual conduct and its divine calling, between the reality and the idea. As we proceed, we shall meet again with the " servant of Jehovah" in the same systole and diastole. The expression covers two concentric circles, and their one centre. The inner circle of the " Israel according to the Spirit" forms the connecting link between Israel in its widest sense, and Israel in a personal sense. Here indeed Israel is severely blamed as incapable, and unworthy of fulfilling its sacred calling; but the expression " whom I send " nevertheless affirms that it will fulfil it, — namely, in the person of the servant of Jehovah, and in all those members of the " servant of Jehovah" in a national sense, who long for deliverance from the ban and bonds of the present state of punishment (see ch. xxix. 18). For it is really the mission of Israel to be the medium of salvation and blessing to the nations; and this is fulfilled by the servant of Jehovah, who proceeds from Israel, and takes his place at the head of Israel. And as the history of the fulfilment shows, when the foundation for the accomplishment of this mission had been laid by the servant of Jehovah in person, it was carried on by the servant of Jehovah in a national sense; for the Lord became " a covenant of the people" through His own preaching and that of His apostles. But "alight of the Gentiles" He became purely and simply through the apostles, who represented the true and believing Israel.

The reproof, which affects Israel a potiori, now proceeds still further, as follows. Vers. 20-22. " Thou hast seen much, and yet keepest not; opening the ears, he yet doth not hear. Jehovah was pleased for His righteousness* sake: He gave a thorah great and glorious. And yet it is a people robbed and plundered; fastened in holes all of them, and they are hidden in prison-houses: they have become booty, ivithout deliverers; a spoil, ivithout any one saying, Give it up again I " In ver. 20 "thou" and "he" alternate, like "they" and "ye" in ch. i. 29, and " I" and " he" in ch. xiv. 30. rpfcO, which points back to the past, is to be preserved. The reading of the keri is fii&O (inf. abs. like rriw, ch. xxii. 13, and finy, Hab. iii. 13), which makes the two half- verses uniform. Israel has had many and great things to see, but without keeping the admonitions they contained; opening its ears, namely to the earnestness of the preaching, it hears, and yet does not hear, i.e, it only hears outwardly, but without taking it into itself. Ver. 21 shows us to what ver. 20 chiefly refers. Y$n is followed here by the future instead of by Lamed with an infinitive, just as in ch. liii. 10 it is followed by the perfect (Ges. § 142, 3, b). Jehovah was pleased for His righteousness' sake (which is mentioned here, not as that which recompenses for works of the law, but as that which bestows mercy according to His purpose, His promise, and the plan of salvation) to make thordh, i.e. the direction, instruction, revelation which He gave to His people, great and glorious. The reference is primarily and chiefly to the Sinaitic law, and the verbs relate not to the solemnity of the promulgation, but to the riches and exalted character of the contents. But what a glaring contrast did the existing condition of Israel present to these manifestations and purposes of mercy on the part of its God! The intervening thought expressed by Hosea (Hos. viii. 125), viz. that this condition was the punishment of unfaithfulness, may easily be supplied. The inf. abs. nsn is introduced to give life to the picture, as in ch. xxii. 13. Hahn renders it, "They pant (hiphil of puacli) in the holes all of them," but kulldm (all of them) must be the accusative of the object; so that the true meaning is, " They have fastened (hiphil of pdchach) all of them," etc. (Ges. § 131, 4, b). Schegg adopts the rendering, " All his youths fall into traps," which is wrong in two respects; for bachurlm is the plural of chur (ch. xi. 8), and it is parallel to the double plural D'WD VD, houses of custodies. The whole nation in all its members is, as it were, put into bonds, and confined in prisons of all kinds (an allegorizing picture of the homelessness and servitude of exile), without any one thinking of demanding it back (3K?n = 3B>n, as in Ezek. xxi. 35; a pausal form here: vid. Ges. § 29, 4 Anm.).

