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THE BOOK

Or

THE PROPHET ISAIAH,

TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL HEBREW ;

WITH A

COMMENTARY,

CRITICAL, PHILOLOGICAL, AND EXEGETICAL:

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED,

AN INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION

ON

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE PROPHET; THE CHARACTER OF HIS STYLE; THE AUTHENTICITY AND INTEGRITY OF THE BOOK; AND THE PRINCIPLES OF PROPHETICAL INTERPRETATION.

BY THE

REV. Ε΄ HENDERSON, D.D.

AUTHOR OF ‘‘LECTURES ON DIVINE INSPIRATION,” ‘‘ BIBLICAL RESEARCHES AND TRAVELS IN RUSSIA,” “ICELAND,” ETC.

SECOND EDITION.

Nobis propositum est Esaiam per nos intelligi, et nequaquam sub Esaize occasione nostra verba laudari.—H1iERon. ap Eustocu.

LONDON : HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO.

33, PATERNOSTER ROW. M DCCC LVII.

LONDON: R, CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREUT AIL.

PREFACE.

Ir is not without considerable diffidence that I publish to the world the result of my critical labours on the prophet Isaiah. The pre-eminent position which Bishop Lowth has occupied for more than half a century in this department of sacred literature, may by some be thought sufficient to justify the charge of presumption against any attempt to improve upon the elegant production of his superior mind. Yet, who that has examined the serious discrepancies which exist between the renderings of his translation and those of our common version, or that adverts to the opinion, which has been delivered by the best judges, that these discrepancies are principally to be ascribed to the fondness for conjectural emendation in which the learned prelate so freely indulged, but must admit, that the study of the subject cannot justly be regarded as foreclosed, and that further efforts are required to satisfy the claims of a numerous class of readers, on whose minds it must press with no ordinary degree of interest.

That labours of this kind are still wanted is also apparent from the new impulse which has been given to the study of Scripture criticism and interpretation; the advances recently made im Oriental literature generally, and. parti- cularly in the scientific treatment of Hebrew philology ; and the multiplied sources of illustration which have been supplied by books of ‘Travel, describing the geography, manners, customs, &c., of the regions contiguous to, or

,

1V PREFACE.

forming the scenes of the transactions and objects to which allusions are made in the Bible.

While, in this country, our prophet has been compara- tively neglected, the critics of Germany have subjected his book to rigid processes of philological and exegetical in- vestigation. ‘The ‘Scholia’ of the younger Rosenmiiler, and the Commentaries of Gesenius, Hitzig, and Hendewerk, though lamentably abounding with imfidel sentiments, far surpass any thing of the kind hitherto published, viewed as works of pure criticism, and sources of materials for successful interpretation. This remark applies particularly to the two first:—to Rosenmiiller, on account of the copiousness with which he exhibits the views of ancient and modern writers, and the acumen which he generally displays in arriving at his conclusions; and to Gesenius, on account of his accurate knowledge of the etymological and syntactical niceties of the Hebrew language, his judi- cious use of the cognate dialects, his profound historical and geographical research, and his careful investigation of the difficulties which lay in his path.

Not finding that any attempt was likely soon to be made to supply a desideratum painfully felt to exist m our theo- logical literature, I was mduced to undertake the present work." Having, during a period of thirty years, endeavoured

τ It was not till after the greater part of this work had been carried through the press that the Commentary of the Rev. Albert Barnes made its appear- ance in America. Such readers, however, as may compare the two will find that they occupy altogether independent ground. [I would, in this Second Edition, recommend to the attention of my readers the Commentary of Dr. J. A. Alexander, Professor in Princeton College, New Jersey, as a work of very superior merit, although containing very free strictures on the views advocated in the present volume relating to the future restoration of the Jews to Palestine,—views, however, which my continued studies of the prophetic record have not induced me to retract.]

PREFACE. Vv

to render myself familar with the language in which Isaiah wrote, and with the kindred dialects, whence so much help is to be derived; having perused the principal Biblical and Oriental productions which have appeared both in this country and on the Continent; and having for some time past more largely taken up Scripture exegesis as part of my official duty, I trust I shall not be deemed obtrusive in thus offering my contributions on the altar of sacred truth.

In executing the task which I prescribed for myself, it has been my aim to fix the reading of the text; to clear up philological and other difficulties; to mark the pecu- liarities of the style; to trace the logical connexion ; to catch the spirit, and ascertain the meaning of the prophet ; and, as far as possible, to express that meaning in language true to the original, yet not ungrateful to an English ear.

With the view of more clearly exhibiting the elevated character of the composition, and especially the paral- lelisms, which so materially assist im determining the sense, I have adopted the more approved method of throwing the translation into a poetic or rhythmical form. In doing this, I have been regulated chiefly by the divisions marked out by the Hebrew accents, which will, on the whole, be found to be correct.

Some may be disappointed on finding that I have not combined doctrinal and practical observations with my exegesis ; but the union of the two I perceived, from the first, would be incompatible with the limits within which I should be obliged to confine my labours. Nor could I discover any pressing necessity for their introduction. There is no lack of commentaries adapted for general edification ; while it must be allowed we are still greatly

vi PREFACE.

deficient im such works as have for their definite object the eliciting of “the mind of the Spirit,” upon which all genuine Christian edification must be based. Besides, the intermixture of spiritual matter with critical and philo- logical questions, must have appeared nearly as much out of place, as it would be to interlard a work of general exposition with such topics. The departments are quite distinct, and ought to be separately occupied.

I must apologize to the Oriental scholar for having printed the Arabic without points :—a course which I was under the necessity of pursuing, in order to prevent the awkward appearance which the greater increase of space between the lines must have produced, had they been inserted. It may also be proper to state, that the references to passages in the Old Testament are made according to the numeration in the Hebrew Bible, when the original is in question; when the sentiment only is involved, our own version has been followed ; in some few cases, both are cited.

On one point, it is necessary specially to bespeak the in- dulgent consideration of my readers,—the position which 1 have taken respecting the future restoration of the Jews to Palestine. That such a restoration is taught im Scripture, I had been accustomed to regard as more than questionable, how firmly soever I believed in their future conversion to the faith of Jesus. On examining, however, the different pro- phecies of the Old Testament, which treat of a return of that people, I have had the conviction forced upon my mind, that while the greater number decidedly apply to the restora- tion which took place on the capture of Babylon by Cyrus, there are others which cannot, without violence, be thus applied; but which, being, upon any just principle of inter- pretation, equally incapable of application to the affairs of the

PREFACE. vil

Gentile Church, must be referred to events yet future in Jewish history. In this class I particularly include the last seven chapters of Isaiah, which immediately follow the re- - markable prediction respecting the future conversion of the Jews, at the close of the fifty-ninth. Not the most distant allusion is made throughout these chapters to any circum- stances connected with the deliverance from Babylon; while, on the other hand, they contain a distinct recognition: of various things belonging to the New Dispensation,—such as the Divine Mission of the Messiah, the abolition of the Jewish worship, the calling of the Gentiles, the rejection of the Jews, and certain features of their present dispersion. At the same time, there is such a marked distinction uni- formly kept up between the persons spoken of and_ the Gentiles; such an appropriation to their condition of lan- guage elsewhere only used of the natural posterity of Abra- ham; such an obvious description of the desolation of Palestine ; and such express mention of a restored land, mountains, vineyards, fields, houses, flocks, &c. which cannot be figuratively understood, that; with no hermeneutical pro- priety, can the scene be placed in the Gentile world, or regarded as exhibiting the state of Gentile Christianity.

That the Jews shall cease to exist as a distinct race on their incorporation into the Christian Church, the Bible no- where teaches ; nor is such an event probable in the nature of things. But, if they shall exist as believing Jews, on what principle can it be maintained that they may not live in Palestine, just as believing Britons do in Britain, believing Americans in America, &c.? Christianity does not destroy nationality, nor require an amalgamation of the different races of mankind, however it may insist that, in a spiritual point of view, all its subjects constitute but one nation and

vill PREFACE.

one people, holy and peculiar—the sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty. If the Jews had received the Messiah, when preached to them by the Apostles, there is no reason to suppose that they would have been expelled from their own land; so that whatever admissions of Gentiles there might have been into their community, it would still, nm the main, have been made up of Jews, as in fact “the churches of God ” were, ‘“ which in Judea were in Christ Jesus.”

Nor is there any thing, in what I conceive to be the doctrine of Scripture on this subject, at all at variance with its repre: sentations respecting the spiritual nature of the kingdom of Christ. The Jews, when converted, will be required to con- form in every point to the laws of that kingdom, precisely as the Gentiles are on their becoming subject to its Head and Lord. Not the slightest hint is given that any forms of eccle- siastical polity, or any modes of worship, will obtain among the restored Jewish converts, different from those instituted by the Apostles.

As to the degree of temporal prosperity promised to them, it appears to have special respect to the long-continued cir- cumstances of adversity in which they have lived; and may perhaps, after all, differ but little from that which will be enjoyed by the members of the Dive kingdom generally, during the happy period of the Millennium.

ἜΝ On finding that a Second Kdition of this Commentary was in request, I havé subjected it to careful revision. The work, as a whole, remains substantially the same, though it contains a few additions derived from more modern research, and such slight alterations as I have deemed absolutely needful.

INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION.

SECTION I.

OF THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ISAIAH.

Noruine is known with historical certainty respecting the pro- phet Isaiah, beyond what is furnished by his own book, and a few scattered notices in the books of Kings and Chronicles.

His name, "7%, YESHAIAHU, signifies “The Salvation of Jeho- vah,” being compounded of 7%, deliverance or salvation, and ὙΠ, an apocopated form of 7. That this name perfectly accords with the leading themes of his book cannot be doubted; but whether it was given him by Divine direction, on the foreknowledge of the fact that he was to be employed in propounding such themes, it 15 impossible to determine.

The only positive information which we possess respecting his descent is, that he was the son of Amoz, (Heb. ¥8)—a person whom some of the Fathers, from their ignorance of Hebrew, con- founded with Amos, (Heb. ™¥,) the prophet who flourished in the reign of Jeroboam 11. Many of the Jews likewise ascribe to him a prophetical pedigree, but merely on the gratuitous assumption, that in all cases in which the father of a prophet is mentioned by name, he must have filled the same office. Others have attempted to vindicate to him a royal parentage, maintaining that Amoz was brother to King Amaziah; but rabbinical tradition is all they can allege in support of their position. That he was a native of Judah, there can be little doubt; and, that he resided at Jerusalem is evi- dent from chap. vii. 3, vill. 2, xxii. 15, xxxvii. 2, 5, 21, ἄκουα but whether he lived in the middle or lower division of the city, is not

: b

x INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION.

so certain, though some have gathered as much from the textual reading of 2 Kings xx. 4. No circumstances of a domestic charac- ter are mentioned, excepting that he was married, and that he had two sons in the reign of Ahaz, to both of whom were given names symbolical of important events in the Jewish history. The opinion that he was twice married has merely been advanced in order to give something like plausibility to a false interpretation of chap. vu. 14.

Though it is extremely probable that he was first solemnly called to the public discharge of his prophetical functions in the last year of Uzziah, 7.e. B.c. 759, yet there is reason to conclude that he had been occupied with public affairs long before: it being ex- pressly stated 2 Chron. xxvi. 22, that he composed the complete memoirs of that prince. At all events, he must have reached some maturity of age by that time; and if, as is exceedingly probable, he lived some time during the reign of Manasseh, it will follow, that he filled the prophetical office during a period of about fifty years, and must have been about eighty at the time of his death. According to a very ancient Jewish tradition, he was sawn in two by order of Manasseh, whom he had boldly reproved for his wicked- ness.' To this the Apostle is supposed to allude, Heb. xi. 37.

As the exact position of our prophet, and the peculiar circum- stances of the times in which he flourished, must necessarily either have called forth, or given a distinctive colouring to the predictions which he was commissioned to deliver, it is manifest, that an accu- rate knowledge of his times is indispensable to a right interpretation of his book. Now it so happens, that not only does a considerable portion of the book itself abound with historical statements and allusions, but full and circumstantial accounts of the principal events which transpired in his days, and the relations of the sur- rounding nations to the Jews, and to each other, are found in several books of the Old Testament which treat of that period.

Two hundred and forty years before Isaiah entered upon his prophetical office, the revolt under Rehoboam took place, by which

1 Gemara Jebam. iv. 13; Sanhed. fol. 103; Just. Mart. Dial. cum Tryph. p. 349; Origen in Ps. xxxvii; Tertullian de Patientia; Jerome in Isa. lvii; Augustine, Civ. Dei. xviii. 24; Chronicon Pasch. p. 155. See also Ascensio Jesaiz Vatis, published by Dr. Lawrence in Ethiopic and Latin, Oxford, 1819, the areek original of which is quoted by Epiphanius de Heres. xl. 2.

INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION. ΧΙ

the Hebrew kingdom was divided into two separate states, which not only made war on each other, but were subject to harassing in- vasions by foreign enemies. During the first eighty years of this period, the kingdom of Judah greatly prospered, especially under the pious kings, Asa and Jehoshaphat; but the idolatries which they had succeeded in suppressing having been revived, Jehovah visited it with heavy calamities; and, in the last days of Amaziah it lay prostrate at the feet of Jehoash, king of Israel.

Though only sixteen years of age when raised to the throne, Uzziah soon discovered a spirit of energy and enterprise; not only restoring the administration of public affairs from the state to which it had been reduced, and promoting the agricultural interests of the country, but organizing an immense army, fortifying the principal cities, and carrying his victorious arms into the territories of the Philistines, the Ammonites, and the Arabs. He also took the Port of Elath on the eastern gulf of the Red Sea, and thus re- opened the lucrative maritime trade of the East. Though, on the whole, obedient to the Divine laws, yet this monarch suffered the idolatrous altars to remain, and was ultimately smitten with leprosy for presuming to invade the sacred office of the priesthood.

Although temporal prosperity appears to have continued during the reign of Jotham, yet, owing to the increase of luxury and sensual indulgence, true piety greatly declined; and the alliance was formed between Pekah, king of Israel, and Rezin, king of Syria, which was brought to bear against the kingdom the year after his death, which took place B.c. 743. He was succeeded by Ahaz, the most abandoned monarch that had yet ascended the Jewish throne. During his reign every thing was thrown into con- fusion; the law of God was violated in the most reckless manner ; superstition and idolatry were openly practised; a Syrian altar and Syrian gods were introduced; and the temple was not only greatly defaced, but at last entirely closed against the worship of the true God.? Having been repulsed with great loss by the confederate powers of Israel and Syria, and suffering from the Edomites and the Philistines, Ahaz applied to Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, for assistance, for which he paid him a subsidy, raised from the treasures of the temple, the nobility, and the royal palace. It

1 2 Kings xv. 1—7; 2 Chron. xxvi. 2 Isa. 11. 6—8; 2 Kings xv. 32—88, xvi. 1—4; 2 Chron. xxvii. xxviil.

xi INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION.

would appear, however, that, though the Assyrian monarch pos- sessed himself of Damascus and some of the cities belonging to Israel, the inhabitants of which he carried into exile, he afforded no real succour to Ahaz, but, on the contrary, greatly harassed and perplexed him as his tributary.’

On the death of Ahaz, B.c. 728, he was succeeded by Hezekiah, a pious and zealous prince, who abolished idolatry, and all the objects that had been perverted to its use; restored the temple and worship of Jehovah; improved the fortifications and water- works around Jerusalem; reduced the Philistines; and shook off the Assyrian yoke. In the fourteenth year of his reign, however, t.e. B.C. 714, he was menaced by Sennacherib, who was advancing with a large army through Judea, with a view to the conquest of Egypt. To avert the threatened calamity, Hezekiah paid to the king of Assyria the stipulated sum of three hundred talents of silver, and thirty talents of gold, to raise which he was obliged to appropriate all the treasures in the temple and the palace; but that monarch, deeming it unsafe to leave so strong a power in his rear, reduced most of the cities of Judah, and ordered a numerous body of his troops to invest and subdue Jerusalem. Summoned in lan- guage of the most insolent description to surrender, Hezekiah applied by earnest prayer for Divine protection and deliverance ; and by the miraculous destruction of the Assyrian army the city was relieved. On his recovery from a dangerous sickness, which had been pre-signified by a miraculous phenomenon, he was honoured with an embassy from the court of Babylon; but giving way to a spirit of ostentation, he received a severe rebuke in the announcement of the Babylonish captivity.’

In the succeeding reign of Manasseh, idolatry, with all its accom- panying evils, was publicly established, and maintained in the most daring and outrageous manner by that apostate king; in conse- quence of which, notwithstanding the penitent efforts which he afterwards made to regain the ground he had lost, and the zealous reformation effected by Josiah, the Jewish affairs continued gra- dually to decline, till at last, partly by internal broils, partly by the invasion of Pharaoh Necho, and finally by the imposition of the Babylonish yoke, they were reduced to the lowest possible state ;

1 2 Kings xvi.; 2 Chron. xxviii.; 1 Chron. v. 26. i 2 2 Kings xviiiim—xx.; 2 Chron. xxix.—xxxii; Isa, xxxvii—xxxix,

INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION. Xill

the city of Jerusalem was destroyed; the temple burnt with fire ; and the principal inhabitants were carried away captive to Babylon.' Though Isaiah can have lived only during a very limited period of this last section of the history of his people, yet no inconsiderable portion of his predictions relate to their condition as located in the midst of idolaters during the captivity, and their happy restoration to their own land through the instrumentality of Cyrus.?

During the space of time occupied by the ministry of the prophet, the Jews were more or less affected by the influence of foreign states, some of which were the most powerful empires of antiquity. In their immediate vicinity were the rival kingdom of Israel, the Syrian and Tyrian powers, the Philistines, Moabites, Edomites, and Arabians, by whose warlike demonstrations, sudden incursions, and victorious enterprises, they were greatly annoyed, and frequently brought to the verge of ruin. In the ancient kingdom of the Pharaohs, at this time successively under the rule of the nineteenth of Manetho’s dynasties, the Dodecharchy, and the dynasty of Psammeticus, they had a powerful neighbour, to the shield of whose protection they constantly looked for safety when threatened by the most formidable of their assailants— Assyria.’ This empire, the capital of which was Nineveh, was, so far as Jewish affairs are concerned, not the ancient power of that name, supposed to have been founded by Nimrod, but that founded on the death of Sardanapalus, by Arbaces the Mede, about the seventh year of Uzziah, B.c. 804. The Assyrian monarchs men- tioned in Scripture as having invaded Palestine, are Pul, Tiglath- pileser, Shalmaneser, Sargon, Sennacherib, and LEzar-haddon. Their sceptre was one of almost unlimited sway, being wielded from Persia to the Mediterranean, and from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf. Yet, not satisfied with this extensive empire, Sargon and Sennacherib projected the conquest of Egypt, the mighty expedition undertaken with a view to effect which occupies a conspicuous place on the pages of our prophet, both on account of its threatening aspect, and the Divine interposition by which it was terminated. The Chaldean power in Babylon, by which, in conjunction with the Medes, the Assyrian empire was overthrown, now began to raise its head, and for a time exerted a mighty

1 9 Kings xxi. 1—18, xxii—xxv.; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 1—10, xxxiii—xxxvi. ? Chapters xl—lii. 12, 3 Isa, xxx, 1—17, xxxk

ΧΙΥ INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION.

influence over the countries of hither Asia, and, among the rest, on Judea. To this empire, however, and to that of Persia, by “which, in its turn, it was subverted, no purely historical reference is made by Isaiah, excepting in chap. xxiii. 13. In like manner, Rome, which was founded in his days, is only recognized in the way of prophetical anticipation, in so far as her history was to have a bearing on the church of God; and is presented to our view under the indefinite and general names of “‘ The West,” and “ The Maritime Lands” in that direction. From the mount of inspired vision the prophet surveys the surrounding nations; and, like a faithful watchman, gives warning of each, describes some of their more striking characteristics, and predicts their final destruction.

Contemporaneously with Isaiah flourished the prophets Hosea, and Micah, between which last and him there are some remarkable points of resemblance.

SECTION II. OF THE AUTHENTICITY AND INTEGRITY OF THE TEXT.

WHEN we speak of the integrity of any writing, we understand by the term an immunity from corruption, whether consisting in the removal from the text of any thing which it originally con- tained, or the introduction of matter into it by a foreign hand. That an absolute literal identity exists between the present copies of the Bible and the autographs whence they have mediately been derived, will not be maintained by any who are at all acquainted with the history of literature generally, or with that of sacred literature in particular. The existence of various readings is matter of ocular demonstration. Its prevention could only have been effected by a continued series of miraculous interventions, which God hath not been pleased to employ. He hath committed to fallible and erring men the custody and transmission of the sacred oracles.

Against the supposition, however, that they have been wilfully corrupted, or that their integrity has been in any way materially affected by the errors of transcription, there exist the strongest

INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION. XV

possible reasons. The sacredness of their claims; the scrupulous regard which has ever been paid to them by those in whose hands they have been deposited; their having been a common public property, and not the monopoly of a privileged caste, or of any influential individual; the check which one copy and one portion has had upon another; their constant use in the church of God; together with the absence of any adequate motive ;—all go satis- factorily to shew the improbability of attempts having been made to alter them, and the impossibility that any such attempts, sup- posing them to have been made, would escape detection and merited reprobation. With respect to the Hebrew Scriptures especially, nothing is more susceptible of demonstration than the fact, that those entrusted with the care of them have in all ages regarded them with sacred, and even with superstitious veneration, and have watched over their purity with the utmost vigilance.* They have regarded them not only as their national charter, but as the foundation of their religious belief, and the source of their religious hopes. They have received them as the productions of men who were the subjects of a supernatural Divine influence, specially exerted upon them for the purpose of enabling them correctly to register the communications of the will of God, and those events the knowledge of which was calculated to be useful to posterity. These men were not obscure and unknown indi- viduals, but public and official characters, whose credentials had been tested and approved as genuine by the community in which they lived, as well as by those more immediately called upon to judge of such matters. No book was received into the Jewish canon that could not be proved to have been written or sanctioned by one who was accredited as a Divine messenger; and after the canon was completed, no one dared to add to or detract from its sacred contents.” To suppose, under such circumstances, the existence of deliberate or fraudulent corruptions, would be to advance a position utterly at variance with historical fact.

