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the fourteenth year," but xxxviii. with the words: "And it came to pass in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah." To an uninformed reader this sounded strange. The fourteenth mentioned in the beginning of xxxvi. seemed as if it could be no other than the fourteenth of Hezekiah. And because xxxviii. again bore at its head the fourteenth year of this king, nothing seemed more natural than to let xxxvi. begin with the words: "And it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah," and then join on chapters xxxviii. and xxxix. simply with the date "in those days, in that time" (see introd. to xxxvi.-xxxix. below). Whoever made these alterations doubtless lived at a period when the living tradition about the correct order of these events had long been obliterated. Perhaps, too, the erroneous mention of a name xxxix. 1 is the fault of the same man and of the same time. For Merodach-Baladan does not mean 'Merodach, son of Baladan," as is there intimated. MerodachBaladan ( Merodach gave a son) is only one name, and is the name of a man whose father was called Jakin (see comm. in loc.). This erroneous meaning given to the name appears also to point to a later time in which the knowledge of the proper relation was lost.

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5. Part second consists of chapters xl.-lxvi. These chapters form a separate and well arranged total by themselves. As in other collections of Isaiah's prophecies, so here we notice a fundamental number. For the total consists of three divisions, each containing three times three discourses. It is to be noticed, however, that in the third division only five discourses are to be distinguished, which, however, divide into nine chapters. The subject of these twenty-seven chapters is the time of salvation, and that indeed the whole period beginning with the deliverance from exile and extending to the end of the present world, i. e., to the appearance of a new heaven and a new earth. Although, in accordance with the peculiarity of prophetic seeing, the prophet sees things of the same sort together, no matter what time they belong to, we still distinguish in the total period of salvation three chief stages to which the three chief subdivisions of nine chapters each correspond. In the first Ennead the Prophet sees chiefly and primarily the deliverance out of the Babylonian captivity, and, as the source of it, Cyrus. But this Ennead by no means has this aim merely. The Prophet knows, that along with the redemption out of exile, Israel must be raised to a higher plane of religious moral life: it must be freed from idolatry and led to the sole worship of Jehovah. The outward deliverance without the inward would be only a half work; for it was precisely Israel's spiritual bondage to idols that had been the cause of its bodily servitude. How could the latter be removed without the former? But this redemption out of exile and the chains of a gross idolatry is only the first stage of the period of salvation. Within this we see forming the outlines of a second and higher stage. The glorious Cyrus, who is not called servant of God, but is called ', and the suffering people Israel, that is yet destined to glory, compose, so to speak, the ground forms in which a new stage of salvation is typically represented. These preparatory elements combine in their higher unity in the person of the servant of God who will be a suffering Israel and a conquering Cyrus at the same time. But first appears the first named aspect of his existence, the suffering servant. This forms the central point of the second Ennead. By suffering the servant of God becomes the redeemer of His people, the founder of a new way of appropriating salvation, and of a new condition of salvation that is both intensively and extensively higher. But this servant of God lifts Himself up out of His humility and becomes-this is the contents of the third Ennead-on the one hand, Judge of the world who will destroy all the wicked, on the other, the Creator of a new creature. The fruit of His redeeming work will be a new humanity, a new name, a new worship of God in spirit and in truth, a new heaven and a new earth.

Therefore the Prophet has by no means in mind merely circumstances of the exile. Of course he sees primarily the redemption out of the exile. But he sees behind this also the time in which the personal servant of God, prefigured in the first stage by Cyrus and Israel, will begin his work of salvation by suffering and dying; and behind this second stage he sees a third, in which the servant of God, raised out of His humble state to the dignity of a highest Prophet, Priest and King, shall renew the creature and lead it upwards to the highest degree of life in the spirit.

6. The scheme of the book is as follows:

I. THE THREEFOLD INTRODUCTION.

a. The First Introduction, chap. i.

b. The Second Introduction, chaps. ii.—v.

c. The Third Introduction, chap. vi.

II. PART FIRST, vii.—xxxix.

1. FIRST SUBDIVISION. CHAPS. VII.-XII.

Israel's relation to Assyria, the representative of the world-power in general, described in its ruinous beginning and its blessed end.

