Transcriber's Note: Images taken from the 1861 edition, found at http://Books.Google.com., is the source of the text used for this ebook.

Unclear or missing punctuation marks were corrected by reference to the 1856 edition of this work.

CLARK'S

FOREIGN

THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY

NEW SERIES.
VOL. IX.

Hengstenberg's Christology of the Old Testament.
VOL. II.

EDINBURGH:

T. & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET.

LONDON: J. GLADDING; WARD AND CO.; AND JACKSON AND WALFORD.
DUBLIN: JOHN ROBERTSON.

MDCCCLXI.

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CHRISTOLOGY

OF

THE OLD TESTAMENT,

AND A

COMMENTARY ON THE MESSIANIC PREDICTIONS

BY

E. W. HENGSTENBERG,

DR. AND PROF. OF THEOL. IN BERLIN.

SECOND EDITION GREATLY IMPROVED.

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN

BY

THE REV. THEOD. MEYER,

HEBREW TUTOR IN THE NEW COLLEGE, EDINBURGH.

VOL. II.

EDINBURGH:

T. & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET.

LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO.; SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO.; WARD AND CO.; JACKSON AND WALFORD, ETC. DUBLIN: JOHN ROBERTSON, AND HODGES AND SMITH.

MDCCCLXI.

NOTICE.

This Work is copyright in this country by arrangement with the Author.

LIST OF CONTENTS.

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[THE PROPHET ISAIAH.]

[GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS.]

Isaiah is the principal prophetical figure in the first period of canonical prophetism, i.e., the Assyrian period, just as Jeremiah is in the second, i.e., the Babylonian. With Isaiah are connected in the kingdom of Judah: Joel, Obadiah, and Micah; in the kingdom of Israel: Hosea, Amos, and Jonah.

The name "Isaiah" signifies the "Salvation of the Lord." In this name we have the key-note of his prophecies, just as the name Jeremiah: "The Lord casts down," indicates the nature of his prophecies, in which the prevailing element is entirely of a threatening character. That the proclamation of salvation occupies a very prominent place in Isaiah, was seen even by the Fathers of the Church. Jerome says: "I shall expound Isaiah in such a manner that he shall appear not as a prophet only, but as an Evangelist and an Apostle;" and in another passage: "Isaiah seems to me to have uttered not a prophecy but a Gospel." And Augustine says, De Civ. Dei, 18, c. 29, that, according to the opinion of many, Isaiah, on account of his numerous prophecies of Christ and the Church, deserved the name of an Evangelist rather than that of a Prophet. When, after his conversion, Augustine applied to Ambrose with the question, which among the Sacred Books he should read in preference to all others, he proposed to him Isaiah, "because before all others it was he who had more openly declared the Gospel and the calling of the Gentiles." (Aug. Conf. ix. 5.) With the Fathers of the Church Luther coincides. He says in commendation of Isaiah: "He is full of loving, comforting, cheering words for all poor consciences, and wretched, afflicted hearts." Of course, there is in Isaiah no want of severe reproofs and threatenings. If it were otherwise, he would have gone beyond the boundary by which true prophetism is separated from false. "There is in it," as Luther says, "enough of threatenings and terrors against the hardened, haughty, obdurate heads of the wicked, if it might be of some use." But the threatenings never form the close in Isaiah; they always at last run out into the promise; and while, for example, in the great majority of Jeremiah's prophecies, the promise, which cannot be wanting in any true prophet, is commonly only short, and hinted at, sometimes consisting only of words which are thrown into the midst of the several threatenings, e. g., iv. 27: "Yet will I not make a full end,"--in Isaiah the stream of consolation flows in the richest fulness. The promise absolutely prevails in the second part, from chap. xl.-lxvi. The reason of this peculiarity is to be sought for chiefly in the historical circumstances. Isaiah lived at a time in which, in the kingdom of Judah, the corruption was far from having already reached its greatest height,--in which there still existed, in that kingdom, a numerous "election" which gathered round the prophet as their spiritual centre. With a view to this circle, Isaiah utters the words: "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people." The contemporary prophets of the kingdom of the ten tribes, which was poisoned in its very first origin, found a different state of things; the field there was already ripe for the harvest of judgment. And at the time of Jeremiah, Judah had become like her apostate sister. At that time it was not so much needed to comfort the miserable, as to terrify sinners in their security. It was only after the wrath of God had manifested itself in deeds, only after the judgment of God had been executed upon Jerusalem, or was immediately at hand,--it was only then that, in Jeremiah, and so in Ezekiel also, the stream of promise broke forth without hinderance.

Chronology is, throughout, the principle according to which the Prophecies of Isaiah are arranged. In the first six chapters, we obtain a survey of the Prophet's ministry under Uzziah and Jotham. Chap. vii. to x. 4 belongs to the time of Ahaz. From chap. x. 4 to the close of chap. xxxv. every thing belongs to the time of the Assyrian invasion in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah; in the face of which invasion the prophetic gift of Isaiah was displayed as it had never been before. The section, chap. xxxvi.-xxxix., furnishes us with the historical commentary on the preceding prophecies from the Assyrian period, and forms, at the same time, the transition to the second part, which still belongs to the same period, and the starting point of which is Judah's deliverance from Asshur. In this most remarkable year of the Prophet's life--a year rich in the manifestation of God's glory in judgment and mercy--his prophecy flowed out in full streams, and spread to every side. Not the destinies of Judah only, but those of the Gentile nations also are drawn within its sphere. The Prophet does not confine himself to the events immediately at hand, but in his ecstatic state, the state of an elevated, and, as it were, armed consciousness, in which he was during this whole period, his eye looks into the farthest distances. He sees, especially, that, at some future period, the Babylonian power, which began, even in his time, to germinate, would take the place of the Assyrian,--that, like it, it would find the field of Judah white for the harvest,--that, for this oppressor of the world, destruction is prepared by Koresh (Cyrus), the conqueror from the East, and that he will liberate the people from their exile; and, at the close of the development, he beholds the Saviour of the world, whose image he depicts in the most glowing colours.

Isaiah has especially brought out the view of the Prophetic and Priestly offices of Christ, while in the former prophecies it was almost alone the Kingly office which appeared; it is only in Deut. xviii. that the Prophetic office, and in Ps. cx. that the Priestly office, is pointed at. Of the two states of Christ, it is the doctrine of the state of humiliation, the doctrine of the suffering Christ, which here meets us, while formerly it was the state of exaltation which was prominently brought before us,--although Isaiah too can very well describe it when it is necessary to meet the fears regarding the destruction of the Theocracy by the assaults of the powerful heathen nations. The first attempt at a description of the humbled, suffering, and expiating Christ, is found in chap. xi. 1. The real seat of this proclamation is, however, in the second part, which is destined more for the election, than for the whole nation. In chap. xlii. we meet the servant of God, who, as a Saviour meek and lowly in heart, does not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, and by this merciful love establishes righteousness on the whole earth. In chap. xlix., the Prophet describes how the covenant-people requite with ingratitude the faithful labours of the Servant of God, but that the Lord, to recompense Him for the obstinacy of Israel, gives Him the Gentiles for an inheritance. In chap. l. we have presented to us that aspect of the sufferings of the Servant of God which is common to Christ and His people--viz., how, in fulfilling His calling. He offered His back to the smiters, and did not hide His face from shame and spitting. Then, finally, in chap. liii.--that culminating point of the prophecy of the Old Testament--Christ is placed before our eyes in His highest work, in His atoning and vicarious suffering, as the truth of both the Old Testament high-priest, and the Old Testament sin-offering.

There are still the following Messianic features which are peculiar to Isaiah. A clear Old Testament witness for the divinity of Christ is offered by chap. ix. 5 (6); the birth by a virgin, closely connected with His divinity, is announced in chap. vii. 14; according to chap. viii. 23 (ix. 1.) Galilee, and, in general, the country surrounding the Sea of Gennesareth, being that part of the country which hitherto had chiefly been covered with disgrace, are, in a very special manner, to be honoured by the appearance of the Saviour, who shall come to have mercy upon the miserable, and to seek that which was lost. Isaiah has, further, first taught that, by the redemption, the consequences of the Fall would disappear in the irrational creation also, and that it should return to paradisaic innocence, chap. xi. 6-9. He has first announced to the people of God the glorious truth, that death, as it had not existed in the beginning, should, at the end also, be expelled, chap. xxv. 8; xxvi. 19. The healing powers which by Christ should be imparted to miserable mankind, Isaiah has described in chap xxxv. in words, which by the fulfilment have, in a remarkable manner, been confirmed.

Let us endeavour to form, from the single scattered features which occur in the prophecies of Isaiah, a comprehensive view of his prospects into the future.

The announcement first uttered by Moses of an impending exile of the people, and desolation of the country, is brought before us by Isaiah in the first six chapters, in the prophecies belonging to the time of Uzziah and Jotham, at which the future had not yet been so clearly laid open before the Prophet as it was at a later period, at the time of Ahaz, and, very especially, in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah. A reference to the respective announcements of the Pentateuch is found in chap. xxxvii. 26, where, in opposition to the imagination of the King of Asshur, that, by his own power, he had penetrated as a conqueror as far as Judah, Isaiah asks him whether he had not heard that the Lord, long ago and from ancient times, had formed such a resolution regarding His people. These words can be referred only to the threatenings of the Pentateuch, which a short-sighted criticism endeavoured to ascribe to a far later period, without considering that the germ of this knowledge of the future is found in the Decalogue also, the genuineness of which is, at present, almost unanimously conceded: "In order that thy (Israel's) days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."

In the solemnly introduced short summary of the history of the covenant-people, in chap. vi., there is, after the announcement of the impending complete desolation of the country and the carrying away of its inhabitants in vers. 11, 12, the indication of a second judgment which will not less make an end, in ver. 13: "But yet there is a tenth part in it, and it shall again be destroyed;" and this goes hand in hand with the promise that the election shall become partakers of the Messianic salvation.

The Prophet clearly sees that, by the Syrico-Ephraemitic war, the full realization of that threatening of the Pentateuch will not be brought about, as far as Judah is concerned; that here a faint prelude only to the real fulfilment is the point in question. Although the allied kings speak in chap. vii. 6: "Let us go up against Judea and vex it, and let us conquer it for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal," the Lord speaks in chap. vii. 7: "It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass." And although the heart of the king and the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind, the Prophet says: "Fear not, let not thy heart be tender for the tails of those two smoking firebrands."

It is Asshur that shall do more for the realization of that divine decree first revealed by Moses. It is he who, immediately after that expedition against Judah, shall break the power of the kingdom of the ten tribes, chap. viii. 4: "Before the child shall be able to cry: 'My father and my mother,' the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be carried before the King of Assyria." The communion of guilt into which it has entered with Damascus shall also implicate it in a communion of punishment with it, chap. xvii. 3. The adversaries of Rezin shall devour Israel with open mouth, chap. ix. 11, 12. Yea Asshur shall, some time afterwards, put an end altogether to the kingdom of Israel; "Within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken that it shall not be a people any more," chap. vii. 8. Upon Judah also severe sufferings shall be inflicted by Asshur. He shall invade and devastate their land, chap. vii. 17, and chap. viii. He shall irresistibly penetrate to the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, chap. x. 28-32. But when he is just preparing to inflict the mortal blow upon the head of the people of God, the Lord shall put a stop to him: "He shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by the mighty one," chap. x. 34. "Asshur shall be broken in the land of the Lord, and upon His mountains be trodden under foot; and his yoke shall depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders," chap. xiv. 25. "And Asshur shall fall with the sword not of a man," chap. xxxi. 8. These prophecies found their fulfilment in the destruction of Sennacherib's host before Jerusalem,--an event which no human ingenuity could have known even a day beforehand. But Isaiah does not content himself with promising to trembling Zion the help of God against Asshur in that momentary calamity. In harmony with Hosea and Micah, he promises to Judah, in general, security from Asshur. He says to Hezekiah, after that danger was over, in chap. xxxviii. 6: "And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the King of Assyria, and I will defend this city."

Behind the Assyrian kingdom, the Prophet beholds a new power germinating, viz., the Babylonian or Chaldean; and he announces most distinctly and repeatedly that from this shall proceed a comprehensive execution of the threatenings against unfaithful Judah. According to chap. xxiii. 13, the Chaldeans overturn the Assyrian monarchy, and conquer proud Tyre which had resisted the assault of the Assyrians. Shinar or Babylon appears in chap. xi. 11, in the list of the places to which Judah has been removed in punishment. In chap. xiii. 1-xiv. 27, Babylon is, for the first time, distinctly and definitely mentioned as the threatening power of the future, by which Judah is to be carried into captivity. The corresponding announcement in chap. xxxix. is so closely and intimately interwoven with the historical context, that even Gesenius did not venture to deny its origin by Isaiah, just as he was compelled also to acknowledge the genuineness of the prophecy against Tyre, in which the Babylonian dominion is most distinctly foretold, and even the duration of that dominion is fixed. The 70 years of Jeremiah have here already their foundation.

The Prophet sees distinctly and definitely that Egypt, the rival African world's power, on which the sharp-sighted politicians of his time founded their hope for deliverance, would not be equal to the Asiatic world's power representing itself in the Assyrian and Babylonian phases. He knows what he could not know from any other source than by immediate communication of the Spirit of God, that, by its struggle against the Asiatic power, Egypt would altogether lose its old political importance, and would never recover it; compare remarks on chap. xix.

As the power which is to overthrow the Babylonian Empire appear, in chap. xxxiii. 17, the Medes. In chap. xxi. 2, Elam, which, according to the usus loquendi of Isaiah, means Persia, is mentioned besides Media. This power, and at its head, the conqueror from the East, Cyrus, will bring deliverance to Judah. By it they obtain a restoration to their native land.^[1] Nevertheless Elam appears in chap. xxii. 16 as the representative of the world's power oppressing Judah in the future; and from chap. xi. 11 we are likewise led to expect that the world's power will in future shew itself in an Elamitic phase also, and that the difference between Babel and Elam is one of degree only, just as, indeed, it appeared in history; comp. Neh. ix. 36, 37.

An intimation of an European phasis of the world's power, hostile to the kingdom of God, is to be found in chap. xi. 11.

After the Kingdom of God has, for such protracted periods, been subject to the world's power, the relation will suddenly be reversed; at the end of the days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be exalted above all the hills, and all nations shall flow into it, chap. ii. 2.

This great change shall be accomplished by the Messiah, chaps. iv., ix., xi., xxxiii. 17, who proceeds from the house of David, chap. ix. 6 (7), lv. 3, but only after it has sunk down to the utmost lowliness, chap. xi. 1. With the human, He combines the divine nature. This appears not only from the names which are given to Him in chap. ix. 5 (6),but also from the works which are assigned to Him,--works by far exceeding human power. He rules over the whole earth, according to chap. xi.; He slays, according to xi. 4, the wicked with the breath of His mouth (compare chap. l. 11, where likewise He appears as a partaker of the omnipotent punitive power of God); He removes the consequences of sin even from the irrational creation, chap. xi. 6-9; by His absolute righteousness He is enabled to become the substitute of the whole human race, and thereby to accomplish their salvation resting on this substitution, chap. liii.

The Messiah appears at first in the form of a servant, low and humble, chap. xi. 1, liii. 2. His ministry is quiet and concealed, chap. xlii. 2, as that of a Saviour who with tender love applies himself to the miserable, chap. xlii. 3, lxi. 1. At first it is limited to Israel, chap. xlix. 1-6, where it is enjoyed especially by the most degraded of all the parts of the country, viz., that around the sea of Galilee, chap. viii. 23 (ix. 1.) Severe sufferings will be inflicted upon Him in carrying out His ministry. These proceed from the same people whom He has come to raise up, and to endow (according to chap. xlii. 6, xlix. 8), with the full truth of the covenant into which the Lord has entered with them. The Servant of God bears these suffering's with unbroken courage. They bring about, through His mediation, the punishment of God upon those from whom they proceeded, and become the reason why the salvation passes over to the Gentiles, by whose deferential homage the Servant of God is indemnified for what He has lost in the Jews, chap. xlix. 1-9, l. 4-11. (The foundation for the detailed announcement in these passages is given already in the sketch in chap. vi.,--according to which an election only of the people attain to salvation, while the mass becomes a prey to destruction.) But it is just by these sufferings, which issue at last in a violent death, that the Servant of God reaches the full height of His destination. They possess a vicarious character, and effect the reconciliation of a whole sinful world, chap. lii. 13-liii. 12. Subsequently to the suffering, and on the ground of it, begins the exercise of the Kingly office of Christ, chap. liii. 12. He brings law and righteousness to the Gentile world, chap. xlii. 1; light into their darkness, chap. xlii. 6. He becomes the centre around which the whole Gentile world gathers, chap. xi. 10: "And it shall come to pass in that day, the root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign of the people, to it shall the Gentiles seek, and His rest shall be glory;" comp. chap. lx., where the delighted eye of the Prophet beholds how the crowds of the nations from the whole earth turn to Zion; chap. xviii., where the future reception of the Ethiopians into the Kingdom of God is specially prophecied; chap. xix., according to which Egypt turns to the God of Israel, and by the tie of a common love to Him, is united with Asshur, his rival in the time of the Prophet, and so likewise with Israel, which has so much to suffer from him; chap. xxiii., according to which, in the time of salvation. Tyre also does homage to the God of Israel. The Servant of God becomes, at the same time, the Witness, and the Prince and Lawgiver of the nations, chap. lv. 4. Just as the Spirit of the Lord rests upon Him, chap. xi. 2, xlii. 1, lxi. 1, so there takes place in His days an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, chap. xxxii. 15, xliv. 3, comp. with chap. liv. 13. Sin is put an end to by Him, chap. xi. 9, and an end is put especially to war, chap. ii. 4. The Gentiles gathered to the Lord become at last the medium of His salvation for the covenant-people, who at first had rejected it, chap. xi. 12, lx. 9, lxvi. 20, 21. The end is the restoration of the paradisaic condition, chap. xi. 6-9, lxv. 25; the new heavens and the new earth, chap. lxv. 17, lxvi. 22; but the wicked shall inherit eternal condemnation, chap. lxvi. 24.

[^[1]] Vitringa: There are no predictions in reference to the temporal deliverance of the Jewish Church, in which the Prophet shews himself more than in those which relate to the downfall of the Babylonian Empire, and the deliverance of the people of God by Cyrus.]

[THE PROPHECY--CHAP. II.-IV.]

THE SPROUT OF THE LORD.

It has been already proved, in Vol. i., p. 416 ff., that this discourse belongs to the first period of the Prophet's ministry. It consists of three parts. In the first, chap. ii. 2-4, the Prophet draws a picture of the Messianic time, at which the Kingdom of God, now despised, should be elevated above all the kingdoms of the world, should exercise an attractive power over the Gentiles, and should cause peace to dwell among them; comp. Vol. i., p. 437 ff. In the second part, from chap. ii. 5-iv. 1, the Prophet describes the prevailing corruption, exhorts to repentance, threatens divine judgments. This part is introduced, and is connected with the preceding, by the admonition in ii. 5, addressed to the people, to prepare, by true godliness, for a participation in that blessedness, to beware lest they should be excluded through their own fault. In the third part, chap. iv. 2-6, the prophet returns to the proclamation of salvation, so that the whole is, as it were, surrounded by the promise. It was necessary that this should be prominently brought out, in order that sinners might not only be terrified by fear, but also allured by hope, to repentance,--and in order that the elect might not imagine that the sin of the masses, and the judgment inflicted in consequence of it, did away with the mercy of the Lord towards His people, and with His faithfulness to His promises. Salvation does not come without judgment. This feature, by which true prophetism is distinguished from false, which, divesting God of His righteousness, announced salvation to unreformed sinners, to the whole rude mass of the people,--this feature is once more prominently brought out in ver. 4. But salvation for the elect comes as necessarily as judgment does upon the sinners. In the midst of the deepest abasement of the people of God, God raises from out of the midst of them the Saviour by whom they are raised to the highest glory, chap. iv. 2. They are installed into the dignity of the saints of God, after the penitent ones have been renewed by His Spirit, and the obstinate sinners have been exterminated by His judgment, ver. 3, 4. God's gracious presence affords them protection from their enemies, and from all tribulation and danger, ver. 5, 6.

The first part, in which Isaiah follows Micah (comp. the arguments in proof of originality in Micah, Vol. i., p. 413 ff.), has already been expounded on a former occasion. We have here only to answer the question, why it is that the Prophet opens his discourse with a proclamation of salvation borrowed from Micah? His object certainly was to render the minds of the people susceptible of the subsequent admonition and reproof, by placing at the head a promise which had already become familiar and precious to the people. The position which the Messianic proclamation occupies in Isaiah is altogether misunderstood if, with Kleinert and Ewald, we assume that the passage does not, in Isaiah, belong to the real substance of the prophecy; that it is merely placed in front as a kind of text, the abuse and misinterpretation of which the Prophet meets in that which follows, so that the sense would be: the blessed time promised by former prophets will come indeed, but only after severe, rigorous judgments upon all who had forsaken Jehovah. It is especially ver. 5 which militates against this interpretation, where, in the words: "Come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord,"^[1] the prophet gives an express declaration as to the object of the description which he has placed in front, and expresses himself in regard to it in perfect harmony with Heb. iv. 1: φοβηθῶμεν οὖν μῄποτε καταλειπομένης ἐπαγγελίας ... δοκῇ τις ἐξ ὑμῶν ὐστερηκέναι. This shows, that after the manner of an evangelical preacher, and in conformity with his name, he wishes to allure to repentance by pointing to the great salvation of the future;--that the ἤγγικε ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν of the first part serves as a foundation to the μετανοεῖτε οὗν of the second.

The threatening of punishment contained in the second part is destitute of any particular reference. It bears a general character, comprehending the whole of the mischief with which the Lord is to visit the unfaithfulness of His people. Most thoroughly was the animating idea realized in the Roman catastrophe, the consequence of which is the helplessness which still presses upon the people. The preparatory steps were the decay of the people at the time of Ahaz--especially the Chaldean overthrow--and, generally, everything which the people had to suffer in the time of the dominion of the Assyrian, Chaldean, Medo-Persian, and Greek kingdoms. As none of these kingdoms were as yet on the stage, or in sight, it is quite natural that the threatening here keeps altogether within general terms; it was given to Isaiah himself afterwards to individualize it much more.

It is with the third part only that we have here more particularly to employ ourselves.

Ver. 2. "In that day the Sprout of the Lord becomes for beauty and glory, and the fruit of the land for exaltation and ornament, to the escaped of Israel."

Ver. 3. "And it shall come to pass, he that was left in Zion, and was spared in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, every one that is written to life in Jerusalem."

Ver. 4. "When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall remove the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of right and the spirit of destruction."

Ver. 5. "And the Lord creates over the place of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies clouds by day and smoke, and the brightness of flaming fire by night, for above all glory is a covering."

Ver. 6. "And a tabernacle shall be for a shadow by day from the heat, and, for a refuge and covert from storm and from rain."

Ver. 2. "In that day" i.e., not by any means after the suffering, but in the midst of it, comp. chap. iii. 18; iv. 1, where, by the words "in that day," contemporaneousness is likewise expressed. Parallel is chap. ix. 1 (2),where the people that walketh in darkness seeth a great light. According to Micah v. 2 (3) also, the people are given up to the dominion of the world's powers until the time that she who is bearing has brought forth. Inasmuch as the Messianic proclamation bears the same general comprehensive character as the threatening of punishment, and includes in itself beginning and end, the suffering may partly also reach into the Messianic time. It dismisses from its discipline those who are delivered up to it, gradually only, after they have become ripe for a participation in the Messianic salvation.--There cannot be any doubt that, by the "Sprout of the Lord" the Messiah is designated,--an explanation which we meet with so early as in the Chaldee Paraphrast (בְּעדָּנָא הַהוּא יְהֵי מְשִׁיחָא דַיָי לְחֶדְוָה וְלִיקָר), from which even Kimchi did not venture to differ, which was in the Christian Church, too, the prevailing one, and which Rationalism was the first to give up. The Messiah is here quite in His proper place. The Prophet had, in chap. iii. 12-15, in a very special manner, derived the misery of the people from their bad rulers. What is now more rational, therefore, than that he should connect the salvation and prosperity likewise with the person of a Divine Ruler? comp. chap. i. 26. In the adjoining prophecies of Isaiah, especially in chaps. vii., ix., and xi., the person of the Messiah likewise forms the centre of the proclamation of salvation; so that, a priori, a mention of it must be expected here. To the same result we are led by the analogy of Micah; comp. Vol. i. p. 443-45, 449. Farther--The representation of the Messiah, under the image of a sprout or shoot, is very common in Scripture; comp. chap. xi. 1-10; liii. 2; Rev. v. 5. But of decisive weight are those passages in which precisely our word צמח occurs as a designation of the Messiah. The two passages, Jer. xxiii. 5: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I raise unto David a righteous Sprout;" and xxxiii. 15: "In those days, and at that time, shall I cause the Sprout of righteousness to grow up unto David," may at once and plainly be considered as an interpretation of the passage before us, and as a commentary upon it; and that so much the more that there, as well as here, all salvation is connected with this Sprout of Jehovah; comp. Jer. xxiii. 6: "In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is His name whereby he shall be called: The Lord our righteousness." The two other passages, Zech. iii. 8: "Behold, I bring my servant Zemach," and vi. 12: "Behold, a man whose name is Zemach" are of so much the greater consequence that in them Zemach (i.e., Sprout) occurs as a kind of nomen proprium, the sense of which is supposed as being known from former prophecies to which the Prophet all but expressly refers; or as Vitringa remarks on these passages: "That man who, in the oracles of the preceding Prophets (Is. and Jer.) bears the name of 'Sprout.'" Of no less consequence, finally, is the parallel passage, chap. xxviii. 5: "In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty unto the residue of His people." The words צבי and תפארת there meet us again. The same is there ascribed to the Lord which is here attributed to the Sprout of the Lord. That can be readily accounted for, only if the Sprout of the Lord be the Messiah. For the Messiah appears everywhere as the channel through which the Lord imparts to His Church all the fulness of His blessings, as the Immanuel by whom the promise given at the very threshold of the Old Testament: "I dwell in the midst of them," is most perfectly realized. "This is the name whereby He shall be called: The Lord our righteousness," says Jeremiah, in the passage quoted.--The "Sprout of the Lord" may designate either him whom the Lord causes to sprout, or him who has sprouted forth from the Lord, i.e., the Son of God. Against the latter interpretation it is objected by Hoffmann (Weissagung und Erfüllung. Th. 1, S. 214): "צמח is an intransitive verb, so that צֶמַח may be as well connected with a noun which says, who causes to sprout forth, as with one which says, whence the thing sprouts forth. Now it is quite obvious that, in the passage before us, the former case applies, and not the latter, inasmuch as one cannot say that something, or even some one, sprouts forth from Jehovah; it is only with a thing, not with a person, that צמח can be connected." But it is impossible to admit that this objection is well founded. The person may very well be conceived of as the soil from which the sprout goes forth. Yet we must, indeed, acknowledge that the Messiah is nowhere called a Sprout of David. But what decides in favour of the first view are the parallel passages. In Jer. xxiii. 5, xxxiii. 15, the Lord raises up to David a righteous Sprout, and causes Him to grow up unto David. Hence here, too, the Sprout will in that sense only be the Lord's, that he does not sprout forth out of Him, but through Him. In Zech. iii. 8 the Lord brings his servant Zemach; in Ps. cxxxii. 17, it is said: "There I cause a horn to sprout to David," and already in the fundamental passage, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5, which contains the first germ of our passage, David says: "For all my salvation and all my pleasure should He not make it to sprout forth."--As the words "Sprout of the Lord" denote the heavenly origin of the Redeemer, so do the words פרי הארץ the earthly one, the soil from which the Lord causes the Saviour to sprout up. These words are, by Vitringa and others, translated: "the fruit of the earth," but the correct translation is "the fruit of the land." The passages, Num. xiii. 26: "And shewed them the fruit of the land;" and Deut. i. 25: "And they took in their hands of the fruit of the land, and brought it unto us, and brought us word again, and said, good is the land which the Lord our God doth give us,"--these two passages are, besides that under consideration, the only ones in which the phrase פרי הארץ occurs; and there is here, no doubt, an allusion to them. The excellent natural fruit of ancient times is a type of the spiritual fruit. To the same result--that הארץ designates the definite land, that land which, in the preceding verses, in the description of the prevailing conniption, and of the divine judgments, was always spoken of,--to this result we are led by the fact also, that everywhere in the Old Testament where the contrariety of the divine and human origin of the Messiah is mentioned, the human origin is more distinctly qualified and limited. This is especially the case in those passages which, being dependent upon that before us, maybe considered as a commentary upon it; in Jer. xxiii. 5, xxxiii. 15, where the Lord raises a Sprout unto David, and Zech. vi. 12, where the man whose name is Zemach (Sprout) grows up out of its soil; comp. Heb. vii. 14, where, in allusion to the Old Testament passages of the Sprout--the verb ἀνατέλλειν is commonly used of the sprouting forth of the plants (see Bleek on this passage)--it is said: ἐξ Ἰούδα ἀνατέταλκεν ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν, Bengel: ut germen justitiae; farther, Mic. v. 1 (2), where the eternal existence of the Messiah, and His birth in Bethlehem are contrasted with one another; Is. ix. 5, (6), where the words: "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given," are contrasted with the various designations of the Messiah, according to His divine majesty. This qualification and limitation which everywhere takes place, have their ground in the circumstance that the Messiah is constantly represented to the covenant-people as their property; and that He, indeed, was, inasmuch as salvation went out from Jews (John iv. 22), and was destined for the Jews, into whose communion the Gentiles were to be received; comp. my Commentary on Revel. vii. 4. "The Sprout of the Lord," "the fruit of the land," is accordingly He whom the Lord shall make to sprout forth from Israel. The Sprout of the Lord, the fruit of the land is to become to the escaped of Israel for beauty and glory, for exaltation and ornament. The passages to be compared are 2 Sam. i. 19, where Saul and Jonathan are called צבי ישראל; farther, Is. xxviii. 5: "In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of beauty, and for a diadem of ornament unto the residue of His people," where the words צבי and תפארת

are likewise used; finally, chap. xxiv. 16, where, in reference to the Messianic time, it is said: "From the uttermost part of the earth do we hear songs of praise: beauty (צבי) to the righteous." By the appearance of Christ, the covenant-people, hitherto despised, were placed in the centre of the world's history; by it the Lord took away the rebuke of His people from off all the earth, chap. xxv. 8. There is evidently in these words a reference to the preceding threatening of punishment, especially to chap. iii. 18: "In that day the Lord will take away the ornament," &c.: But Drechsler is wrong in fixing and expressing this reference thus: "Instead of farther running after strange things, Israel will find its glory and ornament in Him who is the long promised seed of Abrahamitic descent." For it is not the position which Israel takes that is spoken of, but that which is granted to them. The antithesis is between the false glory which God takes away, and the true glory which He gives. The Lord cannot, by any possibility, for any length of time, appear merely taking away; He takes those seeming blessings, only in order to be able to give the true ones. Every taking away is a prophecy of giving.--"To the escaped of Israel," who, according to the idea of a people of God, and according to the promise of the Law (comp. Deut. xxx. 1, ff.) can never be wanting, as little as it is possible that the salvation should be partaken of by the whole mass of the people; sifting judgments must necessarily go before and along with it. True prophetism everywhere knows of salvation for a remnant only. On פליטה, which does not mean "deliverance," so that the abstract would thus here stand for the concrete, but "that which has escaped," comp. remarks on Joel iii. 5, Vol. 1, p. 338.

All which now remains is to examine those explanations of this verse which differ from the Messianic interpretation. 1. Following the interpretation of Grotius and others, Gesenius, in his Commentary, understands by the Sprout of the Lord the new growth of the people after their various defeats. His explanation is: "Then the sprout of Jehovah will be splendid and glorious, and the fruit of the land excellent and beautiful for the escaped of Israel." Fruit of the land he takes in its literal sense, and understands it to mean the product of the land. The same view is held by Knobel: "He becomes for beauty and glory,

i.e., the people, having reformed, prosper and form a splendid, glorious state." And Maurer in his Dictionary says: "The Sprout of Jehovah seems to be the morally improved remnant, the new, sanctified increase of the people." But in opposition to such a view there is, first, the circumstance, that according to it the ל before לצבי and לכבור must be understood differently from what it is in לגאון, and לתפארת which immediately follow and exactly correspond with them. There are, secondly, the parallel passages chap. xxviii. 5, xxiv. 16, according to which צבי "beauty" is conferred upon the escaped, but they themselves do not become beauty. Finally--It is always most natural to suppose that צמח יהוה and פרי הארץ correspond with one another, and denote the same subject which is here described after his various aspects only. For in the same manner as צמח and פרי go hand in hand, both being taken from the territory of botany, so יהוה and הארץ also stand in a contrast which is not to be mistaken. 2. Hitzig, Ewald, Meier, and others not only refer "the fruit of the land," but also the "Sprout of Jehovah" to that which Jehovah makes to sprout forth.^[2] It is true that, in the prophetic announcements, among the blessings of the future the rich produce of the land is also mentioned (comp. chap. xxx. 23-25), and the same is very expressly done in the Law also; but in not a single one of these passages does the strange expression occur, that this fruitfulness should serve to the escaped for beauty and glory, for exaltation and ornament, or any other that bears the slightest resemblance to it. Against this explanation there is, in addition, the circumstance that the barrenness of the country is not at all pointed out in the preceding context. Finally--When we understand this expression as referring to the Messiah, this verse, standing as it does at the head of the proclamation of salvation, contains the fundamental thought; and in what follows we obtain the expansion. In the verse before us we are told that in Christ the people attain to glory,--and, in those which follow, how this glory is manifested in them. But according to this view, every internal connexion of the verse before us with what follows is entirely destroyed. 3. According to Hendewerk, by the "Sprout of the Lord," "the collective person of the ruling portion in the state during the Messianic happy time," is designated. This opinion is the beginning of a return to the Messianic interpretation. But then only could that ideal person be here referred to, if elsewhere in Isaiah too it would come out strongly and decidedly. As this, however, is not the case; as, on the contrary, the Messiah everywhere in Isaiah meets us in shining clearness, it would be arbitrary to give up the person in favour of a personification. 4. Umbreit acknowledges that, in the case of צמח יהוה, the Messianic interpretation is the only correct one. "The two subsequent prophecies in chap. ix. and xi.," he says, "are to be considered as a commentary on our short text." But it is characteristic of his compromising manner that by "the fruit of the land" he understands "the consequences of the dominion of the Messiah for the land, the fruits which, in consequence of his appearing, the consecrated soil brings forth,"--thus plainly overlooking the clear contrast between the Sprout of the Lord, and the fruit of the land, by which evidently the same thing is designated from different aspects.