When they ceased to be deaf to this crying contradiction, they would recognise with penitence that it was but the merited punishment of God. Vers. 23-25. " Who among you will give ear to this, attend, and hear afar off? Who has given up Jacob to plundering, and Israel to the spoilers? Is it not Jehovah, against whom we have sinned? and they would not walk in His ways, and hearkened not to His law. Then He poured upon it in burning heat His wrath, and the strength of the fury of war: and this set it in flames round about, and it did not come to be recognised; it set it on fire, and it did not lay it to hearth The question in ver. 23 has not the force of a negative sentence, " No one does this," but of a wish, " O that one would" (as in 2 Sam. xxiii. 15, xv. 4; Ges. § 136, 1). If they had but an inward car for the contradiction which the state of Israel presented to its true calling, and the earlier manifestations of divine mercy, and would but give up their previous deafness for the time to come: this must lead to the knowledge and confession expressed in ver. 24. The names Jacob and Israel here follow one another in the same order as in ch. xxix. 23, xl. 27 (compare ch. xli. 8, where this would have been impracticable). IT belongs to)b in the sense of cui. The punctuation does not acknowledge this relative use of IT (on which, see at ch. xliii. 21), and therefore puts the athnach in the wrong place (see Rashi). In the words " we have sinned" the prophet identifies himself with the exiles, in whose sin he knew and felt that he was really involved (cf. ch. vi. 5). The objective affirmation which follows applies to the former generations, who had sinned on till the measure became full. SJPH takes the place of the object to WK (see ch. i. 17); the more usual expression would be rD?7; the inverted order of the woids makes the assertion all the more energetic. In ver. 25 the genitive relation i2X riDn is avoided, probably in favour of the similar ring of non and n^n?*?. non is either the accusative of the object, and totf a subordinate statement of what constituted the burning heat (cf. Ewald, § 287, k), or else an accusative, of more precise definition = ^DnB in ch. lxvi. 15 (Ges. § 118, 3). The outpouring is also connected by zeugma with the " violence of war." The milchdmdh then becomes the subject. The warfury raged without result. Israel was not brought to reflection. The tone of the address is now suddenly changed. The sudden leap from reproach to consolation was very significant. It gave them to understand, that no meritorious work of their own would come in between what Israel was and what it was to be, but that it was God's free grace which came to meet it. Ch. xliii. 1, 2. " But now thus saith Jehovah thy Creator, 0 Jacob j and thy Former, 0 Israel! Fear not, for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by name, thou art mine. When thou goest through the water, I am with thee; and through rivers, they shall not drown thee: when thou goest into fire, thou shalt not be burned; and the flame shall not set thee on fire" The punishment has now lasted quite long enough; and, as nnyi affirms, the love which has hitherto retreated behind the wrath returns to its own prerogatives again. He who created and formed

Israel, by giving Abraham the son of the promise, and caused the seventy of Jacob's family to grow up into a nation in Egypt, He also will shelter and preserve it. He bids it be of good cheer; for their early history is a pledge of this. The perfects after *3 in ver. lb stand out against the promising futures in ver. 2, as retrospective glances: the expression " I have redeemed thee" pointing back to Israel's redemption out of Egypt; " I have called thee by thy name" (lit. I have called with thy name, i.e. called it out), to its call to be the peculiar people of Jehovah, who therefore speaks of it in ch. xlviii. 12 as " My called." This help of the God of Israel will also continue to arm it against the destructive power of the most hostile elements, and rescue it from the midst of the greatest dangers, from which there is apparently no escape (cf. Ps. Ixvi. 12; Dan. iii. 17, 27; and Ges. § 103, 2).