It is matter of notoriety that, although the authenticity and integrity of the prophecies of Isaiah have, in all past ages since

1 For an account of the rigidity of the laws by which Jewish copyists are tied down in performing their task, see my Biblical Researches and Travels in Russia, pp. 208—211.

ἢ See my Lectures on Divine Inspiration, Lect, ix.

Xvi INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION.

the period of their composition, been above suspicion,—the book having been firmly believed both by Jews and Christians to be his throughout,—they have of late years been assailed by certain critics in Germany, who have expended upon the discussion of the subject all that their powers of invention, and their stores of philological and critical learning could supply. It is, however, not a little remarkable that these attacks obviously sprang out of, and have, for the most part, been conducted in the spirit of those investigations respecting the authenticity of the works of Homer, Cicero, and other authors of classic celebrity which were carried on by Wolf, Heyne, Ilgen, and other distinguished literati of the day. It having become fashionable to break up the writings of an ancient author into distinct parts, and to dwell upon the differences in point of style, &c. which appeared to exist between one part and another, the same process was resorted to in the treatment of the Sacred Authors, more especially in that of Isaiah, whose book, being of greater extent, and comprising a greater variety of subjects than that of any other prophet, afforded more enlarged scope for the exercise of critical acumen. ΤῸ this must be added the sceptical spirit originally generated by Spinoza, and afterwards propagated by our English deists, the influence of which has been extensively felt on the Continent, and nowhere more powerfully than in the land of the Reformation.

Doubts respecting the authenticity of certain parts of the book of Isaiah were first started by Koppe and Déderlein; the former of whom was the translator of Lowth into German, with additional Notes and Observations; and the latter, the author of a New Trans- lation of the prophet, with brief Motdscs in Latin, The subject has since been tale up and discussed by Justi, Eichhorn, Rosen- miiller, Paulus, Bauer, Bertholdt, De Wette, Gesenius, Hitzig, and Hendewerk ; and not only have chapters xl.—lxvi. been abstracted from our prophet, and ascribed to some writer supposed to have flourished about the time of the return from Babylon, to whom, for the sake of distinction, have been given the names of “ Doniato: Isaiah” and “ Pseudo-Isaiah,” but the following portions of the book have likewise been attributed to the same, or to some other author: chap. 11. 2—4, xi. xi, xii. 1—xiv. 23, xv. xvi. xix. 18—25, xxi. xxil. 1—14, xxiii. xxiv.—xxvii. xxxiv.

These writers insist that the state of things set forth in these

INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION. XVil

portions is described in the style of history, not of prophecy ; that no distinet intimations of the captivity are previously furnished ; that the statements contained in them would have been unintelli- gible to the contemporaries of Isaiah; that, as predictions, the details would be too circumstantial; that no appeals are made to them by Jeremiah ; and that the style is not identical with that employed in the rest of the book. To attempt a formal or elaborate refuta- tion of these several objections would be actwm agere. They have been more or less fully met by Piper,’ Uhland,’ Beckhaus,’® van der Palm,‘ Dereser,’ Greve,’ Moller,’ Arndt,’ Jahn,’ Kleinert,!° Heng- stenberg,'’ Professor Lee,’? and Dr. J. Pye Smith,’* who have shewn, that they have totally failed in establishing the hypotheses in support of which they have been brought forward. I shall, therefore, confine what observations I have to make to some of the leading points in the controversy, and refer such of my readers as may wish to pursue the subject farther, to the writers just specified.

It must be obvious to all who peruse the antagonist articles, that the πρώτον ψεῦδος to which they are chiefly to be ascribed, is a total disbelief of prophetic inspiration. In most of them this is distinctly avowed; and the different positions that have been presented in the form of argument, are merely taken, in order, if

' Integritas Iesaize, a recentiorum conatibus vindicata. Gryphsw. 1792. 4to.

2 Vaticinium Iesaiz, cap. xiii. Tub. 1798. 4to.

3 Ueber die Integritat der Proph. Schriften des. A. B. Halle, 1798.

4 Jesaia vertaald en opgehelderd. Amsterd. 1805. 3 Deel. 8vo.

5 In Brentano’s Bibelwerk. Frankf. 1808.

6 Vaticiniorum Iesaiz pars continens Carminaa cap. xl. usque adlvi.9. Am- stelod. 1810. 4to.

7 De Authentia oraculorum Esai, cap. xl—Ixvi. Haynie, 1825. 4to.

8 De loco, qui extat apud Iesaiam, cap. xxiv.—xxvii., vindicando et explicando ‘ccommentatio. Hamb. 1826. 4to. J

9 In his Einleitung, Th. 11. 2 Abtheil. pp. 458—494; and in Horne’s Introd. vol. iv. pp. 165—175.

0 Kleinert tber die Echtheit sammtlicher in dem Buche Iesaia enthaltenen Weissagungen. Berlin, 1829. 8vo.

1 Christologie des Alten Testaments, &c. Berlin, 1829—1835. I Th. 2 Ab- theil. pp. 168—206. American Translation by Dr. Keith. Alexandria, 1836— 1839. Vol. i. pp. 395—423.

® Sermons and Dissertations. London, 1830, 8vo. pp. 157—208.

18 The Principles of Interpretation as applied to the Prophecies. 2d Edit. London, 1831. Supplementary Note G. p. 67.

Ὁ

XVlli INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION.

possible, to sustain the infidel principle. According to Eichhorn,’ the prophets were men gifted with extraordinary intellectual powers, and rich in the experience of human affairs, by which they were raised far above their contemporaries, and enabled to extend their penetrating views into futurity. In the preface to his ‘ Commen- tary on Isaiah,’* Gesenius expressly avows, that he “can find no supernatural or definite prediction in the Hebrew prophets ;” and in the course of his work, whenever he is pressed by any thing in the shape of such prediction, he exerts his ingenuity in attempting to lower it down to a lucky conjecture, founded upon existing aspects of the political horizon, or other circumstances of the times. Hitzig* believes prophecy to have been nothing more than the effect of physical ecstasy, moral illumination, poetic inspiration, and a shrewd calculating on the future from present events and circum- stances. And Hendewerk,* the latest writer on the book, agrees with him in the main, investing the prophets with “a poetical spirit of divination,” which he thinks is sufficient to account for the foresayings contained in their writings. Ἢ

In diametrical opposition to all such statements of speculative critics stands the inspired testimony of the Apostle Peter:* ‘“ PRo- PHECY CAME NOT IN OLD TIME BY THE WILL OF MAN, BUT HOLY MEN OF GOD SPAKE AS THEY WERE MOVED BY THE HOLy GHost.” It is impossible for words more strongly to deny the origination of the predictions of the Hebrew seers in the simple operation of their mental faculties, or more positively to vindicate for it that super- natural influence by which the Spirit of God revealed to them things to come. They merely gave utterance to what they were borne onward by a Divine impulse to announce. And the same Apostle distinctly recognizes such influence as enabling the pro- phets to predict the distant sufferigs and glory of the Messiah: “Searching what, or what manner of time THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST WHICH WAS IN THEM DID SIGNIFY, WHEN IT TESTIFIED BEFORE- HAND the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” ° Our Lord himself likewise declares, that “the prophets” had ““ WRITTEN concerning ” him’—a declaration which most especially

1 Einleitung in das A. Τὶ, Band. iv. καὶ 39. 2 P. πεν:

% Der Prophet Iesaja. Heidelb. 1833. 8vo. Pref. xxv. pp. 463, 464.

* Des Propheten lesaja Weissagungen. Kéonigsb. 1838. 8vo. Einleitung. 5 2d Epist. 1. 21. 6 ] Epist. i. 11. 7 Luke xxiv. 44.

INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION. x1x

applies to Isaiah, whose writings, according to the same Divine authority, contain express prophecies of Him and his kingdom.

But, if these holy men were the subjects of an influence exerted upon their minds by the Omniscient Spirit, to whose eye the whole of the future, in the most minute of its existences and modifica- tions, was equally present with the entire range of then existent being, what incongruity is there in believing, that the passages in our prophet which contain detailed descriptions of events that were to transpire in the history of the Jewish nation long after his time, actually proceeded from his pen? What greater impediment can there be in the way of exercising such belief, than in believing that he “saw the glory of Christ and spake of him?”’? So long as we confine our ideas of prophecy within the sphere of purely human activity, we must necessarily deny, as contrary to all experience, the ability to descry and predict contingent future events,—such as those described in the disputed portions of Isaiah must have been to him and all who lived in his time; but no sooner do we candidly yield our minds to the authoritative claims of the Scripture doc- trine of prophetic inspiration, than the absurdity vanishes, and all is plain, consistent with itself, and, in every respect, worthy of God.’ It then becomes manifest, that, to announce the conquest of Babylon, and the consequent deliverance of the captive Jews by Cyrus, at a period when the Assyrian power was yet dominant, when the Babylonian state was only in its germ, and the Median empire had no existence; to foretell the destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar one hundred and fifty years prior to the event ; to point out the birth, character, sufferings, death, resurrection, and glorious reign of our Saviour, with the utmost minuteness, seven centuries beforehand; and to describe events which are still future in the history of the Jewish people, were all equally possible and equally easy. In every case the prophet spoke as the Spirit gave him utterance.

It deserves special notice, that in the very portion of the book which has been most violently attacked, there occur passages in which the Divine origin of prophecy is the subject of direct and unanswerable appeal. or instance :

1 John xii. 41. 3. See my Lectures, wf sup. pp. 253, 254, 315—319,

ΧΧ INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION.

‘Who published this of OLD? Who declared it FROM ANCIENT TIMES ? Was it not I, Jehovah ὁ" And again :— “1 am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end FROM THE BEGINNING, From ANCIENT TIMES things not yet done.”’ *

With which may be compared the appeal made in the book of Ezekiel: * “Thus saith the Lord God, Art thou he of whom I have spoken OF OLD TIME by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them ?”

That the predictions respecting the Baga state of Judea, and the return from the captivity, should be couched in language descriptive of the present, or rather of the past, is perfectly in accordance with the animated picturesque character of the pro- phetic style. So vividly were the circumstances exhibited to the view of Isaiah in prophetic vision, and so powerful was the im- pression produced upon his mind, that no language which did not invest them with present reality, could give adequate expression to his feelings. The scenes are thus brought out more boldly, and placed in a much stronger light before our eyes. They strike us more forcibly than they could have done had they been depicted in the simple language of the future. This feature of the more animated prophetic style was not unobserved by the Fathers: Both Justin Martyr,* and Eusebius,’ distinctly recognize it. And in later times its existence has justly been regarded by most as a settled point in the interpretation of the prophecies.® It is, indeed, no unusual thing for the other prophets as well as Isaiah to take their position in the future, and then describe events as actually happening in their presence, or as possessing all the certainty of

1 Chap. xlv. 21. 2 Chap. xlvi. 10. 3 Chap. xxxviii. 17.

4 Ὅταν δὲ προφητικὸν πνεῦμα τὰ μέλλοντα γίνεσθαι ὡς ἤδη γενόμενα λέγῃ» ὡς καὶ ἐν τοῖς προειρημένοις δοξάσαι ἔστιν. Apol. p. 81.

ἢ Κατά τινα δὲ συνήθειαν προφητικὴν, τὸ μέλλον ὁ προφήτης ὡς παρῴχηκος ἀναφωνεῖ, καὶ ὡς περὶ ἑαυτοῦ τοῦ προφετεύοντος δηλοῖ. Demonst. Evangel. lib. iv. cap. 30.

5 Clericus ad Deut. xxx1i, 80,

INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION. XXi

~

past transactions. The circumstances, that our prophet assumes this position, and that the design of his predictions relative to the captivity being to promote the recovery of his people from idolatry and other sins, and to encourage them by repeated announcements of their deliverance, and of still more important deliverances future to their return, sufficiently account for the absence of definite denunciations of that calamity as the subject of future infliction. He takes it for granted as sufficiently known, from his own positive prophecy of it, chap. xxxix. 5—7, and from the predictions of other prophets.

From the whole structure of chapters x1—lxvi. it would appear, that they formed no part of the instructions publicly delivered by the prophet in the course of his personal ministry, and were, therefore, not so much designed for the use of those who lived in his own day, as to be preserved for the benefit of those who should live in aftertimes. They were, in all probability, composed in the reign of Manasseh, when he was under the necessity of laying aside his prophetic trumpet, and restricting his service to the use of the pen. At the same time, there can be little doubt that copies of these inspired compositions would be eagerly sought after by those in whose minds there still reigned a supreme regard for the God of Israel, and whose tenderest sympathies were called into exercise by the present and prospective condition of their nation. And whatever obscurity might have attached to their contents, by which such as perused them would be prevented from obtaining that full and clear insight into their meaning which was to be the privilege of those who should live in succeeding ages, yet they could not but discover much in their general bearing, and also in many of their particular announcements, to inspire them with the brightest hopes, excite them to persevering confidence in Jehovah, and instruct them to walk and worship so as to please him. Though, like other prophetic Scripture, they might be unintelligible to the wicked, yet such as were endowed with spiritual wisdom, would derive from them rich practical information.'

As it regards the objection taken to the circumstantiality with which many things are described by the prophet, it may only be necessary to remark, that it will lie against other prophecies

1 Dan, xi1..9,, 10.

XX INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION.

equally as against those in question. With what particularity, for instance, do Jeremiah and Ezekiel describe the countries and cities on which Divine judgments were to be inflicted, and specify by name the instruments by whom their destruction was to be effected! With what minuteness of detail does Daniel set forth the time of the Messiah’s appearance; the manner and nature of his death; and the fates of the great monarchies with which those of the church of God were, to a certain extent, to be mixed up! Does not Micah specify the birth-place of the Saviour? and Zechariah his humble entrance, as a spiritual king, into Jeru- salem? And as to the express mention of Cyrus by name, have we not a parallel in the designation of Josiah upwards of three centuries before he was born ?1

Were it necessary to enter into the Mlulévteal part of the question, it might easily be shewn, that the arguments employed on this ground against the authenticity of the disputed passages are of the slenderest possible character; and that, were any degree of validity to be allowed them, they would not only go to cancel large portions of every book in the Bible, but to bastardize important sections in the most celebrated human productions. Let any one apply the same critical pruning knife to Shakespeare, or Walter Scott, or Milton, or Hume, and he may produce equally satis- factory proofs of the spuriousness of much that has been ascribed to these writers. Though with respect to general style and phraseology there is a striking conformity running throughout our prophet, yet because he employs a few terms and modes of expression in one part of his book, which are not found in the other, it is seriously argued, that he could not have written it all!

On the whole, it must be concluded, not only that the denial of original authorship as it respects these chapters rests upon no external evidence whatever, and upon none internal beyond what is brought out by the ingenuity of speculation, but that the entire stream of external evidence is directly and broadly against it, while there is no lack of internal characteristics which go to identify the writer with Isaiah.

11 Kings xiii. 2.

INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION. XXill

It is now time to inquire what judgment we are to entertain respecting the text in its more minute forms, or the degree of immunity from verbal errors which may justly be claimed for it. If we are to receive without qualification the assertion of Bishop Lowth,’ in reference to the Hebrew Text in general, “ that mistakes are frequent, and of various kinds; of letters, words, and sentences; by variation, omission, transposition; such as often injure the beauty and elegance, embarrass the construction, alter or obscure the sense, and sometimes render it quite unintelligible ;” or that which he has advanced respecting the text of Isaiah in particular, that “it is considerably injured, and stands in need of frequent emendation,”* then it is manifest it must require no small effort to recover it from the corruptions to which it has been subject. In accordance with such views of the case, the learned prelate proceeded fearlessly to adopt those measures which he deemed necessary for effecting such recovery. All who are conversant with his notes must be aware, that a considerable portion of them is occupied with attempts to emend the text, partly with the aid of MSS. and of the Ancient Versions, and partly by conjecture; the result of which has been, that not only has the original text become in a great measure unsettled, but occasion has been taken by other critics, inferior in taste, though not in boldness, as Blayney, Newcome, Horsley, and Boothroyd, to deal in the same way with other sacred writers, to the no small disparagement of their integrity. If the bishop had confined himself to the collation of MSS., and a rigid examination of the renderings in the Ancient Versions; and, after carefully weighing the evidence which they furnished in favour or otherwise of any particular reading, and minutely investigating the Hebrew usage and that of the cognate dialects, had presented us with the result of his labours, they would doubtless have merited the unqualified approval of every competent judge: but, indulging as he has done, after the example of Houbigant, in unnecessary and groundless conjectures, partly original, and partly adopted from that author, and from Drs. Secker, Durell, and Jubb, and altering the text agreeably to such conjectures, he has laid himself open to the just censure of all sober and judicious critics. His rash and unwar-

? Prelim, Dissert. p. lxiv. 2 Tbid. p. Ixiv.

XXIV INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION.

ranted emendations were, indeed, speedily exposed by Professor D. Kocher, a learned Swiss divine,! who, though he did not treat the bishop with that urbanity to which he was otherwise entitled, and carried his notions of the literal perfection of the Hebrew text to an unjustifiable length, certainly did succeed in convincing the learned that our prophet deserved a very different treatment from that to which he had been so unceremoniously subjected. Since that time, whatever commendations have been passed upon Lowth for his fine poetic taste, his classical elegance, and his merits as a writer on Hebrew poetry, and these have not been few, there is but one opinion among Continental critics in reference to his emendatorial conjectures. Gesenius has demonstrated, that they are, in most instances, altogether uncalled for; in others, without any solid foundation ; and that, had the bishop been more familiar with the comparative philology of the Hebrew text, and the Oriental dialects, and more deeply versed in the minutiz of the Hebrew syntax, he would have been under no temptation to tax his ingenuity, or to have recourse to the desperate remedy which he has so freely applied in the exercise of therapeutic criticism.

In the following commentary, I have suffered no instance to pass unnoticed, in which I have judged that unwarrantable liberties have been taken with the text, though I have not always deemed it necessary to mention thei authors. It has, I trust, been made apparent to the satisfaction of the reader, that it is by no means in that corrupt state in which it has been represented ; and that, carefully and accurately examined by all the lights which the present improved state of Oriental philology and Biblical criticism supplies, it justly demands our undiminished confidence and respect. The errors of transcription which have crept into it, are, in general, of little or no consequence as affecting the sense, and may easily be rectified by a judicious use of the various readings exhibited in the MSS.; by comparing the renderings given in the Ancient Versions; by consulting the testimonies of Jewish and Christian writers ; and by due attention to the context, and to the scope of the writer.

1 Vindiciew 5. textus Hebreei Esais adversus Ὁ. Roberti Lowthi criticam. Bernx, 1786, 8vo.

INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION. 'XXKV

SECTION III. OF THE STYLE.

Tovey the prophets were the subjects of Divine Inspiration, there is no reason to conclude that they were bereft of the mental peculiarities which constituted their individuality of character, or that they employed any other style or manner of writing than what was natural to them.’ It cannot, therefore, be improper to inquire into these peculiarities, or to treat of the respective diction of each, as we should that of merely human authors, only care be taken to cherish due and becoming reverence of the Holy Spirit, to whose infallible regulation and control it was constantly subject.

While Isaiah possesses much in common with the other prophets, there are many peculiar features by which his compositions are distinguished. In character he is energetic, bold, and uncom- promising ; of a lively and fertile imagination, yet full of serious feeling and deep thought; zealous for the honour of the Divine perfections, the spirituality of worship, and the purity of the theocracy ; the undaunted reprover of sin, of every kind, and in whomsoever found; the tender-hearted patriot, who took the deepest interest in the circumstances and prospects of his people ; and the compassionate friend of the Gentile world.

His language is uniformly adapted to the subjects of which he treats. In narrative he exhibits the utmost simplicity and perspi- cuity; in announcing the divine oracles, his tones are marked by a singular degree of solemnity; in his descriptions, he is minute, discriminating, frequently cumulative, and highly graphic; in menacing foreign enemies, and the wicked among the Jews, he is full of vehemence and force. His expostulations are urgent and pathetic; his hortatory addresses, earnest and powerful. Nothing can surpass the sublimity of those passages in which the sovereignty and infinite majesty of Jehovah are set forth, or the severe irony and satire with which he attacks the worshippers of idols. Nor is he equalled by any of the other prophets in the magnificence, variety, and choice of the images which he employs, especially

1 See my Lectures on Divine Inspiration, pp. 391—895.

d

ΧΧΥῚ INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION.

when predicting the reign of the Messiah, and the future happimess of the church.

The poetical structure of his sentences is exquisitely graceful and elegant. Their flow is, in most instances, soft and pleasing: at times they roll onward like the majestic billows of the ocean. He not only abounds in the simpler or cognate parallelism of members, which constitutes one of the most prominent features of Hebrew poetry, but in the varied forms of the antithetic, synthetic, and introverted parallelism. Many of his sentences are highly artificial, and so rhythmically combined as to produce the happiest effect. He is fond of paronomasias, apostrophes, com- parisons, emphatic forms of words, and iterations of the same word. His images are dignified and appropriate. They are, likewise, greatly diversified, and very often of the boldest and most sublime description. Not unfrequently he proceeds with a rapidity which leads the reader to suppose that he intends to carry out the subject to a much greater length ; when, all at once, by an abrupt transition, he takes up a fresh subject, which he again as suddenly drops. ‘This is specially observable in cases in which there is some idea or expression in the discourse which leads his thoughts to the future Redeemer. Grotius compares him to Demosthenes, of whom, in point of time, he had the precedence by nearly four centuries; and by men of taste in every country, who have been capable of relishing his beauties, he has had awarded to him the highest meed of praise.