Ver. 3. The Prophet now begins to show, more in detail, in how far the Sprout of the Lord and the fruit of the land would serve for the honour and glory of the Church. The words: "He that was left in Zion and was spared in Jerusalem," take up the idea suggested by the "escaped of Israel" in ver. 2. The double designation is intended to direct attention to the thought that the remnant, and the remnant only, are called to a participation in the glory. Zion and Jerusalem, as the centre of the covenant-people, here represent the whole; this is evident from the circumstance that at the close of ver. 2, which is here resumed, the escaped of Israel were spoken of Ever since the sanctuary and the royal palace were founded at Zion, it was in a spiritual point of view, the residence of all Israel, who even personally met there at the high festivals.--Whoever is left in Zion "shall be called holy." The fundamental notion of holiness is that of separation. God is holy, inasmuch as He is separated from all that is created and finite, and is elevated above all that is finite; comp. my Commentary on Rev. iv. 8. Believers are holy, because they are separated from the world as regards their moral existence and their destiny. Here only the latter aspect is considered. Holy in a moral sense they were already, inasmuch as it is this which forms the condition of their being spared in the divine judgments. They became holy because they are partakers of the beauty, of the exaltation, and ornament which are to be bestowed upon the escaped by the Sprout of the Lord. The circumstance that they have been installed into the dignity of the saints of God implies that, when the Spirit of the Lord has appeared, the world's power has no longer any dominion over them, but that, on the contrary, they shall judge the world. In like manner we read in Exod. xix. 6, in the description of the reward for faithfulness: "And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation;" comp. ver. 5: "And now if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, ye shall be a property unto me out of all people." In reference to the exalted dignity and glory, holiness occurs in Deut. vii. 6: "For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God; the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself out of all the people that are upon the face of the earth." When the company of Korah said: "All the congregation, they are holy" (Numb. xvi. 3), they had in view, not the moral holiness but the dignity--a circumstance which is quite obvious from words added: "And in the midst of them is the Lord." And so Moses likewise speaks of the dignity in Numb. xvi. 7: "Whom the Lord shall choose, he is the holy one." In Rom. i. 7; Heb. iii. 1, holiness is declared to consist in being loved, called, and chosen by God.--As regards the fulfilment of this promise, it has its horas and moras. It began with the first appearance of Christ, by which the position of the true Israel to the world was substantially and fundamentally changed. It was not without meaning that, as early as in the apostolic times, the "Saints" was a kind of nomen proprium of believers, comp. Acts ix. 13, 32. We are even now the sons of God, and hence even already installed into an important portion of the inheritance of holiness; but it has not yet appeared what we shall be, 1 John iii. 2. But the beginning, and the continuation pervading all ages, viz., God's dealings throughout the whole of history, whereby he ever anew lifts up His Church from the dust of lowliness, afford to us the guarantee for the completion, which is, with graphic vividness, described in the last two chapters of Revelation.--"To be called" is more than merely "to be;" it indicates that the being is so marked as to procure for itself acknowledgment.--The words: "Every one that is written to life in Jerusalem" anew point out that judgment will go before, and by the side of grace. The meaning of חיים is, according to the fundamental passage in Ps. lxix. 29, "not living ones" (Hoffmann, Weiss. i. S. 208), but "life." In Revelation, too, the book of life, and not the book of the living ones, is spoken of "To be written to life" is equivalent to being ordained to life, Acts xiii. 48; comp. my Comment. on Ps. lxix. 29; Rev. iii. 5. Life is not naked life,--a miserable life is, according to the view of Scripture, not to be called a life, but is a form of death only--but life in the full enjoyment of the favour of God; comp. my Comment. on Ps. xvi. 11, xxx. 6, xxxvi. 10; xlii. 9; lxiii. 4. The Chaldean thus paraphrases it: "All they that are written to eternal life shall see the consolation of Jerusalem, i.e. the Messiah." Comp. Dan. xii. 1; Rev. iii. 5, xiii. 8, xx. 15, xxii. 19; Phil. iv. 3; Luke x. 20. The bodily death of believers cannot exclude them from a participation in being written to life; for, being a mere transition to life, it can, in truth, not be called a death. Here, too, the word of Christ applies: "The maid is not dead but sleepeth," Matt. ix. 24. The fact that there is no contradiction between bodily death and life, i.e. a participation in the blessings of the Kingdom of Christ, is pointed out by Isaiah himself in chap. xxvi. 19: "Thy dead men shall live, my dead bodies shall arise, for a dew of light is thy dew."

Ver. 4. The Prophet points out that before the Church is raised to the dignity of the saints of God, a thorough change of its moral conditions, an energetic expunging of the sin now prevailing in her, must take place, "When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion." The "daughters of Zion" are none other than those whose haughtiness, luxury, and wantonness were described in chap. iii. 16 ff., and to whom the deepest abasement was then threatened. The filth, under the image of which sin is here represented (comp. Prov. xxx. 12); "A generation pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness," forms the contrast to the splendid attire which is there spoken of Behind this splendid attire the filthiness is concealed. The filth is not washed away (1 Cor. vi. 11; Eph. v. 26) from the daughters of Jerusalem,--for, inasmuch as this washing away is accomplished by means of the spirit of destruction, it could not apply to them--but from Jerusalem; comp. the phrase, "from the midst thereof," which immediately follows. Jerusalem, the city of the Lord, in which no unclean person, and no unclean thing are permitted to dwell, is cleansed from the filth with which its unworthy daughters contaminate it. "And shall remove the blood of Jerusalem." The "blood of Jerusalem" is the blood which attaches to Jerusalem, which has been shed in it. The connection of the punishment of the sins of avarice on the part of the rulers, in chap. iii. 13-15, with the punishment of the luxury and ostentation on the part of the women, is illustrative of the relation of filth and blood to each other. Blood is shed in order to furnish pride and vanity with the means of their gratification. The avarice of the rulers, and their shedding of blood, are put together in Ezek. xxii. 13; comp. ver. 27: "Her princes are in the midst thereof like wolves ravening the prey, shedding blood, destroying souls, to get dishonest gain." Bloodguiltiness those too incur who deprive the poor of the necessary means of support, Mic. iii. 2, 3. The comparison of chap. i. 15: "Your hands are full of blood," and of ver. 21: "But now murderers," compared with vers. 17, 23, 26, shews that we have to think especially of unjust judges and avaricious rulers. Yet, there is no reason for limiting ourselves to the nobles and rulers alone; comp. Ezek. xxii. 29: "The people of the land use oppression, and boldly practice robbery, and vex the poor and needy, and oppress the stranger." Where sins so gross are still prevalent, where the law of the Lord is so wantonly broken, an installation into the dignity of the saints of God is out of the question. For that, it is absolutely essential that exertions be made that the high destination of the people: "Ye shall be holy for I am holy," become a truth; that in a moral point of view it show itself as truly separated from the world,--and that is something so infinitely great, that men are utterly unable for it, that it can proceed from God only, with whom nothing is impossible.--The last words of the verse are commonly explained: "by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of destruction or burning." In that case the putting away of the filth and blood by the judging activity of the Lord, by the destruction of sin, would be spoken of משפט, however, may also be taken in the sense of "right:" by the spirit of right which lays hold of, and changes the well disposed (comp. Mic. iii. 8: "But I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of right and might"), and by the spirit of destruction which consumes the disobedient. In favour of the latter view are the parallel passages; above all, chap. xxviii. 6, where it is said of the Messianic time, "In that day the Lord will become, &c.," "And for a spirit of right to him that sitteth for right;" farther, chap. i. 27, 28: "Zion shall be redeemed by right, and her converts by righteousness. But the transgressors and sinners are destroyed together, and they that forsake the Lord are consumed." Comp. Matt. iii. 11: αὐτὸς ὑμᾶς βαπτίσει ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ καὶ πυρί, where likewise a double washing, that of grace and that of wrath, is spoken of. In chap. xxxii. 15: "Until the Spirit be poured out upon us from on high," Isaiah likewise points to the regeneration which, in the Messianic time, will be accomplished by the Spirit; and it is, according to the whole usus loquendi of the Old Testament, most natural to think of the Spirit transforming from within The Spirit of God scarcely occurs elsewhere in the Old Testament as the executor of God's judgments; so that the supposition is very natural that the spirit of destruction has been brought in by the spirit of right only.--The word בער is, by some, understood as "burning," by others, as "destruction." We ourselves decide in favour of the latter signification, which occurs also in chap. iv. 13, for this reason, that it is in that signification that בער is, in Deuteronomy, used as the terminus technicus of the extirpation of the wicked. If the Church does not comply with the command: ἐξάρεῖτε τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν, 1 Cor. v. 13; Deut. xiii. 6 (5), God himself will enforce His authority by His Spirit, who carries out the judgments of the avenging God, just as He carries out every influence of the Creator upon the created. On the "Spirit of the Lord," comp. my remarks on Rev. i. 4.

Ver. 5. The image is here taken from the journey of Israel through the wilderness. During that journey, they were guided and protected by a symbol of God's presence, which by day presented itself as smoke, and by night assumed the form of flaming fire. By this symbol the God of Israel was designated as the jealous God, as the living, personal energy, energetic in His love for His people, energetic in wrath against His and their enemies. Comp. especially Exod. xiii. 21: "And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them on the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light;" and xl. 38: "For a cloud was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night;" comp. Numb. ix. 15, 16. The same phenomenon is to be repeated in future, although in a different form. In a manner the most real, the Lord will manifest himself as the living energy of His Church, dwelling in the midst of her, and ruling over her as a protector, so that the world's power can no longer injure her. That such will be done in and by His Sprout, in Christ, appears from the relation of the verse under consideration to ver. 2; for the verse before us still belongs to the expansion of the proposition placed at the head of the whole: "The Sprout of the Lord becomes for beauty and glory, and the fruit of the land for exaltation and ornament to the escaped of Israel." Christ in His person and Spirit is the true Shechinah, the true indwelling of God in His Church. This indwelling is, even in the Law, designated as the highest privilege of the covenant-people; its being raised to a higher power is therefore to the Prophet the highest blessing of the future, the source from which all other blessings flow. That which the heathen in vain longed for and imagined; that which Israel hitherto possessed only very imperfectly, a praesens numen, whereby the antithesis of heaven and earth is done away with, and earth is glorified into a heaven;--that, the purified Church of the Lord possesses in the most perfect and real manner, and in it, absolute security against the world, a decided victory over it. The words: "Over her assemblies," show that the whole life of the people shall then bear a religious character, and shall be a continual service of God, comp. Acts ii. 42, where, as a type of the completion of the Church, it is said: "And they continued stedfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." מקרא is only the name for that which is called, "the assembly," and stands in Levit. xxiii. and Is. i. 13 of the religious assemblies which were held on the holy days, comp. my pamphlet: Ueber den Tag des Herrn S. 32. The same phenomenon is, according to its appearance by day, designated, at the same time, as clouds and smoke. Smoke is never "vapour, vapoury clouds" (Knobel); and here the smoke by day corresponds with the flaming fire by night. If then the smoke can be considered as a product of the fire only (comp. my remarks on Rev. xv. 8), the cloud cannot come into consideration according to its matter, but according to its form only. The smoke assumes the form of a cloud which affords protection from the burning sun of tribulations, as once, in the burning desert, from the scorching heat of the natural sun, comp. Num. x. 34: "And the cloud of the Lord was upon them;" Ps. cv. 39: "He spread a cloud for a covering;" Is. xxv. 5. The cloud which thus affords protection to the Church turns a threatening face towards her enemies. Rev. xv. 8.--The words: "For above all glory is a covering," point to the ground of the protecting, gracious presence of God in the Church. Several interpreters explain the sense thus: "As we cover and preserve precious things more carefully, in order that they may not be injured, so does God in His grace surround His Church, which has been adorned with glorious virtues, and raised to the high dignity of the saints of God, and protects her from every danger." Others understand by כל־כבוד the whole glory mentioned in the preceding context; but in that case we should expect the article. One may also supply the limitation: For, in the Kingdom of God, there is a covering over all glory.

Ver. 6. God--this is the same sense--protects His Church from every danger and calamity. By His gracious presence in His Sprout, He affords to them that protection which a hut does from sun, storms, and rain. Luther says: "In this passage, accordingly, Christ is held up to us as He who in all tribulations, bodily as well as spiritual, is our protection." There is an allusion to the 21st verse of Ps. xxxi. (which was written by David): "Thou hidest them in the secret of thy countenance from the conspiracy of every one; thou keepest them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues." The pavilion in this Psalm is a spiritual one, viz., God's grace and protection. That word of David shall be gloriously fulfilled when the Sprout of the Lord shall appear.--The "Sun" comes into consideration in its scorching quality; and the "heat" is in Scripture the image of temptations, sufferings, and trials; comp. remarks on Rev. viii. 12, xvi. 8; Song of Sol. i. 6; Ps. cxxi. 6; Matt. xiii. 6, compared with v. 21; Is. xlix. 10, xxv. 4; and, according to the last passage, we must especially have in view the enmity and assaults of the world's power. The "rain" appears as an image of tribulation in the Song of Sol. ii. 11; Is. xxv. 4: "The spirit of the terrible ones (the passions of the kings of the world, and conquerors) is like a violent shower against the wall;" xxxii. 2.--A comparison of the Messianic prophecy in chap ii. with that which we have now considered shows very clearly how necessary it is to regard the single Messianic prophecies as fragments only, supplementing one another, inasmuch as commonly a few aspects only were presented to the spiritual eye of the Prophet. Just as the description in chap. ii. receives an important supplement from the passage now considered, inasmuch as the latter contains the mention of the personal Messiah, so it, again, supplements that before us by announcing the participation by the Gentiles in the blessings of the Messianic Kingdom.

[ ^[1]] Light is the image of salvation; to walk in the light is to enjoy a participation in it. Israel is not wantonly to wander away from the path of light which the Lord has opened up to them, into the dark desolation of misery. In the words לכו ונלכה there is a clear reference to לכו ונעלה of the Gentile nations in ver. 3. If the Gentiles apply with such zeal for a participation in the blessings of the Kingdom of God, how disgraceful would it be if you, the people of the covenant, the children of the Kingdom, should lose your glorious possession by your ungodly walk. In vers. 6-11 the Prophet states the grounds of his admonition to the people to walk in the light of the Lord which he had expressed in the preceding verse. This admonition implies that there existed a danger of losing a participation in the light; and it is this danger which the Prophet here more particularly details. It is not without reason, so the words may be paraphrased, that I say: "Walk ye in the light of the Lord," for at present the Lord has forsaken the people on account of their sins, and with that, a participation in His light is incompatible. By being full of heathenish superstition, of false confidence in earthly things, yea, even of the most disgraceful that can be imagined for Israel, viz., gross idolatry, they rather become more and more ripe for the divine judgment which will break in irresistibly upon them.

[ ^[2]] So Gesenius also in the Thesaurus: "The whole earth shall be holy and shall more beautifully bloom and be adorned with plenty of fruits and corn for the benefit of those who have escaped from those calamities." Gesenius' wavering clearly shows how little satisfaction the non-Messianic explanation affords to its own abettors. Besides the explanations of צמח יהוה by "the new growth of the people," and "the rich produce of the country," he advances still a third one, viz., "a divinely favoured ruler,"--an explanation which has even the grammar against it, as we are at liberty to translate only: "The Sprout of the Lord;" and likewise the analogy of פרי הארץ, according to which the Genitive can have a reference to the origin only.

[THE PROPHECY, CHAP. VII.]

IMMANUEL.

A crisis of the most important nature in the history of Israel is formed by the Syrico-Ephraemitic war, by the expedition of the allied kings, Rezin of Damascus, and Pekah of Samaria, which had been already prepared under the reign of Jotham, and which broke out in the first years of Ahaz. It was in consequence of this war that Asshur came into the land. The inroad of the Assyrian King, Pul, under Menahem of Israel, had been transitory only, comp. Vol. 1. p. 165. It was only with the invasion under Ahaz that the tendency of Asshur began of making lasting conquests on the other side of the Euphrates, which could not fail to bring about a collision with the Egyptian power. The succeeding powers in Asia and Europe followed Asshur's steps. "Hitherto,"--so says Caspari, in his pamphlet on the Syrico-Ephraemitic war, S. 17 ff.--"hitherto Israel had to do with the small neighbouring nations only,--now, in punishment of their sins, oppressed by them; then, in reward of their obedience, oppressing and ruling over them. And the Syrico-Ephraemitic war itself had been a link only in the chain of these attacks--its last link. Israel, having arrived at the point of being hardened, and having entered upon a path in accordance with this tendency, required another more severe corrective--its being crushed by the mighty world's power. The appearance of these mighty powers, just at the period when Israel entered upon their hardening, is most providential.--The beginning of the end of the kingdom of the ten tribes had come, and the breaking up of its independent political existence had commenced. As enmity to Judah had given its origin to the kingdom of the ten tribes, so also did it bring about its destruction; born out of it, it died of it. It owed its existence to the incipient enmity; when the latter was accomplished (Isa. vii. 6,) it caused its death.--The Assyrians came to the help of Judah, but charged a high price for their help, viz., Judah's submission and fealty. Thirty heavy years of servitude, and, to a great part, of fears of the worst, 2 Kings xvi. 18; Is. xxxiii. 18 (?); xxxvii. 3, followed for this kingdom also; and when, at the close of this period, it freed itself from them after the fashion of the kingdom of Israel, it shared nearly the same fate, 2 Kings xviii. 31 ff. It was only to the mercy of the Lord, who looked graciously upon the feeble beginnings of conversion, that it owed its deliverance. The Assyrian power, which had put an end to the kingdoms of Damascus and Israel, and which was the first power that appeared on the stage of history and came into conflict with the people of God, became a significant sign of the final fate of the world's power in its attacks upon the Kingdom of God. But, as a prelude to the long series of visitations which it had to endure from the world's power in its different phases, Judah was even now led to the very brink of destruction; there came a period, the 14th year of Hezekiah, when almost nothing more of it was to be seen by the outward eye than its metropolis exposed to the utmost danger."

A remarkable proof of the fact that the spirit which filled the prophets was a higher one than their own, is the fact that Isaiah recognized so distinctly and clearly the importance of the decisive moment.

In close connection with the great crisis at which the history of the people of God had arrived, stands the richer display of the Messianic announcement which begins with the chapter before us. Messiah is henceforth represented to Judah as an Immanuel against the world's powers, as the surety for its deliverance from the severe oppressions hanging over it, as He who at last, at His appearance, would conquer the world, and lay it at the feet of the people of God.

After these general introductory remarks, let us turn more particularly to the contents of the chapter before us. It was told to the house of David: "Aram is encamped in Ephraim." The position of Ahaz was, humanly considered, desperate. His enemies were far superior to him, and he could scarcely hope for help from heaven, for he had an evil conscience. The idea of seeking help from Asshur was natural. Isaiah received a commission to oppose this idea before it became a firm resolution. In doing so he, by no means, occupies the position of an ingenious politician. On the contrary, the whole commission is forced upon him. It can scarcely be doubted that the Assyrians would have penetrated to Western Asia, even if Ahaz had not called them to his assistance. The expedition of the Syrians and Ephraimites with the view of making conquests, could not but turn their attention to that quarter. As the instruments of the judgments upon Damascus and Samaria, which Isaiah announced as impending under any circumstances, we can surely think of none but Asshur. But if once they came into these regions, in order to chastise the haughtiness of the Syrians and Ephraimites, who would set up as a new conquering power, then was Judah too threatened by them. In a political point of view it did not make any great difference whether Ahaz sought help from the Assyrians, or not; on the contrary, the king of Asshur could not but be more favourably disposed towards him for so doing. Isaiah, throughout, rather occupies the position of the man of God. The kings of the people of God were, in general, not prevented from forming alliances; but such alliances must belong to the category of permitted human resources. Such, however, was not the case here. Asshur was a conquering power, altogether selfish. His help had to be purchased with dependance, and with the danger of entire destruction; to stay upon him was to stay upon their destroyer, Is. x. 20. Such an alliance was a de facto denial of the God of Israel, an insult to His omnipotence and grace. If Ahaz had obeyed Him; if he had limited himself to the use of the human means granted to him by the Lord without trusting in them, and had placed all his confidence in the Lord, He would have delivered him in the same manner as He afterwards delivered Hezekiah, in the first instance from Aram and Ephraim, and then from Asshur also. But although Ahaz did not follow the prophet, his mission was by no means in vain. Even before the mission, this result lay open before the Lord who sent him. The great point was to establish, before the first conflict of Israel with the world's power, thus much, that this conflict had been brought about by the sin of the house of David, and that hence it did not afford any cause for doubting the omnipotence and mercy of the Lord whose help had been offered, but rejected.

The Prophet seeks out the king at a place to which he had been driven by his despairing disquietude which was clinging convulsively to human resources. He endeavours, first, to exert an influence upon him by taking with him his son, whose symbolical name, containing a prophecy of the future destinies of the people, indicated that the king's fear of a total destruction of the State was without foundation. After the king has thus been prepared, he endeavours to make a deeper impression upon him by the announcement, distinct and referring to the present case, that the enemies should not only entirely fail in their intention of conquering and dividing between themselves the kingdom of Judah; but that the kingdom of Ephraim was itself hastening towards that destruction which it was preparing for its brethren, and that after sixty-five years it should altogether lose its national independence and existence, ver. 1-9. But Ahaz makes no reply; and his whole deportment shows that he does not follow the Prophet's exhortation to "take heed and be quiet," and that the words: "If ye do not believe, ye shall not be established," with which the Prophet closes his address, have not made any impression upon him. In order that the greatness of the king's hardness of heart may become manifest, the Prophet offers, in the commission of the Lord, to confirm the certainty of his statement by a miraculous sign, which the king himself is called upon to fix, without any restriction, in order that any suspicion of imposition may be removed. "But Ahaz, the unbeliever, is afraid of heavenly communications, has already chosen his help, wishes that every thing should go on in an easy human manner, and refuses the Lord's offer in a polite turn which even refers to the Law. A sign is then forced upon him, because as the king of Judah, he must see and hear for all Judah that the Lord is faithful and good."^[1] The Prophet, in ver. 14, points to the birth of the Saviour by a Virgin. How then was it possible that in the present collision that people should be destroyed, among whom, according to former promises. He was to be born; that that family should be extinguished from which he was to be descended? The name "Immanuel," by which the future Saviour is designated as "He in whom the Lord is, in the truest manner, to be with His people," is a guarantee for His help in the present distress also. The Prophet then states the time in which the land shall be entirely delivered from its present enemies. The contemporaries, as the representative of whom the child appears (the Prophet, in the energy of his faith, has transferred the birth of this child from the future to the present), shall, after the short space of about two years, again obtain the full enjoyment of the products of the land, ver. 15. For, before this period has elapsed, destruction will fall upon the hostile kings in their own land, ver. 16. The danger, however--and this is pointed out in ver. 17-25--will come from just that quarter from which Ahaz expects help, viz., from Asshur. But the security for deliverance from this danger also--the conqueror of the world's power which was soon to begin its course in Asshur, is none other than Immanuel, whom the Prophet, in the beginning of the humiliation of the people of God, makes, so to say, to become man, in order that, during the impending deep humiliation of the people of God, He may accompany it in its history during all the stages of its existence, until He should really become man. He is, however in this discourse, not yet pointed out as the deliverer from Asshur, and the world's power represented by him. The darkness of the misery to be inflicted by Asshur should not, and could not, in the meantime, be cleared up for Ahaz; the picture must end in night. But in the following discourse, chap. viii. 1, ix. 6 (7), which serves as a necessary supplement to the one before us, the Saviour is depicted before the eyes of those despairing in the sight of Asshur; and the two-fold repetition of His name Immanuel, in chap. viii. 8, 10, serves to show that the two discourses are intimately connected, and form one whole.

Ahaz persevered in his unbelief, according to 2 Kings xvi. 7, 8. He sent messengers with large presents to Tiglath-pileser, King of Assyria, saying: "I am thy servant and thy son (a word as ominous as that:

'We have no king but Cæsar,'

in John xix. 35); come up and save me out of the hand of the King of Aram, and out of the hand of the King of Israel which rise up against me." But before the asked-for help came, king and people had to endure very severe sufferings from Aram and Ephraim. Ahaz, after having first made preparations to secure Jerusalem against the impending siege, sent out his armies. They met with a twofold heavy defeat from the divided armies of the allied kings,^[2] from which he might have been spared by being still, and hoping. The hostile armies then came up to Jerusalem, and laid siege to it. It was probably by the intelligence of the advance of Asshur that they were induced to raise the siege. It was now confirmed that the Prophet had been right in designating the two hostile kings as mere tails of smoking firebrands. Damascus was taken by the King of Ophir; the inhabitants were carried away into exile to Kir; Rezin was slain, 2 Kings xvi. 9: the land of Israel was devastated; a portion of its inhabitants was carried away into exile; the king was made tributary, 2 Kings xv. 29. Exactly at the time fixed by the Prophet, the overthrow of the two hostile kingdoms took place; but the deliverance which, without any farther sacrifice, Ahaz would have obtained, if he had believed the Prophet, had now to be purchased by very heavy sacrifices; and with perfect justice it is said in 2 Chron. xxviii. 20, 21, that the king of Asshur did not help him, but rather, by coming unto him, distressed him. Ahaz purchased this help at the price of his independence, and had probably to submit to very hard claims being made upon him. (Caspari, S. 60.) The world's power, to which Ahaz had offered a finger, seized, more and more, the whole hand, and held it by a firm grasp. Under Hezekiah, faith broke through the consequences of the sin of the family; but this interruption lasted as long only as did the faith. In addition to that which Ahaz had, for his unbelief, to suffer from Aram, Ephraim, and Asshur, came the rebellion of the neighbouring nations,--of the Edomites, according to 2 Chron. xxviii. 17, and of the Philistines, according to ver. 18.

Ver. 1. "And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, that Rezin, the king of Aram, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem, to war against it, and could not fight against it."

In thus tracing back the pedigree of Ahaz to Uzziah, there is a reference to chap. vi. 1: "In the year that King Uzziah died," &c. These two chapters stand related to each other as prophecy and fulfilment. It was in the year of Uzziah's death that the Prophet had been seized with fearful forebodings; and by the divine word these fearful forebodings had soon been raised into a clear knowledge of the threatening judgments which were impending. Under Ahaz, the second successor of Uzziah, this knowledge began to be realized, keeping pace with the hardening which in Ahaz had become personified. He, the type of the unbelieving Jewish people, did not hear and understand, did not see and perceive; and the announcement of the Prophet served merely to increase his hardening. Even as early as that, the germ of the carrying away of the people, announced by the Prophet in chap. vi., was formed.--The circumstance of the hostile kings being introduced as going up implies the spiritual elevation of Jerusalem; comp. remarks on Ps. xlviii. 3; xlviii. 17. The city of God is unconquerable unless her inhabitants and, above all, the anointed one of God, make, by their unbelief, their glorious privilege of no avail. In the last words: "And could not fight against it," (the singular יכל because Rezin is the chief person, Rezin and Pekah being identical with Rezin with Pekah, comp. Esth. iv. 16), the result of the siege is anticipated; and this is easily accounted for by the consideration that ver. 1 serves as an introduction to the whole account, stating, in general terms, the circumstances which induced the Prophet to come publicly forward. In the following verses, the share only is mentioned which the Prophet took in the matter; and the account is closed after he has discharged his commission. The apparent contradiction to 2 Kings xvi. 5, according to which Jerusalem was really besieged,--a contradiction which occurs also in that passage itself: "And they besieged Ahaz, and could not fight"--is most simply reconciled by the remark that a fruitless struggle can, as it were, not be called a struggle, just as, e. g., in the Old Testament, such as have a name little known are spoken of as being without a name.

Ver. 2, "And it was told to the house of David, saying: Aram rests upon Ephraim. Then his heart trembled, and the heart of his people, like as the trembling of the trees of the wood before the wind."

The representative of the house of David was, according to ver. 1, Ahaz, to whom the suffix in לבבו refers. It is thereby intimated that Ahaz does not come into consideration as an individual, but as a representative of the whole Davidic family, of which the members were responsible, conjunctly and severally, and which in Ahaz denied their God, and gave themselves up to the world's power,--a deed of the family from the consequences of which a heroic faith only, like that of Hezekiah, could deliver, but in such a manner only that it at once became valid again when this faith ceased, until at length in Christ the house of David was raised to glory. Ver. 19 shows that נוח must be taken in the signification "to let oneself down," "to sit down," "to encamp." The anguish of the natural man, who has not his strength in God at the breaking in of danger, is most graphically described.

Ver. 3. "And the Lord said to Isaiah: Go out to meet Ahaz, thou and Shearjashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fuller's field."

Why is the Prophet to seek out the king just at this place? The answer is given by chap. xxii. 2. "And a reservoir you make between the two walls for the waters of the old pool: and not do ye look unto him who makes it (viz., the impending calamity), and not do ye regard him who fashioned it long ago."

When a siege of Jerusalem was imminent, in the lower territory, the first task was to cut off the water from the hostile army. This measure Hezekiah, according to 2 Chron. xxxii. 3, took against Sennacherib: "And he took counsel with his princes and his mighty men, to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city, and they helped him." That might be done in faith; but he who, like Ahaz, did not stand in the faith, sought in it, per se, his safety; his despairing heart clung to such measures. The stopping of the fountains was, in his case, on a level with seeking help from the Assyrians. It is thus in the midst of his sin that the Prophet seeks out the king, and recalls to his conscience: "take heed and be quiet." But why did the Prophet take his son Shearjashub with him? It surely cannot be without significance; for otherwise it would not have been recorded, far less would it have been done at the express command of the Lord. As the boy does not appear actively, the reason can only be in the signification of the name. According to chap. viii., the Prophet was accustomed to give to his sons symbolical names which had a relation to the destinies of the nation. They were, according to chap. viii. 18, "for signs and for wonders in Israel." But as an interpretation of the name, the passage chap. x. 21 is to be considered: "The remnant shall return, the remnant of Jacob unto the mighty God." The word שוב can, accordingly, be understood of returning to the Lord, of repentance only, comp. chap. i. 27; Hos. iii. 5. But with repentance the recovery of salvation is indissolubly connected. The reason why it is impossible that they who commit the sin against the Holy Ghost shall never recover salvation lies solely in the circumstance, that it is impossible that they should be renewed to repentance. The fundamental passage, which is comprehended in the name of the Prophet's son: "And thou returnest unto the Lord thy God.... And the Lord thy God turneth thy captivity (i.e., thy misery), and hath compassion upon thee, and returneth and gathereth thee from all the nations" (Deut. xxx. 2, 3), emphatically points out the indissoluble connection of the return to the Lord, and of the return of the Lord to His people. This connection comes out so much the more clearly, when we consider that, according to Scripture, repentance is not the work of man but of God, and is nothing else but the beginning of the bestowal of salvation; comp. Deut. xxx. 6: "And the Lord thy God circumciseth thine heart, and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live;" Zech. xii. 10. King and people feared entire destruction; and it was at this that their powerful enemies aimed. Isaiah took his son with him, "as the living proof of the preservation of the nation, even amidst the most fearful destruction of the greater part of it." After having in this manner endeavoured to free their minds from the extreme of fear, he seeks to elevate them to joyful hopes, by the prophetical announcement proper, which showed that, from this quarter, not even the future great judgment, which would leave a portion only, was to be feared.

Ver. 4. "And say unto him: Take heed and be quiet; fear not, nor let thy heart be tender for the two ends of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram, and of the son of Remaliah."

The words "Take heed" point to the dangerous consequences of fear; comp. ver. 9: "If ye do not believe, ye shall not be established." On the words "be quiet," lit., make quiet, viz., thy heart and walk, comp. chap. xxx. 15: "For thus saith the Lord: By returning and rest ye shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength; and ye would not." Such as he was, Ahaz could not respond to the exhortations to be quiet. Quietness is a product of faith. But the way of faith stood open to Ahaz every moment, and by his promising word and by his example, the Prophet invited him to enter upon it. In the words: "Fear not," &c., there is an unmistakable reference to Deut. xx. 1, ff., according to which passage the priest was, on the occasion of hostile oppression, to speak to the people: "Let not your hearts be tender, and be not terrified." That which, in the Law, the priest was commanded to do, is here done by the Prophet, who was obliged so often to step in as a substitute, when the class of the ordinary servants fell short of the height of their calling.--The "firebrand" is the image of the conqueror who destroys countries by the fire of war, comp. remarks on Rev. viii. 8. The Prophet is just about to announce to the hostile kings their impending overthrow; for this reason, he calls them ends of firebrands, which no longer blaze, but only glimmer. He calls them thus because he considers them with the eye of faith; to the bodily eye a bright flame still presented itself, as the last words: "For the fierce anger," &c., and vers. 5 and 6 show. Chrysostom remarks: "He calls these kings 'firebrands,' to indicate at the same time their violence, and that they are to be easily overcome; and it is for this reason, that he adds 'smoking,' i.e., that they were near being altogether extinguished."

Vers. 5, 6. "Because Aram meditates evil against thee, Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, saying: Let us go up against Judah, and drive it to extremity, and conquer it for us, and set up as a king in the midst of it the son of Tabeal."

We have here, farther carried out, the thought indicated by the words: "for the fierce anger," &c. The interval, in the original text, between vers. 6 and 7, is put in to prevent the false connection of these verses with ver. 7 (Hitzig and Ewald).--קוץ always means "to loathe," "to experience disgust;" here, in Hiph., "to cause disgust," "to drive to extremity;" comp. my work on Balaam, Rem. on Num. xxii. 3.--בקע means always: "to cleave asunder," "to open," "to conquer."--The words: "For us," show that Tabeal is to be the vassal only of the two kings. The absolute confidence with which the Prophet recognizes the futility of the plan of the two kings, forms a glaring contrast to the modern view of Prophetism, Ver. 2 shows in what light ordinary consciousness did, and could not fail to look on the then existing state of things.

Ver. 7. "Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass." (A plan stands when it is carried out.)

Ver. 8. "For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin, and in threescore and five years more, Ephraim shall be broken, and be no more a people."

Ver. 9. "And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If ye believe not, ye shall not be established."

Each of these two verses forms a complete whole.--The words: "For the head of Aram," &c., to "Rezin" receive their explanation from the antithesis to vers. 5 and 6, where the king of Aram and the king of Ephraim had declared their intention of extending their dominion over Judah. As, concerning this intention and this hope, the Lord has declared His will that it shall not be, we must understand: Not as regards Judah, and not as regards Jerusalem. It is in vain that men's thoughts exalt themselves against the purposes of God. From Aram, the Prophet turns, in the second part of the verse, to Ephraim: "And even Ephraim! What could it prevail against the Lord and His Kingdom! It surely should give up all attempts to get more; its days are numbered, the sword is already suspended over its own head." But inasmuch as it is possible, although not likely, that Ephraim, before its own overthrow, may still bring evil upon Judah, this is expressly denied in ver. 9: Samaria, according to the counsel of God, and the limit assigned to it, is the head of Ephraim only, and not, at the same time, of Judah, &c. With this are then connected the closing words: "If ye believe not, ye shall not be established" (properly, the consequence will be that ye do not continue), which are equivalent to it: it is hence not Samaria and the son of Remaliah that you have to fear; the enemy whom you have to dread, whom you have to contend against with prayer and supplication, is in yourselves. Take heed lest a similar cause produce a similar effect, as in the last clause of ver. 8 it has been threatened against Ephraim.--This prophecy and warning, one would have expected to have produced an effect so much the deeper, because they were not uttered by some obscure fanatic, but by a worthy member of a class which had in its favour the sanction of the Lawgiver, and which in the course of centuries had been so often and so gloriously owned and acknowledged by God.^[3]

Vers. 10, 11. "And the Lord spoke farther unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it from the depth, or above from the height."