Just as in ver. lb, Jcl (for), with all that follows, assigns the reason for the encouraging " Fear not;" so here a second kl introduces the reason for the promise which ensures them against the dangers arising from either water or fire. Vers. 3, 4. "For I Jeltovalx am thy God; (I) the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I give up Egypt as a rayisom for thee, Ethiopia and Seba in thy stead. Because thou art dear in my eyes, highly esteemed, and I loved thee; I give up men in thy stead, and peoples for thy life." Both " Jehovah" and a the Holy One of Israel" are in apposition to " /" (ani), the force of which is continued in the second clause. The preterite ndthattl (I have given), as the words u I will give " in ver. Ab clearly show, states a fact which as yet is only completed so far as the purpose is concerned. " A ransom:" kopher (\vrpov) is literally the covering (see vol. i. 397 and ii. 11), — the person making the payment, or the person for whom he makes it, being covered by the payment. NJ^ is the ^ano^ °f Aferoe, which is enclosed between the White and Blue Nile, the present Ddr Senndr, district of Senndr (Sen-drti, i.e. island of Send), or the ancient Meroitic priestly state settled about this enclosed land, probably included in the Mudrdya (Egypt) of the Achaemenidian arrowheaded inscriptions; though it is uncertain whether the Kusiya (Heb. Kushim) mentioned there are the predatory tribe of archers called Koaaaloi (Strabo, xi. 13, 6), whose name has been preserved in the present Chuzistan, the eastern Ethiopians of the Greeks (as Lassen and Rawlinson suppose), or the African Ethiopians of the Bible, as Oppert imagines. The fact that Egypt was only conquered by Cambyses, and not by Cyrus, who merely planned it (Herod, i. 153), and to whom it is only attributed by a legend (Xen. Cyr. viii. 6, 20, XeyeTac KaraaTpe^aaOat Aljvtttov), does no violence to the truth of the promise. It is quite enough that Egypt and the neighbouring kingdoms were subjugated by the new imperial power of Persia, and that through that empire the Jewish people recovered their long-lost liberty. The free love of God was the reason for His treating Israel according to the principle laid down in Prov. xi. 8, xxi. 18. 1BWED does not signify ex quo tempore here, but is equivalent to 1KW "^BO in Ex. xix. 18, Jer. xliv. 23; for if it indicated the terminus a quo, it would be followed by a more distinct statement of the fact of their election. The personal pronoun " and I" (vaani) is introduced in consequence of the change of persons. In the place of Wtil (perf. cons.), |FM commended itself, as the former had already been used in a somewhat different function. All that composed the chosen nation are here designated as " man" (adeem), because there was nothing in them but what was derived from Adam, nnn has here a strictly substitutionary meaning throughout.

The encouraging " Fear not " is here resumed, for the purpose of assigning a still further reason. Vers. 5-7, "Fear not; for I am with thee: I bring thy seed from the east, and from the west will I gather them; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the end of the earth; everything that is called hy my name, and I have created for my glory, that I have formed, yea finished!" The fact that Jehovah is with Israel will show itself in this, that He effects its complete restoration from all quarters of the heaven (compare the lands of the diaspora in all directions already mentioned by Isaiah in ch. xi. 11, 12). Jehovah's command is issued to north and south to give up their unrighteous possession, not to keep it back, and to restore His sons and daughters (compare the similar change in the gender in ch. xi. 12), which evidently implies the help and escort of the exiles on the part of the heathen (ch. xiv. 2). The four quarters and four winds are of the feminine gender. In ver. 7 the object is more precisely defined from the standpoint of sacred history. The three synonyms bring out the might, the freeness, and the riches of grace, with which Jehovah called Israel into existence, to glorify Himself in it, and that He might be glorified by it They form a climax, for N"}2 signifies to produce as a new thing; W, to shape what has been produced; and rW? to make it perfect or complete, hence creavi, formavi, perfeci.