For finished specimens of his style, the reader may consult the description of Jewish female dress, chap. iil. 16—24; the parable of the vineyard, chap. v.; the approach of the Assyrian army towards Jerusalem, chap. x. 28—32; the ode on the king of Babylon, chap. xiv.; the sentence of Egypt, chap. xix.; the threatening against Shebna, chap. xxii. 16—18 ; the calamities of Jerusalem, chap. xxiv.; the transcendent superiority of Jehovah, chap. xl. 12—31,; the absurdity of idol-worship, chap. xliv.; the corruptions prevalent among the Jews in the time of our Lord, chap. lix.; and their happy condition when restored in the latter day, chap. Ix.

INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION. XXVIli

SECTION IV. OF THE PRINCIPLES OF PROPHETICAL INTERPRETATION.

It is manifest from the widely different, and even contradictory interpretations which have been, and still are given of the pro- phetic records, that we are far from having arrived at any settled, solid, or satisfactory principles on which to rest their exegesis. Many causes might doubtless be assigned for this want of agree- ment, but the following, there is reason to believe, are some of the principal :—

First, the want of a familiar acquaintance with the distinctive characteristics of prophetical language. Instead of making proper allowance for the highly poetical character of the tropes and figures with which it abounds, by which objects are frequently magnified or diminished beyond the reality, and carefully endeavouring to ascertain the exact meaning of its symbols, interpreters have too much treated it as if it were plain or ordinary prose composition. Figurative terms and phrases have been taken in their literal import, and applied to the objects which they primarily designate ; while others, which are introduced merely for the sake of embellish- ing the style, vividly delineating the objects, and thus heightening the effect, have had separate and important meanings attached to them, as if each had been designed to convey a distinct portion of prophetical truth. All conceivable aspects of a particular image have been brought out, and invested with a corresponding circum- stantial detail of meaning in their supposed bearing upon the subject of the prophecy. And few, even of those who admit the principle, that the writings of the prophets are to be interpreted with due regard to the claims of poetic diction, are found to carry it out with any thing like uniform consistency.

Another cause of lax and unstable interpretation, is a proneness to regard prophecies as strictly parallel in point of subject, in which the same particular terms or modes of expression are em- ployed. Important as verbal parallels must ever be viewed, still it is chiefly with respect to their_subserviency to the purposes of philological elucidation that their value is to be appreciated. In innumerable instances the identical words are used, while the subjects treated of have no affinity whatever with each other. To

XXVili INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION.

transfer, therefore, what is said in one passage to the matter con- tained in another, simply on the ground of some degree of verbal identity, without at all inquiring whether there be any real agree- ment as to persons, nations, events, &c., must necessarily be pro- ductive of the grossest perversion of Divine truth. By jumbling pro- phecies together which ought to have been kept perfectly distinct, the Spirit of God is forced to put a construction upon his own words totally different from that which he intended they should bear.

The meaning of prophecy has likewise been greatly obscured, by the propensity of most commentators to indulge in mystical, or spiritual modes of interpretation.’ Not satisfied with the obvious literal application, they endeavour to elicit more recondite or spiritual senses. ΤῸ abide by the simple import of a passage, if that import be temporal or earthly in its aspect, is deemed not only meagre and confined, but carnal, and unworthy of the Spirit of inspiration. Accordingly another construction is superinduced upon it, which is supposed to be richer and more dignified in itself, and better fitted to promote edification. If these writers had merely deduced spiritual inferences from such temporal predictions, or made observations upon them for purposes of godly improve- ment, they would have conferred a benefit upon their readers ; but the effect of their applying them in such a way as to convey the idea, that they are giving the mind of the Spirit, is to destroy all certainty of interpretation, to throw open the Scriptures to the inroads of imagination and caprice, and, by invalidating a very considerable portion of the evidence which prophecy furnishes of the Divine authority of the Bible, to pave the way for the spread of scepticism and infidelity. 'Tosuch a mode of interpretation may justly be applied the admirable remark of Hooker, “ There is nothing more dangerous than this licentious and deluding art, which changeth the meaning of words, as alchymy doth or would do the substance of metals, maketh of any thing what it listeth, and bringeth in the end all truth to nothing.”

Nearly allied to this method is the theory of a double sense of prophecy, which has also been very extensively adopted. While

1 “God knows, what a multitude of meanings the wit of man imagineth to himself in the Scriptures, which neither Moses, the Prophets, nor the Apostles ever conceived,”—Raleigh’s Hist. of the World, chap. ii. § 1.

> Ecclesiastical Polity, Book v. sect. 59.

INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION, XXIX

it is granted by those who advocate this theory, that many of the predictions of the Hebrew seers have a lower or temporal sense, z.e. that they treat of persons and circumstances in the history of the Jews and the surrounding nations, it is maintained that, over and above this, they were intended to teach certain truths respecting the person, people, kingdom, and enemies of Christ. According to this view of the subject, in interpreting prophecy we are to look for a two-fold accomplishment: first, one that is temporal, and then another corresponding to it that is spiritual. We may primarily interpret of the inferior object whatever in the prediction is found susceptible of being applied to it; but having done this, we are, by means of analogy, to find out some higher object which it is supposed to resemble or prefigure, and to this we are to apply it in its secondary and plenary sense.

To this theory it may justly be objected, that it is unnecessary, unsatisfactory, and unwarranted. It is wnnecessary, because there is really no prophecy which may not consistently \be restricted to one sense—such a sense as fully meets all the exigencies of the connexion in which it occurs. It is unsatisfactory, because on the same principle that a second sense is brought out, it may be maintained that a third, and even a fourth is couched under the language; and some expositors have actually gone this length. Beyond the meaning which is elicited by a due examination of the language, and all the circumstances of the context, every thing must necessarily be indeterminate and arbitrary.t. In all other writings we expect to find one definite sense in which the authors have designed to be understood; unless, indeed, like the heathen oracles, what they wrote was expressly intended to be equivocal and deceptive. And we should naturally come to the Bible under the influence of a similar impression, were it not that we have been taught to look for a greater fulness of meaning than the primary interpretation seems to supply. We should expect that,

1 Potest alius aliud, et argutius fingere, et veri cum similitudine suspicari. Potest aliud tertius ; potest aliud quartus: atque, ut se tulerint ingeniorum opinantium qualitates, ita singule res possunt infinitis interpretationibus expli- cari, Cum enim e rebus occlusis omnis ista, quee dicitur Allegoria, sumatur, nec habeat finem certam, in quo rei, que dicitur, sit fixa atque immota sententia, uni- cuique liberum est in id, quo velit, attrahere lectionum, et affirmare id positum, a i eum sua suspicio, et conjectura opinabilis duxerit—Arnobius adversus

eves.

XXX INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION.

in revealing his will to us, God has spoken, as men speak, in a fixed and determinate manner, and not left lis meaning to be dependent upon the fertility or the freaks of human imagination." What is literal we should, at once, interpret literally; and what is figurative we should, without hesitation, interpret figuratively. To language which describes affairs belonging to the Jews, or to other nations, we should not scruple to give a direct historical interpretation : whereas that which sets forth our Saviour and his kingdom, we should confine to these sublime subjects, as the sphere to which it exclusively belongs. It is only by such distinctive explication of the several prophecies of Scripture, that we can shew, in a satis- factory and convincing manner, when and how they have been fulfilled. And the theory of a double sense is wnwarranted, there being no Scripture authority in its favour. Whatever applications are made by one of the Sacred Writers of what had been published by another, whether it be for the purpose of illustration, of excite- ment, or of confirmation, from no single passage can it be shewn that the words, as they stand in the original author, were designed to be taken in more meanings than one.’

One additional source of divarication in the interpretation of prophecy to which reference must be made, is the adoption of favourite hypotheses or systems, to which every thing is made to bend, how far-fetched soever may be the exposition. Certain aspects of the times; political, ecclesiastical, or party views; peculiar notions respecting the whole scheme of prophecy, or some insulated part of it; in short, any opinions that strongly bias the mind, and lead it to regard all subjects only in the supposed relation in which they stand to them, must necessarily exert a pernicious influence on pro- phetical exegesis.

On the neologian mode of interpretation, which entirely sets aside all prophecy strictly so called, it would be superfluous to remark, since it can only be approved by those whose minds are

τ Absit a nobis, ut Deum faciamus δίγλωττον, aut multiplices sensus affinga- mus ipsius verbo, in quo potius, tanquam in speculo limpidissimo, sui autoris simplicitatem contemplari debemus. Ps. xii.7, xix.9. Unicus ergo sensus scripture, nempe grammaticus, est admittendus, quibus demum terminis, vel propriis vel tropicis et figuratis exprimatur.—Maresius in his Anti-Tirinus.

2 Non enim est nisi unicus Scripture sensus, a Deo illius auctore intentus, constans, et fecundus, planus, lectorique attento, quantum ad dicendum libera- tionis medium sufficit, obvius.—Gurtleri Instit, Theolog. pp. 16, 17.

INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION. XXXl

under the unhappy influence of the same infidel principles by which it is engendered.

Examples might have been given in illustration of the different methods just adverted to, but they would occupy more space than can here be afforded. The reader will find them in abundance in almost every commentary, and in other works on prophecy.

In proceeding to interpret any prophetical book of Scripture, it is first of all requisite to obtain a general idea of its contents: in the abstract, in order, with greater facility, to determine the mutual relations and bearings of its different parts. This may be done with complete certainty, whatever obscurity may appear to rest upon particular subjects of which it treats. Just as the traveller from some distant position takes a survey of the region which he is about to explore; observes its mountains, valleys, forests, rivers, &c. ; and so determines its grand outlines, that, though many of the objects may only be dimly seen, and he may be able to form no proper or adequate idea of their more minute or peculiar features, yet he gains a general notion of the country, and is prepared for the more special investigations which he may institute in the course of his future progress.

As few of the prophets handle only one subject, it should next be matter of inquiry, What divisions of the book obviously present themselves? in other words, Where are the points of transition by which the writer passes from one subject to another? And, whether these transitions be arbitrary; or, whether they form a logical nexus, indicating the relation in which the subjects stand to each other? In the latter case, the nature of the relation should be carefully examined, and the degree of influence which may reason- ably be assigned to it definitely ascertained.

These observations admit, indeed, of application to all the books of Scripture, whether prophetical or otherwise; but, as those pos- sessing the former character are confessedly the most difficult, their special importance as bearing upon them must be apparent.

Since the style and mode of representation employed by a prophet, as well as the selection of the subjects of which he treats, may be expected to be more or less influenced by the circumstances in which he was placed, the condition and relations of the people to whom his messages were addressed, and the part which he took in the

XXxXii INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION.

direction of public affairs, an interpreter ought to make himself well acquainted with the history of the times in which he flou- rished. A mere glance at the references made by Isaiah to the corruptions which abounded in the reigns of Jotham and Ahaz, the invasions of Pekah and Rezin, of 'Tiglath-pileser, Shalmaneser, and Sennacherib, and the alliances of the Jews with Egypt, is sufficient to shew, that a knowledge of the periods in question, and the circumstances connected with the political events which then transpired, is indispensable to a just and full understanding of his book.’

In examining the contents of the prophetical books, care must be taken to distinguish between those parts which are simply pre- dictive, and such as are doctrinal, or corrective of degenerate morals. These books, and especially that of our prophet, contain not only prophecies both of a more general and a more special nature, but a vast variety of didactic matter, arising out of, or connected with them, as well as numerous important practical lessons altogether independent in their character. The prophets were commissioned not merely to foretell the future destinies of their nation, and of other states in their relations to it; the advent, character, and work of the Messiah, and the establishment and aspects of his kingdom; but to act in the capacity of extraordinary public instructors of the people. It devolved upon them to vindi- cate the attributes, claims, and government of Jehovah, and to inculcate the various duties which are incumbent upon his intel- ligent creatures, both in reference to Him and to one another. Nowhere, except in the New Testament, is there such a fulness of instruction on all these points as in Isaiah. In no book of Scripture are they more distinctly or energetically enforced.

The prophecies, strictly so called, relate, some to a nearer, and some to a more remote futurity ; some to what was to transpire in the prophet’s own time, and some to events that were to happen ages afterwards. Some refer to individual persons, others to par- ticular cities, and a third class to whole nations. ΤῸ certain subjects only a single prophecy is devoted; while others, more important in their character, are taken up in several distinct pre- dictions. Some are special; others are altogether general. It is

’ Dr. J. Pye Smith on the Interpretation of Prophecy, pp. 17—23, 33—39.

INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION. XXXill

the duty of an interpreter to allow to each of these points of view the degree of influence which it may claim on his attention, and his application of the principles of exegesis.

The greatest pains should ever be taken to determine the precise subject of a prophecy. With a view to this, its several characteris- tic attributes should be diligently studied; the force and bearing of the language patiently examined ; and any apparently parallel pro- phecies carefully compared. Inattention to this rule must funda- mentally affect the interpretation; and its neglect has, more than any thing besides, been productive of perversion and confusion in the exposition of prophecy.

Those predictions which relate to the Jews as a people, or to other nations, as Babylon, Egypt, Tyre, &c., are to be restricted in their interpretation to such nations, and are not to be applied to the Christian church, either in her pure, or her corrupt state, nor to the enemies of the faith and kingdom of Christ. It has, indeed, been contended, that, as in the New Testament we find the terms “ Jew” and “Israel” applied to the spiritual seed of Abraham, whether naturally descended from him or not; and, as in the Apocalypse, “Sodom,” “Egypt,” and “ Babylon,” are employed to denote the apostate and idolatrous church of Rome, we are at full liberty to appropriate to the times of the Christian dispensation, whatever we may find associated with such names in the prophecies of the Old Testament,—it being assumed, that the former were constituted types of the latter. But it is only necessary to state in reply, that in no part of the gospels, or the apostolical writings, is the slightest intimation ever given, that these terms as used in the Old Testament are to be thus taken. When applied to Christian affairs in the New, there is always some qualifying epithet accom- panying their use; and they are merely appropriated, in order to bring before the mind of the reader-some points of analogy, which might serve as apt illustrations of the subject in hand. When, for instance, the writer of the Apocalypse employs language in appli- cation to the spiritual Babylon which the prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, apply to the literal, no hint is given that these writers actually predicted the character and fate of the former. He simply adopts their phraseology, and some of their modes of representation, as well adapted to express what he had to deliver respecting the idolatrous community, which occupies so conspicuous a place in his book. Want of attention to this principle has, more

6

XXXIV INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION.

or less, proved a source of great error in the interpretation of Old Testament prophecy.

This rule may be viewed as specially bearing upon such prophe- cies, as refer to the past and future restoration of the Jews. Ex- positors in general, without scruple or hesitation, interpret literally those predictions which involve the punishment of that people, such as the destruction of their city and polity, their captivity, dis- persion, &c.; but whenever they come to those which hold out the prospect of their conversion, re-establishment in Canaan, &c., they almost uniformly apply them to the conversion of sinners generally, or to the prosperity of the Christian church. But not only is such a mode of interpretation at once unfair and inconsistent; it also breaks up the continuity and antithetical character of many of the prophecies, does violence to the established usage of the language, and forces the expositor to gloss over, or to leave untouched what- ever is opposed to his system. It is utterly subversive of all settled, consistent, and thorough-going exposition.

In the assured conviction, based upon the testimony of Jesus.and his inspired Apostles,! that the Jewish prophets actually predicted his manifestation, character, work, and kingdom, every Christian interpreter will diligently mark and investigate those portions of the prophecies which are obviously designed to be thus applied. While some have found Christ almost every where in the propheti- cal and other books of the Old Testament, and others have mani- fested a reluctance to find him any where, the enlightened and conscientious believer is anxious to discover him precisely with that degree of frequency with which the Holy Spirit has really pre- sented him to the view. While he rejoices at every thing which reminds him of Him who ‘is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth,” his mind instinctively revolts from the idea of laying violent hands upon a single passage of Scripture, in order to force it to give testimony to him. Numerous are those passages which admit of no consistent application to any merely human king or deliverer, or to the affairs of any temporal and earthly kingdom, but point out a Divine Saviour, and the establish- ment of an order of things purely spiritual and heavenly. Of these, Isaiah vii. 14—16, ix. 6, 7, xi. 1—10, xxxii. 1, &e., xlil. xlix. 1—9, lii. 13, liii. xi. 1—3, are illustrious specimens. If we

1 Luke xxiv. 25—27, 44—47; John xii. 87—41; Acts viii. 30—35, x. 43, EXvi, 22, 28; Rom: iii. 21; 22; 1 Pet. i, 11; 12; Rev. xix. 10.

INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION. XXXV

have not, in every case, the infallible support of New Testament authority, we nevertheless meet with certain intimations and cha- racteristics in the predictions themselves, or in their immediate connexion, which compel us to refer them immediately and directly to the New Dispensation.

The language of prophecy, being in many respects peculiar, requires to be studied with great care, and to be interpreted with the utmost sobriety and caution. Besides much that is simple and plain, it exhibits most of the characteristics belonging to .the highest species of Oriental poetry: abounding in pictorial, figura- tive, metaphorical, symbolical, and parabolical modes of representa- tion. Its imagery is luxuriant, bold, sublime, glowing, and highly coloured. Its figures are of every variety. Its metaphors, elegant and beautiful, are borrowed from almost every object within the compass of the visible and invisible worlds. Its symbols are splendid, striking, and sometimes terrific. Its personifications are daring and majestic. Its whole strain is admirably adapted to excite attention, create and keep alive an interest in the subjects, and to produce those impressions which are in harmony with its nature and design. It is likewise remarkable for its concinnity, terseness, and brevity, its bold ellipses, and the frequent abrupt changes of person, gender, and tense. With all these particulars, the interpreter must render himself familiar, He must not only investigate the primary and secondary significations of words, deter- mine the meaning of the phrases, the nature of the syntax, and the development of the entire sense, but distinguish between the plain and the figurative in the style,—divesting what is figurative of the imagery with which it is adorned, and thus bringing out the simple ideas designed to be conveyed; yet, withal, paying due attention to the emphasis or force given to them by such figurative diction. And, in order that he may do this with the greater certainty, he must take his position in the midst of the same world of poetic images in which the prophets lived, and make himself master of the entire system of prophetic imagery which they have employed.

It is a principle satisfactorily brought out by a careful examina- tion of the prophecies, that an interpreter is not, on the one hand, to expect every thing to be expressed with the utmost clearness, nor, on the other, to regard it as involved in dense obscurity, Unhappily they have too often been viewed in one or other of these extremes. ΤῸ some minds, they body forth, in clear and

XXXVI INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION.

living forms, all the minute details of modern history, as well as develop, without the slightest trace of a cloud, the entire horizon of antiquity; while to others they are shrouded in impenetrable mystery,—to be approached with no hopes of the successful dis- covery of truth; or, at best, only to catch a dim and momentary glance of it, amidst the shadowy figures by which it is surrounded.

Much of the obscurity which has been ascribed to prophecy is purely subjective. It exists, not in the predictions themselves, but in those who come to the study of them. If we have not ren- dered ourselves familiar with the characteristics of the prophetic style, the history of the times, the manners, customs, and modes of thinking of Oriental nations, and a variety of other topics which such study requires, it is vain to expect that all should be per- spicuous and plain. Numerous terms, phrases, and allusions, which must have been perfectly intelligible to those whom the prophets addressed, will necessarily appear obscure to us. Nor can it be denied, that such prophecies as still remain to be fulfilled, must, in the nature of things, be more or less indistinct, as it respects the objects of which they treat, how clear or plain soever may be the language in which they are expressed. Take, for instance, the fifty-third of Isaiah. To us who have the advantage of studying it by the light of the evangelic pages, all possesses the perspicuity of history ; but in the view of those who lived before the birth of our Lord, there must have attached to some parts of it a want of that definiteness of meaning which we so readily discover. Thus also as it regards certain portions of the Apocalypse. How far, or satis- factorily soever we may succeed in determining the import of the language, or however clearly we may perceive the design of the writer, just as we may conclude from the sketch of a drawing, what it is intended to represent, yet the absence of the actual persons or events leaves our minds in uncertainty with respect to the positive application. Let only those persons or events present themselves in the reality of historical existence, and we fully discover the import of the prophecy.

Finally: no person should attempt the interpretation of these hallowed records, who is not imbued with a supreme love of truth, and who is not habituated to the exercise of humble dependence upon the promised assistance of the Holy Spirit, whose it is to remove those moral obstacles which prevent the entrance of spiritual light into the mind.

ΣΎ ΟΝ ot ck.

CHAPTER I.

This chapter contains an historical introduction, 1; a heavy charge of ingrati- tude, corruption, and rebellion, 2—4; a description of the consequent punishment, 5—9; an exposure of the vanity of trusting in mere external worship, 10—15 ; exhortations and encouragements to repentance, 16—19 ; with denunciations of wrath against the impenitent, mixed with promises

to the penitent, 20—31.

1 THE vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw, con- cerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

1. The substantive jin, like its cog- nates Mit, ni, nw, WT, MM, and the Chald. 3, 817, is derived from the root _ m7, which, in poetic style, is used to denote seeing or vision generally, but more especially that which is super- natural, or the result of Divine inspira- tion. It corresponds to the prosaic 783, which equally denotes both kinds of vision : hence the easy transition from mi, the name anciently given to the prophets, 1 Sam. ix. 9, to 717, 1 Chron. xxix. 29, where both names are evi- dently synonymous with &2}. x7, and my, the LXX. render by ὀπτασία, ὅραμα, ὅρασις ; and the former by προ- φητεία, 2 Chron. xxxii. 32 ; to which correspond 781123 of the Targum, and a similar rendering in the Syr. Arab. and several modern versions. The

Arab. usy> > divinavit, hariolatus

fuit, especially by observing the flight of birds, yzarus fuit rei, occulta indi- cavit, are unquestionably related to the Hebrew, and their significations are probably derived from it; but though they may be applied in illus- tration, they cannot take precedence

of the Hebrew root. Nothing can be more obvious than the reason of the appropriation of such terms in de- scriptions of supernatural or prophe- tic revelation. It is founded on the fact, that, in imparting his will to his messengers, Jehovah impressed vividly upon their minds, the images of the things which they were to divulge. Their mental vision had presented to it matters invisible to the eye of sense, but possessing all the reality and dis- tinctness of outward objects. The term is here employed to denote, not the act of seeing on the part of the prophet, but the things which he saw —the prophetic matter revealed to him, together with all the other inspired matter contained in the book.

