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the sentence simply to repeat hy before D
(comp. lvii. 6). On the offering of swine, comp.
on lxv. 4. Dogs and swine are in the Scriptures,
as in profane authors, often joined together
(comp. Matt. vii. 6; 2 Pet. ii. 22; 1 Kings xxi.
19; xxii. 38 in several codices of the LXX.;
HORATII, Epist. I. 2, 26; II. 2, 75). VAIN
stands only here as direct causative Hiphil in
the sense of to make an 77, to offer as

phet does not mean to compare animal sacrifices | It means to break the neck.-In the clause in the time of the end with every kind of offence, hy we have in order to complete but with offerings which would be abominable in the present time. Human sacrifices in general are not expressly forbidden in the law. Implicitly they are prohibited by all the places of the law which command Israel to shun all the abominations of the heathen (comp. Ex. xxiii. 24; Lev. xviii. 3, et saepe). But the offering of children, such as was practised in the worship of Baal, is in various places most strictly prohibited (comp. Lev. xviii. 21; xx. 2 sqq.; Deut. xii. 31, et saepe). Regarding the custom of sacrificing dogs practised by the Carians, Lacedaemonians, is taken by most interpreters correctly in the Macedonians and other Greeks, see BOCHART, sense of vanum, i. e. idolum (comp. 1 Sam. xv. Hieroz. I., p. 798 sqq., ed Lips. is part. act. 23; Hos. x. 8; xii. 12), for this particular meaning corresponds better to the context than the Kal. from verb. denom. from, the neck general one of iniquitas, scelus, wickedness (Lu(comp. Ex. xiii. 13; Deut. xxi. 4, 7; Hos. x. 2). | THER).

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6. PUNISHMENT TO THE WICKED! REWARD TO THE FAITHFUL.

CHAP. LXVI. 3 6-6.

36 Yea, they have chosen their own ways,

And their soul delighteth in their abominations.

4 I also will choose their "delusions,

And will bring their fears upon them;
Because when I called, none did answer;
When I spake, they did not hear:
But they did evil before mine eyes,

And chose that in which I delighted not.

5 Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word;

Your brethren that hated you,

That cast you out for my name's sake, said,

"Let the LORD be glorified:

But he shall appear to your joy,

And they shall be ashamed.

6 A voice of 'noise from the city,

A voice from the temple,

A voice of the LORD that rendereth recompence to his enemies.

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1. There were among the exiles in Babylon not a few who forsook Jehovah and forgot His holy mountain (lxv. 11). These looked upon the theocracy as a played-out game. Jehovah had not protected them against the gods of Babylon. To these, therefore, they now attached themselves. Between such persons and the faithful Israelites there existed naturally a hostile relation. The apostates mocked those who remained faithful, while the latter abhorred the others as shameful apostates, and threatened them with the wrath of Jehovah. We repeatedly find traces of this enmity in chaps. lxv. and lxvi. It appears that one of those who remained faithful used every opportunity which he could find in

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tumult.

chapters lxv. and lxvi., in order to attach to the words of the Prophet a commination against the abhorred apostates [!]. If we must discard the opinion that the Prophet in ver. 3 a rejects only the sacrifices of the wicked, we cannot avoid perceiving that a wide chasm exists between ver. 3 a and b. For ver. 3 a relates to the glorious time of the end. Yea, the highest elevation of its spiritual life is indicated by these words. But vers. 3 b-6 bring us back into the particular relations of the Exile.-[DR. NAEGELSBACH аccordingly condemns vers. 3 6-6 as an interpolation. The interpolator we are asked to regard as a faithful servant of Jehovah. But assuredly he was not one who trembled at Jehovah's word,"

else he would have shrunk with horror from cor- | See especially ver. 5 where the writer addresses rupting that holy word. Even the Pharisees did those who tremble at God's word. Can we

suppose that he was, while using this language, corrupting the word of God and making his own additions to it? The character of this passage strongly attests its genuineness. We have to add that vers. 3 b, 4, should not have been separated from what precedes, as the close connection between the two parts has been pointed out.D. M.] delighted

