object is attained; the meaning of this form of a religious one, a counterpart of the law of Sinai. As DELITZSCH remarks, the Servant of Jehovah will add to the Sinaitic the Zionitic Torah (comp. clause indicates that we are not to consider it as ii. 3). The position of 1" at the end of the dependent on y. But the Prophet would say: when the standard of right is established by the Servant of Jehovah as Torah, as religious law, then will the isles (meaning here the remotest regions of the heathen world) turn themselves to it in hope and trust (comp. li. 4, 5). 2. THE SERVANT OF GOD AS THE BEARER OF A NEW COVENANT. THIRD APPLICATION OF PROPHECY AS PROOF OF DIVINITY. THE He that created the heavens, and stretched them out; He that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; And spirit to them that walk therein: 6 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, And will hold thine hand, And will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, For a light of the Gentiles; 7 To open the blind eyes, To bring out the prisoners from the prison, And them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. 8 I am the LORD: that is my name: And my glory will I not give to another, Neither my praise to graven images. 9 Behold, the former things are come to pass, And new things do I declare: Before they spring forth I tell you of them. I the LORD. TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. See List for the recurrence of the words: Ver. 5. comp. xxii. 24) taken strictly does not suit it. But in there lies ideally the notion of spreading out and בְּלָא .7 .Ver נצר-אחזק .6 .Ver בורא כה אמר רקע .depends on that צאצאיה | נוטיהם comp. xl. 22. The form נטה שמים Ver. 5. On with is to be explained, not indeed according to liv. 5, Ver. 6. pin, the abbreviated jussive form, here exbut after the analogy of those forms of in which ceptionally in the first person [See GREEN'S Gr. § 97.2 a). the original reappears. On y comp. on xl. 19; xliv. In regard to its being joined with see iv. 1; xlv. 1; 24. As the word properly means to hammer out broad li. 18; Ivi. 2, 4, 6; lxiv. 6; comp. xli. 13).That (comp. y'p7), ¡π'NYNY (rà čkyova, pan Nyin qui have not the article, accords with the prophetic Gen. 1. 12 sqq., a word that occurs only in Job and Isa.; style, and is not to be pressed. TT EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. עָם and 1. This strophe consists of a preface, principal | called Thee, will uphold, protect and make Thee part, and conclusion. In respect to vers. 1-4 there is a climax. The introduction ver. 5 is a considerable leap. There the Prophet designates the LORD as the one that has created heaven and the earth, and all that is on it. This affords the basis for what follows. The same God that could do this, and He only, is able also to deliver them. He, too, can say of the redeemer His Servant: I have the bearer of a new covenant, and a light to all nations (ver. 6). This new covenant and enlightening the nations shall consist in opening blind eyes, and delivering prisoners from prison (ver. 7), which is to be understood in both a spiritual and a physical sense. The strophe concluds (vers. 8, 9) by the emphatic statement that He, Jehovah announces this beforehand for the sake of His own honor, and especially to show (ver. 8) the difference between Himself and idols. As He has fulfilled earlier prophecies, so now He gives new ones in order, by their eventual fulfilment, to prove His divinity. 2. Thus saith God-therein.-Ver. 5. of the people, and for a light of the Gentiles. When HERMANN SCHULTZ (Alttestamentl. Theol. II. p. 75) says, that there is here not the remotest mention of a future personality, I should like to know how he may reconcile that with ver. אתנן אצרן אחזק put first is, like Gen. 19. One sees from the Futures הָאֵל It seems to me that xlvi. 3, meant to designate emphatically the true 3. I the LORD—-prison house.-Vers. 6, 7. Having reminded his hearers who God is as in ver. 5, the Prophet lets the LORD announce Himself as the one who will give the world a redeemer in His Servant. He that can create, elc., can also do this. One is reminded of тт those passages where Jesus Christ proves His power to forgive sins by pointing to His miracles: Matt. ix. 2 sqq.; Mar. ii. 3 sqq.; Luke v. 18 sqq.). That the one called is the Servant of God, is evident from the context. Precalls xli. 2, 4, 9. But the LORD has called His Servant p. If the Old Testament p "righteousness" has for its antithesis on or puy, i. e., violence, unrighteousness, then a righteous man, p, is one who in every respect wills only what is right and proper. He will neither do violence to the