vince, and that thy neck is an iron sinew (T), nervus, tendo, spring, ressort), therefore hard to bend, and thy brow brass, thus impenetrable, obstinate, for this reason I announced to thee at that time, long ago, so that thou mightest not say my idol (, general word, deus ficticius in general, Ps. cxxxix. 24) did it, my graven image and my molten image (101, xli. 29) commanded it here (made it come, xlv. 11). There-change to the plural form, and the emphatic infore the LORD here declares that in the past even, thus in what has been indicated as the first period of history, by reason of Israel's hardness of heart, and its being unimpressible by purely inward, spiritual proofs, and because of its desire for arguments that may be seized outwardly, He had found Himself obliged to establish His claim to be the only true God, by prophesying the future, and bringing to pass what was prophesied. In this the Prophet says nothing new. He only repeats what he has before set forth in various places (xli. 4, 21 sqq., 26; xliii. 9 sqq.; xliv. 7 sqq.; xlvi. 9 sq.). word used above for the prediction of events, and therefore no doubt meaning here, will not ye predict something? This is HITZIG's explanation of the words. In favor of this view is its taking 77 in the sense which it has in the preceding verse, and also the analogy of xli. 22, 23, where the very same challenge is given in nearly the same form; to which may be added the sudden troduction of the pronoun, implying a new object of address, and not a mere enallage, because he immediately resumes the address to the people in the singular" J. A. ALEX.]. As Israel itself must confess that it has learned to know its God as a prophesier and fulfiller, the LORD bases on that the further demand that they believe also the present new prophecy, and infer from it the proper consequences. Manifestly the in, new things, are the prophecy relating to Cyrus and the period of salvation initiated by him. The Prophet refers to xlii. 9 sqq.; xliii. 19 sqq.; xliv. 24 sqq.; xlv. 1sqq., 11 sqq., 19 sqq.; xlvi. 11. He particularly emphasizes that this prophecy as such is also quite a new thing. Had Israel obtained report of those future events in any other way, natural or supernatural, then, of course, their proclamation by the Prophet would have been met by the reply: have been ruinous for the reputation of Jehovah and His prophet. But there is no mention of (i. 8; xlix. 6; Ixv. 4), to things that have just that. The prophecy relates to hidden things been' created. The expression, are created (comp. xli. 20; xliii. 7; xlv. 8) is to be judged of by the measure of what is divinely real. The word of prophecy has changed the divine decree from being a 26yos évoiάveros to being a 2óyos #podo 2. Thou hast heard from the womb. Vers. 6-8. With these words, too, the Prophet repeats essentially only something said before, viz., what he had announced in reference to the new period of salvation to be inaugurated by Cyrus. The words you to 171, ver. 6, form the tran-"Nothing new, we know it already." That would sition. manifestly refers to Dyn, ver. 3, and T, ver. 5. It must be established that not only did the LORD bring those old prophecies to a hearing, but that they were actually heard. And would express that all relating to that, therefore the fulfilment also, has been heard. The emphatic (comp. xxxiii. 20; xxx. 10) would warn Israel not to treat the matter lightly. Only let it look narrowly, and it must confess that all in the previous period of history relative to prophecy and fulfilment was fully known. Will they not on their part feel impelled to declare and proclaim aloud what they have undoubtedly heard? In the entire section, vers. 3-11, the Prophet steadily addresses Israel in the second pers, masc. sing. Suddenly in the single clause, 171n on, he passes to the second pers. masc. plur. The reason for this seems to me to be, that he has in mind here, no longer the ideal total Israel, but the concrete persons of his contemporaries and immediate hearers or first readers. This appears to me to be one of the passages where the Prophet, who else lives wholly in the Exile, cannot help casting a glance at the actual present. If we might assume that chapters xl.Ixvi. were to remain a sealed-up prophecy until the time of the Exile, then we would be warranted in saying that the words and will ye not declare it applied only to the exiles. But the numerous citations from chapters xl.