2. Yea, they have chosen not, vers. 3 6-4. D1-D are related as et-et, tamquam (comp. Gen. xxiv. 25; Jer. li. 12, et saepe). 7 stands here, as often (comp. Amos viii. 14; Ps. cxxxix. 24), in the signification of the reli

not venture to alter the text of Scripture to make it support their views. The apostates, too, whom the interpolator is supposed to threaten, having openly renounced the worship of Jehovah, would pay no regard to the fictitious or real utterances of His Prophet. Were the transition in ver. 3 a -3 b sqq. as abrupt as our author supposes, from the time of the end to concrete existing relations, such a transition could not be pronounced unparalleled. Look, e. g. at the surroundings of the glorious promise respecting the abolition of death contained in Hos. xiii. 14. Shall we say that what follows that promise is to be rejected as spurious? But the want of coherence, of which our author here complains, is only imagi-gious bent. p is likewise used frequently of nary. If we adopt the view of ver. 3 a taken by DELITZSCH and others "that not the templeofferings in themselves are rejected, but the of ferings of those whose heart is divided between Jahve and the false gods, and who refuse Him the offering which is most dear to Him (Ps. li. 19; comp. 1. 23)," then there is no difficulty in perceiving the coherence of the words that fol- | low. But if we should (as I believe DR. NAEGELSBACH rightly does) regard the Prophet as here predicting the future abolition of the temple-service under a more glorious dispensation, we should be at no loss to perceive the coherence of vers. 3 b, 4 with such a prediction. The language can be aptly applied to those Jews who obstinately refused to obey the revealed will of God, and persisted in practising rites which were superseded by the establishment of the new and better economy. This is the view taken by many interpreters who, in order to justify it, do not find it necessary to condemn the Hebrew text as interpolated. HENDERSON, e. g., looks upon ver. 3 a "as teaching the absolute unlawfulness of sacrifices under the Christian dispensation.

When the Jews are converted to the faith of

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, they must acquiesce in the doctrine taught in the ninth and tenth chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews, that the one offering which He presented on the cross forever set aside all the animal sacrifices and oblations which had been appointed by the law of Moses. Any attempt to revive the practice is here declared to be upon a par with the cruel and abominable customs of the heathen, who offered human sacrifices and such animals as the ancient people of God were taught to hold in abomination." And he finds what follows ver. 3 to have this connection with the aforesaid teaching: "In retribution of the unbelieving and rebellious persistence of the Jews in endeavoring to establish the old ritual, Jehovah threatens them with condign punishment: while snch of them as may render themselves obnoxious to their brethren by receiving the doctrines of the Gospel on the subject, have a gracious promise of divine approbation and protection given to them." In no case, then, is there any necessity for supposing the hand of an interpolator to have been here at work. Strange would be the course taken by this assumed interpolator! The sentiments which he utters do not look like those of one who would recklessly alter the sacred text, and give out his own words for those of Jehovah.

the abominations of idolatry (comp. 1 Kings xi. 5, 7; Jer. vii. 30, et saepe). The word is found only here in Isaiah. yn (in which word the signification of the Hithpael yn with following (comp. Jud. xix. 25) is reflected) is år. 2ey.[This is an error. The word occurs in Isa. iii. 4 in the plural as here. There it means the petulances, the puerilities of boys. Here it retains the kindred notion of annoyances, vexations. The occurrence of this peculiar word here and in iii. 4 speaks in favor of identity of authorship. The rendering of the E. V. delusions, in the sense of childish, wayward follies, may be defended. These childish delusions would mock and disappoint those who entertained them. God could be said to choose their delusions by allowing them in His providence, and causing the people to eat the fruit of them. Their fears, 1, may be taken as what is feared by them, or, with DELITZSCH, situations, conditions, which inspire dread. The latter part of ver. 4 from because DR. NAEGELSBACH regards as a needless repetition from XV. 12; but ALEXANDER rightly judges that the repetition serves not only to connect the passages as parts of an unbroken composition, "but also to identify the subjects of discourse in the two places.-D. M.]