poor and weak, nor regard the person of the mighty and violent man; He will neither condemn the penitent and contrite, nor let the impenitent go unpunished. Thus His treatment of the penitent sinner is as just as it is of the impenitent. He could destroy the former if He would; for He has the power. Who would call Him to account? But is then grace, that dispenses pardon on the ground of a subjective or objective performance, not also just? That is, does not God in a higher sense exercise righteousness, when He forgives the contrite who implores grace on the ground of the atoning-sacrifice that even God Himself has made for him? Thus it is not at all partial favor, measuring with unequal measure, when God calls His Servant into the world as redeemer. Rather, in Him grace displays itself as combined in one with righteousness. Unrighteous grace there is not in God any way. Thus Isaiah can say of Cyrus that God has raised him up in righteousness (xlv. 13). By "I have called thee the appearance of the Servant is signified as something that has already taken place. The verbs that follow signify as future what the LORD purposes to do with His Servant. He will take Him by the hand and (which expresses the object of so doing) protect Him, and make Him for a covenant and still more plainly from ver. 9, that the Prophet points away to a remote future that has not even begun to bud. And the "covenant of the people," too, must be a new one, and not one in existence already. For were it an old, already existing one, how did the LORD come to say that He would make His Servant for this covenant? In fact it must be a very new covenant, vastly superior to the old one, since, according to ver. prisoners from prison," which the old covenant 7, it can open blind eyes, and bring out the could not do. Neither the total of Israel, nor the ideal Israel, nor the order of prophets can set in operation what is promised in ver. 7; or if this were something that they could do, then it does not belong here. We justly expect something great here, a work of salvation, an act of redemption, in fact something greater than is promised vers. 2, 3, for the strophe vers. 5-9 forms the ladder to what follows, which presents to view the highest good. Either Isaiah does not speak of the Messiah at all, (which indeed KNOBEL maintains with entire consistency), or he speaks of Him already here. The opinion that Isaiah here does not yet understand the Messiah under "the Servant of Jehovah," that the Servant of Jehovah appears as an individual only later, say from lii. 14 on, comes from the failure to observe foundation for what follows. the character of xl.-xlii. which prepare the In Josh. iii. 14 even the ark of the covenant is called . When even such an inanimate vessel is called the covenant, why may that not be said of the Lord Himself, who, in fact, is the sole living and personal bond that unites divinity and humanity. As Christ calls Himself the way (Jno. xiv. 6), or the resurrection (Jno. xi. 25). so, too, He may be called the covenant. Thus, e. g., DD "tributum" (Josh. xvi. 10, etc.), signifies Him that tributum affert, Dihy (Ps. cxx. 7) Him that pacem agit. Thus Dy is He that mediates the covenant to the people. But this is no other than the Messiah. I do not comprehend how V. FR. Oehler (D. Knecht Jehova's, I. p. 50) "Israel in the Messianic time needs no more an Abraham, a Moses as mediator of a covenant of the people with Jehovah, but the people as regenerated, as conscious of its destiny, as perfect servant of Jehovah is itself the covenant." Israel has, indeed, no need of an Abraham or Moses; but Christ it does need, and without Him, too, it could never be "the perfect servant of Jehovah." can say: By Dy is meant Israel, as appears both from the added 2 and from the antithetical_D' (comp. xlix. 6). Salvation comes from the Jews (Jno. iv. 22). The sunrise from on high (Luke i. 78) appears in Israel and proceeds thence to the heathen. For the recurrence of the phraseology here see xlix. 6, 8, comp. li. 4. The covenant, that the Servant of Jehovah is to mediate is called liv. 10 a covenant of peace, and lv. 3; lxi. 8, an everlasting covenant (comp. lix. 21; lvi. 4, 6). 