-lxvi., that occur in prophets after Isaiah but before the Exile, show that our prophecy even before the Exile must have been publici juris. Hence I can only see in these words an exhortation that Isaiah gives to his actual contemporaries, viz., to confess openly that the history of Israel hitherto is a proof that Jehovah can prophesy and fulfil. And ye (idolaters or idols), will not ye declare, the same Kós.. The divine idea is thereby, as it were, born into the world. Even though it only exists as a mere word, still a word so uttered is a creative word. If God has spoken it, it also comes to pass. So far what God has spoken, announced, prophe sied, is as good as created. It is real even if for the time being it is only a divine decree (comp. under Doctr. and Eth. on ver. 7). But its reality rests only on this act of the divine will, and the knowledge of it only on the revelation of it by means of the prophet of Jehovah. No one in the world would have thought of it, and no one in the world would have received intelligence of the divine thought without the revelation through the Prophet. God thinks it, God says it, God does it. It is only and altogether a fruit of God, and hence a proof that God is, and what He is. God revealed it to Israel, and He did it with the intention of curing Israel of its deep-rooted tendency to faithlessness (comp. Jer. iii. 7, 10), from its native tendency to apostacy. 3. For my name's sake unto another, vers. 9-11. These verses are related to what precedes as giving a reason. The new things (ver. 6), previously concealed, but now entered on existence as to principle by the word of prophecy, involve salvation and deliverance for Israel on the assumption that Israel will let itself be cured of its deep-rooted tendency to apostacy. For this continued rebelliousness it had properly merited extinction. But the LORD desires not the death of the sinner, but that he should re not. pent and live. For the sake of His own honor, also, He desires not the death of the sinner. For the rejection of Israel after its election would even compromise the LORD Himself. It would make Him appear as one who would, but could Hence the LORD will make His anger long, i. e. He will postpone the destructive blow that His anger properly demands (see Text. and Gram.). In fact He postponed it until the rejection of His Son (Matth. xxi. 39 sqq.). Therefore, for His name's sake He will defer His anger, and for the sake of His honor He will restrain it, for Israel's advantage (see Text. and Gram.), so that it will not be destroyed. He will only purify, refine Israel, yet not as silver; but He will confirm it in the furnace of affliction. The Prophet makes a difference between the refining furnace and the furnace of affliction. The difference cannot relate to the effect, since that is the same in both. For I do not think that the Prophet assumes an unfavorable result in the smelting process, viz. that dross will come of it. According to the context the honor of God demands that Israel be purified and saved. But the smelting furnace is for the silver no misfortune, no disgrace; it is the natural and necessary means for restoring the silver. Properly Israel ought not to need this smelting process. So far the furnace of affliction is for Israel a punishment and disgrace, which the smelting furnace is not for silver.-Finally the Prophet repeats the thought with emphasis, that the preservation of Israel was in the proper interest of Jehovah. Did He forsake Israel, He would then surrender them to the idols, and thereby permit the honor belonging to Him alone to be given to them. The words: and I will not give my honor to another, ver. 11 b, in which manifestly the thought of vers. 9-11 culminates, is a literal repetition of xlii. 8. By this the Prophet intimates that in these words, too (vers. 9-11), he only repeats what he had said before. DELITZSCH very fittingly at ver. 11 refers to Ezek. xxxvi. 19-23. 12 3. THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW THINGS IS REPEATED. Hearken unto me, O Jacob And Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last. 13 Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, And 'my right hand hath spanned the heavens: When I call unto them, they stand up together. 14 All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; Which among them hath declared these things? The LORD hath loved him he will do his pleasure on Babylon, 15 I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him : I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous. 1 Or, the palm of my right hand hath spread out. TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. On ver. 14. Expositors have made difficulty about con- | Comp. xxxiii. 2; Jer. xvii. 5; Ezek. xxxi. 17; Ps. lxxxiif. struing jy as accusative, because “to perform Jeho- 9, etc. Moreover xliv. 12 proves that the Prophet conceives of the arm, as also in xlv. 9 of the hand, as the vah's or His own arm "is an incomprehensible mode of Might not our passage read: speech even taken as zeugmatic (DELITZSCH), KLOSTER- seat of power. For one ?חפצו (כחו חילו or) בבבל וּגְבוּרָתוֹ כַּשְׂדִּים | -MANs, too, (l. c., pp. 7, 19) is of the opinion that to trans T T T: T late "He will accomplish his will on Babylon and his may very well say y for "to display strength, punitive work on the Chaldeans " needs a dispensation power" (1 Kings xvi. 27). Accordingly, if taken strictly, from Hebrew usus loquendi, yi does, indeed, not one need not even assume a zeugma, if the slight difmean "punitive work," and this is not an instance of ference be not urged that exists between ny in mere zeugma, but zeugma and metonymy. It is surely and in There cau one of the most usual metonymical forms of expression be no doubt that the prefix should be repeated bein the Old Testament to put the arm for what is manifested by the arm, i. e., for the power or the might. T T EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. 