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3. Hear the word-His enemies, vers. 5. 6. These words are a consolation for the faithful adherents of Jehovah, who tremble at His word. The verb occurs only in Piel, and is found only here and Amos vi. 3. In later Hebrew the word is employed of removal, exclusion from the community, or excommunication (comp. Luke vi. 22; John ix. 22; xii. 42; xvi. 2). The Rabbis use the word " to denote the lowest of the three grades of excommunication (comp. BUXTORF, Lex. Chai., p. 1303). Masoretes connect

The

with what follows,

because they could not conceive, or would not admit that an Israelite was ever put out of the community for the sake of the name of Jehovah. But this is what the forsakers of Jehovah did in the Exile where they had the power [?]. And they scoffingly called out to the excommunicated: "Let Jehovah be (appear as) glorious (comp. Job xiv. 21; Ezek. xxvii. 25), and we will (in consequence) behold with delight your joy." They thus mock the LORD and their brethren,

regarding whom they do not think that they will experience the joy of seeing their hopes fulfilled. But this scoffing misses the mark. Not those who are scoffed at, but the scoffers will be put to shame. [BARNES, ALEXANDER and KAY think with VITRINGA that in this verse we are brought down to New Testament times. VITRINGA applies it "to the rejection of the first Christian converts by the unbelieving Jews: Hear the word (or promise) of Jehovah, ye that wait for it with trembling confidence: your brethren (the unconverted Jews) who hate you and cast you out for my name's sake, have said (in so doing): 'Jehovah will be glorious (or glorify Himself on your behalf no doubt), and we shall witness your salvation' (a bitter irony like that in v. 19); but they (who thus speak) shall themselves be confounded (by beholding what they now consider so incredible). The phrase those hating you may be compared with John xv. 18; xvii. 14; Matt. x. 22; 1 Thess. ii. 14; and casting you out with John xvi. 2; and Matt. xviii. 17: for my name's sake, with Matt. xxiv. 9; John xv. 21." ALEXANDER. And they shall be ashamed. "How true this has been of the Jews who persecuted the early Christians! How

entirely were they confounded and overwhelmed! God established permanently the persecuted; He scattered the persecutors to the ends of the earth." BARNES. Ver. 6. "The Hebrew word jix is never applied elsewhere to a joyful cry or a cry of lamentation, but to the tumult of war, the rushing sound of armies and the shock of battle, in which sense it is repeatedly employed by Isaiah. The enemies here mentioned must of course be those who had just been described as the despisers and persecutors of the brethren. The description cannot without violence be understood of foreign or external enemies." ALEXANDER. BARNES observes here: "1) that it is recompense taken on those who had cast out their brethren (ver. 5). 2) It is vengeance taken within the city, and on the internal, not the external enemies. 3) It is vengeance taken in the midst of this tumult. All this is a striking description of the scene when the city and temple were taken by the Roman armies; and it seems to me that it is to be regarded as descriptive of that event. It was the vengeance which was to precede the glorious triumph of truth and of the cause of the true religion.”—D. M.]

7. THE WONDERFUL PRODUCTIVE POWER OF THE NEW PRINCIPLE OF LIFE.

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CHAPTER LXVI. 7-9.

Before she travailed, she brought forth;

Before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child.

8 Who hath heard such a thing?

Who hath seen such things?

"Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day?

Or shall a nation be born at once?

For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.

9 Shall I bring to the birth, and not 'cause to bring forth? saith the LORD: 'Shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb saith thy God.

1 Or, beget.

Shall a land be born in one day?

b Shall I make to bear and restrain ↑

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.

1. With wonderful rapidity Zion will be sur rounded by the blessing of numerous children (ver. 7). In other cases a long time is needed for a land to be peopled, for a family to expand into a nation. But in the case of Zion this will happen with incredible quickness (ver. 8). Such is the power inherent in that new principle of life which Jehovah cannot possibly in a forced and artificial way restrain (ver. 9).-[Our author | speaks of a new principle of life and its wonderful power. The Prophet, however, makes no mention of this new principle of life, but of the working of Jehovah Himself.-D. M.]