44 with the words, "I, Jehovah, do it." It must be something that only Jehovah can do; thus something far beyond the power of a man or of any other creature. Jehovah, however, can do it because He is called ', i. e., according to Exod. iii. 14, the eternally existent, the absolutely existent (in D, appears even a reminiscence of 'D, Exod. iii. 15), who just thereby is distinguished from all other beings, that either have no real existence at all, as idols, or that have not the LORD not do what He has promised, vers. 6, the source of their existence in themselves. Did 7, His name would lie. He would not then be what He calls Himself; He were a liar and deceiver, like those that unjustly assume the name for the fulfilment of what is promised, vers. 6 7. god." Thus He pledges the honor of His name But the LORD must do this not only to be con In ver. 7, the Prophet specifies the contents of the general notions covenant of the people," "light of the Gentiles." If 'y'Пp (comp. xxxv. 5; xxix. 18) connects primarily with D', and appears attracted by this thought, so 7'08 ' relates primarily to Dy, thus to Israel. Why may one not think first of Israel in reference to the deliverance from imprisonment, seeing the entire second part of Isaiah is primarily a book of consolation for Israel in captivity? But to prevent our thinking that the opening of eyes refers only to the heathen, and the leading out of prison only to Israel, the Prophet adds a third clause, that combines both factors, and thus intimates that also those sitting insistent with Himself; He does it also in order that darkness shall be freed, and those languishing in His honor may not unlawfully be taken by anprison be enlightened. From this appears how unjust to the text a rough, outward construction other. Did He promise and not fulfil, He would like KNOBEL'S is. For did the heathen, then, certain sense, He would be less than idols. For not be distinguished from idols. Indeed, in a share Israel's captivity in Babylon? Certainly not. But there is a blindness and a captivity not to be able to prophesy at all (xli. 21) were under which both Israel and the heathen labored better than to prophesy and not fulfil. In a quite similar sense xlviii. 11. But, moreover, the LORD (comp. Acts xxvi. 17, 18). At the same time it must not be denied, that also acts of physical de- may not risk the coming to pass of the great liverance are to be regarded as degrees of the ful things spoken of, vers. 6, 7, without His having filment of our prophecy, e. g., from the chains of previously foretold them, lest Israel say as in xlviii. prison and darkness, like the deliverance from 5,"mine idol hath done them," etc. Thus, as in the Babylonish Exile, and those acts of healing cates the future things as His plan and His work, xli. 4, 22 sqq., by prophesying them, He vindithat the personal Servant of Jehovah did during and proves His divinity. But as He does not now His life on earth (comp. ix. 1; Matt. iv. 14-16, first begin to prophesy, but had done it already with ibid. ver. 23). Light and freedom, there in the remote past, so He can now point, not only fore light and right (for freedom is his right to the future fulfilment of what is now prophesied, whom the prison holds not or holds no longer) but also to the actual fulfilment of what was forwill the Servant of Jehovah bring to the world. Should not one think here of the Urim and merly prophesied. Thus present fulfilment is Thummim of the High-Priest (Exod. xxviii. 30), security for that which is to be. Accordingly, by and consequently construe this offering of light, ver. 9, I cannot, with DELITZSCH and and right as the priestly activity of the Servant others, understand the immediate future, but of Jehovah? The expression dwellers in dark- only that foretold in the past. If the T ness occurs only here and Ps. cvii. 10. Comp. were "the appearance of Cyrus and the movements of the nations connected therewith," then instead of N it must read 2 (comp. xli. 22). How can fulfilments still future, any way, be the pledge of others also future? I understand, therefore, by the former things the totality of prophecies made from the days of the Patriarchs to the catastrophe of Assyria, and in part fulfilled, and by new things (comp. xlviii. 6) all that the Prophet has to say concerning the future salvation that begins with Cyrus. These are the things which the Prophet, with the actual or the ideal present in view, designates as not recognizable even in their buds (comp. xliii. 19). Isa. ix. 1. 4. I am the Lord of them.-Vers. 8, 9. The verses 6, 7 form the pith of the strophe; which is prefaced (ver. 5) by words that let us infer its significance, and is concluded by just such words (vers. 8, 9). The words ', that directly follow the pith of the strophe, seem to correspond to the words of similar meaning with which (ver. 6) it immediately begins. They are therefore in apposition with at the beginning of ver. 6, and to be translated "I Jehovah" (not "I am Jehovah"). Verily it must be something great which the LORD twice announces 3. THE SERVANT OF GOD AS A STRONG GOD. 10. Sing unto the LORD a new song, And his praise from the end of the earth, Ye that 11 Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up Let them shout from the top of the mountains. 