A. The prophetic perspective of the time of Ahaz, chap. vii. 1-ix. 6.

1. The prophecy of Immanuel the son of a Virgin, chap. vii. 1-25.

2. Isaiah giving the whole nation a sign by the birth of his son Maher-shalal-hashbaz, chap. viii. 1-4.

3. Additions:

a. The despisers of Siloah shall be punished by the waters of Euphrates, chap. viii. 5-8.

b. Threatening call to those that conspire against Judah, and to those that

fear the conspirators, chap. viii. 9-15.

c. The testament of the Prophet to his disciples, chap. viii. 16—ix. 6.

B.-Threatening of judgment to be accomplished by Assyria, directed against the Israel of the Ten Tribes, chap. ix. 7-x. 4.

C.-Assyria's destruction Israel's salvation, chap. x. 5—xii. 6.

1. Woe against Assyria, chap. x. 5-19.

2. Israel's redemption from Assyria, chap. x. 20-34.

3. Israel's redemption in relation to the Messiah, chap. xi. 1—xii. 6.

2. SECOND SUBDIVISION. CHAPS. XIII.-XXVII.

The prophecies against foreign nations.

A.-The discourses against individual nations, chaps. xiii.—xxiii.

1. The first prophecy against Babylon, chap. xiii. 1-xiv. 23.

2. Prophecy against Assyria, chap. xiv. 24-27.

3. Against Philistia, chap. xiv. 28-32.

4. Against Moab, chaps. xv., xvi.

5. Against and for Damascus and Ephraim, chap. xvii.

6. Ethiopia now and then again, chap. xviii.

7. Egypt now and then again, chaps. xix., xx.

8. The libellus emblematicus, containing the second prophecy against Babylon, then prophecies against Edom, Arabia, Jerusalem and the chamberlain Shebna, chaps. xxi., xxii.

9. Prophecy against and for Tyre, chap. xxiii.

B.-The finale of the prophecies against the nations: the libellus apocalypticus, chapters xxiv.-xxvii.

3. THIRD SUBDIVISION. CHAPS. XXVIII.-XXXIII. Relation of Israel to Assyria in the time of king Hezekiah.

4. FOURTH SUBDIVISION. CHAPS. XXXIV.-XXXV.

The finale of part first.

5. FIFTH SUBDIVISION. CHAPS. XXXVI.-XXXIX.

Historical pieces, containing the conclusion of the Assyrian and the preparation for the
Babylon period.

III. PART SECOND, Chaps. xl.—lxvi.

The entire future of salvation, beginning with the redemption from the Babylonian exile, concluding with the creation of a new heaven and a new earth.

A.-CYRUS, chaps. xl.-xlviii.

1. First Discourse. The Prologue, the objective and subjective basis of redemption, chap. xl.

2. Second Discourse. First appearance of the Redeemer from the East, and of the servant of the Jehovah, and also the first and second use of the prophecy relating to this in proof of the divinity of Jehovah, chap. xli.

3. Third Discourse. The third chief figure: The personal servant of Jehovah in the contrasted features of his appearance, chap. xlii.

4. Fourth Discourse. Redemption or salvation in its entire compass, chap. xliii. 1—

xliv. 5.

5. Fifth Discourse. Prophecy as a proof of divinity comes to the front and culminates in the name of Cyrus, chap. xliv. 6-28.

6. Sixth Discourse. The culminating point of the prophecy: Cyrus, and the effect of his appearance, chap. xlv.

7. Seventh Discourse. The fall of the Babylonian gods, and the gain to Israel's knowledge of God that will be derived therefrom, chap. xlvi.

8. Eighth Discourse. The well-deserved and inevitable overthrow of Babylon, chap. xlvii.

9. Ninth Discourse. Recapitulation and conclusion, chap. xlviii.

B. THE PERSONAL SERVANT OF JEHOVAH. Chaps. xlix.-lvii.

1. First Discourse. Parallel between the servant of Jehovah and Zion. Both have a small beginning and a great end, chap. xlix.