Whether ji is here to be taken strictly in the singular, and limited to the first division or chapter of the book, or, whether it is to be viewed as a collective noun marking the contents of the whole, depends on the light in which we are to regard the entire in- scription. Jarchiand Abarbanel, by a forced construction of x with ww,

2 ISATAH.

[CHAP. I.

2 Hear, O heavens, and hearken, O earth!

For Jehovah speaketh ;

I have nourished and brought up children, But as for them—they have rebelled against me.

instead of referring it to ὑπ, to which it properly belongs, suppose it to de- signate only the first chapter ; but it is quite incongruous to imagine that so small a portion required the reigns of four kings for its delivery. Vitringa, Eichhorn, Rosenmiiller, and Maurer, are of opinion that the original in- scription ended with the word o7d™ ; that it had relation only to the first chapter ; that after the death of the prophet, when his oracles were col- lected, this one was placed first to serve as a title and introduction to the whole book; and that the specification of the kings was then added to com- plete the inscription, by assigning the period of the prophet’s ministry. This solution Lowth pronounces to be judi- cious ; and Gesenius allows it to be ingenious, though he is not quite satisfied with it. Le Clerc, Michaelis, Hitzig, Scholz, J. A. Alexander, and Schroeder, in MS., consider it to be the original inscription to the whole. That it was thus understood by the author of the second book of Chro- nicles is beyond all doubt. His words are, “Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his goodness, behold they are written in the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz,” ch. xxxii. 32,—the identical terms of our text. Rosenmiiller, Eichhorn, and Koppe, endeavour, indeed, to enervate this proof by rendering ja “ together with the vision,” &c., and confining it to the portion contained in ch. xxxvi— xxxix.; but Gesenius has shewn, that their argument founded on the use of 2” after 1n2 is groundless, since this verb is also frequently construed with a, and that it is more natural to under- stand the reference to be to a definite collection of prophecies, in which, as well as in the book of Kings, the accounts of Hezekiah were to be found. I accede, therefore, to the opinion of the interpreters mentioned above, who view the words as the inscription of the whole collection.

Isaiah, the son of Amoz. See Introd.

Dwr», LXX. and Theodion kara, Symm. περὶ, as the LXX. have © rendered this preposition, chap. ii. 1, where Symmachus employs ὑπὲρ ; Je- rome szper. Were the denunciations immediately following, alone intended, the adverse meaning would be proper ; butif reference is had to the contents of the book generally, the preposition must be rendered concerning ; and it is thus given by the best interpreters. The circumstance, that predictions affecting other nations besides the Jews are found in the book, forms no valid objection against such construc- tion: whatever relates to them being introduced on account of its intimate bearing upon the interests of that people. By Judah and Jerusalem are meant the Jewish state, or the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, usually comprehended under the former name; and the inhabitants of the metropolis in particular—the centre of the king- dom, and the great source of religious and political influence. Sometimes we find the inverse order of the words: mM) ow, as chap. iii. 1 ; v.3; Ezra 11. 1, ὅσο, ; but both forms are opposed to Hphraim and Samaria.

mim %272—32. See Introd.

2. PIN—DY, τὰ πάντα, the universe. A splendid instance of poetical apo- strophe. All created beings, whether rational or irrational, are summoned to listen to the charge to be preferred by Jehovah against his rebellious and ungrateful people. The words of the prophet, and those of Moses, Deut. xxxii. 1, are strikingly parallel. Nor is the parallelism of the subjects less complete—the manifestation of the Divine goodness, and the ingratitude of the Hebrews, its recipients ; and it is not without reason Calvin conjec- tures, that there is an imitation of the celebrated song of theJewish legislator, whom all the prophets took for their model. ‘Tesaias hic Mosen imitatus est, sicuti mos est omnibus prophetis.”

CHAP. 1.]

3 The ox knoweth his owner, And the ass his master’s erib : But Israel doth not know ; My people doth not consider!

The position of Vitringa, which has been adopted by Lowth, Gesenius, and others, that God here institutes a judicial proceeding, and that heaven and earth are addressed as judges in the cause, is scarcely in keeping with the point and vehemence of the per- sonification. The spirit of the passage is more in accordance with that of Jer. ii. 12,13. To supply 75 sic before 727, as some propose, would, in such connexion, detract from the dignity of the style, and be quite abhorrent from the wsus loquendi which connects 75 with Vox, never with 127. The change of 127 into 735 is equally unjustifiable. Comp. Ps. 1.1. Coverdale renders it in the present tense, which ought to have been retained in our common version.—0’2a, The Hebrews are fre- quently spoken of as the sons of God, partly to indicate the relation in which they stood to him in virtue of the Sinaic covenant, by which the nation solemnly acknowledged him to be her husband ; and partly to suggest the idea of paternal and filial love. Comp. Exod. iv. 22; Deut. xxxii. 5, 6 ; Hos. xi. 1; Mal.i. 2, 6. This relationship is recognised by Paul, Rom. ix. 4, where he ascribes υἱοθεσία to the Is- raelites. While other nations were ou, ver. 7, the former stood in this near relation to Jehovah, and were treated accordingly, both in the way of kindness and of chastisement. The verbs *‘mN27) ἘΣ are thus joined, chap. xxiil. 4; Ezek. xxxi.4; and, what is remarkable, they occur in the same order, as the proper names (M772 ἜΣ ΠΌΤ) of two of the sons of Heman, 1 Chron. xxv. 4, 29, 31. Such occur- rence confirms the opinion of Kimchi, that they are perfectly synonymous, and shews the fallacy of Vitringa’s interpretation, according to which the former verb signifies to educate, and the latter fo evalt; as if they referred to certain distinct periods in the his- tory of the Hebrews. Such synonymic combinations are common in the lan-

ISAIAH.

Oo

guage, and are employed for the sake of intensity. God had exercised the greatest care over his people; he had conferred upon them a profusion of benefits. No father could have con- ducted himself so attentively -and kindly in the education of his children. —1 wee, they have rebelled against me, may be extended so as to comprehend idolatry, and very often has this mean- ing; but it also expresses defection from Jehovah in any way, only that it be atrocious in degree. In this con- nexion, it naturally suggests the idea of filial disobedience : though, in a theo- cratic point of view, it was strictly

rebellion. Like its cognates ee : ᾽ abscidit, dirupit ; ἜΣ a Deo pre-

seriptum agendi modum reliquit, et a vero

et justo defecit, as pl we es? or

a) improbus, nequam, it signifies ¢o

break, break up a connexion, break off Jrom any one ; hence the form N77) ws, 2 Kings viii. 20, 22, to revolt from under the power of another ; and with 3, and ὅν, when the idea of hostility is designed to be marked. From the violence which it implies, Y¢® is one of the strongest terms employed in Heb. to denote sin.

3. To aggravate the stupidity of the Hebrews, two of the tame animals are introduced, which, though proverbial for their dulness and inattention, nevertheless discover an instinctive regard for their master, and the place where they are fed. Comp. Jer, viii. 7. Dix some render sfa//; but it rather denotes the crib in which the fodder is placed, being derived from D:2x, to feed ; Arab. ual collegit rem ; cl , qui ornat atrium, instruitque cibo suo et potu. Thus Kimchi ; nvana7 2x0 O19 ; LXX. φάτνη ; Vulg. presepe. Lowth attempts unsuccessfully to shew, that ‘mix, me, has been lost out of the text

4 ISATAH.

[CHAP. I.

4 Wo to the sinful nation! the people laden with guilt! The race of evil-doers! corrupt children !

They have forsaken Jehovah ;

One of Israel; They have wholly gone back.

after ‘xt. The word is, indeed, supplied in the LXX. and Vulg., and pov in Aquila and Theodion ; but these versions merely fill up what was deemed an ellipsis. The insertion of 1 before the same word is equally with- out authority from Heb. MSS., though found in the LXX., Syr., Aq., Theod., and Vulg. It is found before ‘sy in about thirty MSS., but this also may be merely the result of emendation. The history of the Hebrew text evinces that this conjunction was more likely to be added than omitted —owing chiefly to inattention to one of the distinctive features of poetry, the frequent ellipsis of conjunctions, &c. in the second member of a paral- lelism. 421277 heightens the idea ex- pressed in the preceding clause, and is designed to develop more clearly the guilty want of discrimination on the part of the Hebrews. That "τὴ" is to be understood of the whole people, and not, as some would limit it, of the Jews only, appears from the fact, that it is never used in this limited sense by any prophet who wrote before the captivity.

4, Τὴ ἦλ %7 Gesenius discovers a pa- ronomasia which he imitates in— Schande dem siindigen Lande; but the assonance is perhaps purely acci- dental. The interjection is most com- monly used in comminations, and is evidently to be so taken here, som, The participle expresses habit : s¢xning nation ; a nation addicted to deviation from the path of rectitude. 732 is not a segolate noun, as Jarchi takes it, but a construct form of the adjective 729, as is proved by the analogy of 7px, Jy. The LXX. change the figure of a bur- den, which most naturally conveys the notion of the oppressive property of guilt, and the unsupportable punish- ment which it entails, into that of an element with which the subjects of iniquity are filled: λαὸς πληρὴς apap-

they have contemned the Holy

τιῶν. They also weaken the force of Py, though they render it by the plural of ἁμαρτία, the term more appropri- ately expressive of 78en. Both signify the missing of a mark, deviation from the right way: whereas 2 denotes perver- sity, that which is distorted, crooked, or turned away from its proper posi- tion or direction. Root my; Arab.

use in latus inflexit rem, torsit, dis-

torsit, &c., to twist, bend, make crooked, distort,—OYY2 YY, is not to be under- stood with any reference to the pro- genitors of the Hebrews, though the character too aptly applies to the great body of the nation, in almost every period of its history, but marks that of those who lived in the time of Isaiah. Thus, as to sense, the LXX. σπέρμα πονηρόν. The phrase, as Theo- doret remarks, has its parallel in γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν, Matt. 111, 7, and in sense, though not in form, in γενεὰ πονηρὰ καὶ μοιχαλὶς, Matt. xii. 39. oy Hiph. part. of »¥3, to crash, break, hurt, do evil, commit injury. Hence YYD, an injurious person, an evil-doer.—There is no necessity, with Lowth, to con- vert DTW into MNT, the part. of Hoph. The difference of pronuncia- tion is too great, and the circumstance, that five MSS. omit the ’ is of no con- sequence, as this apocopated form of the conjugation is of frequent oc- currence. Comp. 2 Chron, xxvii. 2. Zwinglius: “corrumpere facientes, ponuntur pro tam corruptis ut alios corrumpere possint, hoc est pro per- ditissimis et corruptissimis.” The active participle may be understood either in a transitive or intransitive sense, according as we take it abso- lutely, or supply 592, or 037], after it. If the former, the passage may be rendered corrupting, or destructive children ; if the latter, vicious chil- dren, 7.e. such as act corruptly, or viciously, The LXX. ἄνομοι; the

CHAP. I.]

ISAIAH.

Or

5 Why will ye be further smitten ?

Why will ye increase revolt ? The whole head is sick, And the whole heart faint.

others, διαφθείροντες. Y, Arab Sad

procul fuit, abfuit, procul evagatus fuit pascendo camelus, vesperi non revertens : to run away, as camels, horses, &c. from their master. The Heb. verb also sig- nifies to loosen the bands or cords by which beasts of burden are fastened. See Exod. xxiii. 5, and Gesen. in loc. It is frequently used of a dereliction of Jehovah. fs}, in addition to the idea of leaving, conveyed by XY, ex- presses the contemptuous feeling in which it originated, and an obstinate determination to persevere in a course of disobedience— x7 wip, the Holy One of Israel, i.e. the Sacred Object of their veneration and love ; the infinite source of purity; the hater and avenger of all moral pollution. The genitive is that of simple relationship, not strictly that of subject ; for, while the Jews in the time of the prophet professed to serve Jehovah, or to have him for their God, they were, for the most part, destitute of the feelings which his character was calculated to inspire. If they had truly regarded him as “the Holy One,” they could not have acted the part here ascribed to them. The use of this epithet is almost exclusively confined to Isaiah ; occurring nearly thirty times in the course of his prophecies, but only five times besides in the whole Bible. It thus forms one of the distinguishing characteristics of his style, and fur- nishes strong evidence in favour of the genuineness of the entire book.— 1432, Niph. of 13, a synonyme of 0 and »D, the latter of which likewise takes We after it. All three verbs signify to turn away, recede, or depart Jrom, and are especially employed to designate apostasy from God. Ps. liii. 43; xiv.3; xliv.19; Zeph. i. 6. Niph. is frequently reciprocal, and seems to have this force in the present instance. The addition of mx gives emphasis to the declaration. Aq. and Theod.

render: ἀπηλλοτριώθησαν εἰς τὰ ὀπί-

ow; but ™ has the signification of “ strange ” only in the _ participial forms %and WW». In reference to the peculiar character of the prophet’s style in this verse, Zwinglius asks: “ Quis oro Demosthenes aut Cicero tam brevibus omnia perfecit et adpa- ravit, ut ad summam rei cum tanta opportunitate tantoque decoro perve- nerit Ῥ’ Comment. in loc.

5. πιο-ποῦν, Misled by a false construction of the following context, Jerome, Lowth, Gesenius, and many moderns, translate “on what part,” and fortify their rendering by the classical parallels :—

Vix habet in vobis jam nova plaga locum. Ovip. Γέμω κακῶν δὴ κ᾽ οὐκέτ᾽ ἐσθ᾽ ὅπη τιθῇ. Evrip. But, such construction, however ap- propriately it may seem to agree with the totally diseased state of the body, spoken of immediately afterwards, ill accords with the introduction of the verb ἘΠ, which requires the repe- tition of ποῦν, of which there is an evident ellipsis. The phrase has doubt- less the local meaning, Job xxxviii. 6, and 2 Chron. xxxii. 10; but every- where else, that of why? wherefore ? The interpretation of Lowth, “on what part will ye smite again ; will ye add correction ?”—applying the lan- guage to the persons who were the instruments of God’s vengeance, is a complete failure, and spoils the force of the original, in which there is a sudden and spirited transition from the third person to the second, for the purpose of producing poignant conviction by a direct address. No- thing, indeed, can be more tame than the introduction of a third party.— m7D, as a fem. noun, from “0, occurs in the sense of defection from Jeho- vah, Deut. xiii. 6; Jer. xxviii. 16, xxix. 32; Isa. xxxi. 6, lix. 13; in the two last of which passages, the Bishop himself renders it “revolt ;” so that

A

6 ISAIAH.

[CHAP. I.

6 From the sole of the foot even to the head,

There is no soundness in it ;

But wounds, and stripes, and fresh sores ; They have not been pressed, nor bound up,

Nor softened with oil.

7 As for your country—it is desolate ;

Your cities are burnt with fire ;

As for your land—foreigners devour it in your presence ; It is desolate—a land overthrown by foreigners.

his attempt to trace it analogically to 1D’, was unnecessary. Besides, there is no such derivation from this root in Hebrew usage, its only derivative being 1019, which frequently occurs. The address is not without irony ; proceeding on the principle, that the Jews had revolted, in order that they might be punished: while it is strongly implied, that their continuance in sin would only increase their punishment. Winer and Hitzig render %, distribu- tively, —“ every head” and “ every heart,’—on the ground that it is anarthrous; but the omission of the article is not unfrequent in poetic and prophetic composition. See Gesen. Lehrg. ὃ 168, 3, «β. The 2 in such con- struction, denotes state or condition. The two noblest parts of the human body are here selected to represent the body politic; and the extreme danger to which it was exposed is sig- nificantly set forth under the image of universal sickness and languor. There was no part which did not suffer from the calamities which sin had entailed. The allegation of this passage, in proof of the doctrine of original sin, or of the total depravity of human nature, is totally unwarranted by any just principle of Biblical interpreta- tion. It does not, as Calvin ably shews, refer to sin at all, but to its punishment.

6. An affecting amplification of the preceding description. ‘3 ἐμ if, i.e. ἡ nation, or DY people, understood from ver. 4—the subject of which the figu- rative language is used being thus graphically pointed at. Not only was the body covered with different kinds of wounds, but some of them were

quite fresh, and no means had been applied to heal them. The verbs here employed are not designed to corre- spond to the preceding nouns taken singly—as if they described different modes of treatment appropriate to the different wounds: yet, as 7% and wa are in the plural, and 723 is in the singular, it properly belongs to m7 72, while the former refer to P33 and 7yaT in common. 1 is the plural of τ, to press, press out, as blood and other matter from wounds. The pro- cess in healing a wound was first to mollify or soften it with oil, or other ointment; then to press out the matter which had collected in it ; and finally, to bind it with a bandage steeped in oiland wine. Comp. Luke x. 34; Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxxi. 47; Columella, vii. 5, 18.

7. The prophet now proceeds to announce in plain and express terms, what he had just delivered in figura- tive language. This most graphic de- scription of the desolations occasioned by hostile invaders. applies to the state of the Jewish affairs, when the country was overrun by the Israelites and Syrians on the one hand, and the Edomites and Philistines on the other, —a calamity that threatened the en- tire subversion of the kingdom, in the reign of Ahaz. See 2 Kings xvi. 5, 6; 2 Chron, xxvii. 5—8, 17, 18 ; Isa. vii. 1,2. Lowth and De Wette refer the invasion here described to the reign of Jotham ; Rosenmiiller, after Abar- banel, Cocceius, and Grotius, to that of Uzziah ; while Jarchi, Vitringa, and Eichhorn, consider the events to have taken place in the days of Hezekiah. The historical circumstances, how-

CHAP. 1.]

ISATAH. 7

8 And the daughter of Zion is left,

Like a shed in a vineyard,

Like a booth in a cucumber field,

Like a besieged city.

ever, more or less militate against an

other interpretation than that whic

places this extreme national distress in the time of Ahaz,—the most cor- rupt monarch that had yet ascended the throne of David. See Gesen. i. p. 147. 7 78 is used in this place, both for the cultivated land and its pro- duce, or the fruits which grew upon it. Hence it is said to be eaten by the invaders, and to be burnt with fire. According to Kimchi, it signifies DNR AVI nw, “sown fields and the trees belonging to them.” For 03, “barbarians,” Lowth proposes to read, Du, “an inundation,”’—a translation which is countenanced by Saadias,

ἜΝ keh , schultens, who com-

pares the Arab. Sad » Michaelis, Dee-

derlein, Hensler, and others ; but itis otherwise unsupported, unnecessary, and, as Calvin calls it, coactum. 1s the participle of 1, ¢o be strange, to act hostilely, and signifies a barbarian, or a foreign enemy. The 3 prefixed to n2B79, is the Caph veritatis, or of inten- siveness, Which marks the reality or superlative degree of the quality pre- dicated. The words, therefore, contain no comparison ; but express the great- ness of the catastrophe :—an over- throw, such as only barbarians could effect. The LXX. render properly: kal ἠρήμωται κατεστραμμένη ὑπὸ λαῶν ἀλλοτρίων.

8. ΤῈ 73, daughter of Zion ; a poetic Hebraism for Zion herself. m3, like 023, sons, is sometimes used to denote the inhabitants of a city or country, as wun na, chap. xxiii. 10; 17a, Ps, xly. 13; O78 na. Lam. iv. 22; but it is also often transferred to designate the city or country itself. “ Prosopo- peice idiotismus est Hebreeorum, quo urbes et municipia foeminarum, aut filiarum periphrasi adpellant.” Zwin- hus, . Thus, 73 ma, Ps, cxxxvil. 8. This idiom, under various modifica- tions, is exceedingly common in Ara-

maic. Comp. the use of Wo), el wh and «wy, in Arab. ; and of 3, ox,

and 73,in Heb. In poetry, Zion is fre- quently put for Jerusalem, of which it formed the most ancient part, and formed the southernmost and highest of the hills on which the city was built. The name is derived from ΠΗ͂Σ, to be bright, sunny, dry; and seems rather to have obtained the designa- tion from its shining aspect, than from any supposed barrenness or aridity. At all events, in the present day, it is not unfruitful; for Dr. Richardson found one part of it supporting a crop of barley, and another undergoing the labour of the plough; and Mr. Carne mentions a crop of corn as growing on its sides. See Horne’s Introd. vol. iii. p. 19, note. To depict the exact posi- tion of the metropolis, as standing alone in the midst of surrounding ruin and desolation, the prophet employs three appropriate comparisons. The first is that of a single booth or hut, constructed of the boughs and small branches of trees, usually erected in a vineyard for the shelter of persons stationed to protect the grapes from the attacks of thieves, foxes, &c. The second refers to a similar hut or lodge in the midst of a field appropriated to the growing of cucumbers, which is the only object visible at any distance, and is often attached to the highest part of a pole or tree, in order to afford security from the wild beasts by night. See chap. xxiv. 20. πῦρ, for

mapa, Arab. $a, a place of cucum- bers,—properly, the Egyptian melon ; owe, Numb. xi.5; Arab. (is, rasvt, decorticavit. Comp.(43, idem. They

are longer than the common cucum- ber, of a deeper green, a softer and smoother skin, sweeter, and more easy of digestion ; being very cooling, they

8 ISAIAH.

[CHAP. 1.

9 Except Jehovah of Hosts had left us a very small remnant, We should have been like Sodom, We should have resembled Gomorrah.

are greatly in request. Hitzig. The third object of comparison is 712} TY, which has been variously interpreted. Not satisfied with the ordinary signi- fication of YY, Scheid. and Tingstadius derive it from VY, to watch, and render, “a tower” or “ watch-tower in a gar-

den ;” (yd in Arab. signifying hortum.)