1. Hearken unto me -up together, vers. 12, 13. The verses of this section are almost wholly a compilation of the chief elements of chapts. xl.-xlvii. The words you as far as pare only a solemn introductory formula, containing an emphatic summons to give attention, in order to intimate the importance of the subject. Comp. ver. 1; xliv. 1; xlvi. 3.pp, "the called," as regards the word, occurs only here; but as regards the sense it is essentially one with what we read xli. 9; xliii. 1. A double calling is spoken of here: Of the ancient and original one which Israel received in the person of its ancestor (xli. 9), and of the future one when the LORD calls back His people from the Exile (xliii. 1; comp. ver. 5 849; xliv. 22). Thus Israel is named pe as the doubly called people. In what follows the Prophet calls to mind first those fundamental facts that are a guaranty that Jehovah can foretell and fulfil the deliverance by Cyrus. They are 1) His absoluteness and uniqueness. As such He is , the He par excellence, the absolute subject. As such the Prophet has already named Him, xliii. 10, 13, 25; xli. 4; xlvi. 4. 2) His eternity, by virtue of which He is the first and the last. He has already been so called xli. 4; xliv. 6; comp. xliii. 13. 3) The creation of heaven and earth, which also has been spoken of in what precedes, in the same sense, viz. that He who created the world can also foretell and fulfil Israel's deliverance: xl. 12 sqq., 22, 26, 28; xlii. 5; xliv. 24; xlv. 12, 18. his way prosper 2. All ye, assemble. ous, vers. 14, 15. The words Yap as far as ("All ye assemble these things") represent here all those passages in which the Pro phet has variously uttered the thought, that Jehovah, the Creator of heaven and earth, has challenged all idols to a contest in prophesying in order, by exposing their impotency, to prove their nothingness and His divinity. The passqq., 21 sqq., 26 sqq.; xliii. 9; sages are xli. xliv. 7 sqq., 24 sqq.; xlv. 20 sqq.; xlvi. 9 sqq. Especially our passage recalls xliii. 9 and xiv. 20. In xliii. 9 the interrogatory clause occurs almost verbatim, except the Niph. of p. For there it reads on. In xlv. 20, as here, the first word is 3p. It is self-evident that D in our passage, as in xliii. 9, is to be referred to the idols, as that refers to the things concerning Cyrus. what immediately follows. For there again we This appears from have a collective citation, if I may so express myself. For there all that has been previously said of Cyrus is recalled by the brief words, ver. 14 b, 15, that emphasize the chief particulars. Jehovah hath loved him is said first. It is true this statement has not occurred literally before; but it has as to sense. For that the LORD loves Cyrus underlies all those passages that speak of him; xli. 2 sq., 25; xliv. 28; xlv. 1–7, 13 sq.; xlvi. 11. Moreover the words: He will do His pleasure on Babylon, and His arm on the Chaldeans, though not literally, occur as to sense in what precedes (comp. xli. 25; xliii. 14; xliv. 28, where, moreover, the words occur; xlv. 1 sqq.; xlvi. 1 sq., 10; xlvii. entire).-In ver. 15 the LORD Himself speaks, confirming the word of His Prophet. HE, the LORD, has foretold that which concerns Cyrus (xlv. 21); He called him (xlv. 4), He brings him on, taking him by the hand (xlv. 1), and sees to it that he completes his way (xli. 3). 4. TWO INSERTIONS. CHAPTER XLVIII. 16, 17-19. Verses 20, 21 connect naturally with vers. 14, 15. For ver. 14 foretells the victory of Cyrus over Babylon; ver. 20 summons Israel to flee out of vanquished Babylon as a prison opened by Cyrus. Verse 16, however, contains a personal remark of the Prophet; and though vers 17-19 are a revealed word of God (com. כֹּה ver. 17), they are yet of so general a nature, that they would be perfectly in place, indeed, after ver. 21, as expressive of a regret that Israel did not follow the direct way to salvation, but had made necessary the detour through the Exile; but coming between vers. 15 and 20, they can only be regarded as a break of the connection. How vers. 16 and 17-19 came where they are will hardly be made out by any one. Their proper place would be between vers. 21 and 22. Per haps they first stood in the margin (occasioned by the personal nature of ver. 16 and the retrospective nature of vers. 17-19 in the midst of the current of prospective prophecy), and then they were, through misunderstanding, inserted before instead of after ver. 21. [The Author's difficulty as to the order of the verses will not be felt by many, any more than they are, e. g., by LowтH, MAURER, BARNES, J. A. ALEX., who comment right on without being aware of anything to stumble at. Yet J. A. A. pauses to say, that the objection as presented by others is entirely unfounded; vide. his comm. on ver. 18. Those that fail to see the difficulty with the Author, will equally discard the caption he adopts, by which he stamps these verses 16-19 as interpolations.