Ahaz observed a dignified silence after those words of the Prophet; but his whole manner shews the Prophet that they have not made any impression upon him. If David's spirit had rested on Ahaz, he would surely, if he had wavered at all, have, on the word of the Prophet, thrown himself into the arras of his God. But in order that the depth of his apostacy, the greatness of his guilt, and the justice of the divine judgments may become manifest, God shows him even a deeper condescension. The Prophet offers to prove the truth of his announcement by any miraculous work which the king himself should determine, and from which he might, at the same time, see God's omnipotence, and the Divine mission of the Prophet. As Ahaz refused the offered sign, the word 2 Tim. ii. 12, 13: εἰ ἀρνούμεθα, κἀκεῖνος ἀρνήσεται ἡμᾶς· εἰ ἀπιστοῦμεν, ἐκεῖνος πιστὸς μένει·--ἀρνήσασθαι γὰρ ἑαυτὸν οὐ δύναται came into application. According to Deut. vii. 9 ff. the truth and faithfulness of God must now manifest itself in the infliction of severe visitations upon the house of David.--The character of a sign is, in general, borne by everything which serves for certifying facts which belong to the territory of faith, and not to that of sight. 1. In some instances, the sign consists in a mere naked word; thus in Exod. iii. 12: "And this shall be the sign unto thee that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain." Moses' doubts of the truth of his Divine mission originated in the consciousness of his own unworthiness, and in the condition of those to whom he was sent. From these doubts he was delivered by the announcement that, at the place where he had been called, he, at the head of the delivered people, should serve his God. This was to him a sign that God was in earnest in calling him. 2. In other instances the assurance given by the sign consists in its perceptibility and corporeality; so that the word assumes, as it were, flesh and blood. A case of this kind it is, e.g., when, in chap. viii. 18, Isaiah calls his two sons, to whom, at the command of God, he had given symbolical names, expressive of the future salvation of the covenant-people, "Signs and wonders in Israel;" farther, chap. xx. 3, where the Prophet walks naked and barefoot for a sign of the calamity impending over Egypt and Ethiopia in three years. 3. In another class of signs, a fact is announced which is, in itself, natural, but not to be foreseen by any human combination, the coming to pass of which, in the immediate future, furnishes the proof that, at a distant future, that will be fulfilled which was foretold as impending. The wonderful element, and the demonstrative power do not, in such a case, lie in the matter of the sign, but in the telling of it beforehand. It is in this sense that, in 1 Sam. x., Samuel gives several signs to Saul, that God had destined him to be king, e.g., that in a place exactly fixed, he would meet two men who would bring him the intelligence that the lost asses were found; that, farther onwards, he would meet with three men, one of whom would be carrying three kids, another, three loaves of bread, and another, a bottle of wine, &c. In 1 Sam. ii. 34, the sudden death of his two sons is given to Eli as a sign that all the calamities threatened against his family should certainly come to pass. In Jer. xliv. 29, 30, the impending defeat of Pharaoh-Hophras is given as a sign of the divine vengeance breaking in upon the Jews in Egypt. Even before the thing came to pass, it could not in such a case, be otherwise than that the previous condition and foundation brought before the eyes in a lively manner (Jer. xliv. 30:

"Behold, I give Pharaoh-Hophras into the hands of his enemies") gave a powerful shock to the doubts as to whether the fact in question would come to pass. 4. In other cases, the assurance was given in such a manner, that all doubts as to the truth of the announcement were set at rest by the immediate performance of a miraculous work going beyond the ordinary laws of nature. Thus, e.g., Isaiah says to Hezekiah, in chap. xxviii. 7: "And this shall be the sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing which He has spoken," and, as a sign that the Lord would add fifteen years to the life of the King, who was sick unto death, he makes the shadow on the sun-dial of Ahaz to go back ten degrees. Of this description were also the signs granted to Gideon, and, in many respects, the plagues in Egypt also. In the passage before us, no other sign can possibly be spoken of than one of the two last classes. For it was a real, miraculous sign only which could possibly exert any influence on a mind so darkened as was that of Ahaz, and it was the vain offer of such an one only which was fitted to bring to light his obduracy. If, then, the Prophet was willing and able to give a real, miraculous sign, why, then, is the answer of Ahaz so unsuitable? And we can surely not suppose, as Meier does, that he should have intentionally misunderstood the Prophet. The temptation of the Lord by the children of Israel, to which the word of the Lord, Deut. vi. 16, quoted by Ahaz, refers, consisted, according to Exod. xvii., in their having asked water, as a miraculous sign that the Lord was truly in the midst of them. How could the Prophet reproach Ahaz with having offended, not men merely, but God, unless he had offered to prove, by a fact which lay absolutely beyond the limits of nature, the truth of his announcement, the divinity of Him who gave it, the divinity of his own mission, and the soundness of his advice? Hendewerk is of opinion that "it is difficult to say what the author would have made to be the sign in the heavens; probably, a very simple thing." But in making this objection it is forgotten that Isaiah gives free choice to the king. Hitzig says: "Without knowing it, Isaiah here plays a very dangerous game. For if Ahaz had accepted his proposition, Jehovah would probably have left His servant in the lurch, and he would have begun to doubt of his God and of himself." In these words, at all events, it is conceded that the prophets themselves would not be what people in modern times would have them to be. If such was their position towards miracles, then, in their own convictions, prophecies, too, must be something else than general descriptions, and indefinite forebodings. But how should it have been possible that an order could have maintained itself for centuries, the most prominent members of which gave themselves up to such enthusiastic imprudence and rashness? Moreover, it is overlooked that afterwards, to Hezekiah, our Prophet grants that in reality which here he offers to Ahaz in vain,--העמק and הגבה are Infin. absol. "going high," "going low." The Imperat. שאלה must be understood after הגבה also. Some explain שאלה by "to hell," "down to hell;" but this is against the form of the word, which it would be arbitrary to change. Nor does one exactly see how, if we except, perhaps, the apparition of one dead, Isaiah could have given to the king a sign from the Sheol; and in other passages, too (comp. Joel iii. 3 [ii. 30]), signs in the heavens and in the earth are contrasted with one another. Theodoret remarks that both kinds of miracles, among which the Lord here allowed a choice to Ahaz, were granted by Him to his pious son, Hezekiah, inasmuch as He wrought a phenomenon in heaven which affected the going back of the shadow on the sun-dial of Ahaz; and on earth, inasmuch as He, in a wonderful manner, destroyed the Assyrians, and restored the king to health. Jerome farther remarks, that, from among the plagues in Egypt, the lice, frogs, &c., were signs on earth; the hail, fire, and three day's darkness, were signs in the heaven. It is on the passage before us that the Pharisees take their stand, when in Matt. xvi. 1 they ask from the Lord that He should grant them a sign from heaven. If even the Prophet Isaiah offered to prove in such a manner his divine mission, then, according to their opinion, Christ was much more bound to do this, inasmuch as He set up far higher claims. But they overlooked the circumstance that enough had already been granted for convincing those who were well disposed, and that it can never be a duty to convince obstinate unbelief in a manner so palpable.

Ver. 12. "And Ahaz said: I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord."

Ahaz declines the offer by referring to Deut. vi. 16., and thus assuming the guise of reverence for God and His commandment. "He pretends," says Calvin, "to have faith in the words of the Prophet, and not to require anything besides the word." The same declarations of the Law, the Lord opposes to Satan, when the latter would induce Him to do something for which he had no word of God, Matt. iv. 7. That would really have been a tempting of God. Ahaz had no doubt that the miracle would really be performed; but he had a dislike to enter within the mystical sphere. Who knows whether the God who grants the miracle is really the highest God? comp. Is. x. 10, 11, xxxvi. 18–20, xxxvii. 10–12. Who knows whether He is not laying for him a trap; whether, by preventing him from seeking the help of man. He is not to bring upon him the destruction which his conscience tells him he has so richly deserved? At all events the affording of His help is clogged with a condition which he is resolved not to fulfil, viz., his conversion. A better and easier bargain, he thought, could be struck with the Assyrians; how insatiable soever they might be, they did not ask the heart. How many do even now-a-days rather perish in sin and misery, than be converted!

Ver. 13. "And he said: Hear ye now, O house of David: Is it too little for you to provoke man, that you provoke also my God?"

When Ahaz had before refused to believe in the simple announcement of the Prophet, his sin was more pardonable; for, inasmuch as Isaiah had not proved himself outwardly as a divine ambassador, Ahaz sinned to a certain degree against man only, against the Prophet only, by unjustly suspecting him of a deceitful pretension to a divine revelation. Hence, Isaiah continues mild and gentle. But when Ahaz declined the offered sign, God himself was provoked by him, and his wickedness came evidently to light. It is substantially the same difference as that between the sin against the Son of Man, the Christ coming outwardly and as a man only (Bengel: quo statu conspicu, quatenus aequo tum loco cum hominibus conversabatur), and the sin against the Holy Ghost who powerfully glorifies Him outwardly and inwardly. It is the antithesis of the relative ignorance of what one is doing, and of the absolute unwillingness which purposely hardens itself to the truth known, or easy to be known. We say relative ignorance; for an element of obduracy and hardening already existed, if he did not believe the Prophet, even without a sign. For the fact that the Prophet was sent by God, and spoke God's word, was testified to all who would hear it, even by the inner voice, just as in every sin against the Son of Man there is always already an element of the sin against the Holy Ghost.--The truth that godlessness is the highest folly is here seen in a very evident manner. The same Ahaz who rejects the offer of the living God, who palpably wishes to reveal to him that He is a living God, sacrifices his son to the dead idol Moloch, who never yet gave the smallest sign of life! In this mirror we may see the condition of human nature.--The circumstance that it is not Ahaz, but the house of David that is addressed, indicates that the deed is a deed of the whole house.--The Prophet says, "My God," i.e., the God whose faithful servant I am, and in whom ye hypocrites have no more any share. In Ver. 11, the Prophet had still called Him the God of Ahaz.

Ver. 14. "Therefore the Lord himself giveth you a sign: Behold the Virgin is with child, and heareth a Son, and thou callest his name Immanuel."

Ahaz had refused the proffered sign; the whole depth of his apostacy had become manifest; no further regard was to be had to him. But it was necessary to strengthen those who feared God, in their confidence in the Lord, and in their hope in him. For this reason, the Prophet gives a sign, even against the will of Ahaz, by which the announcement of the deliverance from the two kings was confirmed. Your weak, prostrate faith, he says, may erect itself on the certain fact that, in the Son of the Virgin, the Lord will some day be with us in the truest manner, and may perceive therein a guarantee and a pledge of the lower help in the present danger also.--"Therefore"--because ye will not fix upon a sign. Reinke, in the ably written Monograph on this passage, assigns to לכן the signification, "nevertheless," which is not supported by the usus loquendi.--יתן must be translated as a Present; for the pregnancy of the Virgin and birth of Immanuel are present to the Prophet; and the fact cannot serve as a sign, in so far as it manifests itself outwardly, but only in so far as, by being foretold, it is realized as present.--הוא He, i.e., of His own accord without any co-operation, such as would have taken place if Ahaz had asked the sign.--לכם refers by its form to the house of David; but in determining the sign, it is not the real condition of its representative at that time which is regarded, but as he ought to be. In substance, the sign given to ungodly Ahaz is destined for believers only.--הנה "behold" indicates the energy with which the Prophet anticipates the future; in his spirit it becomes to him the immediate present. Thus it was understood as early as by Chrysostom: μόνον γὰρ οὐκ ὁρῶντος ἦν τὰ γινόμενα καὶ φανταζομένου καὶ πολλὴν ἔχοντος ὑπερ τῶν εἰρημένων πληροφορίαν, τῶν γὰρ ἡμετέρων ὀφθαλμῶν ἐκεῖνοι σαφέστερον τὰ μὴ ὁρώμενα ἔβλεπον.--The article in העלמה cannot refer to the virgin known as the mother of the Saviour; for, besides the passage before us, it is only Micah v. 2 (3) which mentions the mother of the Saviour, and it is our passage only which speaks of her as a virgin. In harmony with הנה, the article in העלמה might be explained from the circumstance that the Virgin is present to the inward perception of the Prophet--equivalent to "the virgin there." But since the use of the article in the generic sense is so general, it is most natural to understand "the virgin"

as forming a contrast to the married or old woman, and hence, in substance, as here equivalent to a virgin. To this view we are led also by the circumstance that, in the parallel passage, Mic. v. 2 (3) יולדה "a bearing woman" is used without the article.--עלמה is, by old expositors, commonly derived from עלם in the signification "to conceal" A virgin, they assume, is called a concealed one, with reference to the customs of the East, where the virgins are obliged to lead a concealed life. Thus it was understood by Jerome also:

"Almah is not applied to girls or virgins generally, but is used emphatically of a hidden and concealed virgin, who is never accessible to the look of males, but who is with great care watched by the parents." But all parties now rightly agree that the word is to be derived from עלם, in the signification, "to grow up." To offer here any arguments in proof would be a work of supererogation, as they are offered by all dictionaries. But with all that, Luther's remark is even now in full force: "If a Jew or a Christian can prove to me that in any passage of Scripture Almah means

'a married woman,'

I will give him a hundred florins, although God alone knows where I may find them." It is true that עלמה is distinguished from בתולה, which designates the virgin state as such, and in this signification occurs in Joel i. 8. also where the bride laments over her bridegroom whom she has lost by death. Inviolate chastity is, in itself, not implied in the word. But certain it is that עלמה designates an unmarried person in the first years of youth; and if this be the case, un violated chastity is a matter of course in this context; for if the mother of the Saviour was to be an unmarried person, she could be a virgin only; and, in general, it is inconceivable that the Prophet should have brought forward a relation of impure love. In favour of "an unmarried person" is, in the first instance, the derivation. Being derived from עלם, "to grow up," "to become marriageable," עלמה can denote nothing else than puella nubilis. But still more decisive is the usus loquendi. In Arabic and Syriac the corresponding words are never used of married women, and Jerome remarks, that in the Punic dialect also a virgin proper is called עלמה. Besides in the passage before us, the word occurs in Hebrew six times (Gen. xxiv. 43; Exod. ii. 8; Ps. lxviii. 26; Song of Sol. i. 3, vi. 8; Prov. xxx. 19); but in all these passages the word is undeniably used of unmarried persons. In the two passages of the Song of Solomon, the עלמות designate the nations which have not yet attained to an union with the heavenly Solomon, but are destined for this union. In chap. vi. 8, they are, as brides, expressly contrasted with the wives of the first and second class. Marriage forms the boundary; the Almah appears here distinctly as the anti-thesis to a married woman. It is the passage in Proverbs only which requires a more minute examination, as the opponents have given up all the other passages, and seek in it alone a support for their assertion that עלמה may be used of a married woman also. The passage in its connection runs as follows: Ver. 18. "There be three things which are too wonderful for me, and four which I know not. Ver. 19. The way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent upon the rock, the way of a ship in the heart of the sea, and the way of a man with a maid. Ver. 20. This is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth and saith: I have done no wickedness." According to De Wette, Bertheau, and others, the tertium comparationis for every thing is to lie in this only, that the ways do not leave any trace that could be recognized. But the traceless disappearing is altogether without foundation; there is not one word to indicate it; and it is quite impossible that that on which every thing depends should have been left to conjecture. Farther,--instead of the eagle, every other bird might have been mentioned, and the words "in the air" would be without meaning, as well as the words "in the heart of the sea" mentioned in reference to the ship. But the real point of view is expressly stated in ver. 18. It is the incomprehensible. It is thus only that ver. 20, for which the other verses prepare the way, falls in with the tendency of the whole. In the way of the adulteress, that which is pointed out is not that it cannot be known, but the moral incomprehensibility that she, practising great wickedness which is worthy of death, and will unavoidably bring destruction upon her, behaves as if there were nothing wrong, as if a permitted enjoyment were the point in question, that she eats the poisoned bread of unchaste enjoyment as if it were ordinary bread; comp. ix. 17, xx. 17; Ps. xiv. 4. Four incomprehensible things in the natural territory are made use of to illustrate an incomprehensible thing in the ethical territory. The whole purpose is to point out the mystery of sin. In the case of the eagle, it is the boldness of his flight in which the miraculous consists. The speed and boldness of his flight is elsewhere also very commonly mentioned as the characteristic of the eagle; it is just that which makes him the king of birds. In the case of the serpent, the wonder is that, although wanting feet, it yet moves over the smooth rock which is inaccessible to the proud horse; comp. Amos vi. 12: "Do horses run upon the rock." In the ship, it is the circumstance that she safely passes over the abyss which, as it would appear, could not fail to swallow her up. The way of a man with a maid occupies the last place in order to intimate that דרך, as in the case of the adulteress, denotes the spiritual way. What is here meant is the relation of the man to the virgin, generally, for if any particular aspect had been regarded, e. g., that of boldness, cunning, or secrecy, it ought to have been pointed at. The way of the man with the maid is the secret of which mention is made as early as in Gen. ii. 24,--the union of the strong with the weak and tender (comp. the parallel passage, Jer. xxxi. 22), the secret attraction which connects with one another the hearts, and at last, the bodies. The end of the way is marriage. It is the young love which specially bears the character of the mysterious; after the relation has been established, it attracts less wonder.--הָרָה is the femin. of the verbal adj. הָרֶה. The fundamental passage, Gen. xvi. 11, where the angel of the Lord says to Hagar: "Behold thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard thy affliction," shows that we must translate: The virgin is with child, and not: becomes with child. The allusion to that passage in Genesis is very significant. In that case, as well as in the one under consideration, salvation is brought into connection with the birth of a child. To the birth of Ishmael, the despairing Hagar is directed as to a security for the divine favour; to the birth of Immanuel, the desponding people are directed as to the actual proof that God is with them. If the Almah represents herself to the Prophet as being already with child, then passages such as Is. xxix. 8, Matt. xi. 5, are not applicable. A virgin who is with child cannot be one who was a virgin.--The form קראת may be 3d fem. for קראה, comp. Jer. xliv. 23; but the fundamental passage in Gen. xvi. 11 is decisive for considering it as the 2d fem.: "thou callest," as an address to the virgin; in which case the form is altogether regular. It was not a rare occurrence in Israel that mothers gave the name to children, Gen. iv. 1, 25, xix. 37, xxix. 32. The circumstance, therefore, that the giving of the name is assigned to the mother (the virgin) affords no ground for supposing, as many of the older expositors do, that this is an intimation that the child would not have a human father. "Thou callest" can, on the contrary, according to the custom then prevalent, be substantially equivalent to: they shall name, Matt. καλέσουσι, Jerome: vocabitur. The name is, of course, not to be considered as an ordinary nomen proprium, but as a designation of his nature and character. It may be understood in different ways. Several interpreters, e. g., Jerome, referring to passages such as Ps. xlvi. 8, lxxxix. 25, Is. xliii. 2, Jer. i. 8, see in it nothing else than an appeal to, and promise of divine aid. According to others, the name is to be referred to God's becoming man in the Messiah; thus Theodoret says: "The name reveals the God who is with us, the God who became man, the God who took upon Him the human nature." In a similar manner Irenaeus, Tertullian, Chrysostom, Lactantius, Calvin, and others, express themselves. But those very parallel passages just quoted show that the name in itself has no distinct reference to the incarnation of God in Christ. But from the passage chap. ix. 5, (6), which is so closely connected with the one before us, and in which the Messiah is called God-hero, (the mighty God), and His divine nature so emphatically pointed out (comp. also Mic. v. 1 [2],) it plainly appears that the Prophet had in view the highest and truest form of God's being with His people, such as was made manifest when the word became flesh. (Chrysostom says: "Then, above all, God was with us on earth, when He was seen on earth, and conversed with man, and manifested so great care for us.")

According, then, to the interpretation given, this verse before us affirms that, at some future period, the Messiah should be born by a virgin, among the covenant people, who in the truest manner would bring God near to them, and open the treasures of His salvation. In Vol. I. p. 500 ff., we proved that this explanation occurs already in the Gospel according to St. Matthew. According to the interpretation of the Apostle, the passage can refer to Christ only, and finds in him not only the highest, but the only fulfilment. In the Christian Church, throughout all ages, the Messianic explanation was the prevailing one. It was held by all the Fathers of the Church, and by all other Christian commentators down to the middle of the 18th century,--only that some, besides the higher reference to the Messiah, assumed a lower one to some event of that period. With the revival of faith, this view, too, has been revived. It is proved by the parallel passage, chap. ix. 5 (6). That passage presents so remarkable an agreement with the one now under consideration, that we cannot but assume the same subject in both. "Behold, a virgin is with child, and beareth a son"--"A child is born unto us, a son is given;"--"They call him Immanuel," i.e., Him in whom God will be with us in the truest manner--"They call Him Wonder-Counsellor, the God-Hero, Ever-Father, the Prince of Peace." Both of these passages can the less be separated from one another, that chap. viii. 8 is evidently intended to lead from the one to the other. In this passage it is said of the world's power, which in the meantime, and in the first place, was represented by Asshur: "And the stretchings out of his wings are the fulness of the breadth of thy land, Immanuel," i. e., his wings will cover the whole extent of thy land,--the stretching of the wings of this immense bird of prey, Asshur, comprehends the whole land. In the words: "Thy land, O Immanuel," the prophecy of the wonderful Child, in chap. viii. 23–ix. 6 (ix. 1–7), is already prepared. The land in which Immanuel is to be born, which belongs to Him, cannot remain continually the property of heathen enemies. Every destruction is, at the same time, a prophecy of the restoration. A look to the wonderful Child, and despair must flee. Behind the clouds, the sun is shining. Every attempt to assign the Immanuel to the lower sphere, must by this passage be rendered futile. For how, in that case, could Canaan be called His land? The signification "native country" which ארץ, it is true, sometimes receives by the context, does not suit here. For the passage just points out the contrast of reality and idea, that the world's power takes possession of the land which belongs to Immanuel, and hence prepares for the announcement contained in that which follows, viz., that this contrast shall be done away with, and that this shall be done as soon as the legitimate proprietor comes into His kingdom. Farther,--Decisive in favour of the Messianic explanation is also the passage Mic. v. 1, 2, (2, 3), where, in correspondence to virgin here, we have, she who is bearing. The latter, indeed, is not expressly called a virgin; but it follows, as a matter of course, that she be so, as she is to bear the Hero of Divine origin ("of eternity"), who, hence, cannot have been begotten by any mortal. Both of the prophecies mutually illustrate one another.

"Micah designates the Divine origin of the Promised One; Isaiah, the miraculous circumstances of His birth" (Rosenmüller) Just as Isaiah holds up the birth of Immanuel as the pledge that the covenant-people would not perish in their present catastrophe; just as he points to the shining form of Immanuel, announcing the victory over the world, in order to comfort them in the impending severe oppression by the world's power (viii. 8);--so Micah makes the oppression by the world's power continue only until the time that she who is bearing brings forth. As Micah, in v. 1 (2), contrasts the divine dignity and nature with the birth in time, so, in Isaiah, Immanuel, He in whom God will most truly be with His people, is born by a virgin.

The arguments which the Jews, and, following their example, the rationalistic interpreters, especially Gesenius, and with them Olshausen, have advanced against the Messianic explanation, prove nothing. They are these:

1. "A reference to the Messiah who, after the lapse of centuries, is to be born of a virgin, appears to be without meaning in the present circumstances." This argument proves too much, and, hence, nothing. It would be valid against Messianic prophecies in general, the existence of which certainly cannot be denied. Do not Jeremiah and Ezekiel, at the time when the people were carried away into captivity, comfort them by the announcement that the kingdom of God should, in a far more glorious manner, be established by Messiah, whose appearance was yet several centuries distant? The highest proof of Israel's dignity and election, was the promise that, at some future time, the Messiah was to be born among them. How, indeed, could the Lord leave, without the lower help in the present calamity, a people with whom He was to be, at some future period, in the truest manner? The Prophet refers to the future Saviour in a way quite similar to that in which the Apostle refers to Him, after He had appeared: "Who did not spare His only begotten Son, but gave Him up for us all, how should He not in Him give us all things freely?" Let us only realize the truth that the hope in the Messiah formed the centre of the life of believers; that this hope was, by fear, repressed only, but not destroyed. All which was needed, therefore, was to revive this hope, and with it the special hope for the present distress also was given--the assurance, firm as a rock, that in it the covenant-people could not perish. This revival took place in this way, that in the mind of the Prophet, the Messianic hope was, by the Holy Spirit, rekindled, so that at his light all might kindle their lights. The Messianic idea here meets us in such originality and freshness, as if here were its real fountain head. The faith already existing is only the foundation, only the point of connexion. What is essential is the new revelation of the old truth, and that could not fail to be affecting, overpowering to susceptible minds.

2. "The ground of consolation is too general. The Messiah might be born from the family of Ahaz without the Jewish state being preserved in its then existing condition, and without Ahaz continuing on the throne. The Babylonish captivity intervened, and yet Messiah was to be born. Isaiah would thus have made himself guilty of a false sophistical argumentation."--We answer: What they, at that time, feared, was the total destruction of state and people. This appears sufficiently from the circumstance that the prophet takes his son Shearjashub with him; and indeed the intentions of the enemy in this respect are expressed with sufficient clearness in ver. 6. It is this extreme of fear which the Prophet here first opposes. Just as, according to the preceding verses, he met the fear of entire destruction by taking with him his son Shearjashub, "the remnant will be converted," without thereby excluding a temporary carrying away, so he there also prepares the mind for the announcement contained in vers. 15, 16, of the near deliverance from the present danger, by first representing the fear of an entire destruction to be unfounded. A people, moreover, to whom, at some future period, although it may be at a very remote future, a divine Saviour is to be sent, must, in the present also, be under special divine protection. They may be visited by severe sufferings, they may be brought to the very verge of destruction,--whether that shall be the case the Prophet does not, as yet, declare,--but one thing is sure, that to them all things must work together for good; and that is the main point. He who is convinced of this, may calmly and quietly look at the course of events.

3. "The sense in which אות is elsewhere used in Scripture, is altogether disregarded by this interpretation. For, according to it, אות would refer to a future event; but according to the usus loquendi elsewhere observed, אות

'is a prophesied second event, the earlier fulfilment of which is to afford a sure guarantee for the fulfilment of the first, which is really the point at issue.'"

But, in opposition to this, it is sufficient to refer to Exod. iii. 12, where Moses receives this as a sign of his Divine mission, and of the deliverance of the people to be effected by him: "When thou hast brought forth my people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain." In chap. xxxvii. 30, our Prophet himself, as a confirmation of the word spoken in reference to the king of Asshur: "I make thee return by the way by which thou earnest," gives this sign, that, in the third year after this, agriculture should already have altogether returned into its old tracks, and the cultivation of the country should have been altogether restored.^[4] The fact here given as a sign is later than that which is to be thereby made sure. The sign consists only in this, that the idea is vividly called up and realized in the mind, that the land would recover from the destruction; and this of course, implies the destruction of the enemy. But in our chapter itself,--the name of Shearjashub affords the example of a sign (comp. chap. vii. 18), which is taken from the territory of the distant future. It is time that commonly אות is not used of future things; but this has its reason not in the idea of אות, but solely in the circumstance that, ordinarily, the future cannot serve as a sign of assurance. But it is quite obvious that, in the present case, the Messianic announcement could afford such a sign, and that in a far higher degree than the future facts given as signs in Exod. iii., and Isa. xxxvii. The kingdom of glory which has been promised to us, forms to us also a sure pledge that in all the distresses of the Church, the Lord will not withhold His help from her. But the Covenant-people stood in the same relation to the first appearance of Christ, as we do to the second.

(4.) "The passage, chap. viii. 3, 4, presents the most marked resemblance to the one before us. If there the Messianic explanation be decidedly inadmissible, it must be so here also. The name and birth of a child serves, there as here, for a sign of the deliverance from the Syrian dominion. If then there the mother of the child be the wife of the Prophet, and the child a son of his, the same must be the case here also." But it is a priori improbable that the Prophet should have given to two of his sons names which had reference to the same event. To this must be added the circumstance, that the time is wanting for the birth of two sons of the Prophet. Before Immanuel knows to refuse the evil and choose the good, the country of both the hostile kings shall be desolated, chap. vii. 15; before Mahershalalhashbaz knows to cry My Father, My Mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be carried before the king of Assyria, chap. viii. 4. The two births hence coincide. At all events, it is impossible to find the time for a double birth by the same mother. Several interpreters (Gesenius, Hitzig, Hendewerk,) assume the identity of Immanuel and Mahershalalhashbaz; but this is altogether inadmissible, even from the difference of the names. It is the less admissible to assume a double name for the child, as the name Shearjashub plainly enough shews that the Prophet was in earnest with the names of his children; and indeed, unless they had been real proper names, there would have existed no reason at all for giving them to them. To have assigned several names to one child would have weakened their power. The agreement must, therefore, rather be explained from the circumstance, that it was by the announcement in chap. vii. 14 that the Prophet was induced to the symbolical action in chap. viii. 3, 4. He has, in chap. vii. 14, given to the despairing people the birth of a child, who would bring the highest salvation for Israel, as a pledge of their deliverance. The birth of a child and its name were then required as an actual prophecy of help in the present distress,--a help which was to be granted with a view to that Child, who not only indicates, but grants deliverance from all distresses, and to whom the Prophet reverts in chap. ix., and even already in chap. viii. 8.--Moreover, besides the agreement there is found a thorough difference. In chap. vii. the mother of the child is called העלמה, whereby a virgin only can be designated; in chap. viii., "the prophetess." In chap. vii. there is not even the slightest allusion to the Prophet's being the father; while in chap. viii. this circumstance is expressly and emphatically pointed out. In chap. vii. it is the mother who gives the name to the child; in chap. viii. it is the Prophet. Far closer is the agreement of chap. ix. 5 (6) with chap. vii. 14. It especially appears in the circumstances that in neither of them is the father of the child designated; and, farther, in the correspondence of Immanuel with אל גבור, God-Hero.

(5.) "Against the Messianic explanation, and in favour of that of a son of the Prophet, is the passage chap. viii. 18, where the Prophet says that his sons have been given to him for signs and wonders in Israel." But although Immanuel be erroneously reckoned among the sons of the Prophet, there still remain Shearjashub and Mahershalalhashbaz. The latter name refers, in the first instance only, to Aram and Ephraim specially; or the general truth which it declares is applied to this relation only. But, just as the name Shearjashub announces new salvation to the prostrate people of God, so the second name announces near destruction to the triumphing world hostile to God; so that both the names supplement one another. As signs, these two sons of the Prophet pointed to the future deliverance and salvation of Israel, and the defeat of the world; and the very circumstance that they did so when, humanly viewed, all seemed to be lost, was a subject for wonder. But that we can in no case make Immanuel a third son of the Prophet, we have already proved.

Ver. 15. Cream and honey shall he eat, when he knows to refuse the evil and choose the good. Ver. 16. For before the boy shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the country shall be forsaken of the two kings of which thou standest in awe.

The older Messianic explanation has, in these two verses, exposed itself to the charge of being quite arbitrary. Most of the interpreters assume that, in ver. 15, the true humanity of the Saviour is announced. The name Immanuel is intended to indicate the divine nature; the eating of milk and honey the human nature. Milk and honey are in this case considered as the ordinary food for babes; like other children. He shall grow up, and, like them, gradually develope. Thus Jerome says: "I shall mention another feature still more wonderful: That you may not believe that he will be born a phantasm. He will use the food of infants, will eat butter and milk." Calvin says: "In order that here we may not think of some spectre, the Prophet states signs of humanity from which he proves that Christ, indeed put on our flesh." In the same manner Irenænus, Chrysostom, Basil, and, in our century, Kleuker and Rosenmüller speak.--But this explanation is altogether overthrown by ver. 16. Most interpreters assume, in the latter verse, a change of subject; by נער, not Immanuel, but Shearjashub, who accompanied the Prophet, is to be understood. According to others, it is not any definite boy who is designated by נער; but it is said in general, that the devastation of the hostile country would take place in a still shorter time than that which elapses between the birth of a boy and his development. Such is Calvin's view. But the supposition of a change of subject is altogether excluded, even by the circumstance that one and the same quality, the distinction between good and evil, is in both verses ascribed to the subject. Others, like J. H. Michaelis, refer ver. 16 also to the Messiah, and seek to get out of the difficulty by a jam dudum. It is not worth while to enter more particularly upon these productions of awkward embarassment. All that is required is, to remove the stone of offence which has caused these interpreters to stumble. Towards this a good beginning has been made by Vitringa, without, however, completely attaining the object. In ver. 14, the Prophet has seen the birth of the Messiah as present. Holding fast this idea, and expanding it, the Prophet makes him who has been born accompany the people through all the stages of its existence. We have here an ideal anticipation of the real incarnation, the right of which lies in the circumstance, that all blessings and deliverances which, before Christ, were bestowed upon the covenant-people, had their root in His future birth, and the cause of which was given in the circumstance, that the covenant-people had entered upon the moment of their great crisis, of their conflict with the world's powers, which could not but address a call to invest the comforting thought with, as it were, flesh and blood, and in this manner to place it into the midst of the popular life. What the Prophet means, and intends to say here is this, that, in the space of about a twelvemonth, the overthrow of the hostile kingdoms would already have taken place. As the representative of the cotemporaries, he brings forward the wonderful child who, as it were, formed the soul of the popular life. At the time when this child knows to distinguish between good and bad food, hence, after the space of about a twelvemonth, he will not have any want of nobler food, ver. 15, for before he has entered upon this stage, the land of the two hostile kings shall be desolate. In the subsequent prophecy, the same wonderful child, grown up into a warlike hero, brings the deliverance from Asshur, and the world's power represented by it.--We have still to consider and discuss the particular. What is indicated by the eating of cream and honey? The erroneous answer to this question, which has become current ever since Gesenius, has put everything into confusion, and has misled expositors such as Hitzig and Meier to cut the knot, by asserting that ver. 15 is spurious. Cream and honey can come into consideration as the noblest food only; the eating of them can indicate only a condition of plenty and prosperity. "A land flowing with milk and honey" is, in the books of Moses, a standing expression for designating the rich fulness of noble food which the Holy Land offers. A land which flows with milk and honey is, according to Numb. xiv. 7, 8, a "very good land." The cream is, as it were, a gradation of milk. Considering the predilection for fat and sweet food which we perceive everywhere in the Old Testament, there can scarcely be anything better than cream and honey; and it is certainly not spoken in accordance with Israelitish taste, if Hofmann (Weiss, i. S. 227) thus paraphrases the sense: "It is not because he does not know what tastes well and better (cream and honey thus the evil!), that he will live upon the food which an uncultivated land can afford, but because there is none other." In Deut. xxxii. 13, 14, cream and honey appear among the noblest products of the Holy Land. Abraham places cream before his heavenly guests, Gen. xviii. 8. The plenty in honey and cream appears in Job xx. 7, as a characteristic sign of the divine blessing of which the wicked are deprived. It is solely and exclusively vers. 21 and 22 that are referred to for establishing the erroneous interpretation. It is asserted that, according to these verses, the eating of milk and honey must be considered as an evil, as the sad consequence of a general devastation of the hind. But there are grave objections to any attempt at explaining a preceding from a subsequent passage; the opposite mode of proceeding is the right one. It is altogether wrong, however, to suppose that vers. 21, 22, contain a threatening. In those verses the Prophet, on the contrary, allows, as is usual with him, a ray of light to fall upon the dark picture of the calamity which threatens from Asshur; and it could, indeed, a priori, be scarcely imagined that the threatening should not be interrupted, at least by such a gentle allusion to the salvation to be bestowed upon them after the misery (comp. in reference to a similar sudden breaking through of the proclamation of salvation in Hosea, Vol. I., p. 175, and the remarks on Micah ii. 12, 13); but then he returns to the threatening, because it was, in the meantime, his principal vocation to utter it, and thereby to destroy the foolish illusions of the God-forgetting king. It is in the subsequent prophecy only, chap viii. 1; ix. 6 (7) that that which is alluded to in vers. 21, 22 is carried out. The little which has been left--this is the sense--the Lord will bless so abundantly, that those who are spared in the divine judgment will enjoy a rich abundance of divine blessings. Parallel is the utterance of Isaiah in 2 Kings xix. 30: "And the escaped of the house of Judah, that which has been left, taketh root downward, and beareth fruit upward."--If thus the eating of cream and honey be rightly understood, there is no farther necessity for explaining, in opposition to the rules of grammar, לדעתו by "(only) until he knows" (comp. against this interpretation Drechsler's Comment.). לדעתו can only mean: "belonging to his knowledge, i.e., when he knows."