This interpretation is partly adopted by Hitzig ; only he considers the YY to be a place of shelter, and supposes a tower to be meant, such as is common in oriental villages, from which a view is commanded of the surrounding country, and into which the inha- bitants retreat on the approach of enemies. 7932 he takes to be a noun, formed like 7y128, Ayw, ὅσο. This would be philologically unobjectionable, were it supported by usage ; and his trans- lation, “as a tower of observation,” well suits the connexion, The inter- pretation, however, which derives 712} from 12}, in the acceptation of hostile watching or besieging, (it being then the regular past part,) is to be pre- ferred, not only to the above modes of elucidation, but also to that of “a preserved” or “delivered city,” pro- posed by Michaelis, and adopted by Koppe, Rosenmiiller, J. Moller, and approved by Gesenius in his Com- ment. but abandoned in his Lex. Man. in which he renders, wrbs obsessa. With this last interpretation agree the LXX. Chal. and Syr. and it is fully sup- ported by the Ben. part. O23, being used to denote desiegers, Jer. iv. 16. The version of Lowth, “taken by siege,’ has no other countenance than the rendering of the Vulg. ; the πολιορ- κουμένη of the LXX. to which the Bishop appeals, expressing simply the fact, that the siege was being carried on, not that the city had been taken, which would have ill accorded with the idea of the prophet. Jerusalem itself not having been actually be- sieged on the occasion here referred to, however threatened with such a calamity by the surrounding enemies,

might well be compared to a city in such circumstances.

9. 2, except, compounded of %, i/, and Ὁ, for οἷ, zof—msiz Tim, Jehovah of hosts. This divine appellation ap- pears first to have come into use in the time of Samuel, in whose books it frequently occurs, as it does also in those of Kings, the Psalms, and most of the minor prophets, but with un- usual frequency in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah. See Buxt. Concord. The position of Lowth, Hitzig, and

others, that 5 mm is an ellipsis for ΓΊΝΩ ox m7, is overturned by the simple fact, that Ov7>x itself, as a pro- per name, is likewise exhibited in the absolute, and not in the construct form, which we should otherwise have expected: Ps. lix. 6; Ixxx. 5,8, 15, 20; Ixxxiv. 9. To elude the difficulty, in this case, it has been proposed to sup-

of the form 8 m7, together with the circumstance, that other instances of proper names in a state of construc- tion occur, it is preferable to regard such forms as relics of a ruder and more primitive usage, as 123 DPX, 2 Kings iii. 4; yo) ov, Isa. xxx. 20; nox oor, Jer. x. 10. (Ewald, § 515.)

ff The combination, $ wx TIM, occurs only once in Isaiah, and a few times in Jeremiah. A still fuller form, how- ever, is employed by Amos, iii. 13 ; MNT ox AP 2. Aq. κύριος στρα- recov ; Symm. δυνάμεων. The LXX. in Isaiah uniformly render, κύριος σαβαώθ; in the other books, κύριος παντοκράτωρ, is the phrase chiefly em- ployed. Both forms are copied in the N. T. The title imports the supre- macy of Jehovah over the angels and all the planetary systems, and seems to have been designed to vindicate to him the honours which were idola- trously paid to the heavenly bodies, by those, who on this account, were

called by the Arabs, we Sabii,

CHAP. I.]

ISAIAH. 9

10 Hear the word of Jehovah, ye judges of Sodom! Hearken to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah ! 11 What is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? saith Jehovah. I am satiated with burnt-offerings of rams, And with the fat of fed beasts : And in the blood of bullocks, and of lambs, and of goats,

I take no delight.

12 When ye come to appear before me, Who hath required you to tread my courts ?

i.e. worshippers of the celestial hosts. Michaelis, Suppl. ad Lex. Heb. No. 2107. The >in OY) is intensive.

10. The prophet having finished his picture of the deplorably reduced cir- cumstances of the Jews, avails himself of the allusion which he had made to Sodom and Gomorrah in the preceding verse in order to apply the subject with more point to his auditors. By a spirited apostrophe, he invests them with the character which they had been accustomed to regard as peculiar to the abandoned inhabitants of those cities. Their guilt was great, and merited condign punishment. Comp. Jer, xxiii. 14 - Matt. xi. 23, 24; Ezek. xvi. 48; Rey. xi. 8.—7z?, a magistrate

or judge. Arab. oh, kadi. Gesenius

appropriately quotes here the Arabic proverb :—

pre 28 ure ye “More unjust than a judge of Sodom.”

721 and ΠῚ occur often, as here, for divine doctrine or instruction in general. The latter word is derived from ΠῚ), to throw, throw out the hand ; in Hiph. to point, guide, direct.

11. From this verse, to the 15th inclusive, the Jews are taught the spiritual import of the ™in, daw, to which their attention had just been called, ver. 10 ; and the inconsistency, inutility, and guilt of occupying them- selves with external forms of religion, while they evinced no true penitence, or moral reformation, are strikingly pressed upon them. Comp. 1 Sam. xv. 22; Ps. 1. 7—15; Amos v. 21—24, The reference in 0273ry) is not so

much, perhaps, to the numerous sacri- fices prescribed in the Mosaic insti- tute, as to the voluntary multiplication of them by the Jews, in the time of the prophet, with a view to avert the Divine wrath. According to Josephus, the number of lambs of one year old, sacrificed at the Passover only, under Cestius, amounted to 256,500. The mas. gender is observed throughout the enumeration, in strict accordance with the command, that the animals for sacrifice should all be males. Levit. i. 3, 10.

12. 22 τιν, contracted for*227ny Γῆν τ᾽, to present or make one s-self visible before God ; i.e. in the temple, the residence " of his glory. The naked form, *3, is precisely that which occurs Exod. xxiii. 15 ; where it is first ordained that the Israelites should present themselves with gifts and sacrifices at the three great festivals, and is that used by David, in reference to his appearing in the temple, Ps. xlii. 3. 2578 and Ox are otherwise employed. One MS. reads nis}, ¢o see, but erroneously, though not on the ground assigned by Gesenius, that the phrase, seeing God, as Ps. xi. 7; xvii. 15, cannot well be understood, except of the beatific vision ; for the Psalmist indisputably uses it, when speaking of his beholding the glory of God in the temple, Ps. lxili, 2—o3, lit. from your hand, a common Hebraism after verbs of de- manding, to express from you: the

-pronoun here is emphatic.—0d), fo

tread,—a term of contempt purposely borrowed from the action of the cattle brought into the outer court for sacri- fice. The attendance of the Jews in the other court was, in a spiritual point of view, no better.

10

18 Bring no more vain oblation ;

ISAIAH.

[CHAP. I.

Incense is an abomination to me, The new-moon also, the sabbath, and the calling of assemblies ; I cannot endure wickedness, and days of restraint.

14 They are a burden upon me ; I am weary of bearing them. 15

Your new-moons and your stated festivals my soul hateth ;

When also ye spread open your hands,

I will hide mine eyes from you ;

13. XY in ΝΥ ΤΠ) may refer either to the worthlessness and inutility of the oblations presented, or to the in- sincerity of the worshippers. The one is indeed included in the other ; but the latter idea seems better to accord with the spirit of the passage. — 78 is supposed by some to be an ellipsis of nev? °nx ; but >, related as it is to 3, to hold, contain, signifies by itself, to dear or endure, Ps. ci. 5. xq NP, lit. fo call a convocation, not “to read the Scripture,” as some have thought. The form, however, is the infin. constr. and must be rendered by the calling of. The phrase is founded on the circumstance of certain solemn feasts having been ushered in by public proclamation. Though 8772, and the two preceding substantives, are masc., they are nevertheless to be understood as referred to in the predicate 89 ΠΕΡῚ, which could not be repeated. 27x? are properly separated by the Zakeph- katon from the preceding words, and stand in immediate connexion with the following M21 }}8, which emphati- cally teaches the impossibility of any religious services being acceptable to God, while iniquity is not hated and forsaken. The impenitent Jews sought to combine both ; just as men in all ages, and in connexion with every system of religion, have been prone to imagine that the observance of outward rites would atone for the guilt of sin. Comp. Jer. vii. 8—10. My? signifies restraint or abstinence from labour, in order to keep a festival, and metonymically an assemb/y met under such circumstances. Comp. the Arab.

ye cohibuit, retinuit, &c. Gesenius

attempts in vain to make it primarily

mean an assembly. Nothing can be more forced than his reference to 1 Sam. xxi. 8, in proof of his signif. No. 3, in Niph. ps the LXX. render νηστεῖα, as if OY had stood in their copy, but it is unsupported by any other authority. Lowth’s reasons in its favour are precisely those which render it critically suspicious.

14. By 0-77 we are not to under- stand any monthly festivals different from that of the new-moon, expressed in the singular form 77 in the fore- going verse ; just as DPI compre- hends all the other feasts there distri- butively mentioned. The commence- ment of this verse is nothing more than an epanalepsis, or resumption of what had been there introduced, in order to expatiate upon it, and give it greater effect—m9, which occurs as a noun only here and Deut. i. 12, the cognate verb once, Job xxxvii. 11, seems chosen in order forcibly to ex- press what causes fatigue or molesta- tion, as a weight, burden, &c.; but the emphasis of the passage is greatly in- creased by the prep. 7%, xpox, which indicates the continued pressure of the painful annoyance. The idea is beautifully carried out in the con- cluding words of the verse, where the

_reciprocal form of the verb indicates

self-exhaustion in the effort to perform any action. The whole passage is strongly anthropopathical.

15. The extension of the hands to- wards heaven was a very usual and a most appropriate gesture in prayer. See 1 Kings viii. 38, 54; 1 Tim. ii. 8; and Wets. or Bloomf. Synop. on the latter passage. The Heb. phrase Ὁ: 02, however, refers rather to the spreading open of the palms of the

CHAP. I.]

ISATAH.

11

Even though ye multiply prayers, I will not hear :

- Your hands are full of blood. 16 Wash ye; purify yourselves ;

Remove your wicked practices from before my eyes ;

Cease to do evil: 17 Learn to do well;

Seek justice ; right the oppressed ; Maintain the cause of the orphan; plead for the widow.

hands when extended, than to the extension of the hands themselves, though this is necessarily included.

“Tngemit, et duplices tendens ad sidera palmas.’—VirG. 4neid. lib. 1. 1. 98.

—In 7%n 1am may be included the Barrodoyia which our Lord condemns, and for which the Jews appear ever to have been notorious. Nothing could be more incongruous than to spread open to the view of Holy Omniscience, hands which had been stained by acts of atrocious wicked- ness. Hence the practice, to which allusion is made in the following verse, of washing the hands before engaging in prayer—an illusion which also holds in regard to ὁσίους χεῖρας, 1 Tim. ii. 8. The last clause of the verse is a prosa- podosis, in which the reason isassigned why their services were rejected. It is noticeable that while the other verbs in this verse are future in signi- fication, the last, 1899, is in the prete- rite, to indicate the habitual cruelty in which the Jews of that age indulged. Gesen. Lehrg. § 205. 3.6. 027 in the plural, 4loods, is generally used of murders to express the aggravated atrocity of the crime.

The specification of the entire ser- vice of the Jews, ver. 12—15, was intended to produce the conviction, that no part of it was acceptable to God, whatever relative importance they might attach to it, while they persevered in a course of transgres- sion,—a great moral truth applicable to mankind in all ages.

16, 17. Though divided both in the original, and in the versions, these verses are most intimately connected by the identity of the forms, and the directness of the contrast: Ὁ Ὑ7----

ΔΙΌ ὑπο, They introduce a series of appropriate expostulations, couched partly in figurative, partly in literal terms.— 217, Gesenius and Hendewerk take for the Hithp. 3377, the n being suppressed before the sibilant, which makes the compensation by the Dagesh forte. Hitzig considers it to be the Niph. of 73, which is preferable, as the proper Hithp. of 733 would be mam. The remark of this writer, that there are no instances of Hithp. in verbs having 1 for their first radical is important.—yioy nex. Gesenius, Winer, Ewald, Hitzig, and other moderns, render yi07 actively, consi- dering it to be equivalent to the Benon. part. y27; though Gesenius allows, in his later works, that the form here employed being intransitive, the word may be taken in a passive sense, which, indeed, the connexion absolutely requires. LXX. ῥύσασθε ἀδικούμενον, and so the Chal., Syr., Vulg.,Saad., and Jewish Span. Kimchi also renders it 319, not %3,as Gesenius represents it in his Comment. The Rabbi explains the meaning by re- ferring to Ps. xxi. 4; but he gives the sense of the passage thus: NTH Ὁ Nw ws nv dn, “Direct him who is robhed and wronged in his judgment.” Though the root primarily signifies to be sour, acid, the idea of corrupt, suggested by Bochart, and adopted by Lowth, Dathe, (emendate quod cor- ruptum est,) and others, does not suit, as indeed Lowth himself felt; but that of violence, which, in common with its cognate Ddq, it obviously conveys, is fully warranted ws wy, to be erect, straight, right, has, in Piel, the causative signification, ¢o make or place erect, to cause to walk right ; hence to lead, guide. It here specifically

12

18

ISAIAH.

[CHAP. I.

Come now, let us reason with each other, saith Jehovah :

Though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be white as snow ; Though they be red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

19 If ye be willing and obey,

Ye shall consume the best of the land ;

20 But if ye refuse and rebel,

Ye shall be utterly consumed by the sword. For the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.

signifies to raise the afflicted from his state of depression under the violent hand of his enemy, to see him righted as to his place in society, to restore him to circumstances of prosperity. The uncommon frequency with which the cases of the orphan and widow are taken up in the Old Testament, evinces the high degree of importance attached to this branch of Hebrew ethics.

18. A remarkable instance of gracious condescension on the part of Jehovah, designed to afford the utmost en- couragement to penitent and return- ing sinners. Gesenius, after Michaelis, Koppe, and Eichhorn, supposes that the passage refers not to pardon, but to judgment, though he construes it differently ; but the passages which he adduces are by no means parallel, and the verbs employed are ™ and wp, not m2, which the prophet here uses, and which signifies to argue a point, reason, a8 well as to punish. It is used in a kind sense, as the con- nexion shews. Comp. the beautiful parallel, chap. xliii. 26, where even ὭΒ occurs in the same signification. Jewish Span. contrastemonos. — 7%, prop. garments of scarlet colour, from γῦ, a colour obtained from the coccus licis of Linnzeus—an insect which deposits its eggs in the leaves of the quercus cocciferus, found in Spain, and other countries bordering on the Mediterranean. It was greatly in request by the ancients, who prepared from it a deep scarlet, or beautiful crimson dye, somewhat resembling that which is now obtained from the coccus cacti, or the cochineal insect.

It is called by the Arabs Leys kermes; (in the Jewish Span. οἱ car-

mesi;) hence our “crimson.” From the similarity of the word to ποῦ, which signifies fo repeat, or do a thing a second time, some have supposed, that double-dyed crimsons or purples are meant: a supposition which derives some support from the dis tincta, and dibapha of the Roman writers ; and from the διπλοῦν of the LXX. Exod. xxv. 4; and the δίβαφον of Symm. Exod. xxviii. 8, where the Vulg. has bistinctum. In the present passage, the LXX. render it φοινικοῦν, which Hesych. interprets πυῤῥὸν, κόκκινον, αἱματώδες ; but which is properly to be explained from the circumstance, that it formed a celebrated article of Phenician commerce. The corre- sponding term YA signifies a worm, and denotes the insect itself, from which the colour was obtained. It is here used merely for variety of ex- pression. The two words are found together : ‘20 nyAn, Exod. xxv. 4: and nyain 20, Lev. xiv. 4. With the Jews white was the symbol of purity ; red, of crime, especially of cruelty and murder.

19, 20. The rhythmus and antithesis in these verses are exquisite. ὮΝ might, in the former instance, be rendered enjoy, as Luther gives it; but as it is employed in the latter with evident reference to its previous occurrence, consume is more appro- priate. 28m is intensively, and not causatively passive, as Gesenius would have it. Supply ἃ before 7. The interpretation of Hitzig: “ye shall be compelled to devour the sword,” i.e. by receiving it into your vitals, is violent, and quite repugnant to Scripture usage. See Deut, xxxii. 42; 2 Sam. 11. 26,

CHAP. I.]

ISAIAH.

13

21 Ah! how is she become an harlot—the faithful city !

She that was full of justice !

Righteousness dwelt in her, but now murderers !

22 Thy silver is become dross ;

Thy liquor is weakened with water ;

23 Thy princes are rebellious, and associates of thieves ; Every one of them loveth a bribe, and pursueth rewards ; They maintain not the cause of the orphan ;

And the cause of the widow reacheth them not.

24 Hence the announcement of the Lord,

21. The prophet again depicts the corrupt state of the metropolis ; con- trasts its present moral degradation with the high and honourable character which it had formerly sustained ; and denounces the wrath of God against the finally impenitent. 77982 has special reference to fidelity in the worship and service of the true God, and 7 to the idolatrous practices which obtained in the days of Ahaz. Such practices were a breach of the matrimonial bond into which the nation had symbolically entered with Jehovah. The Jod in ‘D8? is usually called paragogic, but seems rather to be the relic of an ancient mode of expressing the status constructus, or, as Ewald. § 406, terms it, a union-vowel. It occurs very rarely in prose, and then only in the first four books of the Pentateuch; but it is more fre- quent in poetry, and vefy common in proper names, as P1Z7379, 27T3Y, Ke.

22. oD, the recedanea, or scorie which separates from metal in a state of fusion, or the baser metal thus detached from it when smelted. The metallurgic art appears to have been cultivated at a very early period. Numerous traces of it occur in the Scriptures—many of them indicating a considerable degree of proficiency.— 820, the LXX. and Symm. οἶνός ; Aq. συμπόσιον. ‘This substantive, and the verb from which it is derived, are only used in poetical or prophetical composition, and unequivocally convey the idea of inebriating liquor, or liquor, the drinking of which freely in its pure state would produce intoxication. It is used in this place, to express the

idea of purity or genuineness, in which alone its potency lay; though, per- haps, not exclusive of an implied reference to the abuse of it.—79, lit. cut, wounded, killed with water. The word occurs only in this place ; but is quite in keeping with similar modes of expression among the Arabs, as may be seen in Gesen. Comment. in loc. “Vinum aqua secare est phrasis orientalis, vinum aqua miscere indi- cans.” —Dathe. The lexicographers compare it with 0, to circumcise ; with which the German weiz taufen, to baptize wine, is singularly parallel as it respects the religious rites from which the phraseology is borrowed. Both members of the verse express the deterioration which had taken place in the state and character of the Jews.

23, DMD PW, a paronomasia, which also occurs Hos. ix.15; and in sound, though not in sense, Jer. vi. 28.— Ὁ is not used elsewhere, but is introduced as a parallel to Mw, LXX. ἀνταπόδημα ; Symm. ἀμοιβάς.

24, NT ON? A solemn and em- phatic mode of expression, admirably adapted, in connexion with the follow- ing accumulation of Divine appella- tives, to excite attention to the decla- ration they were intended to introduce. ἘΝ, cognate with 0m}, to ery aloud, roar, as the lion, the sea, &c., is the Pah. construct, and signifies what has been solemnly or oracularly announced. - Hence the idiomatic phrase, Jer. xxiil. 31, Dx? wR, “and solemnly pro- nounce: the oracle of,” where there is a singular beauty in the suppression of the Divine name, since what the

B

14

ISATAH.

[CHAP. I,

Jehovah of Hosts, the Protector of Israel: Ha! I will be relieved from my adversaries ; I will be avenged of my enemies.

25 But I will again turn my hand towards thee, And will smelt away thy dross as with potash,

And take away all thine alloy.

false prophets pretended to deliver had not proceeded from Jehovah, but was the mere invention of their own brain.—ji7x. Some regard the subst. Ts, @ base or pedestal, as the root of this word; but the more natural derivation is that adopted by the most distinguished Heb. scholars for the last century, which refers it to p7 or T7, to exercise power or authority, subju- gate, judge. When used, as here, with the article, as also without it in elevated poetry, Ps. cxiv. 7, the word is taken absolutely to designate Jeho- vah as the Supreme Judge or Universal Governor. It is applied in the same sense to the Messiah, Mal. iii. 1. 25x, the plural form absolute, is likewise used exclusively of God. Gen. xix. 18, forms no exception: the pause accent there requiring the Patach to be changed into Kametz; so that, though the form of the Divine name is exhibited, which led the Masoretes to mark it 7p, it is in reality the simple plural, with the pronominal affix, as in ver. 2. To further distin- guish Jehovah from all other rulers, he is styled yw jx. VIX occurs only here in construction with os, and five times besides in construction with apm. It is derived from 72x, an intransitive verb, not in use, but cog- nate with 732Y, to pass over, 152, to be over, cover, and signifying to cover, protect, defend ; hence 738, and πὰς, wing Or pinion, from the protection which it affords. The meaning of the phrase 2 & Vis is, therefore, the Pro- tector of Israel—omw. This is one of those Heb. verbs which are so pregnant with meaning as to convey even contrary ideas. It is properly expressive of strong emotion, and the mental relief or enjoyment which results from an effort to give vent to it. With respect to one’s own actions, it signifies to grieve or repent ; with

respect to those of others, to inflict punishment, avenge one’s self upon them. In both cases the mind is eased of the annoyance which blame- worthy conduct has occasioned to it. It also signifies to exercise pity or compassion towards suffering, because of the effect of such exercise upon one’s own mind. God is here repre- sented anthropopathically as deter- mined no longer to be vexed, or offended by the conduct of his enemies, but to obtain relief from the burden which it imposed, by removing them from the scene of action ; or so affect- ing them by his judgments, as to deprive them of the opportunity of insulting him. See the beautiful note of Lowth on the passage.—The 7 in mp is the sign of the elongated Future, indicating a fixed determina- tion to effect the action expressed. 25. by VY ΠΤ is used in a hostile sense, Ps. Ixxxi. 15; Amos i. 8; but the connexion shews that the phrase is here to be taken in a good sense, as pointing out the return of the divine favour—though that favour could only be restored by an exertion of power in removing the causes of indignation,—33, as with potash: Jew- ish Span.-como wabon. 3 for 33, as freq. 1a, a vegetable salt obtained from the ashes of the /ali, or soap-plant, of which Forskal found several kinds in Egypt and Arabia: hence the Arabic,

\all, Alkali, adopted into our west-

ern languages. It is the same article, otherwise called ™3, and was used, not only in cleansing cloth, or washing the body, but also, as appears from this passage, in purifying metals; causing the different parts to separate more readily from each other. Thus the Chald.; but the other ancient versions simply express the idea of purity—the effect for the cause. Bo-

CHAP. I.]