2. Second Discourse. The connection between the guilt of Israel and the sufferings of the servant, and the liberation of the former through faith in the latter, chap. 1. 3. Third Discourse The final redemption of Israel. A dialogue between the Servant of Jehovah who enters, as if veiled, Israel, Jehovah Himself, and the Prophet, chap. li.

4. Fourth Discourse. The restoration of the city of Jerusalem, chap. lii. 1-12. Golgotha and Scheblimini (sit thou on my right hand), chap. lii.

5. Fifth Discourse.
13-liii. 12.

6. Sixth Discourse. The new salvation, chap. liv.

7. Seventh Discourse. The new way of appropriating salvation, chap. lv.

8. Eighth Discourse. The moral, social and physical fruits of the new way of salvation, chap. Ivi. 1-9.

9. Ninth Discourse. A look at the mournful present, which will not, however, hinder the coming of the glorious future, chap. lvi. 10—lvii. 21.

C.-THE NEW CREATURE. Chaps. lviii.-lxvi.

1. First Discourse. Bridge from the present to the future; from preaching repentance to preaching glory, chaps. Iviii., lix.

2. Second Discourse. The rising of the heavenly sun of life upon Jerusalem, and the new personal and natural life conditioned thereby, chap. lx.

3. Third Discourse. The personal centre of the revelation of salvation, chap. lxi.— lxiii. 1-6.

4. Fourth Discourse. The Prophet in spirit puts himself in the place of the exiled church, and bears its cause in prayer before the LORD, chap. lxiii. 7—lxiv. 11. 5. Fifth Discourse. The death and life bringing end-period, chaps. lxv., lxvi.

4. AUTHENTICITY AND INTEGRITY OF THE BOOK.

1. KNOBEL says of the Isaiah collection there is found in it more that is not genuine than in any other prophetic book (p. xxvi). The passages ii. 2-4 and xv.-xvi. 12 are not denied to be genuine indeed, but they are said not to be Isaiah's, he having appropriated them from older prophets. As regards ii. 2-4, this statement is of course correct. For Isaiah has in fact, and for good reason, put a saying of his contemporary and fellow prophet Micah at the head like a light, in order to contemplate in its light the (relative) present of his people. But as regards the prophecy against Moab,

xv.-xvi. 12, the Prophet himself, it is true, designates it as a word that the LORD once (IND, i. e., before) spoke against Moab. But the words xvi. 13 by no means assert that Isaiah cites the words of another. Would he not have indicated this more plainly? Besides the piece is in contents and form quite like Isaiah. (See Comm. in loc.). The following passages are said to be decidedly not genuine : xiii. 1-xiv. 23; xxi. 1-10; xxiv.-xxvii.; xxxiv.-xxxv.; xxxvi. 1--xxxvii. 20; xxxvii. 36-xxxix. 8; xl.-lxvi. Beside these a few other passages are assailed by individual critics. Thus chap. xii. is assailed by EWALD (see on the contrary MEIER, KNOBEL, p. 113). Chap. xix. is partly or entirely so by several expositors (EICHHORN, ROSENMUELLER, KOPPE, DE Wette, GeSENTUS, HITZIG, on the contrary KNOBEL, p. 159); single parts of chaps. xxviii.-xxxiii. by EICHHORN (against which see GESENIUS I. 2, p. 826); chap. xxxiii. by EWALD (against whom see KNOBEL, p. 273). As these critical objections have been proved groundless even by such men as GESENIUS and KNOBEL, we will not enter into them here. I will in the commentary itself give the reasons why I must regard chaps. xiii. 1-xiv. 23; xxi. 1-10; xxiv.-xxvii.; and xxxiv., xxxv., as Isaiah's genuine productions. We have already said in ? 3 under 4, what is to be thought of chaps. xxxvi.-xxxix.