Good and evil are, as early as Deut. i. 39: "Your sons who to-day do not know good and evil," used more in a physical than in a moral sense. Michaelis: "rerum omnium ignari." The parallel expression, "not to be able to discern between the right hand and the left hand," in Jonah iv. 11 (Michaelis: "discretio rationis et judicii, ut sciant utra manus sit dextra aut sinistra"

) likewise loses sight of the moral sense. But good and evil are very decidedly used in a physical sense in 2 Sam. xix. 36 (35), where Barzillai says: "I am this day fourscore years old, can I discern between good and evil, or has thy servant a taste of what I eat or drink, or do I hear any more the voice of singing men or singing women?" The connection with the eating of cream and honey, by which the good and evil is qualified, clearly proves that good and evil are, in our passage, used in a similar sense. To the same result we are led by the circumstance also, that the evil precedes, which must so much the rather have a meaning, that nowhere else is this the case with this phrase. The evil, the bad food in the time of war, precedes; the good follows after it: Cream and honey, the good, he will eat when he knows to refuse the evil and choose the good, i.e., when he is beyond the time where he does not yet know to make any great difference between the food, and in which, therefore, the evil, the bad food, is felt as an evil. If the good and the evil be understood in a physical sense, then, in harmony with chap. viii. 4, we must think of the period of about one year. Moral consciousness develops much later than sensual liking and disliking.--The construction of מאס and בחר with ב points to the affection which accompanies the action.--כי in ver. 16 suits very well, according to the view which we have taken, in its ordinary signification, "for." The full enjoyment of the good things of the land will return in the period of about twelve months (in chap. xxxvii. 30 a longer terra is fixed, because the Assyrian desolation was much greater than the Aramean); for, even before the year has expired, devastation shall be inflicted upon the land of the enemies. האדמה comprehends at the same time the Syrian and Ephraimitish land.

From ver. 17-25 the Prophet describes how the Assyrians, the object of the hope of the house of David, and also the Egyptian attracted by them, who, however, occupy a position altogether subordinate, shall fill the land, and change it into a wilderness. The fundamental thought, ever true, is this: He who, instead of seeking help from his God, seeks it from the world, is ruined by the world. This truth, which, through the fault of Ahaz, did not gain any saving influence, obtained an accusing one; it stood there as an incontrovertible testimony that it was not the Lord who had forsaken His people, but that they had forsaken themselves. It was a necessary condition of the blessed influence of the impending calamity that such a testimony should exist; without it, the calamity would not have led to repentance, but to despair and defiance.--From the circumstance that in ver. 17, which contains the outlines of the whole, upon the words: "The Lord shall bring upon thee and thy people," there follow still the words: "And upon thy father's house," it appears that the fulfilment must not be sought for in the time of Ahaz only. In the time of Ahaz, the beginning only of the calamities here indicated can accordingly be sought for,--the germ from which all that followed was afterwards developed. Nor shall we be allowed to limit ourselves to that which Judah suffered from the Assyrians, commonly so called. It is significant that, in 2 Kings xxiii. 29, Nebuchadnezzar is called King of Asshur. Asshur, as the first representative of the world's power, represents the world's power in general.

We have still to submit to an examination those explanations of vers 14-16 which differ, in essential points, from that which we have given. Difference of opinion--the characteristic sign of error--meets us here, and that in a very striking manner, in those who oppose the convictions of the whole Christian Church.

1. Rosenmüller expressed his adherence to the Messianic explanation, but supposed that the Prophet was of opinion that the Messiah would be born in his time. Even Bruno Bauer (Critik der Synopt. i. S. 19) could not resist the impression that Immanuel could be none other than the Messiah. But he, too, is of opinion that Isaiah expected a Messiah, who was to be born at once, and to become the "deliverer from the collision of that time." This view has been expanded especially by Ewald. "False," so he says, "is every interpretation which does not see that the Prophet is here speaking of the Messiah to be born, and hence of Him to whom the land really belongs, and in thinking of whom the Prophet's heart beats with joyful hope, chap. viii. 8, ix. 5, 6 (6, 7)." But not being able to realize that which can be seen only by faith--a territory, in general, very inaccessible to modern exposition of Scripture--he, in ver. 14, puts in the real Present instead of the ideal, and thinks that the Prophet imagined that the conception and birth of the Messiah would take place at once. By עלמה he understands, like ourselves, a virgin; but such an one as is so at the present moment only, but will soon afterwards cease to be so;--and in supposing this, he overlooks the fact that the virgin is introduced as being already with child, and that her bearing appears as present. In ver. 15, the time when the boy knows &c., is, according to him, the maturer juvenile age from ten to twenty years. It is during this that the devastation of the land by the Assyrians is to take place, of which the Prophet treats more in detail afterwards in ver. 17 ff. But opposed to this view is the circumstance that, even before the boy enters upon this maturer age (ver. 16), hence in a few years after this, the allied Damascus and Ephraim shall be desolated; so little are these two kings able to conquer Jerusalem, and so certain is it that a divine deliverance is in store for this country in the immediate future. And, in every point of view, this explanation shows itself to be untenable. The supposition that a real Present is spoken of in ver. 14 saddles upon the Prophet an absurd hallucination; and nothing analogous to it can be referred to in the whole of the Old Testament. According to statements of the Prophet in other passages, he sees yet many things intervening between the Messianic time and his own; according to chap. vi. 11-13, not only the entire carrying away of the whole people, (and he cannot well consider the Assyrians as the instruments of it, were it only for this reason, that he is always consistent in the announcement that they should not succeed in the capture of Jerusalem), but also a later second divine judgment. According to chap. xi., the Messiah is to grow up as a twig from the stem of Jesse completely cut down. This supposition of His appearance, the complete decay of the Davidic dynasty, did not in any way exist in the time of the Prophet. According to chap. xxxix., and other passages, the Prophet recognised in Babylon the appearance of a new phase of the world's power which would, at some future period, follow the steps of the Assyrian power which existed at the time of the Prophet, and which should execute upon Judah the judgment of the Lord. We pointed out (Vol. I. p. 417 ff.) that in the Prophet Micah also, the contemporary of Isaiah, there lies a long series of events between the Present and the time when she who is bearing brings forth. Farther--In harmony with all other Prophets, Isaiah too looks for the Messiah from the house of David, with which, by the promise of Nathan in 2 Sam. vii. salvation was indissolubly connected, and the high importance of which for the weal and woe of the people appears also from the circumstance of its being several times mentioned in our chapter. Hence it would be a son of Ahaz only of whom we could here think; and then we should be shut up to Hezekiah, his first-born. But in that case there arises the difficulty which Luther already brought forward against the Jews: "The Jews understand thereby Hezekiah. But the blind people, while anxious to remedy their error, themselves manifest their laziness and ignorance; for Hezekiah was born nine years before this prophecy was uttered!"--"The eating of cream and honey" is, in this explanation, altogether erroneously understood as a designation of the devastated condition of the land. From our remarks, it sufficiently appears that the expression "to refuse the evil," &c., cannot denote the maturer juvenile age. And many additional points might, in like manner, be urged.

2. Several interpreters do not indeed deny the reference to the Messiah, but suppose that, in the first instance, the Prophet had in view some occurrence of his own time. They assume that the Prophet, while speaking of a boy of his own time, makes use, under the guidance of divine providence, of expressions, which apply more to Christ, and can, in an improper and inferior sense only, be true of this boy. This opinion was advanced as early as in the time of Jerome, by some anonymous author who, on that account, is severely censured by him: "Some Judaizer from among us asserts that the Prophet had two sons, Shearjashub and Immanuel. Immanuel too was, according to him, born by the prophetess, the wife of the Prophet, and a type of the Saviour, our Lord; so that the former son Shearjashub (which means 'remnant,' or 'converting') designates the Jewish people that have been left and afterwards converted; while the second son Immanuel, 'with us is God,' signifies the calling of the Gentiles after the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." This explanation was defended by, among others Grotius, Richard Simon, and Clericus; and then, in our century, by Olshausen, who says: "The unity of the reference lies in the name Immanuel; the son of Isaiah had the name but Christ the essence. He was the visible God whom the former only represented." In a modified form, this view is held by Lowth, Koppe, and von Meyer, also. According to them, the Prophet is indeed not supposed to speak of a definite boy who was to be born in his time, but yet, to connect the destinies of his land with the name and destinies of a boy whose conception he, at the moment, imagines to be possible. "The most obvious meaning which would present itself to Ahaz," says von Meyer, "was this: If now a girl was to marry, to become pregnant, and to bear a child, she may call him 'God with us,' for God will be with us at his time." But the prophecy is, after all, to have an ultimate reference to Christ. "The prophecy," says Lowth, "is introduced in so solemn a manner; the sign, after Ahaz had refused the call to fix upon any thing from the whole territory of nature according to his own choice, is so emphatically declared to be one selected and given by God himself; the terms of the prophecy are so unique in their kind, and the name of the child is so expressive; they comprehend in them so much more than the circumstances of the birth of an ordinary child require, or could even permit, that we may easily suppose, that in minds, which were already prepared by the expectation of a great Saviour who was to come forth from the house of David, they excited hopes which stretched farther than any with which the present cause could inspire them, especially if it was found that in the succeeding prophecy, published immediately afterwards, this child was, under the name of Immanuel, treated as the Lord and Prince of the land of Judah. Who else could this be than the heir of the throne of David, under which character a great, and even divine person had been promised?" The reasons for the Messianic explanation are very well exhibited in these words of Lowth; but he, as little as any other of these interpreters, has been able to vindicate the assumption of a double sense. When more closely examined, the supposition is a mere makeshift. On the one hand, they could not make up their minds to give up the Messianic explanation, and, along with it, the authority of the Apostle Matthew. But, on the other hand, they were puzzled by the sanctum artificium by which the Prophet, or rather the Holy Spirit speaking through him, represents Christ as being born even before His birth, places Him in the midst of the life of the people, and makes Him accompany the nation through all the stages of its existence. In truth, if the real, or even the nearest fulfilment is sought for in the time of Ahaz, there is no reason whatever for supposing a higher reference to Christ. The עלמה is then one who was a virgin, who had nothing in common with the mother of Jesus, Mary, who remained a virgin even after her pregnancy. The name Immanuel then refers to the help which God is to afford in the present distress.

3. Many interpreters deny every reference to Christ. This interpretation remained for a long time the exclusive property of the Jews, until J. E. Faber (in his remarks on Harmar's observations on the East, i. S. 281), tried to transplant it into the Christian soil.^[5] He was followed by the Roman Catholic, Isenbiehl (Neuer Versuch über die Weissagung vom Immanuel, 1778) who, in consequence of it, was deposed from his theological professorship, and thrown into gaol. The principal tenets of his work he had borrowed from the lectures of J. D. Michaelis. In their views about the Almah, who is to bear Immanuel, these interpreters are very much at variance.

(a) The more ancient Jews maintained that the Almah was the wife of Ahaz, and Immanuel, his son Hezekiah. According to the Dialog. c. Tryph. 66, 68, 71, 77, this view prevailed among them as early as the time of Justin. But they were refuted by Jerome, who showed that Hezekiah must, at that time, have already been at least nine years old. Kimchi and Abarbanel then resorted to the hypothesis of a second wife of Ahaz.

(b) According to the view of others, the Almah is some virgin who cannot be definitely determined by us, who was present at the place where the king and Isaiah were speaking to one another, and to whom the Prophet points with his finger. This view was held by Isenbiehl, Steudel (in a Programme, Tübingen, 1815), and others.

(c) According to the view of others, the Almah is not a real but only an ideal virgin. Thus J. D. Michaelis: "At the time when one, who at this moment is still a virgin, can bear," &c. Eichhorn, Paulus, Stähelin, and others. The sign is thus made to consist in a mere poetical figure.

(d) A composition of the two views last mentioned is the view of Umbreit. The virgin is, according to him, an actual virgin whom the Prophet perceived among those surrounding him; but the pregnancy and birth are imaginary merely, and the virgin is to suggest to the Prophet the idea of pregnancy. But this explanation would saddle the Prophet with something indecent. Farther: It is not a birth possible which is spoken of, but an actual birth. From chap. viii. 8, it likewise appears that Immanuel is a real individual, and He one of eminent dignity; and this passage is thus at once in strict opposition to both of the explanations, viz. that of any ordinary virgin, and that of the ideal virgin. It destroys also

(e) The explanation of Meier, who by the virgin understands the people of Judah, and conceives of the pregnancy and birth likewise in a poetical manner. The fact, the acknowledgment of which has led Meier to get up this hypothesis, altogether unfounded, and undeserving of any minute refutation, is this: "The mother is, in the passage before us, called a virgin, and yet is designated as being with child. The words, when understood physically and outwardly, contain a contradiction." But this fact is rather in favour of the Messianic explanation.

(f) Others, farther, conjecture that the wife of the Prophet is meant by the Almah. This view was advanced as early as by Abenezra and Jarchi. By the authority of Gesenius, this view became, for a time, the prevailing one. Against it, the following arguments are decisive; part of them being opposed to the other conjectures also. As עלמה designates "virgin" only, and never a young woman, and, far less, an older woman, it is quite impossible that the wife of the Prophet, the mother of Shearjashub could be so designated, inasmuch as the latter was already old enough to be able to accompany his father. Gesenius could not avoid acknowledging the weight of this argument, and declared himself disposed to assume that the Prophet's former wife had died, and that he had thereupon betrothed himself to a virgin. Olshausen, Maurer, Hendewerk, and others, have followed him in this. But this is a story entirely without foundation. In chap. viii. 13, the wife of the Prophet is called simply "the prophetess." Nor could one well see how the Prophet could expect to be understood, if, by the general expression: "the virgin" he wished to signify his presumptive betrothed. There is an entire absence of every intimation whatsoever of a nearer relation of the Almah to the Prophet; and such an intimation could not by any means be wanting if such a relation really existed. One would, in that case at least, be obliged to suppose, as Plüschke does, that the Prophet took his betrothed with him, and pointed to her with his finger,--a supposition which too plainly exhibits the sign of embarrassment, just as is the case with the remark of Hendewerk: "Only that, in that case, we must also suppose that his second wife was sufficiently known at court even then, when she was his betrothed only, although her relation to Isaiah might be unknown; so that, for this very reason, we could not think of a frustration of the sign on the part of the king." Hitzig remarks: "The supposition of a former wife of the Prophet is altogether destitute of any foundation." He then, however, falls back upon the hypothesis which Gesenius himself admitted to be untenable, that עלמה, "virgin" might not only denote a young woman, but sometimes also an older woman. Not even the semblance of a proof can be advanced in support of this. It is just the juvenile age which forms the fundamental signification of the word. In the wife of the Prophet we can the less think of such a juvenile age, that he himself had already exercised his prophetic office for about twenty years. Hitzig has indeed altogether declined to lead any such proof. A son of the Prophet, as, in general, every subject except the Messiah, is excluded by the circumstance that in chap viii. 8, Canaan is called the land of Immanuel.--Farther,--In all these suppositions, אות is understood in an inadmissible signification. It can here denote a fact only, whereby those who were really susceptible were made decidedly certain of the impending deliverance. This appears clearly enough from the relation of this sign to that which Ahaz had before refused, according to which the difference must not be too great, and must not refer to the substance. To this may be added the solemn tone which induces us to expect something grand and important. A mere poetical image, such as would be before us according to the hypothesis of the ideal virgin, or of the real virgin and the ideal birth, does surely not come up to the demand which in this context must be made in reference to this sign. And if the Prophet had announced so solemnly, and in words so sublime, the birth of his own child, he would have made himself ridiculous. Farther,--How then did the Prophet know that after nine months a child would be born to him, or, if the pregnancy be considered as having already commenced, how did he know that just a son would be born to him? That is a question to which most of these Rationalistic interpreters take good care not to give any reply. Plüschke, indeed, is of opinion that, upon a bold conjecture, the Prophet had ventured this statement. But in that case it might easily have fared with him as in that well known story in Worms, (Eisenmenger, entdecktes Judenthum ii. S. 664 ff.), and his whole authority would have been forfeited if his conjecture had proved false. And this argument holds true in reference to those also who do not share in the Rationalistic view, of Prophetism. Predictions of such a kind may belong to the territory of foretelling, but not to that of Prophecy.

[ ^[1]] Meyer, Blätter für höhere Wahrheit, iii. S. 101.]

[ ^[2]] Caspari very justly remarks: "Nothing can be clearer than that 2 Chron. xxviii. 5 ff. comes in between 2 Kings xvi. 5 a. b.; that the author of the books of the Kings gives a report of the beginning and end; the author of the Chronicles, of the middle of the campaign." But we cannot agree with Caspari in his transferring to Idumea the victory of Rezin. According to Is. vii. 2, Aram was encamped in Ephraim. According to 2 Kings xvi. 5, both of the kings came up to Jerusalem and besieged her. The expedition against Elath, 2 Kings xvi. 6, was secondary, and by the way only.

[ ^[3]] The words: "In threescore and five years more, Ephraim shall be broken and be no more a people," have, by rationalistic critics, without and against all external arguments, been declared to be spurious. The reasons which serve as fig leaves to cover their doctrinal tendency are the following: (1) "The time does not agree, inasmuch as the ten tribes sustained their first defeat very soon afterwards by Tiglath-pilezer; the second, nineteen to twenty-one years later, by Shalmanezer, who, in the sixth year of Hezekiah, carried the inhabitants of the kingdom of the ten tribes away into captivity." But the question here is the complete destruction of the national existence of Israel; and that took place only under King Manasseh, when, by Azarhaddon, new Gentile colonists were brought into the land, who expelled from it the old inhabitants who had again gathered themselves together; comp. 2 Kings xvii. 24 with Ezra iv. 2, 10. From that time, Israel amalgamated more and more with Judah, and never returned to a national independence. This happened exactly sixty-five years after the announcement by the Prophet. Chap. vi. 12 compared with ver. 13 shows how little the desolation of the country (ver. 16) is connected with the breaking up as a nation. It is, moreover, at least as much the interest of those who assert the spuriousness, as it is ours to remove the chronological difficulties; for how could it be imagined that the supposed author should have introduced a false chronological statement? His object surely could be none other than to procure authority for the Prophet, by putting into his mouth a prophecy so very evidently and manifestly fulfilled. (2) "The words contain an unsuitable consolation, as Ahaz could not be benefitted by so late a destruction of his enemy." But, immediately afterwards, he is even expressly assured that this enemy will not be able to do him any immediate harm. Chrysostom remarks: "The king, hearing that they should be destroyed after sixty-five years, might say within himself: What about that? Although they be then overthrown, of what use is it to us, if they now take us? In order that the king might not speak thus, the Prophet says: Be of good cheer even as to the present. At that time they shall be utterly destroyed; but even now, they shall not have any more than their own land, for 'the head of Ephraim,'"

&c. The preceding distinct announcement of the last end of his enemy, however, was exceedingly well fitted to break in Ahaz the opinion of his invincibility, and to strengthen his faith in the God of Israel, who, with a firm hand, directs the destinies of nations, and, no less, the faith in His servant whom He raises to be privy to His secrets.--(3.) "The use of numbers so exact is against the analogy of all oracles." But immediately afterwards (ver. 15 comp. with chap. viii. 4), the time of the defeat is as exactly fixed, although not in ciphers. In chap. xx. Isaiah announces that after three years the Egyptians and Ethiopians shall sustain a defeat; in chap. xxiii. 15, that Tyre would flourish anew seventy years after its fall; in chap. xxxviii. 5, he announces to Hezekiah, sick unto death, that God would add fifteen years to his life. According to Jeremiah, the Babylonish captivity is to last seventy years; and the fulfilment has shown that this date is not to be understood as a round number. And farther, the year-weeks in Daniel.--But in opposition to this view, and positively in favour of the genuineness, are the following arguments: The words have not only, as is conceded by Ewald, "a true old-Hebrew colouring," but in their emphatic and solemn brevity ("he shall be broken from [being] a people") they do not at all bear the character of an interpolation. If we blot them out, then the Prophet says less than from present circumstances, from ver. 4, where he calls the kings "ends of smoking firebrands," in opposition to ver. 6, and from the analogy of ver. 9, where the threatening is much more severe, he was bound to say. His saying merely that they would not get any more, was not sufficient. He could make the right impression only when he reduced that declaration to its foundation--i.e., their own destruction and overthrow. Ver. 16, too, would go far beyond what would be announced here, if we remove this clause. He announces destruction to the kings themselves. Finally, the symmetrical parallelism would be destroyed by striking out these words. The words: "If ye believe not, ye shall not be established," would, in that case, be without the parallel members. They are connected with the clause under discussion so much the rather, that in them it is not specially Judah's deliverance from the Syrians and Ephraimites that is looked at, but its salvation in general.

[ ^[4]] By a minute and trifling exposition of what is to be understood as a whole, and comprehensively, many misunderstandings have been introduced into this passage. The defeat of Asshur should take place very soon, but the devastation of the country had been so complete that a longer time would be required before the fields would be again completely cultivated.

[ ^[5]] Gesenius mentions Pellicanus as the first defender of the Non-Messianic interpretation. But this statement seems to have proceeded from a cursory view of an annotation by Cramer on Richard Simon's Kritische Schriften i. S. 441, where the words: "this historical interpretation Pellicanus too has preferred," do not refer to Isaiah but to Daniel. Nor is there any more ground for the intimation that Theodorus a Mopsuesta rejected the Messianic interpretation.

[THE PROPHECY, CHAP. VIII. 23-IX. 6.]

(Chap. ix. 1-7.)

UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN.

In the view of the Assyrian catastrophe, the Prophet is anxious to bring it home to the consciences of the people that, by their own guilt, they have brought down upon themselves this calamity, and, at the same time, to prevent them from despairing. Hence it is that, soon after the prophecy in chap. vii., he reverts once more to the subject of it. The circumstances in chap. viii. 1-ix. 6 (7) are identical with those in chap. vii. Judah is hard pressed by Ephraim and Aram. Still, some time will elapse before the destruction of their territories. The term in chap. vii. 16: "Before the boy shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good," and in chap. viii. 4: "Before the boy shall know to cry, My father and my mother," is quite the same. This is the less to be doubted when it is kept in mind that, in the former passage, evil and good must be taken in a physical sense. The sense for the difference of food is, in a child, developed at nearly the same time as the ability for speaking. If it had not been the intention of the Prophet to designate one and the same period, he ought to have fixed more distinctly the limits between the two termini. It might, indeed, from chap. viii. 3, appear as if at least the nine months must intervene between the two prophecies of the conception of the son of the Prophet, and his birth. As, however, it cannot be denied that there is a connection between the giving of the name, and the drawing up of the document in vers. 1 and 2, we should be obliged to suppose that, in reference to the first two futures with Vav convers. the same rule applies as in reference to ויצר, in Gen. ii. 19. The progress lies first in ותלה; the event falling into that time is the birth.

Chap. viii. 1-ix. 6 (7), forms the necessary supplement to chap. vii., the germ of which is contained already in chap. vii. 21, 22. The Prophet saw, by the light of the Spirit of God, that the fear of Aram and Ephraim was unfounded; the enemy truly dangerous is Asshur, i.e., the whole world's power first represented by Asshur. For the King of Asshur is, so to say, an ideal person to the Prophet. The different phases of the world's powers are intimated as early as chap. viii. 9, where the Prophet addresses the "nations," and "all the far-off countries;" and, at a later period, he received disclosures regarding all the single phases of the world's power which began its course with Asshur. With this the Prophet had only threatened in chap. vii.; here, however, he is pre-eminently employed with it, exhorting, comforting, promising, so that thus the two sections form one whole in two divisions. His main object is to induce his people, in the impending oppression by the world's power, to direct their eyes steadily to their heavenly Redeemer, who, in due time, will bring peace instead of strife, salvation and prosperity instead of misery, dominion instead of oppression. As in chap. vii. 14, the picture of Immanuel is placed before the eyes of the people desponding on account of Aram and Ephraim, so here the care, anxiety, and fear in the view of Asshur are overcome by pointing to the declaration: "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given." It is of great importance for the right understanding of the Messianic announcement in chap. viii. 23, ix. 6, that the historical circumstances of the whole section, and its tendency be clearly understood. As, in general, the Messianic announcement under the Old Testament bears a one-sided character, so, for the present occasion, those aspects only of the picture of the Saviour were required which were fitted effectually to meet the despondency of the people in the view, and under the pressure of the world's power.

After these preliminary remarks, we must enter still more in detail upon the arrangement and construction of the section before us.

The Prophet receives, first, the commission to write down, like a judicial document, the announcement of the speedy destruction of the present enemies, and to get it confirmed by trust-worthy witnesses, chap. viii. 1, 2. He then, farther, receives the commission to give, to a son that would be born to him about the same time, a name expressive of the speedy destruction of the enemies, vers. 3, 4. Thus far the announcement of the deliverance from Aram and Ephraim. There then follows, from vers. 5-8, an announcement of the misery which is to be inflicted by Asshur, of whom Ahaz and the unbelieving portion of the people expected nothing but deliverance. Up to this, there is a recapitulation only, and a confirmation of chap. vii. But this misery is not to last for ever, is not to end in destruction. In vers. 9, 10, the Prophet addresses exultingly the hostile nations, and announces to them, what had already been gently hinted at at the close of ver. 8, that their attempts to put an end to the covenant-people would be vain, and would lead to their own destruction. The splendour of Asshur must fade before the bright image of Immanuel, which calls to the people: "Be ye of good cheer, I have overcome the world." Calvin strikingly remarks: "The Prophet may be conceived of, as it were, standing on a watch tower, whence he beholds the defeat of the people, and the victorious Assyrians insolently exulting. But by the name and view of Christ he recovers himself, forgets all the evils as if he had suffered nothing, and, freed from all misery, he rises against the enemies whom the Lord would immediately destroy." The Prophet then interrupts the announcement of deliverance, and exhibits the subjective conditions upon which the bestowal of deliverance, or rather the partaking in it, depends, along with the announcement of the fearful misery which would befal them in case these conditions were not complied with. But, so he continues in vers. 11-16, he who is to partake of the deliverance which the Lord has destined for His people, must in firm faith expect it from Him, and thereby inwardly separate himself from the unbelieving mass, who, at every appearance of danger, tremble and give up all for lost. He who stands as ill as that mass in the trial inflicted by the Lord; he to whom the danger becomes an occasion for manifesting the unbelief of his heart;--he indeed will perish in it. At the close, the prophet is emphatically admonished to impress this great and important truth upon the minds of the susceptible ones. In ver. 17: "And I waited upon the Lord," &c., the Prophet reports what effect was produced upon him by this revelation from the Lord,--thereby teaching indirectly what effect it ought to produce upon all. In ver. 18, the Prophet directs the desponding people to the example of himself who, according to ver. 17, is joyful in his faith, and to the names of his sons which announced deliverance. Deliverance and comfort are to be sought from the God of Israel only. Vain, therefore,--this he brings out, vers. 19-22--are all other means by which people without faith seek to procure help to themselves. They should return to God's holy Law which, in Deut. xviii. 14, ff. commands to seek disclosures as regards the future, and comfort from His servants the Prophets only, and which itself abounds in comfort and promise. If such be not done, misery without any deliverance, despair without any comfort, are the unavoidable consequences. From ver. 23, the Prophet continues the interrupted announcement of deliverance. That which, in the preceding verses, he had threatened in the case of apostacy from God's Word, and of unbelief, viz., darkness, i.e., the absence of deliverance, will, as the Prophet, according to vers. 21, 22, foresees, really befal them in future, as the people will not fulfil the conditions held forth in vers. 16 and 20, as they will not speak: "To the Law and to the testimony," as they will not in faith lay hold of the promise, and trust in the Lord. The calamity having, in the preceding verses, been represented as darkness, the deliverance which, by the grace of the Lord, is to be bestowed upon the people (for the Lord indeed chastises His people on account of their unbelief, but does not give them up to death), is now represented as a great light which dispels the darkness. It shines most clearly just where the darkness had been greatest--in that part of the country which, being outwardly and inwardly given up to heathenism, seemed scarcely still to belong to the land of the Lord, viz., the country lying around the lake of Gennesareth. The people are filled with joy on account of the deliverance granted to them by the Lord,--their deliverance from the yoke of their oppressors, from the bondage of the world which now comes to an end. As the bestower of such deliverance, the Prophet beholds a divine child who, having obtained dominion, will exercise it with the skill of the God-man; who will, with fatherly love, in all eternity care for His people and create peace to them; who will, at the same time, infinitely extend His dominion, the kingdom of David, not by means of the force of arms, but by means of right and righteousness, the exercise of which will attract the nations to Him; so that with the increase of dominion, the increase of peace goes hand in hand. The guarantee that these glorious results shall really take place is the zeal of the Lord, and it is this to which the Prophet points at the close.

Chap. viii. 23 (ix. 1). "For not is darkness to the land, to which is distress; in the former time he has brought disgrace upon the land of Zebulun and the hind of Naphtali, and in the after-time he brings it to honour, the region on the sea, the other side of the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles."