ISAIAH. 15

26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first, And thy counsellors as at the beginning ;

After this, they shall call thee,

The city of righteousness, the faithful state.

27 Zion shallbe delivered through justice, And her converts through righteousness.

28 But the destruction of the rebels and the sinners shall be together ; And those who forsake Jehovah shall perish. ‘

29 For ye shall be ashamed of the terebinths in which ye delighted, And blush for the gardens which ye had chosen. .

chart. ii. 43.—>y72, any base admixture of lead, tin, or other impure metal’ found in silver ore. It derives its name from its being separated (513) from it in the process of smelting. 26. The restoration of righteous judges and counsellors was to be ef- fected by the removal of those who were corrupt, and the creation of such as answered to the character originally prescribed in the law. ΠΡ, which is seldom used, except in the poetical or prophetical books of Scripture, is synonymous with vy, It is derived from MR, 82, to fall in with, meet ; Arab.

VB, collegit, hospitium excepit, in urbe urbs, Heb. and

Punic, ΠΣ; and properly signifies a place of meeting, where there is an assemblage of persons, and where strangers may expect to meet with hospitality, Gen. xix. 1,2, In 72 ΝῊ, is a common Hebraism, according to which, a person is said fo be called what he really 7s; so that, “thou shalt be called” is equivalent to, “thou shalt be.” This idiom, though more fre- quently occurring in Isaiah, is not peculiar to him. See the parallel pas- sage, Zech. vi. 3. In all such cases, the name specified is not a xomen proprium, but a predicate of certain properties or qualities distinguishing the object named.

27. Since the inhabitants of Zion are not described in this chapter, as having been carried into exile, 72% is not to be translated, ἡ αἰχμαλωσία αὐτῆς, her captives, as in the LXX., but as Jarchi gives it; T2wn wv, “those

vivit; hence, 9,3,

who repent.” 2% signifies, in such connexion, to turn to God in the way of genuine conversion. The converts of Zion were her inhabitants, con- sidered as recovered to the true wor- ship and service of God.

28, 29. DxwM OYE denote the oppo- site characters to 72, in the preceding verse—impenitent and obstinate trans- gressors. The change of person in Hebrew poetry is very common; so that, though Kennicott’s Codices, 150, 182, and De Rossi’s 226, originally, together with Munster’s printed edi- tion of 1536, the Chaldee Paraphrase, and the version of Saadias, read 717, “ Ye shall be ashamed,” it is not at all improbable that x, the reading of the Textus Receptus, is genuine; and to alter it simply on such authorities as those just mentioned, would be unwarrantable. At the same time, since the third persons of verbs are often used impersonally, this verb may be considered as subordinated to those which follow, and translated accord- ingly, as I have done in the version. To avoid the harshness, the LXX. and Syr. throw onyer into the third person, —o’?x, to correspond to ni:7, in the second member of the verse, must be interpreted, ¢erebinth, or oak - groves; which places, as well as gardens, while they afforded shelter from the burning heat of the sun, were peculiarly favour- able to the obscene practices connected with idolatrous worship. They were accordingly selected for the purpose, not only by the ancient idolaters in Pheenicia, Syria, and other parts of the East, but in Germafiy, Britain, &c. though the superstitions in the colder

10

ISAIAH.

[CHAP. I.

30 For ye shall be as a terebinth whose leaves wither ; And as a garden in which is no water. 31 The powerful man shall become tow,

And his work a spark of fire ;

They shall both burn together, And no one shall quench them.

climates of Europe may not have been marked by the same degrees of licen- tiousness.—It has been contested, whether by the 7x,is to be understood the ¢erebinth, or turpentine-tree, or the oak, It takes its name from its strength and hardness. The LXX. render it τερέβινθος, Gen. xiv. 6; but Aq.,Symm., and Theod. have δρῦς, which the LXX. frequently employ as a translation of the kindred word 7x, substituted for it in the next verse. According to Gesenius--Aristotle, Theophrastus, and Pliny, describe the Terebinth as an evergreen—a quality which would suit ver. 30; but the fact is denied by modern botanists. Lowth, unable to make up his mind, either to terebinth or oak, renders the words by ‘lez, which is a species of the latter. The truth of the matter seems to be, that the Hebrews used it to designate the Pistacia Terebinthus of Linn.; while they appropriated js and 7x to the oak, in supporting whichappropriation, all the ancient versions agree: though, in the present case, Aq., Symm., and

Theod. have εἰδώλων : taking the word to be >8, which is used both of the true God, and of any false divinity. The Arabs call it the Butm-tree. For a description of it, see Dr. Robinson’s Biblical Researches, vol. iii. p. 15.

30. Nothing could more strikingly typify the destitute and forlorn con- dition of the ungodly, in their circum- stances of destruction, than the faded terebinth, and gardens without any supply of water.—For 79, the singular, nearly fifty MSS. and eight editions read in the plural 7%.

31. OD, powerful, great in might or riches. Some interpret this of τοί, and their worshippers, but less aptly. The word seems to be used to denote the influential characters in the Jewish state, whose wicked deeds had plunged it into such dire calamities. Both they and the objects of their idolatrous worship should now be consumed together. ‘9b, dis work, is here equi- valent to "7 Mwy, the work of his hands, i.e. his idols, ch, ii, 8; xxxvil. 19,

———

CHAPTERS .——IV.

That these chapters form one connected whole, has been admitted by most expositors. It was reserved for Koppe, Eichhorn, and Bertholdt, to break them up into minute fractions; but the unsuccessful results of their efforts have cured the mania for critical operations of this description, which raged for a time in Germany. Jahn, Déderlein, and Hitzig, inciude also the fifth chapter in the discourse; yet, with the exception of Déderlein, they consider it to be so far distinct, as claiming to be regarded in the light of a second division of it. Gesenius treats them as altogether separate discourses.

The time when this discourse was delivered seems plainly determinable, by the political and moral traits which it exhibits, 'The flourishing state of com- merce; the importation of the precious metals from the East; their great

CHAP. II.]

ISAIAH. 17 abundance; the introduction of foreign manners, especially idolatry; and the luxury and finery which prevailed ; seem all to agree with the commence- ment of the reign of Ahaz. For the conducting of these several items to the pitch which they then reached, ample provision had been made, by the reopening of the port of Elath, under Uzziah, 2 Kings xiv. 22; his increase of military prowess, and his success, 2 Chron. xxvi. 6—15; and the prospe- rous eareer of Jotham, 2 Chron. xxvii.3—6. The strong features of idolatry which the prophet exhibits, entirely militate against the hypothesis of this section having been delivered in the time of Uzziah. In part of that of Jotham, matters greatly deteriorated ; but it was not till Ahaz ascended the throne, that the door was opened for the entrance of all kinds of wickedness and abomination,

CHAPTER II.

The prophet commences with a lucid prediction of the establishment of

Messiah’s kingdom, and its happy results, 1—5; he then depicts the awful apostasy and idolatry of the Jews in the times immediately following his own, 6—9; denounces the divine judgment against the different classes of the people, 10—17; predicts the utter abolition of idolatry, 18—21; and

closes with an exhortation to withhold all confidence in man, 22.

1 THe things which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw, concerning

Judah and Jerusalem.

2 In the last of the days, the mountain of Jehovah’s house Shall be established on the summit of the mountains,

1, 127 has the signification of thing or matter, as well as that of word, and especially, in such connexion, a thing or things forming the subject matter of divinely oracular communication. Ver- bum pro divino responso et oraculo. 4winglius. Most modern translators render the term, by prophecy ; but then they are obliged to give m1, by was re- vealed, which is an unnecessary liberty. Every difficulty is removed by the lite- ral translation given in the version. More things than one being intended, 127 may be regarded as a collective noun.

2—4, This passage, with a few verbal differences, being also found Micah iv. 1—3, it has been matter of dispute, to which of the two prophets belongs the claim of originality; and

some have even maintained, that it contains the words of a third and more ancient prophet, which both Isaiah and Micah adopted on different occasions. This hypothesis, however, is quite un- necessary : nor is it of any consequence which of the prophets first delivered the prediction. They were contem- poraries, and the one may have heard the other,—a supposition which will account for the discrepancies between them, in point of phraseology, much better than the theory, that one of them copied the passage from the written prophecy of the other. τ 2. The phrase, 027 M7¥, which, in itself signifies, remote future time inde- finitely, has, in the prophets, a more determinate reference; viz. to the last period of the divine dispensations, the

18

ISATAH.

[CHAP. 11.

And shall be elevated above the hills, And all the nations shall flow to it. 3 Yea, many people shall go and say ; Come, let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, To the house of the God of Jacob; That he may teach us his ways; And that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.

time of the Christian economy. Comp. Jer. xxii. 20; xxx. 24; Dan, x. 14; Hos. iii. 5. Hence the current Jewish interpretation: way nim, the days of Messiah,—the time when he should appear, and during which his kingdom should endure; of which, Kimchi and other rabbins consider the present passage to be clearly predictive. Abar- banel says expressly, ΤΡ NVI? PHD 1 N'7, “it belongs without doubt to the days of the Messiah.” Mashm. Hayeshuah, fol. 8. col 1. LUXX. ἐν ταῖς ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις, Which is either adopted or imitated in the N. T. Acts 11.17; Heb. i. 1; 1 Pet. i. 20. The mountains and hills cannot here be literally under- stood of Zion, Lebanon, Tabor, Gilead, &c. since the elevation of the former of these mountains above the others, or rather its transposition to be firmly based upon their summits, would argue a physical convulsion too violent and absurd in its phenomena to be for a moment admitted. In the symbolical diction of prophecy, mountains betoken commanding or governing powers, or governments and systems, political and ecclesiastical. In a religious point of view, the phraseology may be based upon the fact, that altars and temples, the central points of idolatrous wor- ship, were constructed on elevated localities. The establishment, there- fore, of Zion upon the tops of the mountains, and its paramount eleva- tion, refer to the superior position which the church of God was to assume, in relation to the different systems of false religion; the influ- ence which she was to exert upon them, and her permanent duration, chap. xi. 9; Dan. ii. 35; Rev. xvi. 20. —, to flow as a river, is beautifully

descriptive of a long and continuous mass of human beings collected from different quarters, and moving forward in procession towards some point of common interest.—Instead of YX, Micah has YY, which is the more definite, and, on this account, more probably the later in its composition. —oinr2 points out the universal character of the Christian dispensa- tion. Instead of the Jewish males going up thrice in the year to Jerusa- lem, andindividual proselytes repairing thither from thesurrounding countries, the great mass of the population of the globe would abandon their supersti- tions, and enter the church of God. 3. The same idea of universality is prosecuted in this verse, with a decla- ration of the object which the converts would have in view, in repairing to the church, and the means by which their conversion should be effected. The prefixed to the futures, 7223, 1%, and 7272 occurring after 3°), a verb in the imperative mood, is not merely copu- lative, but marks the ends or events to which the action expressed by that verb was to be introductory. 727, when used as here in the imperative, is a formula of exhortation or excitement, and though strictly meaning to go, proceed in any direction, is more appropriately rendered into English by come. Gesen. Lehrgeb. p. 873.— The synonymes JJ, and Mk, like odds, Acts ix. 2; xix. 9, 23; 2 Pet. ii. 2; and

the Arab. al Cow, Cow, in the

Koran, signify religion, religious prin- ciples, worship, and conduct.—» is not partitive here, as if only partial in- struction were to be obtained; but, after verbs of teaching, it indicates

CHAP. II.]

ISATAH.

19

4 And he shall arbitrate among the nations, And give decision to many people ; So that they shall beat their swords into coulters, And their spears into pruning-knives : Nation shall not raise a sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war any more.

5 O house of Jacob!

Come and let us walk in the light of Jehovah. 6 Surely thou hast cast off thy people, the house of Jacob,

the matter or subject, which the teaching has for its object.—If mn may be taken in its appropriated sense for the Old Testament revela- tion; the im 127 in the following hemistich will then signify the gospel, or the announcements of the New Testament, which are repeatedly called ὁ λόγος Tod κυρίου, as in Acts xix. 10; 2 Thess. iii. 1. Both terms, however, may be descriptive of divine doctrine generally. This part of the prophecy received a literal fulfilment, when the apostles executed our Lord’s commis- sion, to go and teach “all nations, beginning at Jerusalem,” Luke xxiv. 47 ; but consistency of interpretation re- quires the term to be applied to the church, of which, at the time the prediction was uttered, and also in the apostolic age, Jerusalem was the cen- tral locality. It was from the church, and by the church, that the truth was to be propagated throughout the world; and to that church, in her universality, the nations were to come for instruction.

4, Here the scene of Messiah’s reign is distinctly laid in the Gentile world ; where its influence was to be exten- sively felt, in the abolition of war, and the security enjoyed in cultivating the peaceful arts. To the description given by our prophet, Micah adds :—

“And they shall sit, each under his vine, and under his fig-tree, And none shall make them afraid : For the mouth of Jehovah of hosts hath spoken it.”—Chap. iv. 4.

Compare Martial, Epigr. xiv. 34; and for the reverse of the picture, Joel iv. 10; Virg. Georg. i. 507 ; Ovid, Fast,

i.699. The fulfilment of this predic- tion has hitherto only been partial, in consequence of the partial prevalence of the genuine spirit of the gospel ; but it is undeniable, that Christianity has greatly contributed to ameliorate the political condition of mankind, by diminishing the horrors of war, pro- moting useful intercourse, and ad- vancing the useful arts. Its plenary accomplishment is reserved for a period yet future, of the tranquillity and prosperity of which, the prophetic pages abound with the most glowing descriptions. The nominative to ew, &e. Kimchi and other rabbins admit to be the King Messiah. —DPx, on comparing 1 Sam. xiii. 20, obviously signify agricultural implementsofiron, and most probably the cow/fer, as there distinguished from 7772 and nv, implements similarly employed. The Jewish interpreters render the word by mattocks, which is supported by the version of Symmachus. Comp.

however, the Arab. (#3), molle fuit

(ferrum) ; (Ὁ, Οἱ» molle Serrum.

5. Contains a spirited address to the Jews forthwith to avail themselves of the privileges which they enjoyed, lest, while these privileges were ex- tended to other nations, they might be deprived of them. iT ἦν, che light of Jehovah, is the instruction or know- ledge which he imparts. See ver. 3.

6. The exigency of the place requires 9 to be rendered surely or assuredly,— not for, which is quite foreign to the connexion. Contrasting the happiness which his people might enjoy, by walking in the paths of obedience, with their foreseen forlorn condition,

20

ISAIAH.

[CHAP. IL.

Because they are full of the East;

They practise magic, like the

Philistines,

And strike hands with the sons of foreigners.

Their land also is full of silver and gold ;

And there is no end to their treasures. Yea, their land is full of horses, And there is no end to their chariots.

the prophet abruptly changes the object of address, and appeals directly to Jehovah, who had brought his judgments upon them; and proceeds to point out the causes which had procured them. Nothing can be more violent than the interpretation of the Targum, Saadias, Michaelis, and Hitzig, according to which 37%" ΓΞ is to be considered as the vocative case, thus : “For thou hast left thy people, O house of Jacob!” Besides there being no parallel instance of such construc- tion, the frequent use of 2), the verb here employed, in connexion with m7, to express his abandonment of his people, shews, that it is to Him the address is directed. The 7 in πηι Ὁ), is not a contraction of ™, as Houbi- gant conjectures, but the fuller, though rarer form of the pronominal afforma- tive of the second pers. sing. mas. See Gen. ili. 12; Mal. 11. 14.---

meant, who taught the superstitions, and practised the sorceries of Syria and Babylon. The contrast, in point of locality, which is effected by this construction, evinces the impropriety of taking ἘΠῚ in the temporal sense, as the ancient versions do, as well as the conjecture of Brentius, adopted by several moderns, which would sub- stitute DDp2 for DIP. Lowth would unite both, and render, “ with divina- tion from the east :” but this is quite uncritical. The Hexaplar Syr. has

La3Qe, Syria. For the Philistines, see

chap. xiv. 29. That they were addicted to augury we learn 1 Sam. vi. 2. Whether 022% be descriptive of those who divined by observing the pheno- mena of the clouds (12%, @ cloud), or of those who employed ocular fascination,

(ty, the eye,) we have no sufficient data according to which to determine. LXX. κληδονίζομαι, but also ὀρνιθο-

σκοπέω, Ley, xix. 26. Syr. wah asd SO 3

Vul. augures in general. Luth. Zage- wihler. Gesenius gives to the verb pe the signification of covering, and interprets the noun as denoting those who act covertly, who use covert arts. m723 "12, commonly 122 323, foreiguers, whom the Jews hired to divine for them, after the manner of the heathen. a pews, to make a bargain, or enter into an agreement by striking hands— a mode of contracting common in the . East, as it is in most nations. Hence

the Arab. 432.0, complosio manuum,

venditio, contractus, a settled bargain, effected in this way. The verb is nearly related to p20, frequently used for striking the hands together in token of joy, &c. and is found in this sense in thirty-one codices, Job xxvii. 23. The Ὁ occurs in the present case in some MSS. and in the Soncin. edition. |

7. This description of opulence and prowess would agree with the time of Uzziah, who had an army of 307,500 men; but there is no reason to suppose that they diminished in the days of his son; and by the time Ahaz as- cended the throne, the evils which usually follow in their train, had greatly increased. The multiplication of horses, riches, &c. was expressly prohibited to the king, Deut. xvii. 16, 17,—a prohibition, not, as Gesenius insinuates, of an equally late date with the practice of the Jewish monarchs, in procuring horses from Egypt, but originally inserted in the Jewish law by Moses, and prophetically indicative of their propensity to indulge in what had a natural tendency to alienate

CHAP. 11]

ISATAH.

21

8 Their land is full even of idols; They bow down to the work of their hands, To that which their fingers have made.

9 The man of low condition is bowed down, And the man of rank is brought low ; And thou wilt by no means forgive them.

10

Enter the rock, and hide thee in the dust,

From the fear of Jehovah, and from his glorious majesty.

11

The haughty eyes of man shall be brought low,

And the loftiness of men shall be humbled, And Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day.

12

For there is a day of Jehovah of hosts,

Against every thing that is proud and lofty,

their trust from God. As camels and asses were the animals used by the Hebrews for riding, horses were pro- cured for purposes of war. Comp. Proy. xxi. 31; Job xxxix. 19—25; Zech. x. 3. The mi33,2 were war- chariots, These were very common among the Canaanites and other neigh- bouring nations; and some of them being armed with iron scythes or hooks, currus fulcati, made terrible havoc among the ranks of the enemy.

8. DYN, non-entities, 1. 6. idols, ficti- tious beings, destitute of all life and power, from x, xihili esse: most pro- bably in this case, as Vitringa remarks, teraphim, or household gods, whose idolatrous rites were celebrated in private, but not publicly tolerated till the accession of Ahaz.

9. Though D078 and Wx are some- times mere synonymes, yet in passa- ges such as this, where the design of the writer is to describe different ranks of men, they are used by way of antithesis. Comp. Ps. xlix. 3; Is. v.15. lLuth. very expressively: “Da biickt sich der Pébel, da demiithigen sich die Junker.’ As all classes were addicted to false worship, the judg- ments of God would be universal. Considering that the idolaters had been accustomed to bow down before the objects of their adoration, there is @ singular propriety in the selection of the verbs here employed to express their punishment. They are repeated in verses 11, 12, and 17.--- τ xwn by)

marks the strong conviction in the prophet’s mind, that merited punish- ment would be inflicted upon them. ‘x, like the Greek μή, is used in sub- jective propositions to express the certainty of the negation, as it respects the person by whom it is uttered. ‘Ewald’s Gram. § 573, Eng. Trans. The meaning is: that, how much soever the Jews were depressed by external calamities, these calamities should not be removed, but should still continue to weigh them down, as subjects of the divine indignation.

10. Ὅν, lit. dust, but used here, as frequently in the poetical books, for yr. mim ap, the fear which the coming judgments of Jehovah inspire. One MS. supported by the LXX. and Arab. versions, adds, as in verses 19 and 21: yyx2 yw? mp3, but it is evi- dently an emendation, and does not suit the present connexion.

11. ‘90 should properly be in the plural, to agree with Ὁ, but it 15 in- fluenced by the attraction of the nearer noun Ὁ, as similar instances evince, The contrast between O78, Dx, and mim, is marked and striking.

12, mi) dy, In the prophetical writings, the term oY is frequently employed to denote a period of divine judgment, Ezek. vii. 10; Joel i. 15; just as ἡμέρα τοῦ κυρίου is used in the N. T. for the day of judgment. 120 and ny are similarly used. Hence the emphasis attaching to i777 DW, ver. 11. Ἐκείνη ἡ ἡμέρα, 2 Thess. 1. 10, ἕο. The

σ

22

ISAIAH.

{[CHAP. II.

And against every thing that is elevated,

And it shall be brought low. 13 That are lofty and elevated ;

Against all the cedars of Lebanon,

And against all the oaks of Bashan.

14

Against all the high mountains 8 Ξ ᾽

And against all the elevated hills.

15 Against every high tower,

And against every fortified wall.

? refers the judgment to Jehovah, as the author of its infliction.

13—16, contain a specification of several of the most distinguished objects of nature and art, in order, metaphorically, to represent the dif- ferent persons or orders of men, elevated by the dignity of office, or rendered notable by their riches, or the elegance and luxury of their establishments, whom the judgments of God would, in a more remarkable manner, hurl into ruin. “They afford,” Lowth elegantly observes, “a striking example of that peculiar way of writing, which makes a principal characteristic of the parabolical or poetical style of the Hebrews, and in which their poets deal so largely; namely, their manner of exhibiting things divine, spiritual, moral, and political, by a set of images taken from things natural, artificial, ‘religious, historical; in the way of metaphor, or allegory.” He proceeds to shew, that most of these are borrowed from nature, and that the Hebrew poetry is distinguished from all other poetry by its regular appro- priation of a certain set of such images to the explication of certain subjects; as the cedars of Lebanon, the oaks of Bashan, for kings, princes, &e.; mountains for kingdoms; towers for protectors, ἕο. Compare chap. x. 33, 34; xiv. 8; xxx.25. The whole passage in the prophet is in the high- est degree figurative.