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2. We must give particular attention to chaps. xl.-lxvi. Since KOPPE and DOEDERLEIN (comp. BERTHOLDT, Einl. p. 1356 sqq.) the majority of commentators have held the opinion that a much later person than Isaiah the son of Amoz wrote these prophecies. The most suppose that this later person lived in Babylon among the exiles. Only EWALD (Propheten des A. B. II. p. 403 sqq.; Gesch. des V. Isr. IV. p. 22 sqq.; 56 sqq., 66, 103, 138) is of the opinion that the "great unnamed," as a descendant of those Jews that with Jeremiah went into Egypt, lived in the latter place. On the other hand SEINECKE (Der Evangelist des A. B. 1870) concludes from chap. xl. 9, that the author must have lived in Jerusalem because otherwise the summons Jerusalem, get thee up into a high mountain," would have no sense. DUнм (Die Theologie der Propheten, Bonn., 1875, p. 283), infers from chap. xlii. 22 that Deutero-Isaiah at least did not live in Babylon, for it hardly went so hard with the exiles as is there described. As regards the time, although the critics in general maintain that it was written during the exile, still they differ in details very much. BERTHOLDT (Einl., p. 1390) distributes the chapters into four periods: Before and after the invasion, during and after the siege of Babylon. GESENIUS supposes (II. Th. p. 33) that the prophecies originated at the time when the advance of Cyrus against Babylon awaked in the Hebrews the assured hope of a speedy deliverance. Still he thinks that the last chapters were written sooner than the earlier ones, in which is discoursed with so much certainty of the victories of Cyrus. HITZIG also apportions the chapters very exactly among the incidents of the Persian-Babylonian war, only he thinks that chap. xlvii. does not fit into the context chronologically, and that as an independent whole it was incorporated later. BECK (Die Cyrojesajan. Weissagungen, p. 16) thinks that all twenty-seven chapters presuppose the permission of Cyrus to return home. The Prophet only represents what has happened as revealed by Jehovah in advance, in order that "His contemporaries might regard it, not as accident, but as proceeding from the decree of God." According to KNOBEL "the Prophet followed attentively the great events, spoke as these and the circumstances they brought about dictated he should, and wrote up the discourses one after another" (p. 342). And so he maintains that chaps. xl.-xlviii, originated in the time of the first splendid successes of Cyrus; chaps. xlix.-lxii., however, he puts in the time when Cyrus began to carry out his plan of subduing the western nations. Chap. lxii. 1-6 is supposed to refer to the taking of Sardis. The prayer, chap. lxiii. 7-lxiv. 11, and the answer to it, chapter lxv. are supposed to fall in the period after this event. Only in regard to chapter lxvi. KNOBEL is undetermined whether it is to be put before the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus, or in the time after it. SEINECKE takes again the view-point of BECK: only he denies that the Prophet prophesied the deliverance by Cyrus. Much rather this is everywhere presupposed. What he does prophesy is the "new salvation," i. e., a period of great happiness, which of course can only be realized in the holy land. The entire prophecy is one whole made at one cast. If one point of time is fixed, then the time of the composition of the whole is clear. Now it appears, especially from chap. xli. 2, 3; xliv. 25; xlv. 4 sq.; lii. 11; xlix. 22, 23, that the edict of Cyrus (Ezra i. 1 sqq.) had already appeared. After this proclamation, before the start of the first train of exiles, therefore in the year 536 was the prophecy written.

Most of the critics regard our chapters as the work of a single author. Only here and there a voice contends for different authors. See AUGUSTI, Exeget. Handbuch, p. 24 sqq., BERTHOLDT, l. c., p. 1375; EICHHORN, Propheten (the list at the close of Vol. III., p. 686). In regard to chap. lii. 13

liii. 12 sq., see our comm. and SCHENKEL, Stud. u. Krit., 1836, p. 996. Especially EWALD has felt that he must assume a plurality of authors. But who may have been the author or authors no one is able to say. The critics are only united in this, that it was not Isaiah, yet they confess that he must have been a man of great spiritual significance. EWALD has introduced the name "the great unnamed" (comp. Proph. d. A. B. II., p. 403; Gesch. d. V. Isr. IV., p. 56). It is even confessed that the so-called Deutero-Isaiah has a great resemblance to the genuine Isaiah. To the question: Why then have chaps. xl.-lxvi. been ascribed to Isaiah, SEINECKE (p. 36) replies by saying, "that no later Prophet has approached so near the spirit of Isaiah as the author of chap. xl.-lxvi,; in none are found so reproduced his characteristic forms of expression."