כי stands in its ordinary signification, "for." Allow not yourselves to be turned away by anything from trusting in the God of Israel; hold fast by His word alone, and by His servants,--such was the fundamental thought of the whole preceding section. It meets us last in ver. 20, in the exhortation: "To the Law and to the testimony!" in so far as this is rich in consolation and promise. The Prophet, after having, in the preceding verses, described the misery which will befal those who do not follow this exhortation, supports and establishes it by referring to the help of the Lord already alluded to in vers. 9 and 10, and to the light of His grace which He will cause to shine into the darkness of the people,--a darkness produced by their unbelief and apostacy; and this light shall be brightest where the darkness was greatest. All the attempts at connecting this כי with the verse immediately preceding instead of referring it to the main contents of the preceding section, have proved futile. כי can neither mean "nevertheless," nor "yea;" and the strange assertion that it is almost without any meaning at all cannot derive any support from Isaiah xv. 1: "The burden of Moab, for in the night the city of Moab is laid waste;" for only in that case is כי without any meaning at all, if משא be falsely interpreted.--Ver. 22, where the phrase מעוף צוקה "darkness of distress" is equivalent to "darkness which consists in distress" (compare also: "behold trouble and darkness" in the same verse), shows that מועף and מוצק are substantially of the same meaning.--Our verse forms an antithesis to ver. 22; the latter verse described the darkness brought on by the guilt of the people; the verse under consideration describes, in contrast to it, the removal of it called forth by the grace of the Lord.--לא may either be connected with the noun, or it may be explained: not is darkness. It cannot be objected to the latter view that, in that case, אין should rather have stood; while the analogy of the phrase: "Not didst thou increase the joy," in chap. ix. 2 (3), seems to be in favour of it. Here we have the negative, the ceasing of darkness; in chap. ix. 1 (2) the positive, the appearance of light. The suffix, in לה refers, just as the suffix, in בה in ver. 21, to the omitted ארץ.--The כ in כעת is, by many interpreters, asserted to stand in the signification of כאשר: "Just as the former time has brought disgrace,"

&c. But as it cannot be proved that כ has ever the meaning, "just as;" and as, on the other hand, כעת frequently occurs in the signification, "at the time" (compare my remarks on Numb. xxiii. 13 in my work on Balaam), we shall be obliged to take, here too, the כ as a temporal particle, and to supply, as the subject, Jehovah, who always stands before the Prophet's mind, and is often not mentioned when the matter itself excludes another subject. Moreover, it is especially in favour of this view that, in vers. 3 (4), the Lord himself is expressly addressed.--As regards אחרון, either כעת may be supplied,--and this is simplest and most natural--or it may be taken as an Accusative, "for the whole after-time."--הקל means properly to "make light," then "to make contemptible," "to cover with disgrace," and הכביד properly then, "to make heavy," "to honour,"--a signification which indeed is peculiar to Piel, but in which the Hiphil, too, occurs in Jer. xxx. 19; the two verbs thus form an antithesis. The ה locale in ארצה (the word does not occur in Isaiah with the ה paragog.) shews that a certain modification of the verbal notion must be assumed: "to bring disgrace and honour." ארצה thus would mean "towards the land." The scene of the disgrace and honour, which at first was designated in general only, is afterwards extended. First, the land of Zebulun and Naphtali only is mentioned, because it was upon it that the disgrace had pre-eminently fallen, and it was, therefore, pre-eminently to be brought to honour; then the whole territory along the sea on both sides of it.--ים can, in this context which serves for a more definite qualification, mean the sea of Gennesareth only (ים כנרת Numb. xxxiv. 11, and other passages), just as, in Matt. iv. 13, the designation of Capernaum as ἡ παραθαλασσία receives its definite meaning from the context.--דרך occurs elsewhere also in the signification of versus, e.g., Ezek. viii. 5, xl. 20, 46; it will be necessary to supply after it ארץ, just as in the case of the עבר הירדן following. It is without any instance that דרך "way" should stand for "region," "country." The region on the sea is then divided into its two parts עבר הירדן, πέραν τοῦ Ἰορδάνου, the land on the east bank of Jordan, and Galilee. The latter answers to the land of Zebulun and Naphtali; for the territory of these two tribes occupied the centre and principal part of Galilee. In opposition to the established usus loquendi, many would understand עבר הירדן as meaning the land "on the side," i.e., this side "of the Jordan," proceeding upon the supposition that the local designations must, from beginning to end, be congruous. Opposed to it is also the circumstance that, in 2 Kings, xv. 29, the most eastward and most northward countries, Peraea and Galilee are connected. In that passage the single places are mentioned which Tiglath-pilezer took; then, the whole districts, "Gilead and Galilee, the whole land of Naphtali." By the latter words, that part of Galilee is made especially prominent upon which the catastrophe fell most severely and completely. In the phrase, "Galilee of the Gentiles," Galilee is a geographical designation which was already current at the time of the Prophet. There is no reason for fixing the extent of ancient Galilee differently from that of the more modern Galilee,--for assigning to it a more limited extent. We are told in 1 Kings ix. 11, that the twenty cities which Solomon gave to Hiram lay in the land of Galil, but not that the country was limited to them. The qualification, "of the Gentiles," is nowhere else met with in the Old Testament; it is peculiar to the Prophet. It serves as a hint to point out in what the disgrace of Galilee and Peraea consisted. This Theodoret also saw. He says: "He calls it 'Galilee of the Gentiles' because it was inhabited by other tribes along with the Jews; for this reason, he says also of the inhabitants of those countries, that they were walking in darkness, and speaks of the inhabitants of that land as living in the shadow and land of death, and promises the brightness of heavenly light." It is of no small importance to observe that Isaiah does not designate Galilee according to what it was at the time when this prophecy was uttered, but according to what it was to become in future. The distress by the Gentiles appears in chap. vii. and viii. everywhere as a future one. At the time when the Prophet prophesied, the Jewish territory still existed in its integrity. In vers. 4, and 5-7, he announces Asshur's inroad into the land of Israel as a future one; in the present moment, it was the kingdom of the ten tribes in connection with Aram which attacked and threatened Judea. The superior power of the world which, according to the clear foresight of the Prophet, was threatening, could not but be sensibly felt in the North and East. For these formed the border parts against the Asiatic world's power; it was from that quarter that its invasions commonly took place; and it was to be expected that there, in the first instance, the Gentiles would establish themselves, just as, in former times, they had maintained themselves longest there; comp. Judges i. 30-38; Keil on 1 Kings ix. 11. But very soon after this, the name "Galilee of the Gentiles" ceased to be one merely prophetical; Tiglathpilezer carried the inhabitants of Galilee and Gilead into exile, 2 Kings xv. 29. At a later period, when the Greek empire "peopled Palestine, in the most attractive places, with new cities, restored many which, in consequence of the destructive wars, had fallen into decay, filled all of them, more or less, with Greek customs and institutions, and, along with the newly-opened extensive commerce and traffic, everywhere spread Greek manners also," this change was chiefly limited to Galilee and Peraea; Judea remained free from it; comp. Ewald, Geschichte Israels, iii. 2 S. 264 ff. In 1 Maccab. v. Galaaditis and Galilee appear as those parts of the country where the existence of the Jews is almost hopelessly endangered by the Gentiles living in the midst of, and mixed up with them. What is implied in "Galilee of the Gentiles" may be learned from that chapter, where even the expression reverts in ver. 15. With external dependence upon the Gentiles, however, the spiritual dependence went hand in hand. These parts of the country could the less oppose any great resistance to the influences of heathendom, that they were separated, by a considerable distance, from the religious centre of the nation--the temple and metropolis, in which the higher Israelitish life was concentrated. A consequence of this degeneracy was the contempt in which the Galileans were held at the time of Christ, John i. 47, vii. 52; Matt. xxvi. 69.--But in what consisted the honour or the glorification which Galilee, along with Peraea, was to obtain in the after-time? Chap. ix. 5 (6), where the deliverance and salvation announced in the preceding verses are connected with the person of the Redeemer, show that we must not seek for it in any other than that of the Messianic time. Our Lord spent the greater part of His public life in the neighbourhood of the lake of Gennesareth; it was there that Capernaum--His ordinary residence--was situated, Matt. ix. 1. From Galilee were most of His disciples. In Galilee He performed many miracles; and it was there that the preaching of the Gospel found much entrance, so that even the name of the Galileans passed over in the first centuries to the Christians. Theodoret strikingly remarks: "Galilee was the native country of the holy Apostles; there the Lord performed most of His miracles; there He cleansed the leper; there He gave back to the centurion his servant sound; there He removed the fever from Peter's wife's mother; there He brought back to life the daughter of Jairus who was dead; there He multiplied the loaves; there He changed the water into wine." Very aptly has Gesenius compared Micah v. 1 (2). Just as in that passage the birth of the Messiah is to be for the honour of the small, unimportant Bethlehem, so here Galilee, which hitherto was covered with disgrace, which was reproached by the Jews, that there no prophet had ever risen, is to be brought to honour, and to be glorified by the appearance of the Messiah. It was from the passage under review that the opinion of the Jews was derived, that the Messiah would appear in the land of Galilee. Comp. Sohar, p. 1. fol. 119 ed. Amstelod.; fol. 74 ed. Solisbae: בארעת דגליל יתגלי מלכא משיתא

. "King Messiah will reveal himself in the land of Galilee." But we must beware of putting prophecy and fulfilment into a merely accidental outward relation, of changing the former into a mere foretelling, and of supposing, in reference to the latter, that, unless the letter of the prophecy had existed, Jesus might as well have made Judea the exclusive scene of His ministry. Both prophecy and history are overruled by a higher idea, by the truth absolutely valid in reference to the Church of the Lord, that where the distress is greatest, help is nearest. If it was established that the misery of the covenant-people, both outward and spiritual, was especially concentrated in Galilee, then it is also sure that He who was sent to the lost sheep of Israel must devote His principal care just to that part of the country. The prophecy is not exhausted by the one fulfilment; and the fulfilment is a new prophecy. Wheresoever in the Church we perceive a new Galilee of the Gentiles, we may, upon the ground of this passage, confidently hope that the saving activity of the Lord will gloriously display itself.

[Chap. ix. 1 (2)]. "The people that walk in darkness see a great light, they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them light ariseth."

"The people" are the inhabitants of the countries mentioned in the preceding verse; but they are not viewed in contrast to, and exclusive of the other members of the covenant-people,--for according to chap. viii. 22, darkness is to cover the whole of it--but only as that portion which comes chiefly into consideration. Light is, in the symbolical language of Scripture, salvation. That in which the salvation here consists cannot be determined from the words themselves, but must follow from the context. It will not be possible to deny that, according to it, the darkness consists, in the first instance, in the oppression by the Gentiles, and, hence, salvation consists in the deliverance from this oppression, and in being raised to the dominion of the world; and in ver. 2 (3) ff., we have, indeed, the farther displaying of the light, or deliverance. But it will be as little possible to deny that the sad companion of outward oppression by the Gentile world is the spiritual misery of the inward dependence upon it. Farther,--It is as certain that the elevation of the covenant-people to the dominion of the world cannot take place all on a sudden, and without any farther ceremony, inasmuch as, according to a fundamental view of the Old Testament, all outward deliverance appears as depending upon conversion and regeneration. "Thou returnest," so we read in Deut. xxx. 2, 3, "to the Lord thy God, and the Lord thy God turneth to thy captivity." And in the same chapter, vers. 6, 7: "The Lord thy God circumciseth thy heart, and then the Lord thy God putteth all these curses upon thine enemies." Before Gideon is called to be the deliverer of the people from Midian, the Prophet must first hold up their sin to the people, Judg. vi. 8 ff., and Gideon does not begin his work with a struggle against the outward enemies, but must, first of all, as Jerubbabel, declare war against sin. All the prosperous periods in the people's history are, at the same time, periods of spiritual revival. We need only think of David, Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah. Outward deliverance always presents itself in history as an addition only which is bestowed upon those seeking after the kingdom of God. Without the inward foundation, the bestowal of the outward blessing would be only a mockery, inasmuch as the holy God could not but immediately take away again what He had given. But the circumstance that it is the outward salvation, the deliverance from the heathen servitude, the elevation of the people of God to the dominion of the world, as in Christ it so gloriously took place, which are here, in the first instance, looked at, is easily accounted for from the historical cause of this prophetic discourse which, in the first instance, is directed against the fears of the destruction of the kingdom of God by the world's power. Ps. xxiii. 4; "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me," must so much the more he considered as the fundamental passage of the verse under consideration, that the Psalm, too, refers to the whole Christian Church. It was in the appearance of Christ, and the salvation brought through Him, in the midst of the deepest misery, that this Psalm found its most glorious confirmation.--צלמות, "darkness of death," is the darkness which prevails in death or in Sheol. Such compositions commonly occur in proper names only, not in appellatives; and hence, by "the land of the darkness (shadow) of death," hell is to be understood. But darkness of hell is, by way of a shortened comparison, not unfrequently used for designating the deepest darkness. The point of comparison is here furnished by the first member of the verse. Parallel is Ps. lxxxviii. 4 ff., where Israel laments that the Lord had thrust it down into dark hell. The Preterite tense of the verbs in our verse is to be explained from the prophetical view which converts the Future into the Present. How little soever modern exegesis can realise this seeing by, and in faith, and how much soever it is everywhere disposed to introduce the real Present instead of the ideal, yet even Ewald is compelled to remark on the passage under consideration: "The Prophet, as if he were describing something which in his mind he had seen as certain long ago, here represents everything in the past, and scarcely makes an exception of this in the new start which he takes in the middle." At the time when the Prophet uttered this Prophecy, even the darkness still belonged to the future. As yet the world's power had not gained the ascendancy over Israel; but here the light has already dispelled the darkness.

It now merely remains for us to view more particularly the quotation of these two verses in Matt. iv. 12-17. Ἀκούσας δὲ--thus the section begins--ὅτι Ἰωάννης παρεδόθη, ἀνεχώρησεν εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν. Since, in these words, we are told that Jesus, after having received the intelligence of the imprisonment of John, withdrew into Galilee, we cannot for a moment think of His having sought in Galilee, safety from Herod; for Galilee just belonged to Herod, and Judea afforded security against him. The verb ἀναχώρεῖν denotes, on the contrary, the withdrawing into the angulus terrae Galilee, as contrasted with the civil and ecclesiastical centre. The time of the beginning of Christ's preaching (His ministry hitherto had been merely a kind of prelude) was determined by the imprisonment of John, as certainly as, according to the prophecy of the Old Testament, the territories of the activity of both were immediately bordering upon one another, and by that very circumstance the place, too, was indirectly determined; for it was fixed by the prophecy under consideration that Galilee was to be the scene of the chief ministry of Christ. If, then, the time for the beginning of the ministry had come, He must also depart into Galilee. The connection, therefore, is this: After he had received the intelligence of the imprisonment of John--in which the call to Him for the beginning of His ministry was implied--He departed into Galilee, and especially to Capernaum, vers. 12, 13; for it was this part of the country which, by the prophecy, was fixed as the main scene of His Messianic activity, vers. 14-16. It was there, therefore, that He continued the preaching of John, ver. 17.--Καὶ καταλιπὼν τὴν Ναζαρὲτ--it is said in ver. 13--ἐλθὼν κατῴκησεν εἰς Καπερναοὺμ τὴν παραθαλασσίαν, ἐν ὁρίοις Ζαβουλὼν καὶ Νεφθαλείμ. Christ had hitherto had His settled abode at Nazareth, and thence undertook His wanderings. The immediate reason why He did not remain there is not stated by Matthew; but we learn it from Luke and John. In accordance with his object, Matthew takes cognizance of this one circumstance only, that, according to the prophecy of the Old Testament, Capernaum was very specially fitted for being the residence of Christ. The town was situated on the western shore of the Lake of Gennesareth. Quite in opposition to his custom elsewhere, Matthew describes the situation of the town 80 minutely, because this knowledge served to afford a better insight into the fulfilment of the prophecy of the Old Testament. The designation τὴν παραθαλασσίαν stands in reference to ὁδὸν θαλάσσης, in ver. 15. Ἐν ὁρίοις, &c., may either mean: "In the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali," i. e. in that place where the borders of both the countries meet,--or τὰ ὅρια may, according to the analogy of the Hebrew גבולים, denote the borders in the sense of "territory," as in Matt. ii. 16. From a comparison of γῆ Ζαβουλὼν καὶ Νεφαλείμ of the prophecy in ver. 15, to which the words stand in direct reference, it follows that the latter view is the correct one. Whether Capernaum lay just on the borders between the two countries was of no consequence to the prophecy, and hence was of none to Matthew.--The phrase ἵνα πληρωθῇ does not, according to the very sound remark of De Wette, point to the intention, but to the objective aim. The question, however, is to what the ἵνα πληρωθῆ is to be referred,--whether merely to that which immediately precedes, viz., the change of residence from Nazareth to Capernaum, or, at the same time to ἀνεχώρησεν εἰν τὴν Γαλιλαίαν. The latter is alone correct. The prophecy which the Evangelist has in view referred mainly to Galilee, or the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali in general; but, according to the express remark of the Evangelist, Nazareth itself was likewise situated in Galilee. The advantage which Capernaum had over it was this only, that in Capernaum the ὁδὸν θαλάσσης of the prophecy was found again, and that, therefore, thence the πέραν τοῦ Ἰορδάνου of the prophecy also could be better realized, inasmuch as across the lake there was an easy communication from that place with the country beyond Jordan. The connection is hence this: After the imprisonment of the Baptist, Jesus, in order to enter upon His ministry, went to Galilee, and especially to Capernaum, which was situated on the lake, in order that thus the prophecy of Isaiah as to the glorification of Galilee, and of the region on the lake, might be fulfilled.--Matthew has abridged the passage. From chap. viii. 23 (ix. 1) he has taken the designation of the part of the country, in order that the agreement of fulfilment and prophecy might become visible. The words from γῆ--τῶν ἐθνῶν may either be regarded as a fragment taken out of its connection, so that they are viewed as a quotation, and as forming a period by themselves (this, from a comparison of the original, seems most natural);--or we may also suppose, that the Evangelist, having broken-up the connection with the preceding, puts these words into a new connection, so that, along with the ὁ λαός, which has become an apposition, they form the subject of the following sentence. At all events, ὁδόν takes here the place of the adverb, although it may not be possible to adduce instances and proofs altogether analogous from the Greek usus loquendi.--The confidence with which Matthew explains chap. viii. 23, and ix. 1 of Christ can be accounted for only from the circumstance that he recognized Christ as He who in chap. ix. 5, 6, (6, 7) is described as the author of all the blessings designated in the preceding verses. It was therefore altogether erroneous in Gesenius to assert that there was the less reason for holding the Messianic explanation of chap. ix. 5, 6, as there was no testimony of the New Testament in favour of it.--It is quite obvious that Matthew does not quote the Old Testament prophecy in reference to any single special event which happened at Capernaum; but that rather the whole following account of the glorious deeds of Christ in Galilee, as well as in Peraea, down to chap. xix. 1, serves to mark the fulfilment of this Old Testament prophecy, and is subservient to this quotation. This passage of Matthew explains the reason, why it is that he, and Luke and Mark who closely follow him, report henceforth, until the last journey of Jesus to Jerusalem, exclusively facts which happened in Galilee, and in Peraea, which likewise was mentioned by Isaiah. The circumstance that this fact, which is so obvious, was not perceived, has called forth a number of miserable conjectures, and has even led some interpreters to assail the credibility of the Gospel. To Matthew, who wished to show that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah promised in the Old Testament, the interest must, in the view of the prophecy under consideration, be necessarily concentrated upon Galilee; and Mark and Luke followed him in this, perceiving that it was not becoming to them to open up a path altogether new. This was reserved to the second Apostle from among the Evangelists.

Ver. 2 (3). "Thou multipliest the nation to which thou didst not increase the joy; they joy before thee like the joy in harvest, and as they rejoice when they divide the spoil."

The Prophet beholds the joy of the Messianic time as present; he beholds the covenant-people numerous, free from all misery, and full of joy; full of delight he turns to the Lord, and praises Him for what He has done to His people.--One of the privileges of the people of God is the increase which at all times takes place after they are sifted and thinned by judgments. Thus, e.g., it happened at the time after their return from the captivity, comp. Ps. cvii. 38, 39: "And He blesseth them, and they are multiplied greatly, and He suffereth not their cattle to decrease. They who were minished and brought low through affliction, oppression, and sorrow." But this increase took place most gloriously at the time of Christ, when a numerous multitude of adopted sons from among the Gentiles were received into the Church of God, and thus the promise to Abraham: "I will make of thee a great nation" (גוי as in the passage before us, and not עם), received its final fulfilment. From the arguments which we advanced in Vol. i. on Hosea ii. 1, it appears that the increase which the Church received by the reception of the Gentiles is, according to the biblical view, to be considered as an increase of the people of Israel. The fundamental thought of Ps. lxxxvii. is: Zion the birth-place of the nations; by the new birth the Gentiles are received in Israel. The manner in which the Gentiles show their anxiety to be received in Israel is described by Isaiah in chap. xliv. 5. The commentary on the words: "Thou multipliest the nation," is furnished to us by chap. liv. 1 ff., where, in immediate connection with the prophecy regarding the Servant of God who bears the sin of the world, it is said: "Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear, break forth into singing, and shout thou that didst not travail with child; for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord." Comp. also chap. lxvi. 7-9, and Ezek. xxxvii. 25, 26: "And my servant David shall be their prince for ever. And I make a covenant with them and multiply them." Several interpreters, e. g. Calvin, Vitringa, suppose that the Prophet in this verse (and so likewise in the two following verses) speaks, in the first instance, of a nearer prosperity, of the rapid increase of the people after the Babylonish captivity. Vitringa directs attention to the fact, that the Jewish people after the captivity did not only fill Judea, but spread also in Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. And surely we cannot deny that in this increase, no less than in the new flourishing of the people after the defeat of Sennacherib also, there is a prelude to the real fulfilment; and that so much the more that these precursory increases, happening, as they did, regularly after the decreases, were bestowed upon the covenant-people with a view to the future appearance of Christ. These increases enter into a still closer relation to the prophecy under consideration, if we keep in mind that in chap. vii. the Prophet anticipates in spirit the appearance of Christ, and that it is with this representation that, in the Section before us, chap. viii. 8, 10 are connected. In order to refute the explanation of Umbriet: "Thou hast multiplied the heathen, and thereby thou hast removed all joy; but now," &c., it will be quite sufficient to refer to the parallel passage, chap. xxvi. 15: "Thou increasest the people, O Lord, thou art glorified, thou removest all the boundaries of the land," where, just as in the verse before us, by הגוי "the people," Israel is designated; and that is frequently the case where the notion of the multitude, the mass only is concerned, comp. Gen. xii. 2.--"Thou didst not increase the joy" stands for: to whom thou formerly didst not increase the joy, to whom thou gavest but little joy, upon whom thou inflictedst severe sufferings. The antithesis is quite the same as in chap. viii. 23 (ix. 1), where the former distress is contrasted with the light which is now to shine upon them, the former disgrace with the later glory; and in the same manner in chap. ix. 1 (2), where the present light is rendered brighter by being contrasted with the former darkness. The contrast of the present increase with the former absence of joys shows that the joy is to be viewed as being connected with the increase, and that if formerly the joy was less, the reason of it was chiefly in the decrease. Ps. cvii. 38, 39, 41, shews how affliction and decrease, joy and increase, go hand in hand; farther, Jerem. xxx. 19: "And out of them proceed thanksgivings, and the voice of the merry ones; and I multiply them, and they do not decrease; and I honour them, and they are not small." The decrease is a single symptom only of a depressed, joyless condition, which everywhere in the kingdom of God shall be brought to an end by Christ. Most of the ancient translators (LXX., Chald., Syr.) follow the marginal reading לו, "to him" hast thou increased the joy. According to many modern interpreters, לא is supposed to be a different mode of writing for לו. But no proof that could stand the test can be brought forward for such a mode of writing; nor is there any reason for supposing that לא stands here in a different sense from what it does in chap. viii. 23, and it would indeed be strange that לו should have been placed before the verb. At most, it might be supposed that the Prophet intended an ambiguous and double sense: ^not/_{to him} didst thou increase the joy. But altogether apart from such an ambiguous and double sense, behind the negative, at all events, the positive is concealed; thou multipliest the people, and increasest to them the joy, thou who formerly didst decrease their joy, &c.; and it is to this positive that the words refer which, in Luke ii. 10, the angels address to the shepherds: μὴ φοβεῖσθε, ἰδοὺ γὰρ εὐαγγελίζομαι ὑμῖν χαρὰν μεγάλην ἥτις ἔσται παντὶ τῷ λαῷ ὅτι ἐτέχθη ὑμῖν σήμερον σωτὴρ, ὅς ἐστι Χριστὸς Κύριος; comp. Matth. ii. 10.--In the following words, the Prophet expresses, in the first instance, the nature of the joy, then its greatness. The joy over the blessings received is a joy before God, under a sense of His immediate presence. The expression is borrowed from the sacrificial feasts in the courts before the sanctuary, at which the partakers rejoiced before the Lord, Deut. xii. 7, 12, 18, xiv. 26. In Immanuel, God with his blessings and gifts has truly entered into the midst of His people. With the joy at the dividing of the spoil, the joy is compared only to show its greatness, just as with the joy in the harvest; and it is in vain that Knobel tries here to bring in a dividing of spoil.

Vers. 3, (4). "For the yoke of his burden and the staff of his neck, the rod of his driver thou hast broken as in the day of Midian."

In this verse, the reason of the people's joy announced in the preceding verse is stated: it is the deliverance from the world's power, under the oppression of which they groaned, or, in point of fact, were to groan. He who imposes the yoke and the staff, the driver, (an allusion to the Egyptian taskmasters, masters, comp. Exod. iii. 7; v. 10), is Asshur, and the whole world's power hostile to the Kingdom of God, which is represented by him, and which by Christ was to receive, and has received, a mortal blow. A prelude to the fulfilment took place by the defeat of Sennacherib under Hezekiah, comp. chap. x. 5, 24, 27; xiv. 25. After him. Babel had to experience the destructive power of the Lord, the single phases of which, pervading, as they do, all history, are here comprehended in one great act. Although the definitive fulfilment begins first with the appearance of Christ in the flesh, who spoke to His people: θαρσεῖτε, ἐγὼ νενίκηκα τὸν κόσμον, yet after what we remarked on ver. 2, we are fully entitled to consider the former catastrophes also of the kingdoms of the world as preludes to the real fulfilment.--שכם "shoulder" does not suit as the membrum cui verbera infliguntur; it comes, as is commonly the case, into consideration as that member with which burdens are borne. The staff or tyranny is a heavy burden, comp. chap. x. 27: "His burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder." "As in the day of Midian" is equivalent to: as thou once didst break the yoke of Midian. This event was especially fitted to serve as a type of the glorious future victory over the world's power, partly because the oppression by Midian was very hard,--according to Judges vii. 12, Midian, Amalek, and the sons of the East broke in upon the land like grasshoppers for multitude, and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seaside for multitude--partly because the help of the Lord (thou hast broken) was at that time specially visible. "I will be with thee," says the Lord to Gideon in Judges vi. 16, "and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man;" and Judges vii. 2: "The people that are with thee are too many, as that I could give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying: Mine own hand hath saved me."

Vers. 4, (5). "For every war-shoe put on with noise, and the garment rolled in blood: it is for burning, food of fire."

We have here the reason why the tyranny is broken: for the enemies of the Kingdom of God shall entirely and for ever be rendered incapable of carrying on warfare. If the noisy war-shoes, and their blood-stained garments are to be burned, they themselves must, of course, have been previously destroyed. But, if that be the case, then all war and tyranny are come to an end, "for the dead do not live, and the shades do not rise," chap. xxvi. 14. The parallel passages, Ps. xlvi. 10, and Ezek. xxxix. 9, 10, do not permit us to doubt that the burning of the war-shoes and of the bloody garments come into consideration here as a consequence of the destruction of the conquerors. Nor can we, according to these passages, entertain, for a moment, the idea of Meier, that those bloody garments belong to Israel.

Vers. 5 (6). "For unto us a child is horn, unto us a son is given, and the government is upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonder-Counsellor, God-Hero, Ever-Father, Prince of Peace."

The Prophet had hitherto spoken only of the salvation which is to spread from Galilee over the rest of the country; it is first here that its author, in all His sublime glory, comes before him; and, having come to him, the prophecy rises to exalted feelings of joy. In chap. vii. 14, the Prophet beholds the Saviour as being already born; hence the Preterites ילד and נתן. If any one should imagine that from the use of these Preterites he were entitled to infer that the subject of the prophecy must, at that time, already have been born, he must also, on account of the Preterites in vers. 1 (2) suppose that the announced salvation had at that time been already bestowed upon Israel,--which no interpreter does. Hitzig correctly remarks: "Because He is still future, the Prophet in His first appearance, beholds Him as a child, and as the son of another." Whose son He is we are not told; but it is supposed to be already known. Ever since the revelation in 2 Sam. vii., the Messiah could be conceived of as the Son of David only; compare the words: "Upon the throne of David" in vers. 6 (7), and chap. xi. 1, lv. 3. As the Son of God the Saviour appears as early as in Ps. ii.; and it is to that Psalm that the "God-Hero" alludes, and connects itself. Alluding to the passage before us, we read in John iii. 16: οὕτω γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον

("The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this,") vers. 6 [7], ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν.--When grown up, the Son has the government upon His shoulder. The Prophet contrasts Christ with the world's power, which threatened destruction to the people of God. This, then, refers to the Kingly office of Christ, and the state of glory. Parallel is the declaration of Christ in Matt. xxviii. 18, ἐδόθη μοι πᾶσα ἐξουσία. The Lord has also, in John xviii. 37, confirmed the truth that He is King; and it is upon the ground of His own declaration that Pilate designates Him upon the cross as a King. Although His Kingdom is not of this world, John xviii. 36, it is, just for that very reason, so much the more all-governing. The ἐντεῦθεν in that passage is contrasted with the words "from heaven" in Dan. ii., by which, in that passage, its absolute superiority over all the kingdoms of the world, and its crushing power are declared to be indissolubly connected.--"The shoulder" comes, here also, as in vers. 3 (4), chap. x. 27, into consideration in so far as on it we bear; comp. Gen. xlix. 15; Ps. lxxxi. 7. The bearer of an office has it, as it were, on his shoulders.--The Jewish interpreters, despairing of being able, with any appearance of truth, to apply the following attributes to Hezekiah, insist that, with the exception of the last, they denote Him who calls, not Him who is called: the Wonderful, &c., called him Prince of peace. Altogether apart from the consideration that this is in opposition to the accents, the mentioning of so many names of Jehovah is here quite unsuitable; and, in all other passages, the noun put after שמו קרא

designates always him who is called. Modern Exegesis has tried everything with a view to deprive the names of their deep meaning, in order to adapt them to a Messiah in the ordinary Jewish sense, hence, to do that of which the Jews themselves had already despaired. But, in doing so, they have considered the names too much by themselves, overlooking the circumstance that the full and deeper meaning of the individual attributes, as it at first sight presents itself, must, in the connection in which they here occur, be so much the rather held fast. The names are completed in the number four,--the mark of that which is complete and finished. They form two pairs, and every single name is again compounded of two names. The first name is פלא יועץ. That these two words must be connected with one another (Theodor.--θαυμαστῶς βουλεύων) appears from the analogy of the other names, especially of אל גבּור with whom פלא יועץ forms one pair; and then from the circumstance that יועץ alone would, in this connection, be too indefinite. The words do not stand in the relation of the Status constructus, but are connected in the same manner as פלא אדם in Gen. xvi. 12. יועץ designates the attribute which is here concerned, while פלא points out the supernatural, superhuman degree in which the King possesses this attribute, and the infinite riches of consolation and help which are to be found in such a King. As a Counsellor, He is a Wonder, absolutely elevate d above everything which the earth possesses in excellency of counselling. As פלא commonly denotes "wonder" in the strictest sense (comp. chap. xxv. 1: "I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name, for thou hast done wonders," Ps. lxxvii. 15: "Thou art the God that doest wonders;" Exod. xv. 11); as it here stands in parallelism with אל God; as the whole context demands that we should take the words in their full meaning;--we can consider it only as an arbitrary weakening of the sense, that several interpreters explain פלא יועץ "extraordinary Counsellor." Parallel is Judges xiii. 18 where the Angel of the Lord, after having announced the birth of Samson, says: "Why askest thou thus after my name?--it is wonderful," פלאי, i.e., my whole nature is wonderful, of unfathomable depth, and cannot, therefore, be expressed by any human name. Farther--Revel. xix. 12 is to be compared, where Christ has a name written that no man knows but He himself, to intimate the immeasurable glory of His nature. That which is here, in the first instance, said of a single attribute of the King, applies, at the same time, to all others, holds true of His whole nature; the King is a Wonder as a Counsellor, because His whole person is wonderful. A proof, both of the connection of the two words, and against the weakening of the sense, is afforded by the parallel passage, chap. xxviii. 29, where it is said of the Most High God הפליא עצה, "He shows himself wonderful in His counsel."--The second name is אל גבּור "God-Hero." Besides the ability of giving good counsel, a good government requires also גבורה strength, heroic power: comp. chap. xi. 2, according to which the spirit of counsel and strength rest upon the Messiah. What may not be expected from a King who not only, like a David in a higher degree, possesses the greatest human measure of heroic strength, but who is also a God-Hero, and a Hero-God, so that with His appearance there disappears completely the contrast of the invisible Head of the people of God, and of His visible substitute,--a contrast which so often manifested itself, to the great grief of the covenant-people? The God-Hero forms the contrast to a human hero whose heroic might is, after all, always limited, אל גבור can signify God-Hero only, a Hero who is infinitely exalted above all human heroes by the circumstance that He is God. To the attempts at weakening the import of the name, chap. x. 21, where אל גבור is said of the Most High, appears a very inconvenient obstacle,--a parallel passage which does not occur by chance, but where שאר ישוב stands with an intentional reference to chap. vii.: "The remnant shall return, the remnant of Jacob, unto the Hero-God," who is furnished with invincible strength for His people; comp. Ps. xxiv. 8: "The Lord strong and a hero, the Lord a hero of war." The older Rationalistic exposition endeavoured to set aside the deity of the Messiah by the explanation: "strong hero." So also did Gesenius. This explanation, against which chap. x. 21 should have warned, has been for ever set aside by the remark of Hitzig: "Commonly, in opposition to all the usus loquendi, the word is translated by: strong hero. But אל is always, even in passages such as Gen. xxxi. 29, "God," and in all those passages which are adduced to prove that it means "princeps," "potens," the forms are to be derived not from אל, but from איל, which properly means 'ram,' then 'leader,' 'prince.'" By this explanation, especially the passage Ezek. xxxii. 21, which had formerly been appealed to in support of the translation "strong hero," is set aside; for the אלי גבּורים of that passage are "rams of heroes." Rationalistic interpreters now differ in their attempts at getting rid of the troublesome fact. Hitzig says, "Strong God"--he erroneously views גבּור, which always means "hero," as an adjective--"the future deliverer is called by the oriental not strictly separating the Divine and human, and He is called so by way of exaggeration, in so far as He possesses divine qualities." A like opinion is expressed by Knobel: "Strong God the Messiah is called, because in the wars with the Gentiles He will prove himself as a hero equipped with divine strength."

The expression proves a divine nature as little as when in Ps. lxxxii. 1-6, comp. John x. 34, 35, kings are, in general, called אלהים, "gods, Like God, to be compared to Him, a worthy representative of Him, and hence, likewise, called God." It is true that there is one אל גבּור only, and that, according to chap. x. 21, the Messiah cannot be אל גבּור beside the Most High God, excepting by partaking in his nature. Such a participation in the nature, not His being merely filled with the power of God, is absolutely required to explain the expression. It is true that in the Law of Moses all those who have to command or to judge, all those to whom, for some reason or other, respect or reverence is due, are consecrated as the representatives of God on earth; e.g., a court of justice is of God, and he who appears before it appears before God. But the name Elohim is there given in general only to the judicial court, which represents God--to the office, not to the single individuals who are invested with it. In Ps. lxxxii. 1, the name Elohim in the expression: "He judgeth among the gods" is given to the single, judging individual; comp. also ver. 6; but this passage forms an isolated exception. To explain, from it, the passage before us is inadmissible, even from chap. x. 21, where אל גבּור stands in its fullest sense. It must not be overlooked that that passage in Ps. lxxxii. belongs to higher poetry; that the author himself there mitigates in ver. 6, in the parallel member, the strength of the expression: "I have said ye are Elohim, and sons of the Most High ye all;" and, finally, that there Elohim is used as the most vague and general name of God, while here El, a personal name, is used. Hendewerk, Ewald, and others, finally, explain "God's hero," i.e., "a divine hero, who, like an invincible God, fights and conquers." But in opposition to this view, it has been remarked by Meier that then necessarily the words ought to run, גבור אל. It is farther obvious that by this explanation the גבור אל

here is, in a manner not to be admitted, disconnected and severed from those passages where it occurs as an attribute of the Most High God; comp. besides chap. x. 21; Deut. x. 17; Jer. xxxii. 18.

The third name is Father of eternity. That admits of a double explanation. Several interpreters refer to the Arabic usus loquendi, according to which he is called the father of a thing who possesses it; e.g., Father of mercy, i.e., the merciful one. This usus loquendi, according to the supposition formerly very current, occurs in Hebrew very frequently, especially in proper names, e.g., טוב אבי. "Father of goodness," i.e., the good one. According to this view. Father of eternity would be equivalent to Eternal one. According to the opinion of others. Father of eternity is he who will ever be a Father, an affectionate provider, comp. chap. xxii. 21, where Eliakim is called "Father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;" Job xxix. 16; Ps. lxviii. 6. Luther, too, thus explains: "Who at all times feeds His Kingdom and Church, in whom there is a fatherly love without end." The latter view is to be preferred unconditionally. Against the former view is the circumstance that all the other names stand in direct reference to the salvation of the covenant-people, while, in the mere eternity, this reference would not distinctly enough appear. And it has farther been rightly remarked by Ewald, that that usus loquendi in Arabic always belongs to the artificial, often to jocular discourse. Whether it occur in Hebrew at all is still a matter of controversy; Ewald, § 27, denies that it occurs in proper names also. On the other hand, the paternal love, the rich kindness and mercy, exceedingly well suit the first two names which indicate unfathomable wisdom, and divine heroic strength. The rationalistic interpreters labour very hard to weaken the idea of eternity. But the "Provider for life"

agrees very ill with the Wonder-Counsellor, and the God-hero. The absolute eternity of the Messiah's dominion is, on the foundation of 2 Sam. vii., most emphatically declared in other passages also (comp. vol. i., p. 132, 133), and meets us here again immediately in the following verse. The name Ever-Father, too, leads us to divine Majesty, comp. chap. xlv. 17: "Israel is saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation; ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded in all eternity" chap. lvii. 15, where God is called שכן עד "the ever dwelling;" farther, Ps. lxviii. 6: "A Father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows is God in His holy habitation," where the providence of God for the personae miserabiles is praised with a special reference to that which He does for His poor people.--Hitzig's explanation: "Father of prey," does not suit the prophetic style, and has, in general, no analogy from Hebrew to adduce in its favour. The circumstance that, in the verse immediately following, the eternity of the government is mentioned, shows that עד must be taken in its ordinary signification "eternity."