13. No objects of natural history mentioned in Scripture, have been more celebrated than the cedars of Lebanon. The cedar tree, the Pinus cedrus of Linneus, is found on some of the mountains in Asia Minor, and in different parts of the Levant ; but

nowhere so stately, beautiful, and fragrant, as on Lebanon, Notwith- standing all the ravages made in its famous forests, by the building of such palaces as those of Jerusalem, Perse- polis, Tadmor, and others, in ancient times ; the exportation of immense quantities from Tyre to different parts of the Mediterranean, and the constant use of it for wainscotting the houses in the surrounding country, down to the present time, there still remains a remnant sufficient to call forth the admiration of travellers. The number of the trees is different, as estimated by different persons who have visited the spot since they were first de- scribed by Bellonius in 1550. Dr. Richardson, who saw them in 1818, states :—“They are large, tall, and beautiful, the most picturesque pro- ductions of the vegetable world we had seen. There are in this clump two generations of trees; the oldest are large and massy, rearing their heads to an enormous height, and spreading their branches afar, We measured one of them, which we afterwards saw was not the largest in the clump, and found it thirty-two feet in circumference. Seven of these trees have a particu- larly ancient appearance; the rest are younger, but equally tall, though for want of space, their branches are not so spreading.” Some of them are stated by the Rey. Mr. Fisk, who visited them in 1823, to be about ninety feet high. Besides this forest, Seetzen discovered two others which surpassed it in extent. Rosenm. Bib. Geog. ii. p. 216. For Lebanon, see on chap. x. 34.—Next to the cedars of Lebanon, ranked ¢he oaks of Bashan, a mountainous, but exceedingly fertile

CHAP. 11.}

ISATAH.

23

16 And against all the ships of Tarshish, And all the vessels of delightful appearance.

17

And the pride of men shall be brought low,

The loftiness of men shall be humbled, And Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day.

18 19 And the caves of the earth,

And the idols shall wholly pass away. And men shall enter the caverns of the rocks,

From the fear of Jehovah and from his glorious majesty, When he riseth to shake terribly the land.

20

Τὰ that day shall men cast their silver idols and their golden idols

Which they have made for themselves to worship

To the moles and to the bats:

region beyond the Jordan: still, ac- cording to Mr. Buckingham, clothed with forests, among the trees of which oaks are frequently seen. Robinson describes part of his route in these parts as lying for nearly an hour and a half through a thick forest of fine oak-trees: and again speaks of the crests and sides of the hills being clothed with magnificent oaks, for which, he adds, this district, the an- cient Bashan, is still, as of old, justly celebrated, ii. pp. 209, 211. They were used by the Phenicians for oars, Ezek. xxvii. 6.

16. ww nv, ships of Turshish; see on chap. xxiii, 10.—a7aN7 ΠΡ Ὁ cannot, on account of the parallelism, which exactly corresponds to that in the preceding verses, be extended, as Gesenius proposes, so as to compre- hend all the objects which had just been mentioned separately. Various interpretations have been given ; but that of ships delightful to look upon, suggested by the rendering of the LXX. πᾶσαν θέαν πλοίων κάλλους, best accords with the spirit of the passage.

17. πὸ, in the masculine, with the fem. n1723, may either be used for the sake of uniformity with verses 9 and 11; or, it may be accounted for on the principle, that when the predicate is mentioned before the subject is named, or its gender thought of, it may natu- rally assume the simplest form, which is that of the masculine singular. See Ewald, § 567.

18. There is a peculiar beauty in the brevity of this verse, which in the original consists only of three words: AM OPN, in which the letter Lamed predominates. The sin- gular verb is used, to intimate that not one of the idols should remain. No language could more graphically describe the entire disappearance of idolatry.

19. Judea, and the neighbouring regions, abound in caverns, some of them of an enormous size, to which the inhabitants were accustomed to flee for refuge, when attacked by enemies. Judg. vi. 2; xv. 8; 1 Sam. ΧΙ. 6; xiv. 11; xxiv. 3, 7, 8—}INT Por, another instance of paronomasia.

20. This verse is connected with ver. 18, and shews how the idols were to pass away. However valuable they were, they should be rejected with contempt. ὃ is wanting in one of Kennicott’s MSS.; at first hand in one of De Rossi’s; and is erased from another; but, standing for 072, it is the common Dativus commodi. —nine 167? is found in five MSS. as one word, nmmen, and thus all the ancient versions (Theod. ἀφαρφερώθ), though they differ in their interpreta- tions. Taken separately, the words might signify, to the digging or burrow- ing, i.e. the holes of rats—nv®, corre-

sponding to the Arab. x,l8, rats ; but

as animals are mentioned immediately after, it is more natural to suppose

24

ISAIAH.

[CHAP. III.

21 When they go into the clefts of the rocks, And into the fissures of the cliffs : From the fear of Jehovah, and from his glorious majesty, When he riseth to shake terribly the land.

22 Cease from man

In whose nostrils is a breath ;

For in what is he to be regarded ?

that a simple reference to another species is made here. Besides, the quadrilateral form of the following noun makes the Kefa/fa/, or reduplicate form in this case the more probable. Both Gesenius and Hitzig object to rendering the word by mo/es, on the ground that these animals are found in the fields, and do not frequent old or ruinous buildings, like the bat ; and the latter commentator, following Abenezra, proposes sparrows; but the consideration, that persons fleeing for safety not only throw away what they may have accounted valuable before abandoning their houses, but also in their flight through the open country, renders it more likely that precisely moles are meant. Since the verb ἜΠ signifies fo dig, its geminated deriva- tive must denote some animal parti- cularly noted for perforation, than which none rivals the mole. See on

the word, Bochart, Hierozo. vol. ii. p. 1031. The fondness of both moles and bats for darkness, rendered them fit companions for the idols which were consigned to oblivion.

21. The 9 in 82) denotes in such connexion, the time of doing any action. See Gesen. Lex. ὁ. 7.

22. A very appropriate exhortation, arising out of the predicted destruction of all human glory. This verse is entirely omitted by the LXX.; but is found in the Targ. and both the Syriac versions, in Jerome and Αα., and is not known ever to have been wanting in the Hebrew text. Origen, Jerome, and after them Lyranus, Menochius, Luther, C&colampadius, and many others, strangely interpret the words of Christ—an interpreta- tion of which the Jews have not failed to avail themselves to reproach our Redeemer !

CHAPTER LiL

The prophet now announces, in plain language, the severe privations to which the Jews would be subject, when the predicted judgments should be

inflicted upon them.

The cutting off of the necessaries of life; the removal

of those in whose hands were the reins of government; the assumption of rule by totally incompetent persons ; the anarchy and perplexity consequent upon it ; and the causes of these evils; are all set forth in strong colours, verses 1—15. The remaining part of the chapter is chiefly occupied with a picture of female luxury, and the change that would take place in the appearance of the daughters of Zion, and that of the state generally, as the result of the visitations of Divine Providence.

΄ CHAP. III.]

ISAIAH.

25

1 For behold! the Lord Jehovah of Hosts

Shall remove from Jerusalem and from Judah,

The stay and the support;

The whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water :—

2 The hero and the warrior; The judge and the prophet ; The diviner and the elder;

3 The commander of fifty and the honourable ; The counsellor, the skilful in magic, and the expert enchanter.

1. There is an intimate connexion between this verse and that with which the preceding chapter concludes. yoo, like other participles following 737, 15. indicative of the future, yo, mon lit. the male and the female support, for every kind of support. Another instance of this idiom, which is com- mon in the Arabic, occurs Nah. ii. 13, where the mas. 170, and the fem. 7579, signify different kinds of prey. Comp.

Lariall, Vail, Harir. Cons. i. p.

36. It cannot be imitated in our language, but in the Syr. Ver. we have

{Asascm0

Syr. {Dea DSO la ΠΩ ΒΆΡΗ Ξ the

LXX. ἰσχύοντα καὶ ἰσχύουσαν; Aq. ἔρεισμα καὶ ἐρεισμὸν; Symm. στήριγμα καὶ στηριγμόν; and in the Jewish Span. sustentador y sustentadora. — Though the idea of stay or support is more naturally connected with that of bread; hence ony7w2, the staff of bread, Lev. xxvi 26; Ps. cv. 16; and coincides with the use of the phrase 22 Wd, to prop up, or support the heart, 1:6. by taking food; yet it may not inappropriately be also employed in reference to water, on account of the strength obtained from its refreshing influence. The opinion of Gesenius and Hitzig, that the words 0»—5, after 7277W2, are an exegetical gloss, cannot be sustained, since they are required to complete the hemistich, and are otherwise quite in the style of the prophet.

2, 3. In this enumeration, the different office-bearers and persons of influence are grouped in pairs—a mode

{oasem; in the Hexap.

of combination not unusual with our prophet. See chap. xi. 2; xix. 3, 6—9; xxl. 12, 13; xlii. 19. The coupling of DD? with δ), shews that the latter word is here used in a bad sense, to denote idolatrous prophets, or such as merely pretended to a divine commis- sion. See Micah ui.6,7. The oop were those who professed to interpret dreams and tell fortunes by the use of lots, observing the revolutions of the stars, the flight of birds, arrows, &c. Augurs have been found in all nations, but in none more plentifully than in the ancient nations of Asia, where they were attached to the court, and exerted a very great influence on the affairs of state. They were also introduced into Rome, and had a chief called the swmmus aruspex, or magister publicus. Comp. Ezek. xxi. 21, 22; Dan. ii. 2, &c. own oon, if occurring alone, would signify one skilled iz the arts, a skilful artificer, which is the interpretation given in the LXX., Syr., Vulg., and Saad.; but its combination with wy 7.22 imme- diately following, determines the sense to that of magic arts, which is sup- ported by the Targ., and is the signi-

fication of the Aramaic τ and La; eae.

009, from n>, which, like ὙΠ, signifies to give a low, whispering, muttering sound, in the manner of sorcerers or enchanters, is descriptive of the art of incantation, and cannot, without doing violence to the native force of the term, be applied to oratory, or human eloquence Comp. ver. 20. The true meaning was more or less perceived by Aq. “ψιθυρισμῷ, Symm. ὁμιλίᾳ μυστίκῃ, and Theod. ἐπωδῇ.

26

ISATAH.

[CHAP. III.

4 And I will make boys their rulers, And children shall govern them.

or

Every one his neighbour ;

And the people shall oppress each other,

The youth shall outrage the aged, And the despicable him who is honoured. 6 Should any one take hold of another That is at home with his father, and say, Thou hast raiment ; be thou our ruler ; And let this ruin be under thy hand: 7 In that day, he will protest, saying,

(7 will not be a healer:

For in my house is neither bread nor raiment, Make me not aruler of the people.”

4, There is here a change of person, by which Jehovah is introduced as speaking ; which is not unfrequently the case in Isaiah. O'>°Yn is synony- mous with 04Y2, only it more forcibly expresses the petulance of boys in the exercise of assumed authority. LXX. ἐμπαίκται ; Luth. Aindische, childish

persons. The abstract saucinesscs, 15 used for the concrete, Comp. Eccles. x. 16.

5. Instead of 32, eight MSS., fifteen printed editions, and among these, three of the earliest, read 32 ; but all the ancient versions have read as the Textus Receptus. The verb is here used in a reciprocal sense. The fol- lowing clauses are exegetical, and fur- nish a striking delineation of a state of anarchy.

6. 3 is sometimes employed to ex- press what is conditional—a meaning which the connexion in this place re- quires. Wx and mx, are used idioma- tically, and not in the relative, or more confined sense of family con- nexion, Y28™3 is literally “the house of his father,” in which the person referred to lived in a state of retire- ment from public life ; but it is used elliptically for ™23, “in the house,” as Gen. xii. 15 ; 2 Kings xxii. 9, (5 Keri.) This interpretation of m2 supersedes the necessity of Lowth's conjecture, that tx has been dropped out of the text. After V8, two of Kennicott’s

Codd. and the Babyl. Tal. add 7x2, which the LXX. and Chald. support. The Syr. and Arab. also supply V2") ; but the ellipsis of 7583, in poetry, is too common to warrant, on such slender authority, our adopting the reading, which is virtually implied in the preceding verb t=m, though it may be admitted into translations, That this person possessed some respecta- bility is evident from the special mention of 722%; properly a garment, which was worn immediately over the tunic, differing in size, but generally nine or ten feet in length, and five or six in breadth, but here obviously used for an abundant wardrobe, which would yield a supply sufficient to sup- port the dignity of office. Ps?, which, like the Arab. ol, kadi, signifies

a magistrate or judge, is not much in use.—Instead of ἡ, thirty-five MSS., two printed editions, and the Babyl. Tal. read 72 in the plural. To be under the hand of any one, is to be subject to his power and management.

7. After x, supply ἢν, or PP; a much more naturai filling up of the ellipsis than 7, since swearing seems here to be out of the question. Viewed in connexion withthe description of the diseased condition of the Jewish po- lity, chap. i. 6, in which the same verb (am) occurs, VIA, ὦ healer, is appro- priately used of one who binds up the

CHAP. III.]

ISATAH.

8 For Jerusalem stumbleth, and Judah falleth ;

Because their languge and their actions Have been against Jehovah— To provoke the eyes of his glory.

The shew of their countenance testifies against them ;

Their sin they announce like Sodom; they hide it not;

Wo to them,

For they bring calamity upon themselves.

10

Say ye to the righteous: It shall be well;

For they shall eat the fruit of their actions:

11

Wo to the wicked: It shall be ill;

. For the desert of their hands shall be rendered them.

wounds of a state by the judicious use of authority. The LXX. resolve the figure by rendering it dpxnyos. A plentiful supply of dress and_ pro- visions being required, among the Orientals, in all who would assume the reins of government, or fill any public station, the individual applied to earnestly protests against any fur- ther proposals being made to him, on the ground that his resources would not meet the exigencies of the case. 8. From this verse, to the 15th, the mora, or ruined state of things, de- scribed in the preceding verses, is ac- counted for, by its being traced to the fact, that the people had procured it by their base and wicked conduct, which Jehovah further threatens sig- nally to punish ; while, at the same time, he would make a due discrimi- nation in favour of the righteous.— τύ), the contracted form of niv97, the Infin. in Hiph. as Ps. Ixxviii. 17. This verb is usually followed by 75, the mouth ; ™, the spirit, also occurs Ps, cvi. 33; but Ὁ, as here, is very ex- pressive—the eye being that organ of the body which is most easily and keenly sensitive of pain. The absence of the former Jod in 2), which is borne out by most of the MSS., has occasioned considerable diversity of rendering. Michaelis, after the LXX., proposes to read "2%, humilis; and Lowth, 3232, cloud, as the Syr. does, (probably by a mistake of transcrip- tion,) supposing an allusion to be _tmade to the Shekinah in the wilder-

ness ; but the very frequent omission of Jod fully justifies the Masoretic punctuation. The pronunciation is much the same in both readings.

9. The Chald., Syr., Le Clerc, and Hitzig, render O28 M37, their partiality, or respect of persons. 1t cannot be de- nied that the phrase 0°22 T37 signifies to shew such partiality, Deut. 1. 17 ; xvi. 19, &c. ; and there can be no doubt that this sin obtained to a very great extent among the Jews at the time. Still, the use of 1737 and 377) N35, in the other member of the parallelism, evinces the propriety of the common rendering, which is defended by Ro- senmiiller, Gesenius, and Winer. 137 is a verbal noun, from the Infin. in Hiph. ; in Kal. 723, fo be strange ; in Piel, fo estrange; but in Hiph. to look at, know: hence, look, shew, appearance, as the signification of the noun. The repeated comparison of the conduct of the Jews to that of the inhabitants of Sodom, shews at once how much the latter was professedly abominated, and how great were the aggravations of the former. An unblushing reck- lessness of character is here specially intended. D%92) x, lit. wo 10 their souls : 51, however, in innumerable passages, signifies, as in the present instance, themselves. See the Lexicons.—23 is to be taken simply in the sense of doing or bringing evil, and not in that of maturing, as Michaelis proposes in his Suppl. ad Lexx. Heb.

10, 11. As the text now stands, we are almost tempted to adopt the Anti-

28

ISAIAH.

[CHAP. III.

12 As for my people, children are their oppressors,

And women lord it over them.

O my people! thy leaders cause thee to err, They destroy the way of thy travellers.

13 Jehovah hath set himself to contend, He standeth to judge the people.

14 Jehovah will enter into judgment

ptosis of Kocher, and render: Say ye that it shall be well with the righteous ; or, as Luther and Hitzig give it, Suy ye of the righteous, &c.; but there is no real difficulty in supposing, with the Chald. and Syr., an ellipsis of > before PIE, Just as °2 must be supplied before v1, in the following line. A similar ellipsis of ) occurs before 77M, Jer. ix. 2; and of Ὁ before 01x, Job xxxiii. 17. Δήσωμεν, the reading of the LXX. has arisen from the 9 in 12x, having been mistaken for Ὁ, The words δήσωμεν τὸν δίκαιον, ὅτι δύσχρηστος ἡμῖν ἐστι, let us bind the Righteous One, for he as tnconvenient to us: or, as Justin Mar- tyr, Hegesippus, and Eusebius read, ἄρωμεν τὸν δίκαιον, let us destroy the Righteous One, are considered by many of the fathers as a prophecy of Christ, and the same view Dodson lamely attempts to vindicate—The suffix in > and v7, referring to PS, a collective noun, is to be rendered in the plural, to make it correspond with the plural forms in the 10th verse, which are ex- pletive of the corresponding collective. So Luther.—These two verses furnish a beautiful example of antithetic pa- rallelism, in which the contraries of persons, characters, actions, awards, &c. are opposed to each other. The pious are graciously assured, that in the worst of times, and under the most trying circumstances, God will be their friend and rewarder; while the ungodly are equally assured that they shall suffer merited punishment.

12. rd is a collective, and thus agrees with the plur. part. yiv2i—a, more natural mode of construction than to consider the latter as a plural of excellence. The verb Y signifies to return, to do any thing a second time, thoroughly, or fully, to indulge one’s self at the expense of another, to behave

hence DYN,

petulantly or saucily ; For »2, comp.

petulant boys, ver. 4. the Eth. 1.11}. Rex, Tyrannus, and the Arab. ty , excitavit, compulit et

congregavit dispersos camelos, ἕο. In- stead of Ὁ), women, the LXX., Aq., Theod., Chald., and Arab. read D3, usurers, Which agrees well with vw2 ; but the position of the word requires it to correspond to 52», which the former signification exactly suits. The entire verse contains a further descrip- tion of the extreme imbecility of the government, at the time here predicted —a description fully realized after the death of Jotham. The two participles ow and ON, are forcibly opposed to each other: the former signifying, to lead or direct forward in a straight course ; the latter, to cause to wander from the right way, into devious courses, or into a trackless desert, where nothing but destruction can be expected, After DYN, supply 7q's, and comp. Micah iii. 5. The way of thy paths, 15 scarcely intelligible, except it mean the direction which paths take ; but there is no necessity for rendering it in this manner, since nim is used to denote caravans, or companies of travellers, as well as the paths which they pursue through the desert. See Job vi. 18, 19; Isa. xxi. 13. Instead of conducting the people in the right course, as the guide of a caravan would do, the Jewish leaders not only turned the people aside, but effaced all traces of the way in which they should have walked.

13, 14. ov do not here denote foreign nations, but the tribes of Israel, as Deut. xxxii. 8 ; xxxili. 3, 19; Ps. xlvii. 10; Hos. x. 14; as the con- text shews. Lowth supposes iY to

CHAP. III.]

ISATAH.

29

With the elders of his people, and their rulers. For ye have eaten up the vineyard, The spoil of the poor is in your houses. 15 What mean ye that ye crush my people, And grind the persons of the poor ? Saith the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts.

16 Moreover saith Jehovah :

be the true reading; yet, though countenanced by the LXX. and Syr. it is critically indefensible. 0337 is used collectively of the vineyards. That it is not to be altered to "23, my vineyard, meaning the people, as the Chald. renders it, appears from the following words: 277 973, what has been plundered from the poor. Jehovah, as judge, calls the rulers to account for the oppression and robbery of which they had been guilty; to express which summons, there is a sudden turn in the composition from the pre- dictive style to that of direct personal address. The Yau in ON) is causal, and the use of the separate pronoun before the verb is, in such instances, _ emphatic.

15. 0299, by contraction, for 02577, as in the Keri, which a number of Kenn. and De Rossi’s MSS. exhibit in the text. Supply >. oy 25 denotes not merely the faces, but the persons of the poor, the poor themselves. Luther die Person der Elenden. To grind a person is expressive of the greatest oppression, and corresponds to thecomminution or crushing spoken of immediately before. For an ampli- fication of the subject, see Micah iii. 1—3.

16. The following eight verses con- tain the most complete description of Oriental female attire to be met with in any ancient writing. It has been thought by some, that, owing to the change of fashion, and especially the difference between ancient and modern fashions in dress, every attempt to explain the several items in this inventory, must prove in a” great measure fruitless.. The more, how- ever, the fact of the immutability of Eastern manners and customs is established, by a comparison of their present features with those described

as existing in former times; the more minute the accounts furnished by mo- dern travellers; and the greater the progress which has been made in the comparative philology of the Hebrew and its kindred dialects; the more definite and satisfactory have been the results of the investigations that have been instituted with a view to deter- mine the meaning of the words here employed. A very elaborate work on the passage, was published by Nicol. Guil. Schroeder, with a preface by the celebrated Albert Schultens, intituled : Commentarius Philologico - Criticus, de Festitu Mulierum Hebrearum, ad Isaia, iii. vers. 16—24, Lugd. Batav. 1745, 4to; which, so far as philology is concerned, may be said to have exhausted the subject.