3. The reasons urged against Isaiah being the author of part second are the following: 1. Isaiah lived more than an hundred years before the exile. He has also not once prophesied it. But the author of chaps. xl.-lxvi. lived in the exile. Both the oriental relations in general at the time of the exile (he even calls Cyrus by name), and the special relations of the exiles are so exactly known to him, that we must recognize in him an eye-witness and a sharer of those relations. 2. He distinguishes himself from Isaiah as much by different religious and theocratic-political views, as by peculiar style and usus loquendi. 3. Those prophets that lived after Isaiah and before the exile did not know the chaps. xl.-lxvi. 4. According to an old tradition, to which the TALMUD testifies, and to which the German and French Manuscripts conform, the three great Prophets follow in the order, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah. From this is inferred that this arrangement has chronological reasons, and that Isaiah, on account of the second part having been composed at the end of the exile, was placed after Ezekiel.

IN REPLY TO THE FIRST OBJECTION.-a). If it were proved that there is no personal God, or that this personal God, if there be one, at least never in a direct, supernatural way interfered in the course of the history of the world, then, of course, Isaiah could never be the author of chaps. xl.lxvi. For then there would be no prophecy in a supernatural and miraculous sense. There would then at best be only an intensified power of presentiment or gift of combination. That is the standpoint of those who aim, more or less consciously, to be rid of God as much as possible, to explain the world without God, and without God to live merely under the abstract, unalterable laws of nature. There are, therefore, here two fundamental ways of looking at things that are opposed to each other, and that can never harmonize. All dialectic demonstration is useless here. Of course an interference without motive and arbitrary on God's part, no one will admit who holds the view-point of the moderate theism of the Bible. But according to Scripture, over the present, earthly, temporal order of nature there exists a higher and eternal order. The earthly, temporal order of nature is characterized by the disharmony of spirit and body. The higher order rests on the harmony of these. The lower stage must form the transition to the higher. This is only possible by the latter entering into the former, partly in order to prepare the judgment on the same, partly to lay in it the new germs of life. Miracle and prophecy, as in the organism of the history of salvation they appear authenticated, though they are not the highest, are still the first traces of that super-terrestrial spiritual power that, on the one hand subdues matter, and on the other, time and space, in order to make known the divine decree of love, and gradually to realize it. Now among all the men that divine love employs to this end in the Old Testament, Isaiah occupies the first rank. First he sees Syria and Ephraim coming against the theocracy, and recognizes at once their harmlessness. Assyria rises threatening behind them. But soon the Prophet sees that it too will not harm the theocracy, but must itself come to disgrace by the theocracy. Only the third world-power, (EphraimSyria reckoned as the first), that emerges to the view of the Prophet, immediately behind Assyria to i. e., Babylon, he recognizes as the agent called to execute the next great judgment on the outward theocracy. Babylon was Nineveh's rival. They had severe conflicts until first Babylon, and then at length Nineveh fell. Now it is said that Isaiah never predicted Israel's being led into the Babylonian captivity. True enough, this was not his commission. This part of the history of the future belonged to his successors Zephaniah and Jeremiah. Yet Babylon's destination to effect this was not unknown to him. For he expresses it chap. xxxix. 6 sq., briefly indeed, but in plain words. And even if Isaiah were not the author of the original writing from which chaps. xxxvi.-xxxix. were taken, still this does not justify us in doubting that he made the statement of which xxxix. 6 sq. informs us. Without mentioning Babylon, a period of exile is partly presupposed, partly directly announced to the land and nation in chap. i. 27; v. 5 sq.; xiii. 26 sqq.; vi. 11, 12; x. 5 sqq.; xii. 20 8 sq.; xi. 11; xxx. 12. And does not Micah (iv. 10), the contemporary of Isaiah, prophesy in

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