— TR.). 16 a) FIRST INSERTION. CHAPTER XLVIII. 16. A personal remark of the Prophet. Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, there am I : And now the LORD God, *and his Spirit, hath sent me. hath sent me and his Spirit. .is the same אלי EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. These words are enigmatical, and I despair of explaining them in a convincing way. I do not believe that " come ye near unto me, hear ye this" are in parallelism with "all ye assemble yourselves and hear" ver. 14, and that therefore they are to be construed also as words of Jehovah. ["As certainly now as 2 ver. 14 is the word of Jehovah, so certain is it that He summons to Himself the members of His nation, that they may hear still further His own testimony concerning Himself." DELITZSCH]. For, as has been shown, the initial words of ver. 14 are references to something said before. But ver. 16 begins a thought of another sort. It makes on me the impression of a separate remark, which the Prophet had directed to a narrower circle of immediate hearers, such as, say, the narrower circle of his disciples may have been (comp. on viii. 16 sqq.). Some might be surprised regarding the prophecies beginning with chap. xl., that the Prophet foretells so positively a Babylonian Exile, and the deliverance by a prince by the name of Cyrus. The Prophet explains this ver. 16. By "come ye near unto me" he intimates that he would make a particularly confidential communication. It consists in the statement that he must not be supposed to have known of these things already, say from the beginning of (2) his prophetic activity, and to have announced or may-be made a written record of them, as esoteric secrets, only in the narrowest circle. Rather he did not himself know of these things from the beginning. Only , "from the time that it was," was he there. That is, only since these things". were created" ( ver. 7) in the sense that we have explained ver. 7, did he become familiar with them and they stand visible before his prophetic eye. seems to me to remind one of The Prophet regards as created, as come to pass, what has been announced to him. Hence he says here, he for his person was present, as an inward, spiritual witness and spectator, when these things, in a prophetic sense, came to pass. But now the LORD Jehovah (see List) has sent him, i. e., has sent him with the commission of announcing, and His Spirit. Therefore he distinguishes between the moment of prophetic seeing and that of prophetic announcement. I cannot construe in as accusative. For then he would make himself like the Spirit, or put himself on a level with the Spirit. He can only make the Spirit equal with the LORD. But he distin It This is an attempt at exposition, which however I by no means set forth as an assured assertion. As I cannot hold it to be satisfying, I cannot pretend to have solved the enigma by it. by a private remark is, of course, against the For a Prophet to interrupt his official prophecy rule. Still it is not unexampled. I regard Jer. Xxxi. 26 as such, where see my comment. In Jeremiah, the occasion of that personal remark was the circumstance, that that moment of awaking out of sleep was for him the brightest point For Isaiah in all his trying prophetic career. to give his immediate hearers an explanation the occasion was, that he regarded it as necessary why he now announced things the like of which no one had ever before heard from him. might seem as if hitherto he had preserved silence The new thing that ye have heard, I myself did about what he had long known. But he says: not know earlier. It has only now come to pass (in a prophetic sense), and only after it came to pass did I receive commission to reveal it. Of course, this exposition is only possible if the Prophet that speaks is Isaiah himself, and if Isaiah here for once speaks out of the historical moment in which he prophesied. But does not that he is even prophesying, i. e., announcing futhe whole weight of his discoures rest on this, ture things, not present or past? If so, then he must be conscious of the interval between prophecy and fulfilment. He must know that what is prophesied lies far, far before him, too far for any human eye to recognize what lies beyond that interval. Hence I cannot agree with DELITSCH in considering that the Prophet lives only in the Exile with his spirit. This were only possible did he forget that he prophesied. his words quoted above is: "From the beginning [The comment of DELITZSCH directly following He has not spoken in secret (see xlv. 19); but from the time that all which now lies before their eyes-namely, the victorious career of Cyrushas unfolded itself, He has been there, or has been by (D, 'there,' as in Prov. viii. 27), to regulate what was coming to pass, and to cause it to result in the redemption of Israel. I was there' affirms, that, at the time when the revolution caused by Cyrus was preparing in the distance, He caused it to be publicly foretold, and thereby proclaimed Himself the present Author and Lord of what was then occurring. Up to this point Jehovah is speaking; but who is it that now proceeds to say, 'And now'-namely, now that the redemption of Israel is about to appear ( being here, as in many other instances, e. g., xxxiii. 