We come now to the third turn in the second half of this prophecy. It is linked on to the commencement of the first turn (" Hear, ye deaf, and look, ye blind, that ye may see "), the summons being now addressed to some one to bring forth the Israel, which has eyes and ears without seeing or hearing; whilst, on the other hand, the nations are all to come together, and this time not for the purpose of convincing them, but of convincing Israel. Vers. 8-10. "Bring out a blind people, and it has eyes; and deaf people, and yet furnished with ears I All ye heathen, gather yourselves together, and let peoples assemble! Who among you can proclaim such a tiring? And let them cause former tilings to be heard, appoint their witnesses, and be justified. Let these hear, and say, True! Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and my servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe me, and see that it is I: before me was no God formed, and there will be none after me." " Bring out " does not refer here to bringing out of captivity, as in Ezek. xx. 34, 41, xxxiv. 13, since the names by which Israel is called are hardly applicable to this, but rather to bringing to the place appointed for judicial proceedings. The verb is in the imperative. The heathen are also to gather together en masse; ^P^ is also an imperative here, as in Joel iv. 11 = rcapn (cf. TO3, Jer. 1. 5; Ewald, § 22 G, c). In ver. 9b we have the commencement of the evidence adduced by Jehovah in support of His own divine right: Who among the gods of the nations can proclaim this? i.e. anything like my present announcement of the restoration of Israel? To prove that they can, let them cause " former things " to be heard, i.e. any former events which they had foretold, and which had really taken place; and let them appoint witnesses of such earlier prophecies, and so prove themselves to be gods, that is to say, by the fact that these witnesses have publicly heard their declaration and confirm the truth thereof. The subject to 'U1 W^f)) (they may hear, etc.) is the witnesses, not as now informing themselves for the first time, but as making a public declaration. The explanation, " that men may hear," changes the subject without any necessity. But whereas the gods are dumb and lifeless, and therefore cannot call any witnesses for themselves, and not one of all the assembled multitude can come forward as their legitimate witness, or as one able to vindicate them, Jehovah can call His people as witnesses, since they have had proofs in abundance that He possesses infallible knowledge of the future. It is generally assumed that " and my servant " introduces a second subject: " Ye, and (especially) my servant whom I have chosen." In this case, "my servant" would denote that portion of the nation which was so, not merely like the mass of the people according to its divine calling, but also by its own fidelity to that calling; that is to say, the kernel of the nation, which was in the midst of the mass, but had not the manners of the mass. At the same time, the sentence which follows is much more favourable to the unity of the subject; and why should not " my servant " be a second predicate? The expression " ye " points to the people, who were capable of seeing and hearing, and yet both blind and deaf, and who had been brought out to the forum, according to ver. 8. Ye, says Jehovah, are my witnesses, and ye are my servant whom I have chosen; I can appeal to what I have enabled you to experience and to perceive, and to the relation in which I have in mercy caused you to stand to myself, that ye may thereby be brought to consider the great difference that there is between what ye have in your God and that which the heathen (here present with you) have in their idols. " I am He," i.e. God exclusively, and God for ever. His being has no beginning and no end; so that any being apart from His, which could have gone before or could follow after, so as to be regarded as divine (in other words, the deity of the artificial and temporal images which are called gods by the heathen), is a contradiction in itself. The address now closes by holding up once more the object and warrant of faith. Vers. 11-13. u I, / am Jehovah; and beside me there is no Saviour. I, I have proclaimed and brought salvation, and given to perceive, and there was no other god among you: and ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and I VOL II. N am God. Even from the day onwards I am so; and there is no deliverer out of my hand: I act, and who can turn it back?" The proper name "Jehovah" is used here (ver. 13) as a name indicating essence: " I and no other am the absolutely existing and living One," i.e. He who proves His existence by His acts, and indeed by His saving acts. TWO and Jehovah are kindred epithets here; just as in the New Testament the name Jehovah sets, as it were, but only to rise again in the name Jesus, in which it is historically fulfilled. Jehovah's previous self-manifestation in history furnished a pledge of the coming redemption. The two synonyms W]|n and WW'n have W^in in the midst. He proclaimed salvation, brought salvation, and in the new afflictions was still ever preaching salvation, without there having been any zdr, i.e. any strange or other god in Israel (Deut. xxxii. 16; see above, ch. xvii. 10), who proved his existence in any such way, or, in fact, gave any sign of existence at all. This they must themselves confess; and therefore (Vav in sense equivalent to ergo, as in ch, xl. 18, 25) He, and He alone, is El, the absolutely mighty One, i.e. God. And from this time forth He is so, i.e. He, and He only, displays divine nature and divine life. There is no reason for taking Di*D in the sense of Dis n^HD, u from the period when the day, i.e. time, existed " (as the LXX., Jerome, Stier, etc., render it). Both the gam (also) and the future 'eptial (I will work) require the meaning supported by Ezek. xlviii. 35, " from the day onwards," i.e. from this time forth (syn. Di^JDp, ch. xlviii. 7). The concluding words give them to understand, that the predicted salvation is coming in the way of judgment. Jehovah will go forward wTith His work; and if He who is the same yesterday and to-day sets this before Him, who can turn it back, so that it shall remain unaccomplished? The prophecy dies away, like the massa Bdbhel with its epilogue in ch. xiv. 27. In the first half (ch. xlii. 1-17) Jehovah introduced His servant, the medium of salvation, and proclaimed the approaching work of salvation, at which all the, world had reason to rejoice. The second half (ch. xlii. 18— xliii. 13) began with reproaching, and sought to bring Israel through this predicted salvation to reflect upon itself, and also upon its God, the One God, to whom there was no equal.

