Obrazy na stronie
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cheer one another with the cry: "Geba give us lodging." Thus they promise themselves good quarters in Geba, that lay so charmingly on an elevated plateau (comp. SCHEGG in DELITZSCH). Geba cannot be the same as Gebea of Saul, as appears evident from our text. For if it were the same, why is it mentioned twice with a difference in the form of the name, and with the name of another city coming between? Rama, now er-Ram, the city of Benjamin, made notorious by Saul (1 Sam. i. 19; ii. 11, etc.), seems to have lain aside from their route though near by. For it looks with trembling on the passers by; but Gebea of Saul opposite, lying perhaps still nearer, fled outright, It lay on the summit of Tuleil-el-Tul (the Bean mountain, see ARNOLD, HERZ. Real. Encycl. p. 744) which commands a view of the whole neighborhood. In a direct line the expedition encounters Gallim, (1 Sam. xxv. 44) which VALENTINER (Ztschr. d. D. M. G. XII. p. 169) thinks he has discovered in the hill Chirbet el- Dschisr that lies South of the Bean mountain. Because immediately threatened, Gallim shall shriek out (p accus.). Laishah, by no means identical with Judg. xviii. 29, cannot be located. But KNOBEL is likely correct in finding evidence of its being a place near Gallim in 1 Sam. xxv. 44, where is mentioned Phaltiel son of Laish from Gallim (comp. 2 Sam. iii. 15). My my, "O poor Anathoth," is evidently a play on words. By this and the emotion of the orator is to be explained the order of the words, which is not quite normal (comp. liv. 11). Anathoth, now Anata, is only three-fourths of an hour distant from Jerusalem Madmenah (Dung-heaps) and Gebim (fountains, Jer. xiv. 3) are not mentioned elsewhere, nor are any traces of the places discovered

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as yet. Both are directly threatened; so nothing remains but to flee and save their goods. "Saving their goods seems to be indicated by yð (comp. Exod. ix. 19); yet it may very well be construed as synonymous with 7 according to Jer. iv. 6; vi. 1. "To-day still in Nob, to make a halt," is likewise the enemies' shout to one another. The thing is to pass on to Nob to-day, but there make a preliminary halt in order to make the necessary dispositions for the attack on Jerusalein. Nob (comp. 2 Sam. xxi. 16, 28; Neh. xi. 32) without doubt quite near Jerusalem, is to the present not certainly identified. SCHEGG contends very decidedly that it may be Isawije that lies South-west of Anata fifty-five minutes North of Jerusalem.

3. Behold the Lord- ——a mighty one.Vers. 33, 34. The proud expedition of the Assyrian falls like trees felled by the axe. Like the tempest tears away the branches, so the terror that goes forth from Jehovah breaks the power of the Assyrian. "The high ones of stature (of the standing wood)" shall be cut down (ix. 9) the lofty ones must bow. The entire forest thicket (ix. 17) shall be cut down with the iron; but Lebanon (notice how the Prophet before distinguished branches, trunks and thicket, but at last combines all in the common, all comprehending name Lebanon) shall will be the Prophet does not say. That it is the fall by a Mighty One. Who this Mighty One Lord Himself as the remote cause, who xxxiii. 21, comp. Ps. xciii. 4, is called “glorious,

mighty," is of course. But it may convey also an allusion at the same time to that one among the LORD's ministers, that was the principal instrument in annihilating the Assyrian army before Jerusalem (xxxvii. 36). For the ministers of the LORD, too, are called D'N "the excellent or mighty," (Ps. xvi. 3).

III. ISRAEL'S REDEMPTION IN RELATION TO THE MESSIAH. CHAPTER XI. 1-XII. 6.

1. FROM THE APPARENTLY DRIED UP ROOT OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID SHALL GO FORTH A SPROUT THAT SHALL FOUND A KINGDOM OF MOST GLORIOUS PEACE. CHAPTER XI. 1-9.

1

AND there shall come forth a rod out of the "stem of Jesse,

And a 'Branch shall grow out of his roots:

2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,

The spirit of wisdom and understanding,

The spirit of counsel and might,

The spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;

3 And shall make him of 'quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes,

Neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:

4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor,
And "reprove with equity for the meek of earth:

And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth,
And with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins,
And faithfulness the girdle of his reins.

6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,

And the leopard shall lie down with the kid;

And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.

7 And the cow and the bear shall feed;
Their young ones shall lie down together:
And the lion shall eat "straw like the ox.

asp,

8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the
And the weaned child shall put his hand on the 'cockatrice' den.
9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain:
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD,
As the waters cover the sea.