10, the turning-point of salvation)now hath the Lord Jehovah sent me and His Spirit.' The majority of the commentators assume that the Prophet comes forward here in his own person, behind Him whom he has introduced, and interrupts Him. But since the Prophet has not spoken in his own person before, whereas, on the other hand, these words are followed in xlix. 1 sqq. by an address concerning himself from that Servant of Jehovah who announces Himself as the restorer of Israel and light of the Gentiles, and who cannot therefore be Israel as a nation or the Author of these prophecies, nothing is more natural than to suppose that the words, And now hath the Lord,' etc., form a prelude to the words of the One unequalled Servant of Jehovah concerning Himself which occur in xlix. The surprisingly mysterious way in which the words of Jehovah suddenly pass into those of His messenger, which is only comparable to Zech. ii. 12 sqq.; iv. 9 (where the speaker is also not the prophet, but a divine messenger exalted above him), cau only be explained in this manner. And in no other way can we explain the , which means, that after Jehovah has prepared the way for the redemption of Israel by the raising up of Cyrus, in accordance with prophecy, and by his success in arms, He has sent him, the speaker in this case, to carry out, in a mediatorial capacity, the redemption thus proposed, and that not by force of arms, but in the power of the Spirit of God (xlii. 1; comp. Zech. iv. 6). Consequently the Spirit is not spoken of here as joining in the sending (as UMBREIT and STIER suppose, after JEROME and the TARGUM; the LXX. is indefinite, kai rò TVеvuа avrov); nor do we ever find the Spirit mentioned in such co-ordination as this (see, on the other hand, Zech. vii. 12, per spiritum suum). The meaning is, that it is also sent, i. e., sent in and with the Servant of Jehovah, who is speaking here." DEL. on Isa., vol. II. p. 252 sq. CLARK'S For. Theol. Lib. 99 66 66 = In ing,' hearkening to commandments," "peace and "righteousness" (vers. 17, 18), make it plain that the agent of the blessings described (vers. 18, 19) must be the Spirit; not, however, excluding the priority of the Redeemer who is the speaker. The blessing described is the blessing of Abraham, as our Author shows below; and (against DEL. who translates "grains of sand") we may, with our Author, translate y "viscera, bowels" (BARNES and J. A. ALEX. do the same). Of course we must understand the blessing of numerous offspring in a spiritual sense, such as the Spirit will generate, i. e., a spiritual Israel. Our Author has shown this in cognate passages, e. g., see under xliv. 3-5. Moreover the very parallelisms of ver. 18, peace as the river," " 'righteousness as the waves," show this. John vii. 38 the Lord Jesus says: "He that believes on Me, as the Scripture said: rivers of living water shall flow from his bowels (EK T Kokias avrov)." This is an allusion and interpretation, rather than a quotation. It combines the spiritual figures of ver. 18 with the figure of offspring in ver. 19, where the LXX. has: kai τὰ ἔκγονα τῆς κοιλίας σου. By saying this, our Lord claims that He is the source of the Abrahamic blessing, and reproduces in Himself the speaker of our text. To relieve the obscurity of the allusion the Evangelist adds his comment which they that believe on Him should receive: "But this He spake of the Spirit, (John vii. 39): for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified." By this John completes the allusion to our text, referring to the Spirit which our ver. 16 represents as sent with the messenger-but after; "and His Spirit (17)," curiously subjoined grammatically, seeming to express an after-thought, but really expressing an after-act. The day of Pentecost witnessed this sending, and the promised effect of it in the multiplication of offspring to those that believed on Christ, in the vast increase of the spiritual Israel, rivers of living waters, righteousness like waves, and seed like the offspring of the sea. We may anticipate here the comment on vers. 17-19 for the purpose of saying, in support of the The view here given of the correlation of our above exposition of DELITZSCH, that our vers. text and John vii. 37-39, if correct, is invaluable 16-19 seem to be the scripture (ypap) referred as aid in understanding the former, confirming to in John vii. 37-39. In our text, the messen- the exposition of DELITZSCH. At the same time ger and the Spirit sent with or after him (ver. 16) it identifies the reference of hypaon in John vii. are presented as the source of the blessings con- 38, which, so far as we know, has never been ditionally guaranteed in vers. 17-19. The em- satisfactorily done by any commentator, and at phatic way in which the mention of the Spirit is the same time must imperatively control the interintroduced (ver. 16), and the mention of "teach-pretation put upon "rivers of living water.” TR.] |