The fourth name, Prince of peace, stands purposely at the end, and is to be considered as strongly emphatic. War, hostile oppression, the distress of the servitude which threatens the people of God,--these are the things which, in the first instance, have directed the Prophet's eye to the Messiah. The name points back to Solomon who typified Christ's dominion of peace, and who himself, in the Song of Solomon, transfers his name to Christ (comp. my Comment. S. 1 ff.); then to the Shiloh, Gen. xlix. 10 (comp. vol. i, 84, 85). We should misunderstand the name were we to infer from it that, in the Messianic time, all war should cease. Were such to be the case, why is it that, immediately before, the Redeemer is designated as God-Hero? Peace is the aim; it is offered to all the nations in Christ; but those who reject it, who rise up against His Kingdom, He throws down, as the God-Hero, with a powerful hand, and obtains by force peace for His people. But war, as far as it takes place, is carried on in a form different from that which existed under the Old dispensation. According to Micah v. 9 (10), ff., the Lord makes His people outwardly defenceless, before they become in Christ world-conquering; comp. vol. i., p. 515. According to chap. xi. 4, Christ smiteth the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He slayeth the wicked.

Ver. 6 (7.) "To the increase of the government and to the peace, there is no end, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, so that he establisheth it, and supporteth it by justice and righteousness, from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall perform this."

There is no reason for connecting this verse with the preceding one; in which case the sense would be: "For the increase of government and for peace without end." For chap. ii. 7; Nah. ii. 10; Job. xvi. 3--in which ל with קץ occurs in the very same sense--clearly show that the ל in לשלום and למרבה may very well be understood as a mere sign of the Dative. And the objection that the following להכין, &c. would, in that case, be unsuitable, is removed if it be explained: so that He establisheth, &c., or: by His establishing, &c.; comp. Ewald, Lehrbuch der Hebr. Sprache § 280 d. The words designate the basis on which the increase of government and the peace rest. The Kingdom of God will, through the Redeemer, acquire an ever increasing extent, and, along with it, perfect peace shall be enjoyed by the world. For it is not by rude force that this kingdom is to be founded and established, as is the case with worldly kingdoms, in which increase of government and peace, far from being always connected, are, on the contrary, irreconcilable opponents, but by justice and righteousness. Parallel is Ps. lxvii. In vers. 11-15 of that Psalm, the Psalmist just points to that "by which all nations and kings are induced to do homage to that king; it is just that which, in the whole Psalm, appears as the root of everything else, viz., the absolute justice of the king." Decrease of government and war without end were, meanwhile, in prospect, and they were so, because those who were sitting on the throne of David did not support his kingdom by justice and righteousness. But the Psalmist intimates to the trembling minds that such is not the end of the ways of God with His people; that at last the idea of the Kingdom of God will be realized. From the fundamental passage, Ps. lxxii. 8-11, and parallel passages, such as chap. ii. 2, 4; Mic. v. 3 (4); Zech. ix. 10, it is obvious that, as regards the endless increase of the government, the Prophet thinks of all the nations of the earth. On the peace without end, comp. Ps. lxxii. 7; chap. ii. 4; Mic. v. 4 (5), and the words: "He speaketh peace unto the heathen," Zech. ix. 10. The ל designates the substratum on which the increase of dominion and the peace manifest themselves; the dominion of the Davidic family and its kingdom gain infinitely in extent, and in the same degree peace also increases. In these words the Prophet gives an intimation that the Messiah will proceed from David's family, comp. chap. xi. 1 where he designates Him as the twig of Jesse.--הכין "to confirm," "to establish," used of throne and kingdom, 1 Sam. xiii. 13, comp. 14; 1 Kings ii. 12, comp. ver. 24, and farther, chap. xvi. 5.--The words: "from henceforth even for ever" do not, as Umbreit supposes, refer to every thing in this verse, but to the words immediately preceding. That the words must be understood in their full sense, we have already proved in our remarks on the fundamental passage, 2 Sam. vii. 13: "And I will establish the throne of His kingdom for ever;" see Vol. i. p. 131. Michaelis says: "So that that promise to David shall never fail." The עתה does not refer to the actual, but to the ideal present, to the first appearance of the Redeemer, to the words: "Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government is upon His shoulder."--This great change is brought about by the zeal of the Lord who raises this glorious King to His people; comp. John iii. 16. The zeal in itself is only energy; the sphere of its exercise is, in every instance, determined by the context. In Exod. xv. 5; Deut. iv. 24; Nah. i. 2, the zeal is the energy of wrath. In the passage before us, as in the Song of Solomon viii. 6, and in chap. xxxvii. 32: "For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and escaped ones out of Mount Zion; the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this," the zeal of God means the energetic character of His love to Zion.

We must, in conclusion, still make a few remarks, on the interpretation of vers. 5 and 6. The older interpreters were unanimous in referring these verses to the Messiah. Even by the Jews, this explanation was abandoned at a subsequent period only. To the Messiah this passage is referred by the Chaldean Paraphrast, by the Commentary on Genesis known by the name Breshith Rabbah in the exposition of Genesis xli. 44 (see Raim. Martini Pugio fidei, Vol. iii. sec. 3, chap. xiv. § 6), by Rabbi Jose Galilaeus in the book Ekha Rabbati, a Commentary on Lamentations (see Raim. Matt. iii. 3 chap. 4, § 13). Ben Sira (fol. 40 ed., Amstel. 1679), mentions among the eight names of the Messiah, the following from the passage before us: Wonderful, Counsellor, El Gibbor, Prince of Peace. But the late Jewish interpreters found it objectionable that the Messiah, in opposition to their doctrinal views, was here described as God; for doctrinal reasons, therefore, they gave up the received interpretation, and sought to adapt the passage to Hezekiah. Among these, however, Rabbi Lipmann allows the Messianic explanation to a certain degree to remain. Acknowledging that the prophecy could not refer exclusively to Hezekiah, he extends it to all the successors from the House of David, including the Messiah, by whom it is to attain its most perfect fulfilment. Among Christian interpreters, Grotius was the first to abandon the Messianic explanation. Even Clericus acknowledges that the predicates are applicable to Hezekiah "sensu admodum diluto" only. At the time when Rationalism had the ascendancy, it became pretty current to explain them of Hezekiah. Gesenius modified this view by supposing that the Prophet had connected his Messianic wishes and expectations with Hezekiah, and expected their realization by him. At present this view is nearly abandoned; after Gesenius, Hendewerk is the only one who still endeavours to defend it.

Against the application to Hezekiah even this single argument is decisive, that a glory is here spoken of, which is to be bestowed especially upon Galilee which belonged to the kingdom of the ten tribes. Farther--Although the prophecy be considered as a human foreboding only, how could the Prophet, to whom, everywhere else such a sharp eye is ascribed, that, from it, they endeavour to explain his fulfilled prophecies,--how could the Prophet have expected that Hezekiah, who was at that time a boy of about nine years of age, and who appeared under such unfavourable circumstances, should realize the hopes which he here utters in reference to the world's power, should conquer that power definitively and for ever, should infinitely extend his kingdom, and establish an everlasting dominion? How could he have ascribed divine attributes to Hezekiah who, in his human weakness, stood before him? Finally--The undeniable agreement of the prophecy before us with other Messianic passages, especially with Ps. lxxii. and Is. xi., where even Gesenius did not venture to maintain the reference to Hezekiah, is decidedly in opposition to the reference to Hezekiah.

[THE TWIG OF JESSE.]

(Chap. xi., xii.)

These chapters constitute part of a larger whole which begins with chap. x. 5. With regard to the time of the composition of this discourse, it appears, from chap. x. 9-11, that Samaria was already conquered. The prophecy, therefore, cannot be prior to the sixth year of Hezekiah. On the other hand, the defeat of the Assyrian host, which, under Sennacherib, invaded Judah, is announced as being still future. The prophecy, accordingly, falls into the period between the 6th and the 14th year of Hezekiah's reign. From the circumstance that in it the king of Asshur is represented as being about to march against Jerusalem, it is commonly inferred that it was uttered shortly before the destruction of the Assyrian host, and hence, belongs to the fourteenth year of Hezekiah. But this ground is not very safe. It would certainly be overlooking the liveliness with which the prophets beheld and represented future things as present; it would be confounding the ideal Present with the actual, if we were to infer from vers. 28-32 that the Assyrian army must already have reached the single stations mentioned there. The utmost that we are entitled to infer from this liveliness of description is, that the Assyrian army was already on its march; but not even that can be inferred with certainty. In favour of the immediate nearness of the danger, however, is the circumstance that, in the prophecy, the threatening is kept so much in the background; that, from the outset, it is comforting and encouraging, and begins at once with the announcement of Asshur's destruction, and Judah's deliverance. This seems to suggest that the place which, everywhere else, is occupied by the threatening, was here taken by the events themselves; so that of the two enemies of salvation, proud security and despair, the latter only was here to be met. The prophecy before us opens the whole series of the prophecies out of the 14th year of Hezekiah, the most remarkable year of the Prophet's life, rich in the revelations of divine glory, in which his prophecy flowed in full streams, and spread on all sides.

The prophecy divides itself into two parts. The first, chap. x. 5-34, contains the threatening against Asshur, who was just preparing to inflict the deadly blow upon the people of God. The fact that in chap. xi. we have not an absolutely new beginning before us, sufficiently appears from the general analogy, according to which, as a rule, the Messianic prophecy does not begin the prophetical discourse; but still more clearly from the circumstance that chap. xi. begins with "and;" to which argument may still be added the fact that the figure in the first verse of this chapter evidently refers to the figure in the last verse of the preceding chapter. Asshur had there been represented as a stately forest which was to be cut down by the hand of the Lord; while here the house of David appears as a stem cut down, from the roots of which a small twig shall come forth, which, although unassuming at first, is to grow up into a fruit-bearing tree. The purpose of the whole discourse was to strengthen and comfort believers on the occasion of Asshur's inroad into the country; to bring it home to the convictions of those who were despairing of the Kingdom of God, that He who is in the midst of them is greater than the world with all its apparent power; and thereby to awaken and arouse them to resign themselves entirely into the hands of their God. It is for this purpose that the Prophet first describes the catastrophe of Asshur; that, then, in chap. xi., he points to the highest glorification which in future is destined for the Church of God by the appearance of Christ, in order that she may the more clearly perceive that every fear regarding her existence is folly.

The connection of the two passages appears so much the more plainly when we consider, that that which, in chap. x., was said of Asshur, and especially the close in vers. 33 and 34: "Behold Jehovah of hosts cuts down the branches with power, and those of a high stature shall be hewn down, and the high ones shall be made low. And He cuts down the thickets of the forest with the iron, and Lebanon shall fall by the glorious one,"

refers to him as the representative of the whole world's power; that the defeat of Sennacherib before Jerusalem is to be considered as the nearest fulfilment only, but not as the full and real fulfilment.

From the family of David sunk into total obscurity--such is the substance--there shall, at some future period, rise a Ruler who, at first low and without appearance, shall attain to great glory and bestow rich blessings,--a Ruler furnished with the fulness of the Spirit of God and of His gifts, filled with the fear of God, looking sharply and deeply, and not blinded by any appearance, just and an helper of the oppressed, an almighty avenger of wickedness, ver. 1-5. By him all the consequences of the fall, even down to the irrational creation, in the world of men and of nature, shall be removed, ver. 6-9. Around Him the Gentiles, formerly addicted to idols, shall gather, ver. 10. In ver. 11-16 the Prophet describes what he is to do for Israel, to whom the discourse was in the first instance addressed, and upon whom it was to impress the word: "Fear not." Under Him they obtain deliverance from the condition of being scattered and exiled from the face of the Lord, the removal of pernicious dissensions, conquering power in relation to the world which assails them, and the removal of all obstacles to salvation by the powerful arm of the Lord.

The reference of the prophecy to the Messiah is, among all the explanations, the most ancient. We find it in the Targum of Jonathan, who thus renders the first verse: ויפק מלכא מבנוהי דישי ומשיחא מבני בנוהי יתרבי. St. Paul quotes this prophecy in Rom. xv. 12, and proves from it the calling of the Gentiles. In 2 Thes. ii. 8 he quotes the words of ver. 4, and assigns to Christ what is said in it. In Rev. v. 5, xxii. 16, Christ, with reference to ver. 1 and 10, is called the root of David. The Messianic explanation was defended by most of the older Jewish interpreters, especially by Jarchi, Abarbanel, and Kimchi.^[1] It is professed even by most of the rationalistic interpreters, by the modern ones especially, without any exception (Eichhorn, De Wette, Gesenius, Hitzig, Maurer, Ewald), although, it is true, they distinguish between Jesus Christ and the Messiah of the Old Testament,--as, e.g., Gesenius has said: "Features such as those in ver. 4 and 5 exclude any other than the political Messiah, and King of the Israelitish state," and Hitzig: "A political Messiah whose attributes, especially those assigned to him ver. 3 and 4, are not applicable to Jesus."

But the non-Messianic interpretation, too, has found its defenders. According to a statement of Theodoret, the passage was referred by the Jews to Zerubbabel.^[2] Interpreters more numerous and distinguished have referred it to Hezekiah. This interpretation is mentioned as early as by Ephraem Syrus; among the Rabbis it was held by Moses Hakkohen, and Abenezra; among Christian interpreters, Grotius was the first who professed it, but in such a manner that he assumed a higher reference to Christ. ("The Prophet returns to praise Hezekiah in words under which the higher praises of Christ are concealed.") He was followed by Dathe. The exclusive reference to Hezekiah was maintained by Hermann v. d. Hardt, in a treatise published in 1695, which, however, was confiscated; then, by a number of interpreters at the commencement of the age of Rationalism, at the head of whom was Bahrdt. Among the expositors of the last decade, this interpretation is held by Hendewerk alone.

The reasons for the Messianic interpretation, and against making Hezekiah the subject of the prophecy, are, among others, the following:--

1. The comparison of the parallel passages. The Messiah is here represented under the figure of a shoot or sprout. This has become so common, as a designation of the Messiah, that the name "Sprout" has almost become a proper name of the Messiah; compare the remarks on chap. iv. 2. A striking resemblance to ver. 1 is presented by chap. lviii. 2, where the Messiah, to express His lowliness at the beginning of His course, is, in the same manner as here, compared to a feeble and tender twig. Ps. lxxii. and the prophecies in chap. ii., iv., vii., ix., and Mic. v., present so many agreements and coincidences with the prophecy under consideration, that they must necessarily be referred to one and the same subject. The reception of the Gentile nations into the Kingdom of God, the holiness of its members, the cessation of all hostilities, are features which constantly recur in the Messianic prophecies.

2. There are features interwoven with the prophecy which lead to a more than human dignity of its subject. Even this circumstance is of importance here, that the whole earth appears as the sphere of His dominion. Still more distinctly is the human sphere overstepped by the announcement that, under His government, sin, yea, even all destruction in the outward nature is to cease, and the earth is to return to the happy condition in which it was before the fall. According to ver. 4, He slays the wicked in the whole earth by His mere word,--a thing which elsewhere is said of God only; and according to ver. 10, the heathen shall render Him religious reverence.

3. A future scion of David is here promised. For ויצא in ver. 1 must be taken as a praeteritum propheticum, as is evident from its being connected with the preceding chapter, which has to do with future things, and in which the preterites have a prophetic meaning; as also by the analogy of the following preterites from which this can by no means be separated. But at the time when this prophecy was composed, Hezekiah had long ago entered upon the government.

4. The circumstances under which the Prophet makes the King appear are altogether different from those at the time of Hezekiah. According to ver. 1 and 10, the royal house of David would have entirely declined, and sunk into the obscurity of private life, at the time when the Promised One would appear. The Messiah is there represented as a tender twig which springs forth from the roots of a tree cut down. In the circumstance, too, that the stem is not called after David, but after Jesse, it is intimated that the royal family is then to have sunk back into the obscurity of private life. This does not apply to Hezekiah, under whom the Davidic dynasty maintained its dignity, but to Christ only. Farther: In ver. 11 there is an announcement of the return of not only the members of the kingdom of the ten tribes, but also of the members of the kingdom of Judah from all the countries in which they were dispersed. This must refer to a far later time than that of Hezekiah; for at his time no carrying away of the inhabitants of Judah had taken place. This argument is conclusive also against the false modified Messianic explanation as it has been advanced by Ewald, according to which the Prophet is supposed to have expected that the Messiah would appear immediately after the judgment upon the Assyrians, and after the conversion and reform of those in the Church who had been spared in the judgment. The facts mentioned show that between the appearance of the Messiah, and the Present and immediate Future, there lay to the Prophet still a wide interval in which an entire change of the present state of things was to take place. Ver. 11 is here of special importance. For this verse opens up to us the prospect of a whole series of catastrophes to be inflicted upon Israel by the world's powers, all of which are already to have taken place at the time of the King's appearance, and which lay beyond the historical horizon at the time of the Prophet.

A certain amount of truth, indeed, lies at the foundation of the explanation which refers the prophecy to Hezekiah. The fundamental thought of the prophecy before us: "The exaltation of the world's power, is a prophecy of its abasement; the abasement of the Davidic Kingdom is a prophecy of its exaltation," was, in a prelude, to be realized even at that time. But the Prophet does not limit himself to these feeble beginnings. He points to the infinitely greater realization of this idea in the distant future, where the abasement should be much deeper, but the exaltation also infinitely higher. To him who had first, by a living faith, laid hold of Christ's appearance, it must be easy, even in the present difficulty, to hope for the lower salvation.

The distinction between the "political Messiah" of the prophecy before us, and "Jesus of Nazareth"--a distinction got up by Rationalism--rests chiefly upon the fact that Rationalism knows Christ as the Son of Man only, and is entirely ignorant of His true eternal Kingdom. Hence a prophecy which, except the intimation, in ver. 1, of His lowliness at first, refers altogether to the glorified Christ, could not but appear as inapplicable. But it is just by ver. 4, to which they chiefly appeal, that a "political Messiah" is excluded; for to such an one the words: "He smiteth the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He slayeth the wicked" do not in the least apply. And so likewise vers. 6-9 altogether go beyond the sphere of a political Messiah, All that at first sight seems to lead to such an one belongs to the imagery which was, and could not fail to be, taken from the predecessors and types on the throne of David, since Christ was to be represented as He in whom the Davidic Kingdom attains to its full truth and glory.

In the whole section, the Redeemer appears as a King. This is altogether a matter of course, for He forms the antithesis to the king of Asshur. It is quite in vain that Umbreit has endeavoured to bring political elements into the description. Thereby the sense is essentially altered. We must keep closely in view the Prophet's starting-point. Before those who were filled with cares and fears, lest the Davidic Kingdom should be overturned by the Assyrian kingdom, he holds up the bright image of the Kingdom of David, in its last completion. When they had received that into their hearts, the king of Asshur could not fail to appear to them in a light altogether different, as a miserable wretch. The giant at once dwindled down into a contemptible dwarf, and with tears still in their eyes they could not avoid laughing at themselves for having stood so much in awe of him.

As is commonly the case in the Messianic prophecies, so here, too, no attention is paid to the development of Christ's Kingdom in time. Everything, therefore, is fulfilled only as to its beginning; and the complete fulfilment still stands out for that future in which, after the fulness of the Gentiles has been brought in, and apostate Israel has been converted, the consequences of the fall shall, in the outward nature also, be removed.

Ver. 1. "And there cometh forth a twig from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit."

The circumstance that the words in the first verse are completed in the number seven, divided into three and four, intimates that the Prophet here enters upon the territory of the revelation of a mystery of the Kingdom of God. Totally different--so the Prophet begins--from the fate of Asshur, just now proclaimed, shall that of the royal house of David be. Asshur shall be humbled at a time when he is most elevated. Lebanon falls through the mighty One: but the house of David shall be exalted at a time when he is most humbled. Who then would tremble and be afraid, although it go downward? Luther says: "This is a short summary of the whole of theology and of the works of God, that Christ did not come till the trunk had died, and was altogether in a hopeless condition; that hence, when all hope is gone, we are to believe that it is the time of salvation, and that God is then nearest when He seems to be farthest off!" The same contrast appears in Ezek. xvii. 24. The Lord brings down the high tree of the world's power, and exalts the low tree of the Davidic house. The word גזע does not mean "stem" in general, as several rationalistic interpreters, and Meier last, have asserted, but rather stump, truncus, κορμός, as Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, translate. This is proved from the following reasons: (1) the derivation from גזע, in Arabic secuit, equivalent to גדע, "to cut off," chap. ix. 9; x. 33. The גדעים in latter passage clearly refers to the גזע here. The proud trees of Asshur shall be cut down; from the cut down trunk of David there shall grow up a new tree overshadowing the earth, and offering glorious fruits to them that dwell on it.--(2) The usus loquendi. The signification, "stump," is, by the context, required in the two passages in which the word גזע still occurs. In Job xiv. 8, it is obvious. The whole passage there from vers. 7-9 illustrates the figurative representation in the verse under review. "For there is hope of a tree; if it be cut down it will sprout again, and its tender branch does not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stump thereof die in the dust, through the scent of waters it buds, and brings forth boughs, like one newly planted." We have here the figure of our verse carried out. That which water is to the natural tree decaying, the Spirit and grace of God are to the dying tree, cut down to the very roots, of the Davidic family. In the second passage. Is. xl. 23, 24, it is only by a false interpretation that גזע has been understood of the stem in general. "He bringeth princes to nothing, He destroyeth the kings of the earth. They are not planted; they are not sown; their stump does not take root in the earth." The Prophet, having previously proved God's elevation over the creature, from the creation and preservation of the world, now proves it from the nothingness of all that which on earth has the greatest appearance of independent power. It costs Him no effort to destroy all earthly greatness which places itself in opposition to Him. He blows on them, and they have disappeared without leaving any trace. If God's will be not with it, princes will not attain to any firm footing and prosperity (they are not planted and sown); they are like a cut-down stem which has no more power to take root in the earth. A tree not planted dries up; corn not sown does not produce fruit; a cut down tree does not take root.--(3.) The connection. In the second member of the verse we read: "A branch from his roots shall bear fruit." Unless we mean to adopt the altogether unsuitable expedient of explaining it of a wild twig which shoots forth from the roots of a still standing tree, we cannot but think of a stem cut down to the very root. Against the opinion of Hendewerk who remarks: "An indirect shoot from the root which comes forth from the root through the stem;" and against Meier's opinion: "The root corresponds with the stem, and both together form the living tree," it is decisive, that in ver. 10, the Messiah is simply, and without any mention being made of the stem, designated as שרש "a shoot from the root." Farther, chap. liii. 2, where the Messiah is represented as a shoot from the root out of a dry ground.--(4.) It is only when גזע has the meaning, "stump," that it can be accounted for why the גזע of Jesse, and not of David, is spoken of--(5.) The supposition that the Messiah shall be born at the time of the deepest humiliation of the Davidic family, after the entire loss of the royal dignity, pervades all the other prophetical writings. That Micah views the Davidic family as entirely sunk at the time of Christ's appearance, we showed in vol. I. p. 508-9. Compare farther the remarks on Amos ix. 11, and those on Matth. ii. 23 immediately following.--Hitzig is obliged to confess that גזע can designate the cut-off stem only; but maintains that Jesse, as an individual long ago dead, is designated as a cut-off tree. But against this opinion is the relation which, as we proved, exists between this verse and the last verses of the preceding chapter; the undeniable correspondence of גזע with גדעים in chap. x. 33. In that case the antithesis also, so evidently intended by the Prophet, would be altogether lost. It is not by any means a thing so uncommon, that a man who is already dead should have a glorious descendant. To this it may further be added that, according to this supposition, the circumstance is not all accounted for, that Jesse is mentioned, and not David, the royal ancestor, as is done everywhere else. Finally--In this very forced explanation, the parallel passages are altogether left out of view, in which likewise the doctrine is contained that, at the time of Christ's appearance, the Davidic family should have altogether sunk. The reason of all these futile attempts at explaining away the sense so evident and obvious, is none other than the fear of acknowledging in the prophecy an element which goes beyond the territory of patriotic fancy and human knowledge. But this dark fear should here so much the more be set aside, that, according to other passages also, the Prophet undeniably had the knowledge and conviction that Israel's course would be more and more downward before it attained, in Christ, to the full height of its destiny. We need remind only of the prophecies in chap. v. and vi.; and it is so much the more natural here to compare the latter of them, that, in it, in ver. 13, Israel, at the time of the appearing of the Messianic Kingdom, is represented as a felled tree,--a fact which has for its ground the sinking of the Davidic race which is here announced. We farther direct attention to the circumstance that in our prophecy itself, Israel's being carried away into all the countries of the earth is foreseen as future,--a circumstance which is so much the more analogous, that there also, as here, the foreknowledge clothes itself in the form of the supposition and not of express announcement. With regard to the latter point, it may still be remarked that Amos also, in chap. ix. 11, by speaking of the raising up of the tabernacle of David which is fallen, anticipates its future lowliness.--The question still arises:--Why is it that the Messiah is here designated as a rod of Jesse, while elsewhere, His origin is commonly traced back to David? Umbreit is of opinion that the mention of Jesse may be explained from the Prophet's desire to trace the pedigree as far back as possible; in its apparent extinction, the family of the Messiah was to be pointed out as a very old one. But if this had been his intention, he would have gone back beyond Jesse to the older ancestors whom the Book of Ruth mentions; and if he had been so anxious to honour the family of the Messiah, it would, at all events, have been far more suitable to mention David than Jesse, who was only one degree removed from him. The sound view has been long ago given by Calvin, who says: "The Prophet does not mention David; but rather Jesse. For so much was the dignity of that family diminished, that it seemed to be a rustic, ignoble family rather than a royal one." It was appropriate that that family, upon whom was a second time to be fulfilled the declaration in Ps. cxiii. 7, 8: "He raiseth up the poor out of the dust; He lifteth up the needy out of the dunghill, that He may set him with princes, with the princes of His people,"--in which, the second time, the transition should take place from the low condition to the royal dignity, should not be mentioned according to its royal, but according to its rustic character. This explanation of the fact is confirmed by the circumstance that it agrees exceedingly well with the right interpretation of גזע: Jesse is mentioned and not David, because the Davidic dignity had become a גזע. The mention of Jesse's name thus explained, agrees, then, with the birth of Christ at Bethlehem, announced by Isaiah's cotemporary, Micah. Christ was to be born at Bethlehem, because that residence was peculiar to the family of David during its lowliness; comp. vol. I., p. 508-9.--The second hemistich of the verse may either be explained: "a twig from his roots shall bear fruit," or, as agrees better with the accents: "a twig shall from his roots bear fruit." The sense, at all events, is: A shoot proceeding from his roots (i.e., the cut-off stem of Jesse) shall grow up into a stately fruitful tree; or: As a tree cut down throws out from its roots a young shoot which, at first inconsiderable, grows up into a stately fruit-bearing tree, so from the family buried in contempt and lowliness, a King shall arise who, at first humble and unheeded,^[3] shall afterwards attain to great glory. Parallel is Ezek. xvii. 22-24. The Messiah is there compared to a tender twig which is planted by the Lord on a high hill, and sends forth branches and bears fruit, so that all the birds dwell in the shadow of its branches.--It has now become current to explain: "A branch breaks forth or sprouts;" but that explanation is against the usus loquendi. פרה is never equivalent to פרח "to break forth;" it has only the signification "to bear," "to bear fruit," "to be fruitful." Gesenius who, in the later editions of his translation, here explains פרה by, "to break forth," knows, in the Thesaurus, of no other signification. In the passage of Ezekiel referred to, which may be considered as a commentary on the verse before us, עשה פרי corresponds to the יפרה here. The change of the tense, too, suggests that יפרה does not contain a mere repetition, but a progress. This progress is necessary for the sense of the whole verse. For it cannot be the point in question that, in general, a shoot comes forth; but the point is that this shoot shall attain to importance and glory. יפרה comprehends and expresses in one word that which, in the subsequent verses of the section, is carried out in detail. First, there is the bestowal of the Spirit of the Lord whereby He is enabled to bear fruit; then, the fruit-bearing itself.

We here subjoin the discussion of the New Testament passage which refers to this verse.

[ ^[1]] Their testimony is collected by Seb. Edzardi in the treatise: Cap. xi. Esaiae Christo vindicatum adversus Grotium et sectatores ejus, imprimos Herm. v. d. Hardt. Hamburg 1696.

[ ^[2]] "The madness of the Jews is indeed to be lamented who refer this prophecy to Zerubbabel."

[ ^[3]] Although Umbreit denies it, yet this is implied in the designation of the Messiah as a shoot from the roots. Moreover, the lowliness of the Messiah himself at His appearance is a necessary consequence of the lowliness of His family; and it is a bad middle course to acknowledge the latter and deny the former. To this may, moreover, be added the parallel passage Is. liii. 2.]

[ON MATTHEW II. 23.]

Καὶ ἐλθὼν κατῴκησεν εἰς πόλιν λεγομένην Ναζαρέτ· ὅπως πληρωθῇ τὸ ῥηθὲν διὰ τῶν προφητῶν, ὅτι Ναζωραῖος κληθήσεται.

We here premise an investigation as regards the name of the town of Nazareth. Since that name occurs in the New Testament only, different views might arise as to its orthography and etymology. One view is this: The name was properly and originally נצר. Being the name of a town, it received, in Aramean, in addition, the feminine termination א. And, finally, on account of the original appellative signification of the word, a ת, the designation of the status emphaticus of feminine nouns in א, was sometimes added. We have an analogous case in the name Dalmanutha, the same place which, with the Talmudist, is called צַלְמוֹן. Compare Lightfoot decas chorog. Marc. praem., opp. II., p. 411 sqq. So it is likewise probably that γαββαθὰ, גַבְתָא is formed from the masculine גַב, dorsum. Our view is that the original name was Nezer, that this form of the name was in use along with that which received a ת added, and that this ת served for the designation of the status emphaticus only; or also, if we wish to take our stand upon the Hebrew form, was a mere hardening of the ה Femin. (either of which suppositions is equally suitable for our purpose); and this our view we prove by the following arguments: 1. The testimonies of the Jews. David de Pomis (in De Dieu, critic. sacr. on M. II. 23) says: נצרי מי שנולד בעיר נֵצָר הגליל רחוק מירושלים דרך שלשת ימים "A Nazarene is he who is born in the town of Nezer, in Galilee, three days' journey from Jerusalem." In the Talmud, in Breshith Rabba, and in Jalkut Shimeoni on Daniel, the contemptuous name of Ben Nezer, i.e., the Nazarene, is given to Christ; compare the passages in Buxtorf, lex. c. 1383; in Lightfoot, disquis. chorog. Johan. praem. opp. II., 578 sqq.; Eisenmenger, I., p. 3139. It is true, Gieseler (on Matth. ii. 23, and in the Studien u. Kritiken, 1831, III. S. 591) has tried to give a different interpretation to this appellation. He is of opinion that this appellation has reference to Is. xi. 1; that it had come to the Jews from the Christians, who called their Messiah בן נצר, because He was He who had been promised by Isaiah. But this supposition is correct thus far only, that, no doubt, this appellation was chosen by the Jews with a reference to the circumstance that the Christians maintained that Jesus was the נצר announced by Isaiah, just as, for the very same reason, they also assign to Him the names נצר נאפוף "adulterous branch," and נצר נתעב "abominable branch" (from Is. xiv. 19); comp. Eisenmenger I. S. 137, 138. But Gieseler is wrong in deriving, from this reference to Is. xi. 1, the origin of the appellation, be it properly or mainly only. Against that even the very appellation is decisive, for in that case it ought to have been Nezer only, and not Ben-Nezer. Gieseler, it is true, asserts that he in whom a certain prophecy was fulfilled is called the "Son of the prophecy," and in confirmation of this usus loquendi he refers to the circumstance that the pseudo-Messiah under Hadrian assumed, with a reference to the כוכב in Numb. xxiv. 17, the name בן כוכב or בר כוכבא, in so far as the star there promised had appeared in him. But this confirmation is only apparent; it can as little be proved from it, that Christ could be called Ben-Nezer because He was He in whom the prophecy of the Nezer was fulfilled, as it can be proved from the appellation Ben Nezer that that pseudo-Messiah could be called Bar Cochba, only because it was believed that in him the prophecy of the star was fulfilled. Reland has already proved (Geogr. II. p. 727) that Barcochba probably had that name because he was a native of Cocab, a town or district in the country beyond Jordan. And the reason why he laid such special stress upon that descent was, that he sought a deeper meaning in this agreement of the name of his birth-place with the designation of the subject of the prophecy in Numb. xxiv. Moreover the supposition that, by the Jews, he in whom some prophecy was fulfilled, was called the son of that prophecy; that, e.g., the Messiah, the Servant of God, the Prince of Peace were called the Son of the Messiah, &c., is not only destitute of all foundation, but is, even in itself, most improbable. To this must still be added the consideration that this interpretation of Ben-Nezer is opposed by the constant interpretation of the Jews. Jarchi, in a gloss on that passage of the Talmud referred to, explains Ben Nezer by: "He who has come from the town of Nazareth." Abarbanel in his book Majenehajeshua, after having quoted from Jalkut Shimeoni the passage in question, observes: "Remark well how they have explained the little horn in Daniel vii. 8, of the Ben Nezer who is Jesus the Nazarene." From the Lexicon Aruch which forms a weighty authority, Buxtorf quotes: "נצר נצרי המקלל Nezer, (or Ben Nezer), is the accursed Nazarene." Finally--It could not well be supposed that the Jews, in a contest where they heap the most obnoxious blasphemies on Christ, should have given Him an honourable epithet which they had simply received from the Christians.

2. The result which we have obtained is confirmed by the statements of Christian writers. Even at the time of Eusebius (Hist. Eccles. i. 7), and of Jerome, the place was called Nazara. The latter says: "Nazareth: there exists up to this day in Galilee a village opposite Legio, fifteen miles to the east of it, near Mount Tabor, called Nazara" (comp. Reland i. S. 497). In Epistol. xvii. ad Marcellum he expressly identifies the name with Nezer, by saying: "Let us go to Nazareth, and according to a right interpretation of that name, we shall see there the flower of Galilee."

3. To this may be added, that the Gentilitia formed from Nazareth can be explained only when the ת is not considered as belonging to the original form of the name. For, in that case, it must necessarily be found again in the Gentilitia, just as, e.g., from ענתת we could not by any means form ענתי, but only ענתתי. In the New Testament the two forms Ναζωραῖος and Ναζαρηνὸς only occur, never the form Ναζαρεταῖος. Gieseler has felt the difficulty which these names present to the common hypothesis, but has endeavoured (l. c. p. 592) to remove them by the conjecture that this form, so very peculiar, had been coined by a consideration of נצר which the first Christians were accustomed to bring into connection with נצרת. But this conjecture would, at most, be admissible, only if, with the Jews too, the form נצרי were not found throughout without a ת, and if the Arabic form also were not entirely analogous.^[1]

The question now is:--In what sense was נצר assigned as a nomen proprium to a place in Galilee? Certainly, we must at once reject the supposition of Jerome that Nazareth was thus called, as being "the flower of Galilee," partly because נצר never occurs in this signification; partly because it is not conceivable that the place received a name which is due to it κατʼ ἀντί φρασιν only. It is much more probable that the place received the name on account of its smallness: a weak twig in contrast to a stately tree. In this signification נצר occurs in Is. xi. 1, xiv. 19, and in the Talmudical usus loquendi where נצרים signifies "virgulta salicum decorticata, vimina ex quibus corbes fiunt." There was so much the greater reason for giving the place this name that people had the symbol before their eyes in its environs; for the chalk-hills around Nazareth are over-grown with low bushes (comp. Burkhardt II. s. 583). That which these bushes were when compared with the stately trees which adorned other parts of the country, Nazareth was when compared with other cities.