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On ver. 1. yil occurs again only xl. 24; Job xiv. 8. The root

גזע

- secundum, comp. p. xxxii. 1: M, etc.—-—-—

is not found. The meaning is that of pain with ↳ like ii. 4.

(x. 33). caedere" to cut down." In the three places that it occurs, yil is "the hewn, cut up stem that still sticks

On ver. 4. comp. xl. 4; xlii. 16.

On ver. 5. GESENIUS makes the remark here that the

can חגור instead of using once) אזור repetition of - גזע דָּוִד and not גזע ישי in the ground. Hence

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again only Prov. xiv. 3, meaning: "rod, pliant twig." -3), xiv. 19; lx. 21; Dan. xi. 7 (from 7 unused root, splendere, nitere), a hardy, fresh young branch."--, though the accents are against it, must be connected with 13. For what does it mean that the shoot right from the root on shall bear fruit? Is something unnatural and impossible said of this shoot? Or was not Christ a Tree when He bore fruit?

The thought is rather that from the extinct trunk and shoot a sprout shall proceed that shall give evidence of adequate vital power, and grow up to be a fruit-bearing tree. Hence it is quite unjustifiable to impose upon the verb 'the meaning of (HITZIG, UMBREIT).

pre

give no surprise in Isaiah, because he often uses the same word in parallel clauses: xiv. 4; xv. 1, 8; xvi. 7; xvii. 12, 13; xix. 7; xxxi. 8; xxxii. 17; xlii. 19; xliv. 3; liv. 13; lv. 4, 13; lix. 10. But in saying this GESENIUS, as DRECHSLER remarks, forgot that he denies Isaiah's authorship of chaps. xl.-lxvi.

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ix. 3.

,25 .again only lxv תְּבֶן

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On ver. 6. N is found in Isaiah only here and lxv. 25, that resembles this. is “the lamb;" comp. i. 11; v. 17. "the striped" is "the panther" (Jer. v. 6; xiii. 23). Isaiah has it only here.-- with like 1 Chr. xiii. 7; comp. on On ver. 7. xxxv. 9.On ver. 3. It is natural to regard as antithesis of the objective communication of the Spirit spoken of, On ver. 8. ywy Pilpel from yy delinire, mulcere, ver. 2. For first, means "smell anything with comp. the pass. lxvi. 12.- - xlii. 22-¡ only here pleasure" (Lev. xxvi. 31; Amos v. 21). But if in Isaiah.- -IND is är. Aey. I is "light," i. e., should be the object of in, then it ceases to be "an illuminating body" (Gen. i. 16); would then dicate, and then the sentence is without predicate; or if it is construed as predicate, then the emphatic use be a "light opening," and we might understand under of after verbs of sensation cannot be appealed to, bethat term both the entrance of the cave and the sparkling eye of the animal gleaming like a precious stone cause then no longer depends on the notion of smell(so the TARG., ABEN EZRA, KIMCHI, etc.). But the paraling, but on a modification of the notion of being (hap- lelism with prompts the conjecture, that originally pens in the fear of Jehovah, is directed to the fear of, which otherwise never occurs, "cave," Jehovah), which must be supplied to accommodate the subject to the predicate. Second: What means the onesided emphasis of smelling? If smelling may be construed in the wider sense as inhaling and exhaling air through the nose, so that it coincides with breathing,

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stood in the text (GESENIUS). What is correct is hard to make out.-- doubtless kindred to π, immittere is än. Aey.--The y (lix. 5) is likely identical with JDY (xiv. 23). The root y means halare, sibithat would suit. I construe it in this wider sense as do others (CLERICUS, HENDEWERK, EWALD, MEIER). [See lare. Doubtless a very poisonous serpent is meant, perComment of J. A. ALEXANDER, added, p. 162, top.] Then haps the basilisk, which is said to have been called sib' is to be construed as direct causative Hiphil, in ilus. Comp. GESENIUS, Thes. p. 1182. the sense of "to make," as one says "to make ears” — to "hear," "to make a tongue," züngeln, "to blaspheme." then "breath, life's breath," Gen. vi. 17; vii. 15, 22, etc. But still much depends on whether bodily or spiritual breath is meant. The context decides for the latter. For our

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On ver. 9. That the beasts are subject of y (comp. lxv. 25) the context puts beyond doubt.——▷ is here manifestly the sea-bed, the bottom of the sea; (comp. Ps. civ. 6). The prefix before is explained by the causative sense in which Piel is used here, as it is often.