12 Let them give glory unto the LORD, And declare his praise in the islands. 13 The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, He shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: He shall cry, yea, roar; 14 15 16 He shall prevail against his enemies. their voice, I have long time holden my peace; I will make waste mountains and hills, And I will make the rivers islands, And I will dry up the pools. And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; And 'crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them. 17 They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, That trust in graven images, That say to molten images, 1 Heb. the fulness thereof. 8 Heb. swallow, or, sup up. Or, behave himself mightily. pant and gasp. a lakes. • blind ones. TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. -T .Ver. 15. Almost all the words שָׁאַף-אפעה אָפַק מישור-מעקשים .16 .Ver But that .שירן depends on מקצה הארע .10 .Ver See List for the recurrence of the words: Ver. 10. | PN signify, (by reason of 'n' that represents pasn nspo-isho. Ver. 11. 1. Ver. 13., the silence generally as an accomplished fact), the sinHiph.—~ Hithp. Ver. 11. -nn-ngle acts of keeping still that constantly followed each other in the past., ä. λey. The root occurs only in the serpent name (xxx. 6; lix. 5; Job xx. 16), in the substantive (xli. 24 which see) and in the name of the midwife (Exol. i. 15). Both that serpent-name and the kindred roots N, involve the meaning "to breathe, blow." In Chald., however, y means directly "to cry," and is especially used of the bleating of sheep. Thence come the Hebrew usage is to be noted which puts the terminus a quo where we put the terminus in quo. Comp. xvii. 13; Gen. i. 7. Thus our way of expressing it would be "at the end of the earth." But when even the furthest off praise the LORD, certainly those lying between are not TT -mulier cla פָעַיְתָא vociferatio, and " פְעִיָה strongly re- substantives יורדי הים ומלאו excluded. The words mind one of Ps. xcvi. 11, and xeviii. 7, where it reads T: T mosa. We will likely come nearest the truth if we take TT Doy, which is the more remarkable to mean the loud groaning, joined with lamenta seeing these Psalms belong to those that begin with פוּעָה LowTH conjectures for this reason שירו לי שיר חדש אתאפק and אפעה or | There is, moreover, an assonance in) יִרְעַם to read here יורדי that we ought instead of יָן יָרִיעַ איים וישניהם lowing or the like). But Dy would not suit the fol- that continues in D and N. To derive DWN from D, vastatem esse, because in Ezek. xxxvi. 8 Ver. 12. The expression, beside the pre- are found conjoined, is forbidden both by sent, occurs only Josh. vii. 19; comp. Ps. Ixvi. 2. EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 1. Chapter xlii. is evidently constructed as an | calling out. I rather think that by those sailascending and descending climax. The present ing down the sea and isles, which he constrophe forms the point of it; the two preceding ceives as between his point of view and "the ends ones lead up to it; the two that follow lead down of the earth," the Prophet would signify the west. from it. Why should vers. 10-17 not refer to Behind him lie the desert and the villages of the the Servant of Jehovah, when both before and Arabs (DP) on the east; on the left he has after (comp. ver. 19) He is the chief subject? the rock city (D), and on the right mountains, True, He is not mentioned in the third strophe. But is not He that leads the blind the same as He that opens the eyes of the blind and liberates the prisoners (ver. 7)? And is there not a manifest contrast presented between Him that does not cry (ver. 2) and Him that cries and roars (ver. 13)? And does not the negative, ver. 4, form the transition to the positive statement that the Servant of Jehovah will be also the opposite of one that does not cry, and that does not let His voice be heard in the streets? It must indeed be an exceeding glorious fact, for whose praise the whole earth (ver. 12) is summoned. Yea, that is the wonder, that the one described in vers. 2, 3 as quiet and meek, is at the same time Jehovah Himself, who goes forth as an angry warrior against His enemies (ver. 13). He has long kept silence: did He not even suffer the whole heathen world to go its own way (Acts xiv. 16). At last, however, He rouses Himself. Like a travailing woman, amid mighty sorrows He brings about a new order of things (ver. 14). He makes heathendom wither; but the heathen that have preserved a susceptibility for the truth He leads, like blind men restored to sight, in new ways of salvation hitherto unknown (vers. 15. 