This nomen given to the place on account of its small beginnings, resembling, in this respect, the name of Zoar, i.e., a small town, was, at the same time, an omen of its future condition. The weak twig never grew up into a tree. Nowhere in the Old Testament is Nazareth mentioned, probably because it was built only after the return from the captivity. Neither is it mentioned in Josephus. It was not, like most of the other towns in Palestine, ennobled by any recollection from the olden times. Yea, as it would appear, a special contempt was resting upon it, besides the general contempt in which all Galilee was held; just as every land has some place to which a disgrace attaches, which has often been called forth by causes altogether trifling. This appears not only from the question of Nathanael, in John i. 47: "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" but also from the fact, that from the most ancient times the Jews thought to inflict upon Christ the greatest disgrace, by calling Him the Nazarene, whilst, in later times, the disgrace which rested on all Galilee was removed by the circumstance that the most celebrated Jewish academy, that of Tiberias, belonged to it.

Let us now examine in how far Christ's abode at Nazareth served the purpose of fulfilling the Old Testament prophecy. It is, throughout, the doctrine of the prophets, that the Messiah, descending from the family of David, sunk into utter lowliness, would at first appear without any outward rank and dignity. The fundamental type for all other passages here concerned is contained in that passage of Is. xi. 1, now under consideration: "And there cometh forth a twig from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit," which is strikingly illustrated in the following words of Quenstedt, in his Dissertatio de Germine Jehovae, in the Thesaurus theol. philol. I. p. 1015:

"The stem of Jesse which, from low beginnings, was, in David, raised to the glory of royal majesty, shall then not only be deprived of all royal dignity, and all outward splendour which it received in David, but shall again have been reduced to the private condition in which it was before David; so that it shall present the appearance of a stem deprived of all boughs and foliage, and having nothing left but the roots; nevertheless out of that stem thus reduced and cut off, and, as it appeared, almost dry, shall come forth a royal rod, and out of its roots shall grow the twig upon whom shall rest the Spirit of the Lord," &c. Quite in harmony with this, it is said in chap. liii. 2: "He grew up before the Lord as a tender twig, and as a root out of a dry ground." To נצר, in chap. xi., corresponds יונק in chap. liii.; to חטר the שרש; to the cut-off stem the dry land, with this difference, however, that by the latter designation, the low condition of the Servant of God, generally, is indicated; but His descent from the family of David sunk in lowliness, is not specially pointed at thereby, although it is necessarily implied in it. The same thought is further carried out in Ezek. xvii. 22-24. As the descendant of the family of David sank in lowliness, the Messiah appears in that passage as a small tender twig which is taken by the Lord from a high cedar, and, being planted upon a high mountain, growls up into a lofty tree, under which all the fowls dwell. In Jeremiah and Zechariah, the Messiah, with reference to the image of a cut-off tree used by Isaiah, is called the Sprout of David, or simply the Sprout; compare remarks on Zech. iii. 8, vi. 12. All that is here required is certainly only to place beside one another, on the one hand, prophecy, and, on the other, history, in order clearly and evidently to point out the fulfilment of the former in the latter. It was not at Jerusalem, where there was the seat of His royal ancestor, where there were the thrones of His house (comp. Ps. cxxii.), that the Messiah took up his residence; but it was in the most despised place of the most despised province that, by divine Providence, He received His residence, after the predictions of the prophets had been fulfilled by His having been born at Bethlehem. The name of that place by which His lowliness was designated was the same as that by which Isaiah had designated the lowliness of the Messiah at His appearing.

We have hitherto considered prophecy and fulfilment independently of the quotation by St. Matthew. Let us now add a few remarks upon the latter.

1. It seems not to have been without reason that the wider formula of quotation: τὸ ῥηθὲν διὰ τῶν προφητῶν is here chosen, although Jerome infers too much from it when he remarks: "If he had wished to refer to a distinct quotation from Scripture, he would never have said: 'As was spoken by the prophets,' but simply, 'as was said by the prophet.' By using prophets in the plural, he shows that it is the sense, and not the words which he has taken from Scripture." No doubt St. Matthew has one passage chiefly in view--that in Is. xi. 1, which, besides the general announcement of the Messiah's lowliness, contains, in addition, a special designation of it which is found again in the nomen and omen of his native place. This appears especially from the circumstance that, if it were otherwise, the quotation: in ὅτι Ναζωραῖος κληθήσεται, would be inexplicable, since it is very forced to suppose that "Nazarene" here designates generally one low and despised.^[2] But he chose the general formula of quotation (comp. Gersdorf, Beiträge zur Sprachcharacteristik 1. S. 136), in order thereby to intimate that in Christ's residence at Nazareth those prophecies, too, were at the same time fulfilled, which, in the essential point--in the announcement of Christ's lowliness--agree with that of Isaiah. But it is just this additional reference which shows that, to Matthew, this was indeed the essential point, and that the agreement of the name of the town with the name which Christ has in Isaiah, appears to him only as a remarkable outward representation of the close connection of prophecy and fulfilment; just as, indeed, every thing in the life of Christ appears to be brought about by the special direction of Divine providence.

2. The phrase ὅτι κληθήσεται likewise is explained from the circumstance that Matthew does not restrict himself to the passage Is. xi. 1, but takes in, at the same time, all those other passages which have a similar meaning. From among them, it was from Zech. vi. 12: "Behold a man whose name is the Sprout,"

that the phrase ὅτι κληθήσεται flowed. There is hence no necessity for explaining this circumstance solely from the custom of the later Jews,^[3] of claiming as the names of the Messiah all those expressions by which, in the Old Testament, His nature is designated, inasmuch as, in doing so, they followed the custom of the prophets themselves, who frequently bring forward as the name of the Messiah that which is merely one of His attributes. This hypothesis is inadmissible, because otherwise it would be difficult to point out any case in which the Evangelists had not admixed something of their own with a quotation which they announced as a literal one.

Ver. 2. "And the Spirit of the Lord resteth upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord."

The Spirit of the Lord is the general, the principle; and the subsequent terms are the single forms in which he manifests himself, and works. But, on the other hand, in a formal point of view, the Spirit of the Lord is just co-ordinate with the Spirit of wisdom, &c. Some, indeed, explain: the Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of, &c.; but that this is inadmissible appears with sufficient evidence from the circumstance that, by such a view, the sacred number, seven, is destroyed, which, with evident intention, is completed in the enumeration; compare the seven spirits of God in Rev. i. 4. To have the Spirit is the necessary condition of every important and effective ministry in the Kingdom of God, from which salvation is to come forth; comp. Num. xxvii. 18. It is especially the blessed administration of the regal office which depends upon the possession of the Spirit; comp. 1 Sam. xvi. 13 ff. where it is said of David: "And Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him: and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him from that day forward;" comp. 1 Sam. x. 6, 10. The circumstance that the Spirit of the Lord resteth upon the Messiah does not form a contradiction to His divine nature, which is intimated by his being born of the Virgin, chap. vii. 14, by the name אל גבור in chap. ix. 5, and elsewhere (comp. Vol. I., p. 490, 491), and is witnessed even in this prophecy itself; but, on the contrary, the pouring out of the Spirit fully and not by measure (John iii. 39) which is here spoken of, implies the divine nature. In order to receive the Spirit of God in such a measure that He could baptize with the Holy Spirit (John i. 33), that out of His fulness all received (John i. 16), that, in consequence of His fulness of the Spirit overflowing from Him to the Church, the earth could be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters covering the sea (ver. 9), He could not but be highly exalted above human nature. It was just because they remained limited to the insufficient substratum of human nature, that even the best kings, that even David, the man after God's own heart, received the Spirit in a scanty measure only, and were constantly in danger of losing again that which they possessed, as is shown by David's pitiful prayer: "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me" (Ps. li. 13). It was just for this reason, therefore, that the theocracy possessed in the kings a very sufficient organ of its realization, and that the stream of the divine blessings could not flow freely. In Matt. iii. 16: καὶ εἶδε τὸ πνεῦμα θεοῦ καταβαῖνον ὡσεὶ περιστερὰν καὶ ἐρχόμενον ἐπ’ αὐτόν, it is not the passage before us only which lies at the foundation, but also, and indeed pre-eminently, the parallel passage, chap. xlii. 1: "Behold my Servant whom I uphold, mine Elect in whom my soul delighteth; I put my Spirit upon Him," as is apparent from the circumstance that it is to this passage that the voice from heaven refers in Matt. iii. 17: οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητὸς ἐν ᾧ εὐδόκησα. But a reference to the passage before us we meet most decidedly in John i. 32, 33: Τεθέαμαι τὸ πνεῦμα καταβαῖνον ὡσεὶ περιστερὰν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ ἔμεινεν ἐπ’ αὐτόν· Κᾀγὼ οὐκ ᾕδειν αὐτόν· ἀλλ’ ὁ πέμψας με βαπτίζειν ἐν ὕδατι, ἐκεῖνος μοι εἶπεν· ἐφ’ ὃν ἂν ἴδῃς τὸ πνεῦμα καταβαῖνον καὶ μένον ἐπ’ αὐτόν, οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ βαπτίζων ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ. The word נוח, which in Numb. xi. 25 also is used of the Spirit, combines in itself both the καταβαίνειν and the μένειν; it is requiescere. As the fulfilment of this prophecy, however, we must not look to that event only where it received a symbolical representation, but also to Acts ii. 3: καὶ ὤφθησαν αὐτοῖς διαμεριζόμεναι γλῶσσαι ὡσεὶ πυρός, ἐκάθισέ τε ἐφ’ ἕνα ἕκαστον αὐτῶν; comp. 1 Pet. iv. 14: ὅτε τὸ τῆς δόξης καὶ τὸ τοῦ θεοῦ πνεῦμα ἐφ’ ὑμᾶς ἀναπαύεται (this most exactly answers נוח). For it is not merely for himself that Christ here receives the Spirit; but He receives Him as the transforming principle for the human race; He is bestowed upon. Him as the Head of the Church.--In the enumeration of the forms in which the Spirit manifests himself, it was not the intention of the Prophet to set forth all the perfections of the Messiah; he rather, by way of example, mentions some only after having comprehended all of them in the general: The Spirit of the Lord. Thus, e.g., justice, which is mentioned immediately afterwards in ver. 5, is omitted here.--The first pair are wisdom and understanding. Wisdom is that excellency of knowledge which rests on moral perfection. It is opposed to נבלה, foolishness in a moral sense, which may easily be combined with the greatest ingenuity and cleverness. The excellence of knowledge resting on a moral basis manifests itself in the first instance, and preeminently, in the בינה, understanding, the sharp and penetrating eye which beholds things as they are, and penetrates from the surface to their hidden essence, undisturbed by the dense fogs of false notions and illusions which, in the case of the fool, are formed by his lusts and passions. Neither of these attributes can, in its absolute perfection, be the possession of any mortal, because even in those who, morally, are most advanced, there ever remains sin, and, therefore, a darkening of the knowledge.--The second pair, counsel and might, are, just as in the passage before us, ascribed to the Messiah in chap. ix. 5 (6), by His receiving the names "Wonder-Counsellor," "God-Hero." From chap. xxxvi. 5 it is seen that, for the difficult circumstances of the struggle, counsel is of no less consequence than might. The last pair, knowledge and fear of the Lord, form the fundamental effect of the Spirit of the Lord; all the great qualities of the soul, all the gifts which are beneficial for the Kingdom of God, rest on the intimacy of the connection with God which manifests itself in living knowledge and fear of the Lord; the latter not being the servile but the filial fear, not opposed to love, but its constant companion. The Prophet has put this pair at the close, only because he intends to connect with it that which immediately follows. We have already remarked that the Spirit of the Lord, &c., is bestowed upon the Messiah not for himself alone, but as the renovating principle of the Church.--Old Testament analogies and types are not wanting in this matter. Moses puts of his spirit upon the seventy Elders, and the spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha, and likewise on the whole crowd of disciples who gathered around him (2 Kings ii. 9).

Ver. 3. "And He hath His delight in the fear of the Lord, and not after the sight of His eyes doth He judge, nor after the hearing of His ears doth He decide."

We now learn how the glorious gifts of the Anointed, described in ver. 2, are displayed in His government. All attempts to bring the second and third clauses under the same point of view as the first, and to derive them from the same source are in vain. That He has delight in the fear of the Lord, is the consequence of the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord resting upon Him,--He loves what is congenial to His own nature. That He does not judge after the sight of His eyes, &c., is the consequence of His having the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. It is thereby that He is freed from the narrow superficiality which is natural to man, and raised to the sphere of that divine clearness of vision which penetrates to the depths, הריח with the accusative is "to smell something;" with ב, to "smell at something," "to smell with delight." The fear of the Lord appears as something of a sweet scent to the Messiah. The other explanations of the first clause abandon the sure, ascertained usus loquendi (comp. Exod. xxx. 38; Levit. xxvi. 31; Am. v. 21), and, therefore, do not deserve any mention. On the second and third clauses 1 Sam. xvi. 7, is to be compared: "And the Lord said unto Samuel: Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him; for not that which man looks at (do I look at); for man looketh on the eyes (and, in general, on the outward appearance), and I look on the heart." It is especially John who repeatedly mentions that Christ really possessed the gift here assigned to Him, of judging, not from the first appearance, and according to untrustworthy information, but of penetrating into the innermost ground of the facts and persons, comp. ii. 24, 25: αὐτὸς δὲ Ἰησοῦς, οὐκ ἐπίστευεν ἑαυτὸν αὐτοῖς, διὰ τὸ αὐτὸν γινώσκειν πάντας, καὶ ὅτι οὐ χρείαν εἶχεν ἵνα τὶς μαρτυρήση περὶ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου· αὐτὸς γὰρ ἐγίνωσκεν τί ἦν ἕν ἀνθρῴπῳ. Farther--chap. xxi. 17 where Peter says to Christ: Κύριε σὺ πάντα οἶδας· σὺ γινώσκεις ὅτι φιλῶ σε. Farther, i. 48, 49; iv. 18, 19; vi. 64. In Revel. ii. 23, Christ says: "And all Churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts."

Ver. 4. "And He judgeth in righteousness the lowly, and doeth justice in equity to the meek of the earth, and smiteth the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He slayeth the wicked."

The King shall be adorned with perfect justice, and, in the exercise of it, be supported by His omnipotence,--differently from what was the case with David, who, for want of power, was obliged to allow heinous crimes to pass unpunished (2 Sam. iii. 39). Just as by the excellency of His will He is infinitely exalted above all former rulers, so is He also by the excellency of might. Where, as in His case, the highest might stands in the service of the best will, the noblest results must come forth. The first two clauses refer to Ps. lxxii., which was written by Solomon, and where, in ver. 2, it is said of Christ: "He shall judge thy people in righteousness, and thy lowly ones in judgment," and in ver. 4: "He shall judge the lowly of thy people, He shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressors;" compare farther Prov. xxix. 14: "A king that in truth judgeth the lowly, his throne shall be established for ever." The earth forms the contrast to the limited territory which was hitherto assigned to the theocratic kings.--In the second part of the verse ארץ does not by any means stand in contrast to דלים and ענוים, and, in parallelism to רשע, designate the wicked ones; but ארץ "earth" stands in antithesis to the narrow territory in which earthly kings are permitted to dispense law and justice. It is a matter of course, and is, moreover, expressly stated in the second clause, that the earth comes into consideration with a view to those only who are objects of His judging activity. From that which follows, where changes are spoken of which shall take place on the whole earth, it follows that ארץ must be taken in the signification of "earth." and not of "land." Hand in hand with the infinite extent of the King's exercise of justice goes also the manner of it. "The whole earth," and the "breath of the mouth," correspond with one another.--In the words "with the rod of His mouth," a tacit antithesis lies at the foundation. As kings strike with the sceptre, so He smiteth with His mouth.--שבט, the ensign of royal dignity, is the symbol of the whole earthly power, which, being external and exercised by external means, must needs be limited, and insufficient for the perfect exercise of justice. The exercise of justice on the part of earthly kings reaches so far only as their hand armed with the smiting sceptre. But that great King is, in the exercise of justice, supported by His Omnipotence. He punishes and destroys by His mere word. Several interpreters understand this as a mere designation of His severity in punishing,--"the rod of His mouth" to be equivalent to "severity of punishment;"--but that such is not the meaning appears from the following clause, where likewise special weight is attached to the circumstance that the Messiah inflicts punishment by His mere word; "the breath of His lips" is equivalent to "mere words," "mere command;" compare "breath of His mouth," in Ps. xxxiii. 6. Hitzig's explanation, "the angry breath of His lips," does not interpret, but interpolate. In the future Son of David every word is, at the same time, a deed; He speaks and it is done. The same which is here said of the Messiah is, in other passages, attributed to God: compare Job xv. 30, where it is said of the wicked: "By the breath of His mouth he shall go away;" Hos. vi. 5: "I have slain them by the word of my mouth." In general, according to the precedent in Gen. i., doing by the mere word is, in Scripture, the characteristic designation of Divine Omnipotence. Parallel is chap. xlix. 2, where Christ says: "And He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword," equivalent to: He has endowed me with His Omnipotence, so that my word also exercises destructive effect, just as His. In Rev. i. 16, it is said of Christ: "And out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword,"--to designate the destructive power of His word borne by Omnipotence, the omnipotent punitive power of Christ against enemies, both internal and external. An instance of the manner in which Christ smites by the word of His mouth is offered by Acts v. 3 (where, according to the analogy of the word spoken in the name of God by Elijah, 2 Kings i. 10, 12, and by Elisha, 2 Kings ii. 24, v. 27, the Apostles are to be considered only as His instruments): ἀκούων δὲ Ἁνανίας τοὺς λόγους τούτους πεσὼν ἐξέψυξε, comp. ver. 10; xiii. 11. The Chaldee translates: "And by the word of His lips wicked Armillus shall die." He refers רשע not to the ideal person of the wicked, but to an individual, Armillus, (ἐρημόλαος, corresponding to the name of Balaam, compounded of בלע "devouring," "destruction," and עם "people") the formidable, last enemy of the Jews who shall carry on severe wars with them, slay the Messiah ben Joseph, but at length be slain by the Messiah ben David with a mere word, compare Buxtorf, Lex. Chald. cap. 221-224: Eisenmenger, entdecktes Judenthum ii. S. 705 ff. In 2 Thess. ii. 8, in the description of Antichrist's destruction by Christ: ὃν ὁ Κύριος Ἰησοῦς ἀναλώσει τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ στόματος αὐτοῦ, there is an intentional and significant allusion to the passage before us, Antichrist there being, like רשע here, an ideal person; for the arguments in proof, see my Comment, on Revelation, vol. ii.

Ver. 5. "And righteousness is the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins."

Righteousness and faithfulness are in a similar manner connected in 1 Sam. xxvi. 13 (? Prov. xii. 17). Faithfulness is trustworthiness. The point of comparison with the girdle is the closeness of the union; comp. Ps. cix. 19; Jer. xiii. 1, 2, 11.

In ver. 6, the Prophet passes from the person of the glorious King to a description of His Kingdom. With regard to ver. 6-8, the question arises, whether the description is to be understood figuratively or literally; whether the Prophet intends to describe the cessation of all hostility among men, or whether he expected that, in the Messianic time, even among the irrational creation, all hostility and destruction, every thing pernicious was to cease. Most of the ancient interpreters are attached to the former view. Thus Theodoret says: "In a figurative manner, under the image of domesticated and wild animals, the Prophet taught the change of the habits of men." He refers every thing to the union, within the Christian Church, of those who, in their natural condition, lived far separated from one another, and in hostility the one to the other. Jerome considers the opposite view as even a species of heresy. He says: "The Jews and the Judaizers among ourselves maintain that all this shall be fulfilled according to the letter; that in the light of Christ who, they believe, shall come at the end of the days, all beasts shall be reduced to tameness, so that the wolf, giving up its former ferocity, shall dwell with the lamb, &c." Upon the whole, he states the sense in the same manner as Theodoret, from whom he sometimes differs in the allegorical explanation of the details only. In a similar manner Luther also explains it, who, e.g., on ver. 6, "the wolf shall dwell with the lambs, etc." remarks: "But these are allegories by which the Prophet intimates that the tyrants, the self-righteous and powerful ones in the world, shall be converted, and be received into the Church." Calvin says: "By these images, the Prophet indicates that, among the people of Christ there will be no disposition for injuring one another, nor any ferocity or inhumanity." The circumstance that the use of animal symbolism is widely spread throughout Scripture is in favour of this interpretation. One may, e.g. compare Ps. xxii., where the enemies of the righteous are represented under the image of dogs, lions, bulls, and unicorns; Jer. v. 6, where, by lion, wolf, and leopard, the kingdoms of the world which are destructive to the people of God are designated; the four beasts in Dan. vii.; but especially Is. xxxv. 9: "There (on the way of salvation which the Lord shall, in the future, open up for His people) shall not be a lion, nor shall any ravenous beast go up thereon,"--where the ravenous beasts are the representatives of the world's power, hostile to the Kingdom of God. Nevertheless, the literal interpretation, defended by several Jewish expositors, maintains an undeniable preference. In favour of it are the following arguments: 1. The circumstance that it is impossible to carry through, in the details, the figurative interpretation; and it is by this that our passage is distinguished from all the other passages in which the wild, cruel, and destructive tendencies in the human sphere appear under the images of their representatives in the animal world. The supposition that "we have here before us only a poetical enlargement of the thought that all evil shall cease" (Hendewerk, Knobel), removes the boundaries which separate prophecy from poetry. 2. The parallelism with the condition of the creation before the fall, as it is described to us by Holy Scripture. It is certainly not without reason that, in the account of the creation, so much emphasis is laid on the circumstance that all which was created was good. This implies a condition of the irrational creation different from what it is now; for in its present state it gives us a faithful copy of the first fall, inasmuch as every heinous vice has its symbols and representatives in the animal kingdom. According to Gen. ii. 19, 20, the animals recognize in Adam their lord and king, peaceably gather around him, and receive their names from him. According to Gen. i. 30, grass only was assigned to animals for their food; the whole animal world bore the image of the innocence and peace of the first man, and was not yet pervaded by the law of mutual destruction. Where there was not a Cain, neither was there a lion. The serpent has not yet its disgusting and horrible figure, and fearlessly men have intercourse with it; comp. Vol. i. p. 15, 16. But the influence of sin pervaded and penetrated the whole nature, and covered it with a curse (comp. Gen. iii. 17-19); so that it not only bears evidence to the existence of God, but also to the existence of sin. Now, as it is by sin that outward discord, and contention, and destruction arose in the irrational creature, so we may also expect that, when the cause has been removed, the effect too will disappear; that, with the cessation of the discord and enmity among men, which, according to ver. 9, the Prophet expected of the Messianic time, discord and enmity in the animal world will cease also. In the individual features, the Prophet seems even distinctly to refer to the history of the creation; compare ver. 7: "The lion shall eat straw like the ox," with Gen. i. 30; ver. 8: "the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp," with Gen. iii. 15. 3. The comparison of other passages of Scripture, according to which likewise the reflection of the evil in the irrational creation shall cease, after the evil has been removed from the rational creation; compare chap. lxv. 25, lxvi, 22; Matt. xix. 28, where the Lord speaks of the παλιγγενεσία, the return of the whole earthly creation to its original condition; but especially Rom. viii. 19 ff.--that classical passage of the New Testament which is really parallel to the passage before us. 4. A subordinate argument is still offered by the parallel descriptions of heathen writers. From the passages collected by Clericus, Lowth, and Gesenius, we quote a few only. In the description of the golden age, Virgil says, Ecl. iv. 21 sqq.; v. 60: Occidet et serpens et fallax herba veneni occidet.--Nec magnos metuent armenta leones.--Nec lupus insidias pecori. Horat. Epod. xiv. 53: Nec vespertinus circumgemit ursus ovile nec intumescit alta viperis humus.--Theocrit. Idyll. xxiv. 84. Utterances such as these show how unnatural the present condition of the earth is. They are, however, not so much to be regarded as the remains of some outward tradition (against such a supposition it is decisive that they occur chiefly with poets), but rather as utterances of an indestructible longing in man, which, being so deeply rooted in human nature, contains in itself the guarantee of being gratified at some future period. But, with all this, we must do justice to the objection drawn from the evident parallelism of passages such as chap. xxxv. 9, and to another objection advanced by Vitringa, that it is strange that there is so much spoken of animals, and so little of men. This we shall do by remarking that, in the description of the glorious effects which the government of Christ shall produce on the earth, the Prophet at once proceeds to the utmost limit of them; and that the removal of hostility and destruction from the irrational creation implies that all that will be removed which, in the rational creation, proceeds from the principle of hatred, inasmuch as it is certain that the former is only a reflection of the latter, and that the Prophet speaks with a distinct reference to this supposition which he afterwards, in ver. 9, distinctly expresses. Hence, to a certain degree, a double sense takes place; and, in the main, J. H. Michaelis has hit the right by comparing, first, Gen. i. and Rom. viii., and then continuing: "Parabolically, however, by the wild beasts, wild and cruel nations are understood, which are to be converted to Christ; or violent men who, by the Spirit of Christ, are rendered meek and gentle, just as Paul, from a wolf, was changed into a lamb." We are the less permitted to lose sight of the reference to the lions and bears on the spiritual territory, that ver. 6 is, in the first instance, connected with vers. 4 and 5, in which the all-powerful sway of Christ's justice on earth is described, of which the consequences must, in the first instance, appear in the human territory; and, farther, that the point from which the prophecy started, is the raging of the wolf and bear of the world's power against the poor defenceless flock of the Lord.

Ver. 6. "And the wolf dwelleth with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf, and, the lion and the fatling together, and a little child leads them."

Ver. 7. "The cow and bear go to the pasture; their young ones lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox." (The going to pasture of the bear corresponds with the lion's eating straw [comp. Gen. i. 30], and we are not allowed to supply the "together" in the first clause.)

Ver. 8. "And the sucking child playeth on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child putteth his hand into the den of the basilisk."

The change in the irrational creation described in the preceding verses is a consequence of the removal of sin in the rational creation; this removal the Prophet now proceeds to describe.

Ver. 9. "They shall not do evil, and shall not sin in all my holy mountain, for the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters covering the sea."

The subject are the dwellers in the Holy Mountain. The Holy Mountain can, according to the usus loquendi, be Mount Zion only, and not, as was last maintained by Hofmann, the whole land of Canaan, which is never designated in that manner; comp. chap. xxvii. 13, and my Commentary on Ps. lxxviii. 54. The second part of the verse, connected with the first by means of for, agrees with the first only in the event that Mount Zion is viewed as the spiritual dwelling place of the inhabitants of the earth, just as, under the Old Testament dispensation, it was the ideal dwelling place of all the Israelites, even of those who outwardly had not their residence at Jerusalem; on the spiritual dwelling of the servants of the Lord with Him in the temple, compare remarks on Ps. xxvii. 4, xxxvi. 9, lxv. 5, lxxxiv. 3, and other passages. In chap. ii. 2-4, lxvi. 23, the Holy Mountain, too, appears as the centre of the whole earth in the Messianic time. From chap. xix. 20, 21, where, in the midst of converted Egypt, an altar is built, and sacrifices are offered up, it appears that it is this in an ideal sense only, that under its image the Church is meant. The designation, "my Holy Mountain," intimates that the state of things hitherto, when unholiness prevailed in the Kingdom of the Holy God, is an unnatural one; that at some future period the idea necessarily must manifest its power and right in opposition to the reality.--In the second clause, the ground and fountain of this sinlessness is stated. In Zion, in the Church of God, there will then be no more any sins; for the earth is then full of the knowledge of the Lord, by which the sins are done away with. The general outpouring of the Holy Ghost forms one of the characteristics of the Messianic time; and the consequence of this outpouring is, according to ver. 2, the knowledge of the Lord,--so that the clause may be thus paraphrased: For, in consequence of the Spirit poured out, in the first instance, upon Him, the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord; comp. chap. xxxii. 15: "Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high;"

liv. 13; Joel iii. 1; ii. 28; Jer. xxxi. 34, That הארץ is here not the "land," or "country," but the "earth" is sufficiently evident from the antithesis of the sea: as the sea is full of water, so the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord. To this reason it may still be added that in vers. 6-8 changes are spoken of, which concern the whole territory of the earthly creation, the παλιγγενεσία of the whole earth. As the relation of these changes to that which is stated here is that of cause and effect, here, too, the whole earth can only be thought of Finally,--The following verse too supposes the spreading of salvation over the whole earth. The entire relation of the first section to the second and third makes it obvious that by הארץ the whole earth is to be understood. The passage under consideration is alluded to in Hab. ii. 14: "For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters covering the sea." In that passage, the enforced knowledge of the Divine glory which manifests itself in punitive justice, forms the subject of discourse; but that enforced knowledge forms the necessary condition of the knowledge which is voluntary and saving.

Ver. 10. "And it shall come to pass in that day, the root of Jesse which standeth for an ensign to the people, it shall the Gentiles seek, and His rest is glory."

The words, "and it shall come to pass," introduce a new section; so that the interval in the Hebrew manuscripts is here quite in its place. With ver. 11 again, a new section begins. In ver. 1-9 we have the appearance of the Messiah in relation to the whole earth; then, in the second section, the way in which he becomes a centre to the whole Gentile world; and in ver. 11 ff., what He grants to the old covenant-people, for whom the Prophet was, in the first instance, prophesying, and whose future he therefore describes more in detail. Why His relation to the Gentile world is first spoken of appears from ver. 12; the Gentiles gathered to the Lord are the medium of His salvation to the old covenant-people.--The root designates here (and likewise in chap. liii. 2), and in the passages founded upon this, viz., in Rev. v. 5, xxii. 16, the product of the root, that whereby the root manifests itself, the shoot from the root; just as "seed" so very often occurs for "product of the seed." This appears from a comparison with ver. 1, where, more fully, the Messiah is called a twig from Jesse's roots. Bengel has already directed attention to the antithesis of the root and ensign, in his Commentary on Rom. xv. 12: "A sweet antithesis: the root is undermost, the ensign rises uppermost; so that even the nations farthest off may behold it."--דרש with ל, אל, and את, has the signification "to apply to the true God, or some imaginary god, in order to seek protection, help, counsel, advice, disclosures regarding the future;" comp. Is. viii. 19; Deut. xii. 4, 5, and other passages in Gesenius' Thesaurus. The Gentiles feel that they cannot do without the Redeemer; they see, at the same time, His riches and their poverty; and this knowledge urges them on to seek Him, that from him they may obtain light (chap. xlii. 6), that He may communicate to them His law (chap. xlii. 4), that he may teach them of His ways, and that they may walk in His paths (chap. ii. 3), &c. St. Paul, in Rom. xv. 12, following the LXX., has ἐπ αὐτῷ ἔθνη ἐλπιοῦσι, which, as regards the sense, fully agrees with the original. The beginning of the seeking took place when the representatives of the Gentile world, the Maji from the East, came to Jerusalem, saying: "Where is He that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and are come to worship Him," Matt. ii. 2. The historical foundation and the type are the homage which, from the Gentile world, was offered to Solomon, 1 Kings x.--מנוחה "resting place," "dwelling place," "habitation;" comp. Ps. cxxxii. 13, 14: "For the Lord hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His habitation. This is my rest (מנוחתי) for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it." The glory of the King passes over to His residence to which the Gentile world are flowing together, in order to do homage to Him; Comp. Ps. lxxii. 10: "The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts." The comparison of this passage alone is sufficient to refute the absurd interpretation, according to which עמים and גוים are referred to the Israelitish tribes,--an interpretation which has been tried with as little success in the fundamental passage (Gen. xlix. 10), according to which the עמים are to adhere to Shiloh; compare Vol. i. p. 62.

Ver. 11: "And it shall come to pass in that day, the Lord shall continue a second time with His hand to ransom the remnant of His people which has remained from Asshur and from Egypt, from Patros and from Cush, from Elam and from Shinar, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea."