2. Before she travailed · saith thy God, vers. 7-9.-[While the immediately preceding verses speak of judgment falling on the

disobedient and rebellious mass of the people, we learn here how the Israel of God shall receive a sudden and unexampled enlargement. VITRINGA sees here a prophecy of the vocation of the Gentiles and of their accession to the Church, while the unbelieving Jews are cast off.-D. M.]—We have here in the main the same thought which the Prophet had expressed, xlix. 18 sqq.; liv. 1 sqq.; 1x. 4 sqq. Here he makes specially prominent the rapidity and suddenness with which, contrary to the ordinary laws of nature, Zion will be enlarged, and this he does most ingeniously and in a manner characteristic of Isaiah. to let slip away, is used as Piel xxxiv. 15 (comp. Job xxi. 10). must in this connection be

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primarily chosen to intimate that the birth takes comes it that in the case of Zion, travailing and place easily and quickly, though the child is a bringing forth her children coincided? Everymale. For male children are wont to be larger thing was well arranged beforehand for the birth. and stronger; hence their birth is attended with The time was fulfilled. The proper moment had more difficulty. But it is just as certain that the come. Peter's speech on the day of Pentecost Prophet does not think of the birth of a single and the conversion of the three thousand are facts child in a literal sense. In ver. 8 he puts in which the rapidity of that process of bringing forth is mirrored. And when such an astonishing and rapid success is founded in the nature of strain? This is the meaning of ver. 8. [DR. the case, can the LORD interfere to check and reNAEGELSBACH interprets the first part of ver. 9 by describing the process of parturition with a particularity which some would think hardly in accordance with good taste. It is sufficient to give the explanation of GESENIUS in his Lexiand not cause to bring forth?" D. M.]. The con: "Shall I cause to break open (the womb), second hemistich of ver. 9 repeats according to the law of the Parallelismus membrorum the same thought in another form. is often used of the closing of the uterus, i. e., of the barrenness But here it is not the making unof a woman. fruitful, but the hindering of the birth that is spoken of. It is, therefore, better to take in the sense of cohibere, retinere, in which it occurs frequently elsewhere (comp. e. g., Judges xiii. 15, 16). [The words of HEZEKIAH are here almost taken up xxxvii. 3. "Shall that long and painful national history not have for its issue the birth of a true Israel?" KAY. "The meaning of the whole is, that God designed the great and sudden increase of His Church; that the plan would not abandon it, but would certainly effect was long laid; and that having done this, He His designs." BARNES. D. M.]. the alternating and in ver. 9, In regard to I refer in general to the remarks on xl. 1. In the place before us, the Prophet has certainly no other reason for the change than a rhetorical one.

for 3. He means, therefore, that should be taken collectively, and at the same time wishes to indicate that this collective birth is a male child strong and vigorous. This seems to be the meaning put upon our place in Rev. xii. 5, which latter passage evidently refers to the one before However erroneous it would be to apply this solely to the birth of Christ, it would in my opinion be equally one-sided to exclude the latter. For does not the whole New Testament blessing of abundance of children begin with the birth of Christ? Without the birth of Christ this blessing could not be realized. "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given," the Prophet had said ix. 5. And to this child is promised "in crease of government," consequently, a populous and mighty kingdom,—this child, with what belongs to it, is it not a male, strong child? I look upon it as possible that the Prophet had here before him his earlier utterance ix. 5. [This view is in accordance with the Targum: "Before distress cometh upon her, she shall be redeemed: and before trembling cometh upon her, as travail upon a woman with child, her king shall be revealed."-D. M.]. Such a case never before occurred that a land (must denote here both land and people, the idea of the people being predominant, and hence the word is used as a masculine, comp. on xiv. 17) or nation suddenly, all at once arose. ["The causative sense given to in the English and some other versions is not approved by the later lexicographers, who make it a simple passive." ALEXANDER.]. How

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8. THE MATERNAL CHARACTER OF THE NEW ORDER OF LIFE.

CHAPTER LXVI. 10-14.

Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad "with her, all ye that love her: Rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her:

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11 That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; That ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory 12 For thus saith the LORD,

Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river,

And the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream:

Then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides,
And be dandled upon her knees.

13 As one whom his mother comforteth,

So will I comfort you;

And ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

14 And when ye see this, your heart shall rejoice, And your bones shall flourish like 'an herb:

And the hand of the LORD shall be known toward his servants,
And his indignation toward his enemies.

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Ver. 10. with of the object is the common con- of speech, and carried it over the syntax. Therefore struction, comp. lxv. 19; Prov. xxiv. 17. . stands as resumption of ', which is for On this connection of a verb with a substantive instead. I therefore take to as a paof the infinitive absolute comp. xxii. 17, 18. xxiv. 19, 22; renthesis which is intended to declare by what emomuch easier, with the E. V., to supply the pronoun this tions that "seeing" will be accompanied. [But it is

xlii. 17.