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הציל means " covering, make covering," like כְּכָה- רוח יראת י' stands in evident antithesis to ביראת "

הָאֲרִיךְ ",provide justice הוֹכִיחַ "provide rescue *

ver. 2. The latter designates the objective communi

cation of the Spirit, the former the subjective reception.

66

66

"make length," etc., and is accordingly, like the verbs

་་

named, construed with the dative. So, too, is hy does in a grateful odor. In the is a con

"to make a cover, to spread as a cover over something" (Num xvi. 33; Job xxxvi. 32; Hab. ii. 14, where our text is reproduced.-J. A. ALEXANDER on verse 3. "And his sense of smelling (i. c., his power of perception, with a seeming reference to the pleasure it affords him) shall be exercised in (or upon) the fear of Jehovah (as an attribute of others"). The only sense of 1 confirmed by usage is to smell. This, as a figure, comprehends discernment or discrimination between false and true religion, and the act of taking pleasure as the sense

nective which the verb

commonly takes after it, and adds no more to the meaning of the phrase than the English prepositions when we speak of smelling to or of a thing, instead of simply smelling it."

Ibid. On ver. 9. "They shall not hurt nor destroy," etc. The absence of the copulative shows that this is not so much a direct continuation of the previous description as a summary explanation of it. The true construction, therefore, is indefinite, and the verbs do not agree with the nouns (animals) of ver. 8."]

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.

1. The destruction of the proud, towering for- | cedar (p) that the Lord will plant on the high est, which, meaning primarily Assyria, compre-mountain of Israel (Isa. ii.) to show how He is hends also the world-powers generally, is followed able to bring down the high tree, exalt the low by a contrasted picture in the renewed flourishing tree, dry up the green tree, and make flourish the of the house of David and of his kingdom. That dry tree." house of David will be reduced to a stunted and 3. And the spirit—fear of the Lordinconsiderable root-stock, when the world-power Ver. 2. The Prophet immediately forsakes the shall be at the summit of its prosperity. But figurative language. He speaks of the sprout as from this root-stock, that is regarded as dead, a of a person. For on Him shall settle down (vii. sprout shall still go forth (ver. 1). On it the 2, 19; Num. xi. 25; 2 Kings ii. 15) the spirit of Spirit of the Lord shall rest in the fulness of His Jehovah. This is a generic designation. For in manifold powers (ver. 2). This sprout will take what follows a threefold species of this genus is delight in the fear of Jehovah; He will practise named, each of which is represented in two modijustice not after the deceptive sight of the eyes fications. The candlestick of the sanctuary has (ver. 3); on the contrary He will so do it that rightly been regarded as symbol of the spirit of the poor and humble shall be helped, but the Jehovah. The stem corresponds to what we have wicked not merely outwardly, but also inwardly called the genus, the six branches to what we subdued (ver. 4). For He shall stand firm in have called the species (Exod. xxv. 31 sqq. ; righteousnesss and truth (ver. 5). Thus His xxxvii. 17 sqq.). The first species comprehends kingdom shall be one of peace in such a degree and 2) "wisdom and understanding." that even the impersonal creatures shall be filled It is not easy to determine wherein consists the with this spirit of peace (vers. 6 7), 8. For even difference between these. In not a few passages the wildest beasts shall be no more wild, and no they are placed opposite to one another in the longer do harm on Jehovah's holy mountain. The whole shall be full of the liveliest and deep-5, 7; ix. 10; Job xxviii. 12, 20, 28; 2 Chr. ii. parallelism of the clauses: Prov. ii. 2 sqq.; iv. est knowledge of Jehovah, like the bottom of the 12, etc. In all these passages is observed, first of sea is covered with water (ver. 9). all, a formal distinction, a certain distinction of rank. "Wisdom" is the great all-comprehending chief name of all right knowledge. As the notion wisdom rises to personality, in fact to the dignity of divine personality (Prov. viii. 32 sqq.) the word becomes almost a proper name. "Understanding" ( with л, etc.) takes up a subordinate position. It signifies always only an element, although a very essential one of "wisdom" (comp. Prov. viii. 14). Many find in

2. And there shall come

-his roots.

the fundamental meaning of firmitas solida, of TUKLÓS, though the word is rather allied to

plaatum, and thus, as in sapientia, copía “sapor "taste" (comp. Dy) is the fundamental notion. In any case "wisdom" has more a positive meaning, whereas "understanding" (comp.