From the Gentiles, the Prophet now turns to Israel. The reception of the Gentiles into the Messianic Kingdom is not by any means to take place at the expense of the old covenant-people; even they shall be brought back again, and shall be received into the Kingdom of God. יוסיף must be connected with לקנות, comp. 2 Sam. xxiv. 1: "And the Lord continued to kill," להרג. It is unnecessary and arbitrary to supply לשלח. ידו is Accusative, "as to His hand," equivalent to "with His hand;" comp. Ps. iii. 5, xvii. 10, 11, 13, 14. Just the hand of God, which here comes into consideration as the instrument of doing, is repeatedly mentioned in the account of the deliverance from Egypt; comp. Exod. iii. 20, vii. 4, xiii. 9. The expression: "He shall continue," in general, points out the idea that it is not a new beginning which is here concerned, but the continuation of former acting, by which believing was rendered so much the more easy. The expression, "a second time," points more distinctly to the type of the deliverance from Egypt with which the redemption to be effected by Christ is frequently paralleled; comp. vers. 15, 16; Vol. i. p. 218, 219. "From Asshur," &c., must not be connected with לקנות, but with ישאר, comp. v. 16, those who have remained from Asshur, &c., i.e., those whom Asshur and the other places of punishment, with their hostile influences, have left, who have been preserved in them. The fact that destructive influences may proceed from those nations also which do not properly belong to the number of the kingdoms of the world, is plainly shown by the history of the Jews after Christ. It would be against the accents, both here and in ver. 6, to connect it with לקנות; the words "which shall remain" would, in that case, appear to be redundant; and, farther, it is opposed by Exod. x. 3: "And eats the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail," equivalent to; which the hail has left to you. Similar to this is 2 Chron. xxx. 6, where Hezekiah exhorts the children of Israel: "Turn again unto the Lord.... in order that He may again return to the remnant which has been left to you from the hand of the kings of Asshur." A question here arises, viz., whether the dispersion of Israel which is here described, had already taken place at the time of the Prophet, or whether the Prophet, transferring himself in the Spirit into the distant future, describes the dispersion which took place at a later period, after the carrying away of the ten tribes into the Assyrian exile had preceded, viz., that which took place when Judah was carried away into the Babylonish exile, and especially after the destruction of Jerusalem. The latter view is the correct one. The whole tenor of the Prophet's words shows that he supposes a comprehensive dispersion of the people. It is true that, at the time when the prophecy was written, the ten tribes had already been carried away into captivity; but the kingdom of Judah, the subjects of which, according to ver. 12, likewise appear as being in the dispersion, had not yet suffered any important desolation. The few inhabitants of Judah who, according to Joel iv. 6, (iii. 6), and Amos i. 6, 9, had been sold as slaves by the Philistines and Phœnicians, and others, who, it may be, in hard times had spontaneously fled from their native country, cannot here come into consideration. Just as here, so by Hosea too, the future carrying away of the inhabitants of Judah is anticipated; comp. vol. i., p. 219, 220. The fundamental passage is in Deut. xxx. 3, 4, where the gathering of Israel is promised "from all the nations whither the Lord thy God has scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out into the utmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will He fetch thee." This passage shows with what clearness the future scattering lay before the eyes of the holy men, even at the first beginnings of the people of God. In vers. 11 and 12 we have the summary of the whole of the second part of Isaiah, in which the announcement of Israel's being gathered and brought back is constantly repeated; and it is quite incomprehensible how some grant the genuineness of the prophecy before us, and yet bring forward, against this second part of Isaiah, the argument that the Prophet could not supposee the scattering, that it must really have taken place, since he simply announces their being brought back.--As regards the redemption from the scattering, all that which in history is realised in a series of events, is here united in one view. There is no reason for excluding the deliverance under Zerubbabel; for it, too, was already granted for the sake of Christ, whose incarnation the Prophet anticipates in faith; comp. remarks on chaps. vii., ix. This redemption, however, in which those who have been brought back remain servants in the land of the Lord, can be considered as only a prelude to the true one; comp. vol. i., p. 220 f. 448. The true fulfilment began with the appearance of Christ, and is still going on towards its completion, which can take place even without Israel's returning to Canaan, comp. vol. i., p. 222. Asshur opens the list, and occupies the principal place, because it was through him who, under the very eyes of the Prophet, had carried away the ten tribes, that the dispersion began. But the Prophet does not limit himself to that which was obvious,--did not expect, from the Messiah, only the healing of already existing hurts.--With Asshur, Egypt is connected in one pair. Egypt is the African world's power struggling for dominion with the Asiatic. Its land serves not only as a refuge to those oppressed by the Asiatic world's power (comp. Jer. xlii. ff.), but, in that struggle with the Asiatic power, itself invades and oppresses the land; comp. chap. vii. 18; 2 Kings xxiii. 29 ff.: "In his days Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria." In a similar connection, Asshur and Egypt, the kingdoms on the Euphrates and the Nile, appear in chap. xxvii. 13: "And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great trumpet is blown, and they come, the perishing ones in the land of Asshur, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem;" Micah vii. 12; Jer. ii. 18; Lam. v. 6. As annexed to Egypt, the second pair presents itself, representing the uttermost South; compare the expression, "from the four comers of the earth," in ver. 12. Pathros, in Jer. xliv. 1, 15, also appears as a dependency of Egypt; and Cush, Ethiopia, was, at the Prophet's time, the ally of Egypt, chap. xxxvii. 9, xviii., xx. 3-6. Gesenius remarks on chap. xx. 4: "Egypt and Ethiopia are, in the oracles of this time, always connected, just as the close political alliance of these two countries requires."--From the uttermost South, the Prophet turns to the uttermost East. "Elam is," as Gesenius in his Commentary on chap. xxi. 2 remarks, "in the pre-exilic writers, used for Persia in general, for which afterwards פרס becomes the ordinary name;" and according to Dan. viii. 2, the Persian Metropolis Shushan is situated in Elam. It appears in chap. xxii. 6 as the representative of the world's power which in future will oppress Judah, and we hence expect that it will appear in an Elamitic phase also.--Shinar, the ancient name for Babylon, is that world's power which, according to chaps. xiii., xiv., xxxix., and other passages, is to follow after the Assyrian, and is to carry away Judah into exile. Elam and Madai appear in chap. xxi. 2 as the destroyers of the Babylonian world's power; hence the Elamitic phase of it can follow after the Babylonish only. The geographical arrangement only can be the reason why it is here placed first.--The last of the four pairs of countries is formed by Hamath, representing Syria, (comp. 1 Maccab. xii. 25, according to which passage Jonathan the Maccabee marches into the land of Hamath against the army of Demetrius,) and the islands of the sea, the islands and the countries on the shores of the Mediterranean in the uttermost West. As early as in the prophecy of Balaam, in Numb. xxiv. 24: "And ships come from the side of Chittim and afflict Asshur, and afflict Eber, and he also perisheth," we find the announcement that, at some future time, the Asiatic kingdoms shall be conquered by a power which comes from the West in ships, by European nations--an announcement which was realised in history by the dominion of the Greeks and Romans in Asia.

Ver. 12: "And He setteth up an ensign to the Gentiles and assembleth the exiled of Israel, and gathereth together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."

The setting up of the ensign for the Gentiles, around which they are to assemble for the purpose of restoring Israel, took place, in a prelude, under Cyrus; comp. chap. xiv. 2, xlix. 22: "Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the nations, and they bring thy sons on their bosom, and thy daughters are carried upon their shoulders;" where the sons and daughters correspond to the exiled men of Israel, and to the dispersed women of Judah, equivalent to all the exiled and dispersed men and women. As early as in the Song of Solomon, we are taught that in the Messianic time the Gentile nations will take an active part in the restoration of Israel. According to the first part of that Song, the appearance of the heavenly Solomon is connected with the reception of the Gentiles into His Kingdom, and that, through the instrumentality of the old covenant people, as is intimated by the name of the daughters of Jerusalem; comp. my Comment. on Song of Solomon, iii. 9-11. In the second part of that Song we have a description of the reunion of apostate Israel with Christ,--which reunion takes place by the co-operation of the daughters of Jerusalem, the same whom they formerly brought to salvation. According to Is. lxvi. 20, the Gentiles, converted to the Lord in the time of salvation, bring the children of Israel for an offering unto the Lord,--A significant allusion to the passage before us is found in John xi. 52: καὶ οὐχ ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἔθνους μόνον, ἀλλ’ ἵνα καὶ τὰ τέκνα τοῦ Θεοῦ τὰ διεσκορπισμένα συναγάγῃ εἰς ἕν. It is the same mercy seeking that which is lost that manifests itself in the gathering of apostate Israel, and in the gathering of the Gentiles. What is said of the one furnishes, at the same time, the guarantee for the other.

Ver. 13. "And the envy of Ephraim departeth, and the adversaries of Judah are cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim."

According to the explanatory fourth clause, the "adversaries of Judah" in the second clause, can only be those among Judah who vex Ephraim. At the very beginning of the separation of the two kingdoms, their future reunion had been announced by a prophet; and this must now take place as certainly as Jehovah is God, who had promised to David and his house the eternal dominion over all Israel. The separation had taken place because the house of David had become unfaithful to its vocation. In the Messiah, the promise, to the Davidic race is to be completely realized; and this realization has, for its necessary consequence, the removal for ever of the separation; comp. Ezek. xxxvii. 22. It was a prelude to the fulfilment, that a portion of the subjects of the kingdom of the ten tribes united with Judah in all those times when, in the blessing accompanying the enterprises of a pious son of David, the promise granted to David was, in some measure realized,--as was the case under Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah. Even before Christ appeared in the flesh, the announcement here made was all but realized. The exile put an end to the kingdom of the ten tribes, and hence also to the unnatural separation which had been designated as the severest calamity of the past, chap. vii. 17. The other tribes joined Judah and the restored sanctuary; comp. Acts xxvi. 7; Luke ii. 36. The name of "Jews" passed over to the whole nation; the jealousy disappeared. This blessing was conferred upon the people for Christ's sake, and with a view to His future appearance. In Christ, the bond of union and communion is so firmly formed that no new discord can alienate the hearts from one another.

Ver. 14. "And they fly upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the West, spoil together the children of the East; Edom and Moab shall be their assault, the children of Ammon their obedience."

As Israel is united internally, so it shall be externally powerful. According to the Song of Solomon vi. 10, the congregation of Israel when, by her renewed connection with the Lord and His heavenly Solomon, she has regained her former strength, is "terrible as an army with banners."--The nations mentioned are those of the Davidic reign. Even before the time of the Prophet, they had been anew conquered by Jehoshaphat, in whom the spirit of David had been revived anew; comp. 2 Chron. xx.; Ps. lxxxiii. A prelude to the fulfilment of the prophecy before us took place at the time of the Maccabees, comp. Vol. i. p. 467, 468. But as regards the fulfilment, we are not entitled to limit ourselves to the names here mentioned. These names are the accidental element in the prophecy; the thought is this: As soon as Israel realizes its destiny, it partakes of God's inviolability, of God's victorious power. The Prophet's sole purpose is to point out the victorious power, to give prominence to the thought that outward prosperity is the necessary consequence of inward holiness.--In the first clause, the image is taken from birds of prey; comp. Hab. i. 8: "They fly as an eagle hastening to eat," which passage refers to the enemies of Israel at the time of wrath. In the time of grace, the relation will be just the reverse.--משלח יד occurs, in a series of passages in Deuteronomy, of that which is taken in hand, undertaken. Edom and Moab are no longer an object of Noli me tangere for them.

Ver. 15. "And the Lord destroys the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, and waves His hand over the River with the violence of His wind, and smiteth it into seven streams, that one may go through in shoes."

Ver. 16. "And there shall be a highway for the remnant of His people which was left from Asshur; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt."

The miraculous power of the Lord shall remove all obstacles to deliverance. These obstacles are represented by the Euphrates and the Red Sea (the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, equivalent to the point of it), with a reference to the fact that, among the countries, in ver. 11, from which Israel is to be delivered, there had been mentioned, Egypt, between which and the Holy Land was the Red Sea, and Asshur, situated on the other side of Euphrates. To Euphrates, upon which there will be repeated that which, in ancient times, was done in the case of Jordan, the Prophet assigns, in ver. 15, the last place, on account of ver. 16. The highway in that verse is prepared by the turning off of Euphrates, so that we might put: "And thus," at the beginning of the verse. As regards the destroying, החרום, it is the forced devoting to God of that which would not spontaneously serve Him; compare remarks on Mal. iii. 24. Objects of such devoting can properly be persons only, because they only are capable of spontaneous sanctification to God, as well as of wilful desecration. The fact that it is here transferred to the sea may be accounted for by its being personified. The destruction which is inflicted upon the sea is, in it, inflicted upon the enemies of God thereby represented, inasmuch as it opposes the people of God, and thus, as it were, strives against God.--With the violence or terror of His wind, i.e., with His violent, terrible wind. There is in this an allusion to Exod. xiv. 21, according to which the Lord dried up the Red Sea by a violent wind. Against Drechsler, who thinks of "God's breathing of anger," first, this reference to Exod. xiv. 21, and farther, the circumstance that the רוח appears as something which the Lord has in His hand, are decisive.--In ver. 16 we need not, after "from Asshur," supply the other nations mentioned in ver. 11, which would be unexampled; but Asshur appears as the representative of all the enemies of God. Similarly in Micah also, Asshur is, with evident intention, used typically; comp. Vol. i. p. 515, 516.

[ ^[1]] Notwithstanding the arguments which we stated in favour of our proposition, that the original form of the name is נצר. Ebrard without even attempting to refute them, assumes, in favour of a far-fetched conjecture, that the name of the place was written נזרת (Kritik. d. Ev. Geschichte S. 843, 1st Ed.), and has introduced this opinion even into the text of the new edition of Olshausen's Commentary, edited by him. The circumstance that elsewhere commonly the Hebrew ז is, in Greek, rendered by ζ, צ by σ is, in this case, where the special arguments in favour of נצר are so strong, of no consequence.

[ ^[2]] Hofmann (Weissagung und Erfüllung., II. S. 64) was the last who assumed that the Evangelist had generally in view those passages in which the lowliness, contempt, and rejection of Christ are spoken of, and that, in the Old Testament passages in question, the Ναζωραῖος was not contained according to the letter, but according to the spirit only. But this is opposed not only by the whole manner of quotation which is given as a literal one, but also by a whole series of analogies: Christ's birthplace in Bethlehem, His stay in Jerusalem, His ministry in Galilee, and especially in Capernaum, His entrance into Jerusalem,--all these are by Matthew traced back to prophetical declarations which have a special reference to these localities. Against the exposition given by us, Hofmann advances the assertion that neither נצר nor חטר have ever attached to them the idea of lowliness, of unassuming appearance. But even if a twig were not of itself something lowly and unassuming in appearance, yet, in the passage before us, that idea is, at all events, implied in the connection with the stump and roots, as well as by the contrast to יפרה.

[ ^[3]] The following passage, which we take from Raim. Martini Pug. Fid. III. 3, 19 p. 685, will fully illustrate that custom: R. Abba said: His name is יהוה Lord, according to the word in Jerem. xxiii. 6; R. Josua ben Levy said: "His name is Sprout, according to what is said in Zech. vi. 12. Others say that His name will be Comforter, Son of the strength of God, as is declared in Lam. i. 16. Those from the School of R. Siloh said: His name will be Shiloh, as is written in Gen. xlix. 10: 'Until Shiloh come.' Those from the School of R. Chanina said: His name will be the Gracious one, as Jerem. said in chap. xvi. 13. Those from the School of R. Jannai said: Jinnon shall be His name, according to Ps. lxxii. 17, &c."

[CHAP. XII.]

This chapter contains Israel's hymn of thanks after having obtained redemption and deliverance, and is connected with chap. ix. 2 (3), where the Prophet had, in general, mentioned the joy of the elect in the Messianic time. Here he embodies it in words. The hymn, which forms a kind of close, and, to a certain degree, belongs to the whole cycle of the preceding Messianic prophecies, is based upon the hymn of thanksgiving by Israel after having passed through the Red Sea,--that historical fact which contained so strong a guarantee for the future redemption, and is in harmony with chap. xi. 15, 16, where the Prophet had announced a renewal of those wonderful leadings of the Lord. The hymn falls into three stanzas, each consisting of two verses. In ver. 1 and 2, and in ver. 4 and 5, the redeemed ones are introduced speaking; ver. 3 and 5, which likewise form a couple, contain an epilogue of the Prophet on the double jubilus of the congregation.

Ver. 1. "And in that day thou sayest: I will praise thee, Lord, for thou wast angry with me, and now thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me. Ver. 2. Behold, God is my salvation; I trust, and am not afraid; for my strength and song is the Lord, and He became my Saviour."

The words "my strength and my song," are from Exod. xv. 2. The two members of the verse enter into the right relation to one another, and the כי becomes intelligible, only if we keep in mind that the words at the beginning, "The Lord is my salvation," are an expression of the conviction of the speaker; hence are equivalent to: we acknowledge Him as our God; so that the first part expresses the subjective disposition of the Church; the second, the objective circumstance of the case--that on which that disposition is founded, and from which it grew up.

Ver. 3. "And ye draw water in joy out of the wells of salvation."

During the journey through the wilderness, the bestowal of salvation had been represented under the form of granting water. It is to it that we have here an allusion. The spiritual water denotes salvation.

Ver. 4. "And in that day ye say: Praise the Lord, proclaim His name, declare His doings among the nations, make mention that His name is exalted. Ver. 5.

Praise the Lord, for He hath done great things; this is known in all the earth."

Ver. 6. "Cry out and shout thou inhabitant of Zion; for great is the Holy One of Israel in thy midst."

There now follows a cycle of ten prophecies, which, in the inscriptions, have the name משא "burden," and in which the Prophet exhibits the disclosures into the destinies of the nations which he had received on the occasion of the threatening Assyrian invasion under Sennacherib. For, from the prophecy against Asshur in chap. xiv. 24, 25, which is contained in the very first burden, it clearly appears that the cycle which, by the equality of the inscriptions, is connected into one well arranged and congenial whole, belongs to this period. This prophecy against Asshur forms one whole with that against Babel, and by it the latter was suggested and called forth. In that prophecy, the defeat of Asshur, which took place in the 14th year of Hezekiah, is announced as future. It is true that the second burden, directed against the Philistines, in chap. xiv. 28-32, seems to suggest another time. Of this burden it is said, in ver. 28, that it was given in the year that king Ahaz died; not in the year in which his death was impending, but in that in which he died, comp. chap. vi. 1. The distressed circumstances of the new king raised the hopes of the Philistines, who, under Ahaz, had rebelled against the Jewish dominion. But the Prophet beholds in the Spirit that, just under this king, the heavenly King of Zion would destroy these hopes, and would thrust down Philistia from its imaginary height. But from the time of the original composition of the prophecy, that of its repetition must be distinguished. That took place, as is just shewn by the prophecy's being received in the cycle of the burdens, at the time when the invasion of Sennacherib was immediately impending. The Assyrians were the power from the North, by whom the threatened destruction would break in upon the Philistines; and the truth of the word should be verified upon them, that prosperity is only the forerunner of the fall. In the view of the fulfilment, Isaiah repeated the prophecy.

From the series of these burdens, we shall very briefly comment upon those which are of importance for our purpose. First,

[CHAPTERS XIII. l.-XIV. 27.]

This prophecy does not contain any characteristically expressed Messianic element; but it is of no small consequence for bringing out the whole picture of the future, as it was before the mind of the Prophet. It is in it that Babel meets us distinctly and definitely as the threatening world's power of the future, by which Judah is to be carried away into captivity.

The genuineness is incontrovertibly testified by the close; and it is only by a naturalistic tendency that it can be denied. With the announcement of the deliverance from Babel is first, in chap. xiv. 24, 25, connected an announcement of deliverance from Asshur; and then follows in ver. 26 and 27, the close of the whole prophecy from chap. xiii. 1, onward. Vers. 26 and 27, which speak of the whole earth and of all the nations, refer to chap. xiii., where the Prophet had spoken of an universal judgment, comp. ver. 5, 9, 10, &c.; while, in the verses immediately preceding, one single people, the Assyrians only, were spoken of It is thereby rendered impossible to separate chap. xiv. 24, 27 from the whole.

Behind the world's power of the present--the Assyrian--the Prophet beholds a new one springing up--the Babylonish. Those who have asserted that the prophecy against Babel is altogether without foundation as soon as Isaiah is supposed to have composed it, are utterly mistaken. Although the prophecy was by no means destined for the contemporaries only, as prophecy is generally destined for all times of the Church, yet, even for the Prophet's contemporaries, every letter was of consequence. If Israel's principal enemies belonged to the future, how very little was to be feared from the present ones; and especially if Israel should and must rise from even the deepest abasement, how should God not then deliver them from the lower distress and need? But just because weak faith does not like to draw such inferences, the Prophet at the close expressly adverts to the present affliction, and gives to the weak faith a distinct and sure word of God, by which it may support itself, and take encouragement in that affliction.

The points of connection must not be overlooked which the prophecy in chap. xi. offers for the prophecy before us. We already met there the total decay of the royal house of David, the carrying away of Judah into exile, and their dispersion into all lands. It is on this foundation that the prophecy before us takes its stand: it points to the power by which these conditions are to be brought about. Farther--There, as well as here, the conditions of the future are not expressly announced as such, but supposed: the Prophet takes his stand in the future. There, as well as here, the Prophet draws consolation in the sufferings of the present from a salvation to be bestowed in a far distant future only.

From the very outset, the Prophet announces an impending carrying away of the people, and, at the same time, that, even in this distress, the Lord would have compassion upon His people, comp. e.g. chaps. v., vi. From the very outset, the Prophet clearly saw that it was not by the Assyrians that this carrying away would be effected. This much we consider to be fully proved by history. The progress which the prophecy before us offers, when compared with those former ones, consists in this circumstance only, that the Prophet here expressly mentions the names of the future destroyers. And in reference to this circumstance we may remark, that, according to the testimony of history, as early as at that time, the plan of the foundation of an independent power was strongly entertained and fostered at Babylon, as is clearly enough evidenced by the embassy of the viceroy of Babylon to Hezekiah.

In chap. xxiii. 13--the prophecy against Tyre, which is acknowledged to be genuine by the greater number of rationalistic interpreters--the Prophet shows the clearest insight into the future universal dominion of Chaldea, which forms the point of issue for the prophecy before us. With perfect clearness this insight meets us in chap. xxxix. also, on which even Gesenius cannot avoid remarking: "The prophetic eye of Isaiah foresaw, even at that time, that, in a political point of view, Babylon would, in a short time, altogether enter into the track of Assyria."

[CHAPTERS XVII., XVIII.]

These two chapters form one whole, as, generally, the series of the ten burdens is nowhere interrupted by inserted, heterogeneous, independent portions. Chapter xx. forms an appendix only to chapter xix. In the same manner, the prophecy against Sebna in chap. xxii. 16-25, stands in an internal connection with vers. 1-15; in that which befel him, the destinies of the people were to be typified. That these two chapters belong to one another is clearly proved by the parallelism of chap. xvii. 10, 11, and chap. xviii. 4-6.

The inscription runs: "Burden of Damascus." It is at the commencement of the prophecy that the Syrians of Damascus are spoken of; the threatening soon after turns against Judah and Israel. This is easily accounted for by the consideration that the prophecy refers to a relation where Judah and Israel appear in the retinue of Damascus. It was from Damascus that, in the Syrico-Damascenic war, the whole complication proceeded. Aram induced Israel to join him in the war against Judah, and misled Judah to seek help from Asshur. In a general religious point of view, also, all Israel, the kingdom of the ten tribes, as well as Judah, were at that time, as it were, incorporated into Damascus; comp. ver. 10, according to which Israel's guilt consisted in having planted strange vines in his vineyard, with 2 Kings xvi. 10, according to which Ahaz got an altar made at Jerusalem after the pattern of that which he had seen at Damascus. The circumstance that Israel had become like Damascus, was the reason why it was given up to the Gentiles for punishment.

From the comparison of chap. x. 28-34, it appears that chap. xvii. 12-14 belongs to the time of Hezekiah, when Israel was threatened by the invasion of Sennacherib. In chap. xvii. 1-11, in which, at first, the overthrow of Damascus and the kingdom of the ten tribes appears as still future, the Prophet thus transfers himself back to the stand-point of an earlier time. To this result we are also led by the chronological arrangement of the whole collection. The Prophet, stepping back in spirit to the beginning of the complication, surveys the whole of the calamity and salvation which arise to Israel from the relation to Asshur and the whole world's power represented by Asshur--a relation into which it had been led by Damascus--and takes a view of the punishment which it receives by its sins, by its having become worldly, and of the Divine mercy which sends deliverance and salvation.

The threatening goes as far as chap. xvii 11. The rod of chastisement is, in the first instance, in the hand of Asshur; but he, as has been already mentioned, represents the world's power in general. With this, the promise connects itself. The oppressors of the people of God are annihilated, chap. xvii. 12-14. All the nations of the earth, especially Ethiopia, which was, no less than Israel, threatened by Asshur (comp. chap. xxxvii. 9), and to which Egypt at that time occupied the position of a subordinate ally, perceive with astonishment the catastrophe by which God brings about the destruction of His enemies, chap. xviii. 1-3. Or, to state it more exactly: Messengers who, from the scene of the great deeds of the Lord, hasten in ships, first, over the Mediterranean, then, in boats up the Nile, bring the intelligence of the catastrophe which has taken place to Cush, the land of the rustling of the wings--thus named from the rustling of the wings of the royal eagle of the world's power, which, being in birth equal to Asshur, has there its seat, vers. 1 and 2; comp. chap. viii. 8. All the inhabitants of the earth shall look with astonishment at the catastrophe which is taking place, ver. 3, where the Prophet who, in vers. 1 and 2, had described the catastrophe as having already taken place, steps back to the stand-point of reality. In vers. 4-6, we have the graphic description of the catastrophe. At the close, we have, in ver. 7, the words which impart to the prophecy importance for our purpose.

"In that time shall be brought, as a present unto the Lord of hosts, the people far stretched and shorn, and from the people terrible since it (has been) and onward, and from the people of law-law and trampling down, whose land streams divide, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the Mount Zion."

The expression, "shall be brought as a present," (the word שי occurs, besides in this passage, only in Ps. lxviii. 30; lxxvi. 12) points back to the fundamental passage in Ps. lxviii. 30, where David says, "Because of thy temple over Jerusalem shall kings bring presents unto thee." As outwardly, so spiritually too, the sanctuary lies over Jerusalem. The sanctuary of God over Jerusalem is the emblem of His protecting power, of His saving mercy watching over Jerusalem; so that, "because of thy temple over Jerusalem they bring," &c., is equivalent to: On account of thy glorious manifestation as the God of Jerusalem. Cush is in that Psalm, immediately afterwards, expressly mentioned by the side of Egypt, which, at the Prophet's time, was closely connected with it. "Princes shall come out of Egypt, Cush makes her hands to hasten towards God."--According to Gesenius, and other interpreters, the מן from the second clause is to be supplied before עם ממשך. But this is both hard and unnecessary. It is quite in order that, first, the offering of persons, and, afterwards, the offering of their gifts should be mentioned. Parallel is chap. xlv. 14: "The labour of Egypt and the merchandize of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine;" the difference is only this, that there first the goods are mentioned, and then the men. In chap. lxvi. 20, we likewise meet men who are brought for an offering. The designations of the people who here appear as the type of the whole Gentile world to be converted at some future period, and who have been chosen for this honour in consequence of the historical circumstances which existed at the time of the Prophet, are taken from ver. 2. Gesenius is wrong in remarking in reference to them: "All these epithets have for their purpose to designate that distant people as a powerful and terrible one." As Gesenius himself was obliged to remark in reference to the last words, "Whose land streams divide:" "This is a designation of a striking peculiarity of the country, not of the people,"--the purpose of the epithets can generally be this only, to characterise the people according to their different prominent peculiarities.--ממשך properly "drawn out," "stretched," Prov. xiii. 12, corresponds to the אנשי מדה "men of extension or stature," in chap. xlv. 14. High stature appears, in classical writers also, as a characteristic sign of the Ethiopians.--On מורט "closely shorn," comp. chap. l. 6, where מרט is used of the plucking out of the hair of the beard.---"To the people fearful since it and onward," equivalent to: which all along, and throughout its whole existence, has been terrible; compare מימי היא Nah. ii. 9, and the expression: "from this day and forward," 1 Sam. xviii. 9. For everywhere one people only is spoken of, comp. ver. 1, according to which Egypt cannot be thought of--קו קו "law-law" is explained from chap. xxviii. 10, 13, where it stands beside צו צו, and designates the mass of rules, ordinances, and statutes. This is characteristic of the Egyptians, and likewise of the Ethiopians, who bear so close an intellectual resemblance to them. With regard to the connection of the verse with what precedes, Gesenius remarks: "The consequence of such great deeds of Jehovah will be, that the distant, powerful people of the Ethiopians shall present pious offerings to Jehovah,"--more correctly, "present themselves and their possessions to Jehovah."--A prelude to the fulfilment Isaiah beheld with his own eyes. It is said in 2 Chron. xxxii. 33: "And many (in consequence of the manifestation of the glory of God in the defeat of Asshur before Jerusalem) brought gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem." Yet, we must not limit ourselves to that. The real fulfilment can be sought for only at a later time, as certainly as that which the Prophet announces about the destruction of the world's power exceeds, by far, that isolated defeat of Asshur, which can be regarded as a prelude only to the real fulfilment; and as certainly as he announces the destruction of Asshur generally, and, under his image, of the world's power. "He who delights in having pointed out the fulfilment of such prophecies in the later history"--Gesenius remarks--"may find it in Acts viii. 26 ff., and still more, in the circumstance that Abyssinia is, up to this day, the only larger Christian State of the East."--In consequence of the glorious manifestation of the Lord in His kingdom, and of the conquering power which, in Christ, He displayed in His relation to the world's power, there once existed in Ethiopia a flourishing Christian Church; and on the ground of this passage before us, we look at its ruins which have been left up to this day, with the hope that the Lord will, at some future time, rebuild it.

[CHAPTER XIX.]

The burden of Egypt begins with the words: "Behold the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and cometh into Egypt, and the idols of Egypt are moved at His presence, and the heart of Egypt melteth in the midst of it." The clouds with which, or accompanied by which, the Lord comes, are, in the Old and New Testament writings, symbolical indications and representations of judgment; comp. my remarks on Rev. i. 7; and besides the passages quoted there, compare in addition Jer. iv. 13; Rev. xiv. 14. But what judgment is here spoken of? According to Gesenius and other interpreters, the calamity is the victory of Psammeticus over the twelve princes, with which physical calamities are to be joined. But against this view, ver. 11 alone is conclusive, inasmuch as, according to this verse, Pharaoh, at the time when this calamity breaks in upon Egypt, is the ruler of the whole land: "How say ye unto Pharaoh: I am the Son of the wise a (spiritual) son of the kings of ancient times," who are celebrated for their wisdom. In ver. 2, according to which, in Egypt, kingdom fights against kingdom, we cannot, therefore, think of independent kingdom s; but following the way of the LXX., νόμος ἐπὶ νόμον, of provinces only. Further,--According to Gesenius, the fierce lord and cruel king in ver. 4 is assumed to be Psammeticus. But against this the plural alone is decisive. Ezek. xxx. 12--according to which outward enemies, the זרים, are the cause of the drying up of the Nile, of the ceasing of wealth and prosperity--militates against the assumption of a calamity independent of the political one. The circumstance, that the prophecy under consideration belongs to the series of the burdens, and was written in the view of Asshur's advance, leaves us no room to doubt that the Lord is coming to judgment in the oppression by the Asiatic world's power. To this may be added the analogy of the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel against Egypt, which are evidently to be considered as a resumption of the prophecy under consideration, and as an announcement that its realization is constantly going on. They do not know any other calamity than being given up to the Asiatic world's power. Compare e.g. Jer. xlvi. 25, 26: "And behold, I visit Pharaoh and Egypt, and their gods and their kings, Pharaoh and them that trust in him. And I deliver them into the hand of those that seek their soul, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon." After what we have remarked, the discord among the Egyptians in ver. 2, can be considered as the consequence and concomitant of the real and main calamity only: Where God is not in the midst, there, commonly, internal discord is wont to follow upon severe outward affliction, inasmuch as one always imputes to the other the cause of matters going on so badly. And what is said of the drying up of the Nile, we shall thus likewise be obliged to consider as a consequence of the hostile oppression. Waters are, in Scripture, the ordinary image of prosperity; compare remarks on Rev. xvii. 1, 8, 40; xvi. 4. Here the Nile specially is chosen as the symbol of prosperity, inasmuch as upon it the woe and weal of Egypt chiefly depended. In consequence of the hostile invasion which consumes all the strength of the land, the Nile of its prosperity dries up; "its very foundations are destroyed, all who carry on craft are afflicted."

The scope of the prophecy is this: The Lord comes to judgment upon Egypt (through Asshur and those who follow in his tracks), ver. 1. Instead of uniting all the strength against the common enemy, there arises, by the curse of God, discord and dissolution, ver. 2. Egypt falls into a helpless state of distress, ver. 3. "And I give over Egypt into the hand of hard rule, and a fierce king (Jonathan: potens, sc. Nebuchadnezzar) shall rule over them, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts," ver. 4. The fierce king is the king of Asshur, the Asiatic kingdom; compare the mention of Asshur in ver. 23-25; LXX. βασιλεῖς σκληροί. For, the fact that the unity is merely an ideal one, is most distinctly and intentionally pointed at by the אדנים preceding. The prosperity of the land is destroyed, ver. 5-10. The much boasted Egyptian wisdom can as little avert the ruin of the country as it did formerly, in ancient times; its bearers stand confounded and ashamed; nothing will thrive and prosper, vers. 11-15. But the misery produces salutary fruits; it brings about the conversion of Egypt to the God of Israel, and, with this conversion, a full participation in all the privileges and blessings of the Kingdom of God shall be connected, ver. 16, and especially vers. 18-25. This close of the prophecy, which for our purpose is of special consequence, we must still submit to a closer examination.

Ver. 18. "In that day shall be five cities in the land of Egypt which speak the language of Canaan and swear to the Lord of hosts; city of destruction the one shall be called."

Five, as usual, here comes into consideration as the half of ten, which number represents the whole; "five cities," therefore, is equivalent to: a goodly number of cities. On the words: "Who speak the language of Canaan," Gesenius remarks: "With the spreading of a certain religion resting on certain documents of revelation, as e.g. the Jewish religion, the knowledge of their language, too, must be connected." We must not, of course, limit the thought to this, that Hebrew was learned wherever the religion of Jehovah spread. When viewed more deeply, the language of Canaan is spoken by all those who are converted to the true God. Upon the Greek language, e.g. the character of the language of Canaan has been impressed in the New Testament. That language which, from primeval times, has been developed in the service of the Spirit, imparts its character to the languages of the world, and changes their character in their deepest foundation.--"To swear to the Lord" is to do Him homage; Michaelis: Juramento se Domino obstringent; comp. chap. xlv. 23: "Unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear." In the words: "City of destruction,"

הרס, one shall be called, there is contained an allusion to קיר הרס, "city of the Sun" (Heliopolis) which was peculiar to one of the chief seats of Egyptian idolatry. It is the celebrated On or Bethshemish of which Jeremiah prophesies in chap. xliii. 13: "And he (Nebuchadnezzar) breaketh the pillars in Beth-shemish, that is in the land of Egypt, and the houses of the gods of Egypt he burneth with fire." This allusion was perceived as early as by Jonathan, who thus paraphrases: "Urbs domus solis quae destruetur." By this allusion it is intimated that salvation cannot be bestowed upon the Gentile world in the state in which it is; that punitive justice must prepare the way for salvation: that everywhere the destructive activity of God must precede that which builds up; that the way to the Kingdom of God passes through the fire of tribulation which must consume every thing that is opposed to God; compare that which Micah, even in reference to the covenant-people, says regarding the necessity of taking, before giving can have place, vol. i., p. 517.

Ver. 19. "In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord."

That the altar is to be considered as a "monument" only is a supposition altogether far-fetched, and which can the less find any support in the isolated case, Josh. xxii., that that account clearly enough intimates how decidedly the existence of an altar furnishes a foundation for the supposition that sacrifices are to be offered up there, a supposition intimated by the very name in Hebrew. If it was meant to serve some other purpose, it would have been necessary expressly to state it, or, at least, some other place of sacrifice ought to have been assigned for the sacrifices mentioned in ver. 21. But as it stands, there cannot be any doubt that the altar here and the sacrifices there belong to one another. This passage under consideration is of no little consequence, inasmuch as it shows that, in other passages where a going up of the Gentiles to Jerusalem in the Messianic time is spoken of, as, e.g., chap. lxvi. 23, we must distinguish between the thought and the embodiment. The pillar at the border bears an inscription by which the land is designated as the property of the Lord, just as it was the custom of the old eastern conquerors, and especially of the Egyptians, to erect such pillars in the conquered territories.

Ver. 20. "And it is for a sign and for a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt: When they cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors, He shall send them a Saviour and a Deliverer; and he shall deliver them."

Altar and pillar, as a sign and witness of the confession to the Lord, are, at the same time, a guarantee of the deliverance to be granted by Him. According to Gesenius, the Prophet speaks "without a definite historical reference, of a saving or protecting angel." But we cannot think of an angel on account of the plain reference to the common formula in the Book of Judges, by which it is intimated that, as far as redemption is concerned, Egypt has been made a partaker of the privileges of the covenant-people. It is just this reference which has given rise to the general expression; but it is Christ who is meant; for the prophets, and especially Isaiah, are not cognizant of any other Saviour for the Gentile world than of Him; and it is He who is suggested by the Messianic character of the whole description.

Ver. 21. "And the Lord is known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians know the Lord in that day, and offer sacrifice and oblation, and vow vows unto the Lord, and perform them."

Ver. 22. "And the Lord smiteth the Egyptians so that He healeth them, and they are converted to the Lord, and He shall be entreated by them, and shall heal them."

We have here simply a recapitulation. The prophet describes anew the transition from the state of wrath to that of grace--not, as Drechsler thinks, what they experience in the latter. Upon Egypt is fulfilled what, in Deut. xxxii. 39, has been said in reference to Israel.