Ver. 12. The Masoretes take

of both clauses, and consequently

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as the object

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= a river which is peace, a peaceful river. But this is artificial. yuyu is Pulpal from yy. The word is one which is used especially by Isaiah. It is found besides here vi. 10; xi. 8; xxix. 9 (bis).

Ver. 14. There should properly be a before T. But the thrice-repeated conjunction Vav in the preceding part of the verse, as it were, governed the flow

:

T:

or it, meaning the fulfilment of the promise, after D and then there will be no need of assuming a break in the sentence and a parenthesis.-D. M.]. In the clause

Twe have to take N as a preposition, while before it marks the accusative. [In the E. V. DI is regarded as a noun. But the noun would have Pattach under its first syllable. The verb governs the accusative.-D. M.].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.

1. After all that has been said, all the friends of Jerusalem, who had before mourned over her, are now justly called upon to rejoice over her (ver. 10), and gloriously to participate in her happiness (ver. 11). For the LORD will turn to her peace and all glory in abundance; the Israelites will be treated with the tenderest care (ver. 12). The LORD Himself will comfort them with a mother's love (ver. 13). Then they shall have joy, and the LORD's hand will be manifest on them; but His enemies will be made to feel the indignation of the LORD (ver. 14).

2. Rejoice ye- -His enemies.-Vers. 1014. The joy at Jerusalem's prosperity is also the condition of participation in that prosperity, For he who has not mourned with Jerusalem and does not rejoice with her will not be regarded as her child, and is not suffered to satiate himself with delight on her maternal breast. This is, I think, the meaning of jy ver. 11. ["Jerusalem is thought of as a mother, and the rich consolation (not in word but in deed) which she receives (li. 3) as the milk which comes into her breasts (as lx. 16), with which she now nourishes her children abundantly." DEL.]. The image of suckling to designate the most loving and assiduous care, has been already before us xlix. 23; lx. 16. We should rather expect the consolations of her breast; but the putting of first is the effect of the idea of sucking being before the mind of the writer. ["Suck and be satisfied, milk out and enjoy yourselves, may be regarded as examples of hendiadys, meaning suck to satiety, and milk out with delight; but no such change in the form of translation is required or admissible." ALEXANDER. D. M.]. The word ", which stands parallel with , is found besides here only Ps. 1. 11; lxxx. 14. Its signification is still disputed. Some take in the signification micare, emicare, and hence i'i = lac er ubere

=

[So

radiatim defluens (SCHROEDER, GESEN.). GESEN. in Thes. ; but in Lexicon he gives the meaning, full breast. D. M.]. But the signification of shining forth, belongs essentially to 3, p, whence p, a shining plate, a flower, a glittering feather. ", on the contrary, denotes according to the meaning of its root, which oc curs in Syriac, though not in Hebrew, id quod movetur, that which moves itself to and fro. Hence, Ps. 1. 11; lxxx. 14, the beasts that move about on the field. Hence here, too, i is synonymous with mamma, the breast that moves this way and that. So DELITZSCH. [DELITZSCH assigns to the meaning abundance (Ueberschwang) as the E. V., does, and, moreover, he expressly states that the parallelism does not force us to give to the word the signification of teats, dugs. See his comment. in loc. 2 Ed. D. M.]. The joy to which the Prophet, ver. 10, summons the friends of Jerusalem is well-founded. For the LORD Himself declares that He will extend, (direct) to Jerusalem peace, the highest of all inward blessings, as a river (comp. xlviii. 18; viii. 7), and as a torrent (, Arabic Wadi, comp. xxx. 28) the glory of the Gentiles, which comprehends all desirable outward things (comp. xvi. 14; xvii. 4; xxi. 16; xxxv. 2). And because the Prophet has here before his mind the image of maternal love and solici tude on the one hand, and on the other that of a child's wants, he adds here, and ye shall suck. Herewith he points back to ver. H, where he had designated Jerusalem as the source of consolations, Here he tells us that the spring of that spring will be the LORD. But that maternal care is not restricted to the affording of nourishment.

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children shall also be faithfully carried (78-y on the hip, after the common oriental custom,

Ix. 4). They will also be lovingly played with, caressed, and rocked on the knees. The LORD

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