Ver. 1. Without a hint as to the time when, the Prophet announced that a revirescence of David's house shall be the correlative of destruction of the world-power that was compared to the forest of Lebanon. He says stock of Jesse, not stock of David, for he would intimate that David's stock will be reduced to its rank previous to David, when it was only the stock of the obscure citizen of Bethlehem. This explanation seems to me more correct than the other that understands that by this term is intimated that the Messiah shall be the second David, for He is such not alongside of, but after and out of the first David. The Messiah is in fact the Son of David (2 Sam. vii.). If this stock, dead and mutilated, only exists as a stump, (but we know when and how that hap- and the meaning of the root-words in the diapened,) then shall a slender twig emerge from His roots, thus out of that part concealed under lects) carries more the negative notion of diákpots, ground and still fresh, a hardy shoot that shall the art of distinguishing between true and false, not perish, but bear fruit, and therefore (as in- good and bad. and “counsel" and cluded in the statement) develop to a new tree. might" (xxxvi. 5) are easily distinguished as He is called "branch" iv. 2; Jer. xxiii. 5; proofs of practical wisdom in forming and executxxxiii. 15; Zech. iii. 8; vi. 12. At the begining good counsel. A third pair is (, stat. ning of liii. (ver. 2) is found a representation of const. and "" the Messiah closely resembling our verse: "and LORD:" for the first two pairs comprise those He raised Himself before Him like the tender effects of the spirit that relate to the earthly plant and like the root out of dry ground." Ezek. life. The third pair appear to reach out beyond too, (xvii. 22-24) speaks of the shoot of the this earthly life. It names a knowledge and a

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"knowledge and fear of the

fear whose object is Jehovah Himself. If the fear of God is named last here, whereas according to Prov. i. 7; ix. 10; Ps. cxi. 10 it is the beginning of all wisdom, that has its reason herein, that what is the deepest foundation may at the same time be designated as the loftiest height, like the great mountains form the inmost nucleus and the highest summits of the earth's body. The entire enumeration progresses therefore from the bottom upwards. Moreover the view of the seven spirits of God, that is found Rev. i. 4; iii. 1; iv. 5; v. 6, rests on our text. On the anointing of the Messiah with the Spirit of God, comp. xlii. 1; lxi. 1; Matth. xii. 18; Luke iv. 18; Jno.

iii. 34.

4. And shall make—his reins.-Vers. 3-5. On n' see Text. and Gram. He has not only received the spirit from without; He receives it also within Him, so that He continually breathes in this spiritual air of life-this alone and no other. He has received (objectively) the spirit in absolute fulness. There appears to me to lie in these words, too, an allusion to Gen. ii. 7. There it is said that God breathed in men

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His spirit as the principle of life. But this principle of life performs its functions no matter in what element the man may find himself. Even in the godless it is constantly active. Yet how unsatisfying, how mournful is that breathing of the spirit in a sphere infected by sin. Messiah lives wholly in "the fear of God." therefore breathes in an atmosphere homogeneous to Him. He therefore brings into use for mankind the right breathing by bringing them back into the pure element of spirit. He is the

second Adam.

He

As king, the Messiah must display the divinity of His disposition pre-eminently in the perfectly adequate administration of justice. He will therefore never let His judgment depend on outward appearance, never on that which pleases the outward sense, but He will only suffer that to pass for right that is right. He will not, therefore, look on the person, but help the poor and lowly to their rights (comp. i. 26 sqq.; iii. 13 sqq.). But the unjust He will punish. This is the meaning of ver. 4 b. For the earth (7) that He smites with the rod of His mouth, (Rev. i. 16) and that is put parallel with the wicked" can only be regarded as the territory of the world that is hostile to God. "The wicked" is

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by the CHALDEE, and since that by many expositors, construed not only as a collective = Dy, but at the same time, (or even exclusively e. g. DELITZSCH) in the sense of 2 Thess. ii. 8, as designation of an eschatological person, in whom enmity against God shall reach its climax. The staff of His mouth is the word that goes forth out of His mouth, and the breath of His lips is the same. For His word is in fact what His lips (spiritually) breathe out. Thus He proves Himself to be the one that can destroy in the same way as He created. By His word were things made; by His word they pass away. Comp. Ps. civ. 29. In this righteousness, however, consists His proper strength, and the guaranty for the eternal continuance of His kingdom. The powers of the world must pass away on account of unrighteousness (Prov. xiv. 34).

The girdle is the symbol of vigorous, unimpeded development of strength, because the ancients could run, wrestle, and work only when the girdle confined their wide garments (comp. Job xii. 18; xxxviii. 3; xl. 2; Jer. i. 17; Eph. vi. 14; 1 Pet. i. 13). Let the loins be girt with righteousness and truth, and the girded man stands strong and firm in righteousness and truth. He is strong by both. Therefore He does not further His cause by unrighteousness and lies, but by the contrary.