In close connection with the foregoing prophecy, the present one commences with the dissolution of the Chaldean empire. Vers. 14, 15. " Thus saith Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, For your sake I have sent to Babel, and will hurl them all down as fugitives, and the Chaldeans into the ships of their rejoicing. I, Jehovah, am your Holy One; (I) Israel's Creator, your King" Hitzig reads nt'Jfep^ and adopts the rendering, " and drowned the shouting of the Chaldeans in groaning." Ewald also corrects ver. 14a thus: " And plunge their guitars into groanings, and the rejoicing of the Chaldeans into sighs." We cannot see any good taste in this un-Hebraic bombast. Nor is there any more reason for altering DTTnn (LXX. favyovTas) into D-TVQ (Jerome, vectes), as Umbreit proposes: "and make all their bolts1 fall down, and the Chaldeans, who rejoice in ships" (bddniyoth). None of these alterations effect any improvement. For your sakes, says Jehovah, i.e. for the purpose of releasing you, I have sent to Babylon (sc. the agents of my judgments, ch. xiii. 3), and will throw them all down (viz. the 7rd/jLfjL(,KT0<; o^Xo? of this market of the world; see ch. xiii. 14, xlvii. 15) as fugitives (barichlm with a fixed hametz, equivalent to barrichlm), i.e. into a hurried flight; and the, Chaldeans, who have been settled there from a hoary antiquity, even they shall be driven into the ships of their rejoicing (btioniyoth, as in Prov. xxxi. 14), i.e. the ships which were previously the object of their jubilant pride and their jubilant rejoicing. WHlni stands in the perf. consec, as indicating the object of all the means already set in motion. The ships of pleasure are not air-balloons, as Hitzig affirms. Herodotus (i. 194) describes the freight ships discharging in Babylon; and we know from other sources that the Chaldeans not only navigated the Euphrates, but the Persian Gulf as well, and employed vessels built by Phoenicians for warlike purposes also.1 *l*tin itself might indeed signify "to hurl to the ground ** (Ps. lvi. 8, lix. 12); but the allusion to ships shows that 3 Tlifl are to be connected (cf. ch. lxiii. 14), and that a general driving down both by land and water to the southern coast is intended. By thus sweeping awTay both foreigners and natives out of Babylon into the sea, Jehovah proves what He is in Himself, according to ver. 15, and also in His relation to Israel; we must supply a repetition of ^K here (ver. 15b), as in ver. 3a. The congregation which addresses Him as the Holy One, the people who suffer Him to reign over them as their King, cannot remain permanently despised and enslaved.

There now follows a second field of the picture of redemption; and the expression " for your sake" is expounded in vers. 16-21: " Thus saith Jehovah, who giveth a road through the sea, and a path through tumultuous waters; who bringeth out chariot and horse, army and hero; they lie down together, they never rise: they have flickered away, extinguished like a wick. Remember not things of olden time, nor meditate upon those of earlier times! Behold, I work out a new thing: will ye not live to see it? Yea, 1 make a road through the desert, and streams through solitudes. The beast of the field will praise me, wild dogs and ostriches: for I give water in the desert, streams in solitude, to give drink to my people, my chosen. The people that I formed for myself, they shall shoiu forth my praised What Jehovah really says commences in ver. 18. Then in between He is described as Redeemer out of Egypt; for the redemption out of Egypt wTas a type and pledge of the deliverance to be looked for out of Babylon. The participles must not be rendered qui dedit, eduxit; but from the mighty act of Jehovah in olden time general attributes are deduced: He who makes a road in the sea, as He once showed. The sea with the tumultuous waters is the Red Sea (Neh. ix. 11); 'izzuz, which rhymes with vdsus, is a concrete, as in Ps. xxiv. 8, the army with the heroes at its head. The expression " bringeth out," etc., is not followed by " and suddenly destroys them," but we are transported at once into the very midst of the scenes of destruction. ^3^ shows them to us entering upon the sleep of death, in which they lie without hope (ch. xxvi. 14). The close {kappishtdh khdbhit) is iambic, as- in Judg. v. 27. The 1 See G. Rawlinson, Monarchies, i. 128, ii. 448.