Having at the outset charged the Hebrew females with pride in general, (1723,) Jehovah proceeds to specify the external indications of it in their dress and deportment.—ni3, for nv), as the Keri reads, like τον, for ny, 1 Sam. xxv. 18. 3 is properly the throat, but is here used for the fore- part of the neck, which stretches and becomes more visible when an effort is made to toss up the head, or to throw it back into the attitude of haughtiness or pride. Instead of nape, ogling, forty-two printed edi- tions, and among them some of the most accurate, eight of De Rossi’s MSS., and one at first hand, read nyPw?, lying or “acting falsely with their eyes ;” but most MSS., the celebrated Spanish codices, all the ancient editions, and all the ancient versions, support the common reading, which has also the suffrages of Kimchi, Abarbanel, and several of the ancient rabbins. ‘Three of Kennicott’s MSS. have m7, with Samech instead of Sin, which also goes to increase the authority of the Textus

D

30

ISAIAH.

[CHAP. III.

Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, And walk with outstretched necks and ogling eyes, Mincing always as they walk, and tinkling with their feet: 17 The Lord will make bald the crown of the daughters of Zion, Yea, Jehovah will expose their shame. 18 In that day the Lord will remove

Receptus. Lowth, approving of the reading which exhibits Siz, renders freely: “falsely setting off their eyes with paint,” and supposes reference to be made to the custom, so universal in the East, of tinging the hair and edges of the eyelids with stibium or alkohol, in order to give a more impos- ing appearance to the white of the eye :—a practice, in deseribing which, Ezek. employs the very word, "ΠΡ, kéhal: F297, lit. “Thou soholest thine eyes,” 1.6. paintest them with kohol, xxiii. 40. This interpretation, however, does not suit the other parts of the verse, all of which describe some action of the members of the body, and not any action performed upon them. The meaning is, therefore,

rightly given by Abulwalid: laces sil, Lay> οἱ LeBp Ἰο]

lay, pel moist, Who ogle with the eyes. The word is used of a woman who flashes and flames with her eyes; and the meaning is, she darts her

loots in a@ bold and lascivious manner.

Both the Chald. 779 and the Arab. ys in the second Conj. express an

action of the eyes.

77, the Infin. absol. expresses con- tinued or unceasing action. "PY, a ἅπαξ hey. signifies, according to the

force of the Arab. ab and 8), fo

move nimbly or softly: hence, ἢ, a child, from its short and light steps. It is here descriptive of affected delicacy in walking. The mas. suff. in 077927 is not without effect; indicating, that the noise which the women made with their ankle-chains was totally at vari- ance with the modestly retiring cha- racter of the sex. One of De Rossi’s

Codd. reads 71, doubtless by correction. For the obviously designed use of masculine pronouns, to intimate the incongruity of certain actions in refer- euce to female character, see Judges xix. 24; Ezek. xiii. 90.---ῦϑν, to make a tinkling noise with the rings which were worn round the ankles. See ver. 18.

17. Many MSS., the Soncin. Bible, and Soncin. Proph. of 1486, read 7™ instead of πὸ, both in this and the following verse. That, in consequence of the superstitious veneration of Jew- ish transcribers for the sacred name, the latter word has crept into many passages which originally exhibited mm, is now universally admitted among Hebrew scholars. 722, causative, ‘to make to full off. Compare nne0, the scab or mange. The latter clause of the verse describes the entire destitu- tion of clothing, to which the gaudy Hebrew females should be reduced, in allusion to the ancient custom of stripping captives naked, and driving them in that state before their con- querors. See Lowth, and comp. chap. xlvii. 3; Nah. iii. 5, 6.

18. Dow, sing. D2Y, Arab. (ple, a rope or string for binding the foot of a rk, to twist, tie round.

It is used, Prov. vii. 22, of a ring or fetter put upon the leg of a delinquent, by way of punishment ; and here, of the ornamental rings of gold, silver, brass, ivory, &c. which, to this day, Eastern females wear about their legs and ankles. They are frequently numerous, one above another; and, slipping up and down, from the motion made in walking, produce a tinkling noise. Little bells are even attached to them, or into such of them as are hollow are put small pebbles, which make the same tinkling sound. Cal- met, Art. Periscelides; Parkhurst in

camel, from

CHAP. II. ]

ISAIAH.

The ornaments of the ankle-bands, And the tasselled tresses and the crescents ; 19 The ear-pendents, and the bracelets, and the small veils; 20 'The turbans, and the stepping chains, and the girdles, And the smelling-bottles and the amulets ;

voc. DY; Harmer’s Obser. chap. xi. Obser. xlvii. That they were also used by the Grecian and Roman ladies, see Schroeder, pp. 14—17. Comp. ver. 16.

oo, The apparently violent transition from the leg or ankle rings to the head-dress, at once disappears, if we explain this word of braided tresses of hair, such as those which Pitts describes the loose women at Cairo as wearing down to their very heels, with little bells attached to them at the end, which made a tink- ling sound as they walked. D2 is synonymous with 20 and wiv, 70 interweave, plait. The LXX. render it κοσύμβους, which, besides other significations, is used to denote tassels hanging to the hem, or to the lower part of a garment, and may have been employed by them, in application to the ends of the tresses resembling such tassels. Schroeder's interpreta- tion, soliculi, however ingeniously and elaborately supported, is now generally regarded to be untenable.—That the following term, D7, means /unule, crescents, or ornaments in the shape of little moons, hung upon the neck, is as generally admitted. These ornaments were not peculiar to the women, but were also worn by men and camels, Jud. viii. 21, 26.

19. MDD), pendants or ear-drops, from 703, to drop,—peculiarly descriptive of ornaments of pearl, gold, &c. hanging from the ears in the shape of drops.— These also were worn by men of rank, Jud. viii. 26 —nin}, bracelets, or small chains of gold or silver worn on the arms, and perhaps in nothing differing | from those called ony, Gen. xxiv. 22. The word is derived from WW, fo twist

or bind about.—™My), Arab. ele cy ὃ par-

ticular kind of smadl thin veil, consist- ing of two pieces, which were united with clasps, near the eyes, and hung down over the face to preserve it from

the sun. The name seems to be derived from the tremulous motion which they exhibited ; but the term being closely connected with the pre- ceding, more regard may be had. to the elegance of the clasps, than to the veils themselves.

20. DNNE, tiaras or turbans, a Species of ornamental head-dress, to which Eastern females are still very partial, and which they generally arrange in the most elegant manner—Mmv3, Arab,

eae, from Wy, fo march or walk in

a stately and measured manner, and signifying walking or stepping chains. Catena, qua captiworum pedes constrin- guntur, ne amplos passus facient; catena in pedibus mulierum, que ornamento tn- servit. Freytag. They were fastened to the legs, and were designed to prevent long steps, and compel those who used them to walk in the manner described, ver. 16. From the cireum- stance, that 77yzx, from the same root, is used of a male ornament, worn on the arm, 2 Sam. i. 10, (comp. Num. xxxi. 50,) it has been supposed that some such female ornament is meant: and, indeed, by a slight change of the

letters in Arabic, Nae, Brachiale,

brachii vinculum vel ornamentum, Gol. the same idea is brought out ; yet still the meaning assigned above, seems entitled to the preference. So Schroeder, Gesenius, Rosenmiiller, and Hitzig.— That op, signify female girdles, is beyond dispute. The word occurs only once besides ; viz. Jer. 1. 32, where, however, it is used, less specifically, of such parts of female dress as required binding. Comp. for the use of the verb in Piel, Is. xlix. 18.—wen ona, lit, “houses of the breath:” 1.6. smelling bottles, or boxes of perfume, the eftect of which, when inhaled, is to assist respiration. They were suspended to a lace or belt, tied round the waist. ™3, in Heb. signifies

32

ISAIAH.

[CHAP. III.

21 The finger-rings and the jewels of the nose. 22 The dress-vestments and the tunics ;

And the cloaks and the purses ; 23 The mirrors and the linen shifts ;

And the ribands and the large veils.

whatever contains any thing. oD»n, from 72, in Piel, to mutter, use en- chantments, denote amulets, consisting of precious stones, plates of gold, silver, &c. which were chiefly sus- pended by chains round the neck, and were supposed to possess the power of preserving against diseases, witch- craft, and all kinds of mischief. Many of them were in the shape of serpents. Such talismans are still very common all over the East, and form an indispensable part of female attire.

21. nv20, a ring worn on one of the fingers of the right hand, and contain- ing a seal or signet with the name of the possessor engraved on it. The sub. 1s derived from 29, fo sink, or cause to sink into a soft substance, to impress With a seal, Esth. 111. 10. It is equivalent to onin, Jer. xxii. 24; but may here be taken to signify rings in general, for wearing on the fingers. —hx7 Ὁ). Some, after the LXX. τὸν κόσμον Tov προσώπου, interpret this of any kind of ornaments for the face; but, as 032 signifies in the Arabic, Zo perforate, and #8 strictly and properly denotes the nose, there can be no doubt, that nose-jewels or nose-rings are meant, Comp. Ezek. xvi. 12; and Prov. xi. 22. “It is the custom,” says Sir John Chardin, “in almost all the East, for the women to wear rings in their noses, in the left nostril, which is bored low down in the middle. These rings are of gold, and have commonly two pearls and one ruby between, placed in the ring.” See also Lowth’s Note. From the perforating of the ears, 012 is likewise used of earrings, Gen. xxxv. 4.

22, ΤΙΣ, splendid and pompous vest- ments, gala dresses, worn only on special occasions, and so called from their being put off the moment such occa- sions were over, in order to keep them from being tarnished: yy, Arab. ws,

signifying, to pull or put off a garment. Comp. Zech. iii. 4, where the word denotes the costly and splendid robes of the high-priest.—nipar, s/oles, or wide tunics, worn over the common ones, furnished with sleeves, and reaching to the ankles. Root, 7, 70

cover, or clothe, Arab. wahee, Symm.,

ἀναβόλαια. ---- ΒΟ, ample cloaks, or wide upper garments, worn at home and on ordinary occasions. They

corresponded to the WKS, hyle, of

the Arabs, made of wool, commonly about seven ells in length, by three in breadth, and thrown loosely round the body. Such was the large garment of Ruth, which contained six measures of barley; and Dr. Shaw informs us, that finer sorts are still worn by the ladies and persons of distinction among the Arabs. Travels, p. 225.— Don, pockets, or purses for holding money and other small articles, 2

Kings v. 23; Arab. dey >, —conical

in form, of satin or velvet, and richly ornamented with gold.

23. ™2*%3, Interpreters are here chiefly divided between the significa- tions mirrors, and transparent garments. The latter is supported by the render- ing of the LXX. διαφανῆ Λακωνικὰ, 1.6. garments that might be seen through, such as were worn by the indecent Lacedemonian females ; and it might appear very appropriate in application to the dress of the wanton Hebrew females in the time of Isaiah ; but, as "2, in the singular, signifies a smooth, polished tablet, chap. viii. 1, the former interpretation is preferable. The mirrors of the Hebrews were round in form, provided with a handle, and made of brass or mixed metal, highly polished; and the females doubtless carried them about with them, as do the dancing girls in Jndia, and as the females used to do in Egypt

CHAP. 111.}

ISAIAH.

33

24 And instead of perfume shall be putridity ; And instead of a girdle, a rope ; And instead of braided hair, baldness ; And instead of the wide-flowing mantle, a wrapper of sackcloth ;

A brand instead of beauty.

25 Thy men shall fall by the sword ;

And thy forces in war.

26 Her gates shall lament and mourn,

and Greece, at certain idolatrous festi- vals. Comp. Exod. xxxviii. 8.—o'y70, under-garments or shifts of fine linen, cotton, or gauze, worn next the body ;

from 710, Arab.

1D, wo laxavit, demisit vestem suum, to let the garment hang loose.—Mb22, ribands, chiefly used for binding the braided tresses of the hair round the head, or sashes of fine linen bound round the bottom of the tiara.—_OTN), large veils, thrown over the head, and descending over the other garments to the feet. They were worn when the females went abroad, and were more exposed to the gaze of spectators. Comp. Song v. 7. Root, ™, to bring down, subdue: hence, the idea of power, subjection to power ; and the veil, as the mark of such subjection, expressed by the much contested term, ἐξουσία, 1 Cor. xi. 10. See Bloomfield in loc.

24. There is here a sudden turn in the address ; but instead of dropping the subject, it is presented under a new and aggravating form. Not only were all the articles of finery to be removed, but every thing that was coarse, vulgar, and disgusting, was to supply their place. p92 or ῬῸ, rotten- ness, or a fetid smell—the very opposite of the 0a contained in the smelling bottles, ver. 20.—7873, from ἢ), fo sur- round, bind round, a cord or rope tied round the waist.—tv7o Ww», braided work, i.e. hair artificially made up into braids, and interwoven and stiffened with ribands and other materials. See ver. 18. Root, πῦρ, fo stiffen, make hard.—?7n2 occurs only here, and is of uncertain derivation. The most probable is that which regards it as compounded of ‘78, from 72, to be wide, eapanded, and 72, to be or move

round; a full mantle, flowing all round the body.—7v, coarse haircloth, used for sacks, and worn in time of mourn- ing, or by the very poorest, in lieu of other clothing —® nqn72, There is a peculiar beauty in the terseness with which the whole description thus con- cludes. 3, though only found in this place as a noun, is evidently used to signify brand or burnt mark, being regularly formed from ΠῚ, fo burn, as

+t)

Ἢ from my, Ἢ from mm, το. pe } }.adt}. ultimum morbi remedium Ip lol)

cauter est. Meidan.. Proverb. iv. sil us εν} Lisl, et morbum ad

cauterium pervenisse. Hariri Con- sen. xxix. As the whole verse de- scribes the deplorable condition of female captives led away by their conquerors, the brand is to be under- stood of the στίγματα, or marks which it was customary to burn into the foreheads of prisoners and slaves.

25, 26. Here Jerusalem is first directly addressed, and then her deso- late condition is aptly depicted. By an unexpected transition, the destruc- tion of the males becomes the subject of a brief, but affecting notice. 2, military force, used collectively for mighty warriors. The gates being entirely deserted, are represented bya prosopopeeia, as indulging in grief, the intensity of which is expressed by the synonymes, 738 and %28.—TDp, cleared, i.e. completely emptied of inhabitants. Nothing could be more expressive than the metaphorical re- presentation of Jerusalem, sitting like a disconsolate female on the ground: and it is very remarkable, that on Roman medals, struck by order of

94

ISAIAH.

[CHAP. IV.

And, emptied, she shall sit on the ground.

CHAPTER IV.

1 And seven women shall lay hold on one man in that day, saying : We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel : Only let us be called by thy name,

To take away our reproach.

Titus, in commemoration of his con- quest of Jerusalem, and the entire destruction of the Jewish polity, Judea actually appears in the posture of a female sitting on the ground, under a palm tree, and giving way to inconsolable grief. See Horne’s Introd. vol. i. pp. 215, 216. The prophecy doubtless received its accomplishment in the Babylonish captivity ; though the language is equally applicable to that inflicted by the Romans. Comp. Ps ΟΣ ΧΙ 1: am, iy 1:

CuapteR IV.—1. This verse is so intimately connected with the pre-

ceding, that the division of thechapters here is most unhappy. Such should be the carnage of the war, ver. 25, that there would be no proportion of men left ; and as the Hebrews regarded celibacy as a reproach, rather than incur such reproach, a number of females are here described as immo- destly importuning one man to marry them, that they might have the honour of standing in the relation of wives to him, though they renounced all claim upon him for support. That it was customary for the wife to be named after the husband, see Gen. xii. 17; zlyiwl93 2:Samaat. 3;

CHAPTER IV.

Having depicted the wickedness of the Jews, and the awful judgments with which it would be punished, the prophet devotes this short chapter to an announcement of the glory and felicity of the church in the time of

Messiah.

2 In that day the Branch of Jehovah Shall be beautiful and glorious ;

2. samy DV3, af or after that period; viz. of universal desolation. The pre- position 2 does not always. strictly express what is contained within any given time or space; it also points out nearness, society, or accompaniment, that which is in connexion with, or which follows upon something else. In prophetic vision, the two states of adversity and prosperity were so closely

connected, that one period might be said to comprehend them both. See chap. x. 20, and Zech. xii. xiii. xiv. where the phrase is used of events partly coeval, and partly successive. mm ΤΌΣ, according to all the other passages in which a Mx, Branch, is promised, must be taken in a personal sense. See Jer. xxiii. 5; xxxili. 15; Zech. 111. 8; vi. 12; and comp. Is. xi.

CHAP. IV.]

ISATAH.

And the Fruit of the earth, excellent and splendid

To the escaped of Israel. 3 And he that is left in Zion, And remaineth in Jerusalem,

Shall be called holy :

Every one who is enrolled to life in Jerusalem.

1; ln. 2; Ezek: xxxiv. 29. Nor is it possible for any one impartially to examine the connexion and bearing of these passages without perceiving, that the person therein predicted or promised is no other thanthe Mrssrau. Thus, the Targ. "7 xmwo, Kimchi, Vitringa, Lowth, Rosenmiller, and Hengstenberg in his Christol. That mim ΤΌΣ means the same as ON 13, the Son of God, receives confirmation from the Oriental appropriation of the term Branch, to signify descent. Thus, Silvestre de Sacy, in his “Mémoires sur Diverses Antiquités de la Perse,’ p. 94:—“This expression, branch of, denoting ‘of the race of, is very common in the books of the Persians. Zoroaster is there called the Branch of Minochehr; Yezdejerd, the Branch of Sassan; Gustasp, the Branch of Kéan,’ &c. The occurrence of ma? own, “to the escaped Israelites,” pre- sents an insuperable objection to the interpretation of Grotius, Michaelis, Gesenius, Hitzig, and others, that the pious remnant of the Jews are meant. Since it is expressly predicted, that to this very remnant, the Branch was to be beautiful and glorious, it is manifest they cannot be identical. It has been thought, however, that to explain “2 yus7, “the Fruit of the earth,” of the Messiah, would be intolerably harsh. Yet, if we understand jx to stand, by synecdoche, for the inhabitants of the earth, i.e. men, which is a figure not unusual in Scripture, the harshness is at once removed, and the same anti- thetical view of the origin of the Messiah’s person is given, which we find Rom. ix. 5. The passage thus contains a prediction of the divine and human natures of our Lord, similar to what we find in chap. vii. 14 ; ix. 5. (6.) John the Baptist likewise employs the phrase, ὁ ὧν ἐκ τῆς γῆς, John iii. 31, to denote one who is simply a partaker

of humanity, while he describes the Messiah, whose human nature he takes for granted, as 6 ἄνωθεν ἐρχόμενος. Comp. Luke i. 78, where our Saviour is called ἀνατολὴ ἐξ ὕψους, 1.6. MX, which the LXX. have rendered ἀνα- τολὴ, Jer, xxiii. 5; Zech. iii. 8; vi. 12. —While all human pride was to be stained, and all human ornaments to be removed, every true Israelite would find in the Messiah a plenitude of glory and splendour. 72%», “The escaped,” seems to refer rather to those who should be delivered from the corrupt body of the nation, τὸ κατάλειμμα of the Apostle, Rom. ix. 27, than to such as either remained in Judea, or returned from captivity. Comp. Zeph. iii. 11, 12. The 2 before the four first nouns converts them into adjectives, as Lam. iv. 3. ‘293 wy), “the daughter of my people is Zo ὦ cruel one; 1.6. is cruel.”

3. WEN and WT are collective par- ticiples, and form the nom. absol.; and agree with 70% in the foregoing verse, which is also a collective. i? is to be taken in the N. T. sense of dyos,—reference being made to the times of the Messiah. ‘2x has here the idiomatic sense of 83}, fo call, i.e. to be what one is called. 227 52 is in apposition with the preceding par- ticiples ; and O17? 22 corresponds to τεταγμένοι εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον, Acts xiii. 48; and γέγραπται ἐν τῷ βιβλίῳ τῆς ζωῆς, Rey. xiii. 8; but not to Exod. Xxxil. 32, though this last passage no doubt furnished the type both of the idea and the phraseology. Dan. xii. 1, is perfectly parallel with this text in Isaiah. The verse describes the exalted character for moral purity, which should distinguish those whom God would acknowledge as his future people, and on whom he would confer salvation.

90

ISATAH.

[CHAP. IV.

Jerusalem from the midst of her,

4 When the Lord washeth away the filth of the daughters of Zion, And cleanseth out the blood of With the spirit of judgment, and the spirit of burning ; 5 Then shall Jehovah create Upon every station of Mount Zion, And upon her places of convocation, A cloud and a smoke by day ; And the brightness of a flaming fire by night ; Which shall be over all the glory for protection : 6 And a tabernacle shall be for shade by day from the heat ;

And for a refuge and a covert, From storm and from rain.

4, 5, —Ox, when—then: pointing out the connexion between the spiritual purification that Jehovah would effect, and the Divine protection which he graciously promises.— Kz is the most expressive term that could have been employed to denote the loathsomeness of moral pollution. 27123, as a geo- graphical phrase, would signify towns and villages lying round and depend- ent on Zion, and so Rosenmiiller and Hengstenberg understand it in this passage ; but it is clearly to be taken, as in chap. 111. 16, for the female inha- bitants. In like manner, 074 stands for “723, ‘the sons of Jerusalem,’ 7.¢. the male inhabitants, who are more appropriately charged with the shed- ding of blood. The LXX. supply freely: τῶν υἱῶν καὶ τῶν θυγατέρων Σιών. ™, in this passage, is almost pleonastic, only it gives force to the words with which it is in construction, just as %22 and oxy do, The judgment and the burning would be of the severest kind. Comp. Mal. iii. 1—4. qva is the Infin. nomin. in Piel. 2 is omitted before }22 in six MSS., but it is expressed in all the ancient versions ; and instead of πο in the sing. up- wards of forty MSS. and nearly