16). He will certainly accomplish this to the confusion of those that continue to trust in false gods (ver. 17). 2. Sing unto—-islands.-Vers. 10-12. A new song is becoming for the new matter; like new skin-bottles for new wine (Matth. ix. 17). The expression a new song occurs, Ps. xxxiii. 3; xl. 4; xcvi. 1; xcviii. 1; cxliv. 9; cxlix. 1: "sing unto the LORD a new song" occurs, Ps. xxxiii. 3; xcvi. 1; xcviii. 1; cxlix. 1. It is to be noted, too, that the more ancient of these Pss. (xxxiii., xcvi., xcviii.) have all of them, I may say, an ecumenical character, in that all treat of the mutual relation of Jehovah and of all creation, i. e., of the power of Jehovah over all that is created, and of the duty of the latter to worship and praise the LORD. Ps. xl. 4 and cxliv. 9 express only the author's purpose to sing a new song to the LORD. But Ps. cxlix., certainly a late song and an imitation, has a very particularistic character. One may say, therefore, that here, like in chapter xii., the author strikes up the psalm tone. He summons those to praise who are on the sea, and those that are in the sea, as immediately after he directs the same summons to the isles and their inhabitants, to the wilderness and its towns. The D' ' are not those that go down to the sea, but those that sail down the sea, as appears plainly from Ps. cvii. 23, the only other place where the expression occurs. For the sea, optically regarded, may be conceived as an elevation (comp. Luke v. 4); thus, as really seen, the sea presents itself as flowing. Flowing water, however, cannot mount up. It seems to me far fetched, when DELITZSCH supposes that Ezion-Geber is the Prophet's point of view in e., to the south the mountain of Edom, to the north Lebanon. Regarding NV, see on ver. 2. It is well known that in the desert, too, there were and are cities (fortified places). Comp., e. In Josh. xv. 61, 62; xx. 8. The (comp. Lev. xxv. 31) are opposed on the one hand to cities, on the other to the mere tent encampments; like Hadarije (stationary Arabs) are distinguished from Wabarije (tent-Arabs) (DELITZSCH). On Kedar comp. at xxi. 16. There were hardly dwellers in the rocks numerous enough, in an appellative sense, to make it worth while naming them here, where only grand genera are mentioned. But the Prophet might very well, in order to signify the South, think of the great rock city of Edom (Petra, comp. on xvi. I). But I do not think he intends by "mountains" only the mountains near Petra; for then the North would be entirely omitted. Hence I think we must understand the great mountains to the north of Palestine. As object of the crying out, ver. 12 again expressly mentions the honor and praise of Jeho vah. The islands are named as representing the remotest regions. 3. The Lord shall go- -forsake them.Vers. 13-16. As in the preceding strophe we distinguished a kernel, and a preface and conclusion, forming, so to speak, a shell for it, so we must do here. From the extent of the preface and its elevated tone, we observe that the kernel must be something highly significant. Vers. 13-16 cease to speak of the Servant of Jehovah. But He re appears, ver. 22. Instead appears Jehovah Himself, ver. 13. And things are affirmed of Jehovah that partly agree, partly form a strange contrast with what before and after is imputed to the Servant of Jehovah. When it is said, ver. 7, that the Servant of Jehovah will open the eyes of the blind and free the prisoner, is that essentially different from what we read, ver. 16, of leading Do these blind remain blind? the blind, etc.? What, then, has the LORD to do with blind persons! Or are the ways that He leads them not ways of freedom and salvation? But if, vers. 2, 3, the Servant of Jehovah appears as one that does not cry, but is meek and gentle, how comes it that, vers. 13, 14, Jehovah is portrayed as an impetuous warrior, that cries and groans? And this appears in the climax-strophe of our chapter to which the preceding strophes lead up, and from which those following lead down! I cannot believe that the third of the five strophes of our chapter can treat of a foreign subject. It must be the same, though the form makes it difficult to detect the unity. And in fact it was difficult for the Prophet himself, a very riddle, to comprehend the unity of Jehovah and His Servant, just as it must assuredly have been also an inexplicable mystery that the Son of David should at the same time be Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (ix. 5). I do not say, therefore, that |