5. The wolf also--the sea.-Vers. 6-9.

The Prophet's vision penetrates to the remotest time: he comprises the near and far in one look. in the near future, the Messiah in the inception The Assyria of the present, with its destruction of His appearance, and the latest fruits of His work of peace-all this he sees at once in a grand Prince of Peace (ix. 5) shall have done away When the Redeemer, as picture before him. with all violence, and put justice on the throne, then will peace be in the earth, and that, not only among men, but also among beasts. The Prophet, it is true, does not explain how the beasts are to be made accessible to this peaceful disposition. But it seems to me certain that only stupendous changes in nature, violent revolutions, world-ruin and resurrection, thus the slaying of the old Adam, and the regeneration of nature can bring forth these effects, (Rev. xx. sq.). hold I make all things new," (Rev. xxi. 5) says He, that sits upon the throne. But we see from himself had a presentiment of this grand, and passages like xxxv.; xliii. 18 sqq., that Isaiah all-comprehending world-renewal. I do not mean

"Be

by this to defend a literal fulfilment of the word which the church fathers rejected as Judaizing, but only themselves to fall into the opposite extreme of spiritualizing and allegorizing. (Jerome appeals to Eph. i. 3). The point is to find the happy medium. That, however, is not found by saying that Isaiah meant what he said in a real sense, only he deceived himself, but by recognizing that Isaiah, as organ of the Spirit of God, beheld stupendous, spirit-corporeal reality, but paints this reality with human, earthly, even national and temporal colors. In short there will be "a new creation," (2 Cor. v. 17) and this new creation will be at the same time a restitution of that oldest creation, that original one of Paradise, but on a higher plane. But how in the picture absolute and relative reality, i. e., whether to exof the Prophet, to draw the boundary between clude only single traits as not literal, cr whether to divest the whole of its local and temporal the latter. For all the traits of the picture construction, is difficult to say. Yet I decide for painted by Isaiah bear the stamp of the existing earthly corporality. But in this sphere the prophecy cannot be realized. We must suppose a new basis of spiritual, glorified corporality made for this fulfilment. On this basis then the Prophet's word will, mutatis mutandis, certainly be

fulfilled.

The young lion (5 v. 29) will lie quietly between the calf and the fattened ox, hitherto his favorite food; and a small boy will suffice to keep this entire, extraordinary, mixed up herd. Cow and bear graze, and their young rest by one

another, while the old male-lion will devour chopped straw. Poisonous serpents will change their nature; the sucking child will play at the hole (vid. Text. and Gram.) of the adder. The holy mountain of Jehovah (comp. on ii. 2 sqq.), will not indeed physically comprise the earth, but it will rule the earth, and so far the Prophet can say, there shall no more harm be done, nor destruction devised on the holy mountain. The whole earth, in fact, is only the slope of the mount of God. But the reason why there is no more harm, is that the whole earth (notice how in the second clause "earth" is substituted for

"holy mountain ") will be full of the knowledge of the LORD. No doubt the Prophet means here, not merely a dead knowing, which even the devils have (Jas. ii. 17); he means a living, experimental, practical knowledge of God, as is possible also to the impersonal creature. Therefore the whole earth, not merely man, shall know God living, and thus on the holy mountain shall no harm or destruction be devised. By the glorious picture of that knowledge filling the earth like the water the bottom of the sea, the Prophet signifies that he conceives of all creatures as filled with this living knowledge of God.

2. THE RETURN OF ISRAEL TAKES PLACE ONLY WHEN THE MESSIAH HAS APPEARED AND THE HEATHEN HAVE GATHERED TO HIM.

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CHAPTER XI. 10-16.

AND in that day there shall be a root of Jesse,

Which shall stand for an ensign of the people;

To it shall the Gentiles seek:

And his rest shall be 'glorious.

11 And it shall come to pass in that day,

That the LORD shall set his hand again the second time

To recover the remnant of his people,

Which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt,

And from Pathros, and from Čush, and from Elam,

And from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations,

And shall assemble the outcasts of Israel,

And gather together the dispersed of Judah
From the four corners of the earth.

2b

13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart,

And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off:

Ephraim shall not envy Judah,

And Judah shall not vex Ephraim.

14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; They shall spoil them of the east together:

"They shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab;

"And the children of Ammon shall obey them.

15 And the LORD 'shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea;

And with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river,

And shall smite it in the seven streams,

And make men go over 'dry-shod.

16 And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, Which shall be left, from Assyria;

Like as it was to Israel

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On ver. 11. 7'' is only found here. Many would that is not something that may be left to be understood.

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