admonition in ver. 18 does not commend utter forgetfulness and disregard (see ch. xlvi. 9); but that henceforth they are to look forwards rather than backward. The new thin or which Jehovah is in the process of working out eclipses the old, and deserves a more undivided and prolonged attention. Of this new thing it is affirmed, " even now it sprouts up;" whereas in ch. xlii. 9, even in the domain of the future, a distinction was drawn between "the former things" and " new things," and it could be affirmed of the latter that they were not yet sprouting up. In the passage before us the entire work of God in the new time is called chaddshdh (new), and is placed in contrast with the rVshonothy or occurrences of the olden time; so that as the first part of this new thing had already taken place (ch. xlii. 9), and there was only the last part still to come, it might very well be affirmed of the latter, that it was even now sprouting up (not already, which nny may indeed also mean, but as in ch. xlviii. 7). In connection with this, TO^ri Ki?n (a verbal form with the suffix, as in Jer. xiii. 17, with hametz in the syllable before the tone, as in ch. vi. 9, xlvii. 11, in pause) does not mean, " Will ye then not regard it," as Ewald, Umbreit, and others render it; but, " shall ye not, i.e. assuredly ye will, experience it." The substance of the chaddshdh (the new thing) is unfolded in ver. 196. It enfolds a rich, fulness of wonders: *\& affirming that, among other things, Jehovah will do this one very especially. He transforms the pathless, waterless desert, that His chosen one, the people of God, may be able to go through in safety, and without fainting. And the benefits of this miracle of divine grace reach the animal world as well, so that their joyful cries are an unconscious praise of Jehovah. (On the names of the animals, see vol. i. 305; and Kohler on Mai. i. 3.) In this we can recognise the prophet, who, as we have several times observed since ch. xi. (compare especially ch. xxx. 23, 24, xxxv. 7), has not only a sympathizing heart for the woes of the human race, but also an open ear for the sighs of all creation. He knows that when the sufferings of the people of God shall be brought to an end, the sufferings of creation will also terminate; for humanity is the heart of the universe, and the people of God (understanding by this the people of God according to the Spirit) are the heart of humanity. In ver. 21 the promise is brought to a genera]

close: the people that (zu personal and relative, as in ch. xlii. 24 *) I have formed for myself will have richly to relate how I glorified myself in them.

It would be the praise of God, however, and not the merits of their own works, that they would have to relate; for there was nothing at all that could give them any claim to reward. There were not even acts of ceremonial worship, but only the guilt of grievous sins. Vers. 22-24. " And thou hast not called upon me, 0 Jacob, that thou shouldst have wearied thyself for me, 0 Israel! Thou hast not brought me sheep of thy burntoffeAngs, and thou hast not honoured me with thy slain- offerings. I have not burdened thee with meat-offerings, and have not troubled thee about incense. Thou hast bought me no spice-cane for silver, nor hast thou refreshed me with fat of thy slainofferings. No; thou hast wearied me with thy sins, troubled me with thine iniquities" We cannot agree with Stier, that these words refer to the whole of the previous worship of Israel, which is treated here as having no existence, because of its heartlessness and false-holiness. And we must also not forget, that all these prophecies rested on either the historical or the ideal soil of the captivity. The charge commences with the worship of prayer (with calling upon Jehovah, as in Ps. xiv. 4, xviii. 7), to which the people were restricted when in exile, since the law did not allow them to offer sacrifice outside the holy land. The personal pronoun *T)K, in the place of the suffix, is written first of all for the sake of emphasis, as if the meaning were, " Israel could exert itself to call upon other gods, but not upon Jehovah." The following Jcl is equivalent to ut (Hos. i. 6), or 'ad-ki in 2 Sam. xxiii. 10, adeo ut laborasses me colendo (so as to have wearied thyself in worshipping me). They are also charged with having offered no sacrifices, inasmuch as in a foreign land this duty necessarily lapsed of itself, together with