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 According to Gesenius, the Prophet speaks "without a definite historical reference, of a saving or protecting angel."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 [Pg 145] 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.

Ver. 23. "In that day there shall be a highway out of Egypt to Asshur, and Asshur cometh into Egypt, and Egypt into Asshur, and Egypt serveth with Asshur."

[Hebrew: ebd] with [Hebrew: at] has commonly the signification "to serve some one;" here, however, [Hebrew: at] is used as a preposition: Egypt serves God with Asshur. Yet there is an allusion to the ordinary use of [Hebrew: ebd] with [Hebrew: at] in order to direct attention to the wonderful change: First, Egypt serves Asshur, and the powers that follow its footsteps; then, it serves with Asshur. Here also it becomes manifest that the deliverer in ver. 20 is no ordinary human deliverer; for such an one could help his people only by inflicting injury upon the hostile power.

Ver. 24. "In that day Israel shall be the third with Egypt and with Asshur, a blessing in the midst of the earth."

The "blessing" is not "that union of people formerly separated," but it is Israel from which the blessing is poured out upon all the other nations; compare the fundamental passage, Gen. xii. 1-3, and the word of the Lord: [Greek: he soteria ek ton Ioudaion esti], John iv. 22.

Ver. 25. "For the Lord of Hosts blesseth him, saying: Blessed be Egypt my people, and Asshur the work of mine hands, and Israel mine inheritance."

The suffix in [Hebrew: brm] refers to every thing mentioned in ver. 24. "Assyria and Egypt are called by epithets which elsewhere are wont to be bestowed upon Israel only."

It is scarcely necessary to point out how gloriously this, [Pg 146] prophecy was fulfilled; how, at one time, there existed a flourishing Church in Egypt. Although the candlestick of that Church be now removed from its place ("Satanas in hac gente sevit zizania"—Vitringa), yet we are confident of, and hope for, a future in which this prophecy shall anew powerfully manifest itself The broken power of the Mahommedan delusion opens up the prospect, that the time in which this hope is to be realized is drawing nigh.



CHAPTER XXIII. THE BURDEN UPON TYRE.

In the view of Sennacherib's invasion, the eyes of the Prophet are opened, so that he beholds the future destinies of the nations within his horizon. It is under these circumstances that it is revealed to him that Tyre also, which, not long before, had successfully resisted the attack of Asshur, and had imagined herself to be invincible, would not, for any length of time, be able to resist the attack of the Asiatic world's power.

The threatening goes on to ver. 14; it is, in ver. 13, concentrated in the words: "Behold the land of the Chaldeans, this people which was not, which Asshur assigns to the beasts of the wilderness,—they set up their watch-towers, they arouse her palaces, they bring them to ruin." The correct explanation of this verse has been given by Delitzsch in his Commentary on Habakkuk, S. xxi. Before the capture of Tyre could be assigned to the Chaldeans, it was necessary to point out that they should overthrow Asshur, the representative of the world's power in the time of the Prophet. The Chaldeans, a people which, up to that time, were not reckoned in the list of the kingdoms of the world, destroy, in some future period, the Assyrian power, and shall then inflict upon Tyre that destruction which Asshur intended in vain to bring upon it.

[Pg 147]

Upon the threatening there follows the promise. Ver. 15. "And it shall come to pass in that day, and Tyre is forgotten seventy years like the days of one king. After the end of seventy years, it shall be unto Tyre according to the song of the harlot. Ver. 16. Take the harp, go about the city, forgotten harlot, make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered. Ver. 17. And it shall come to pass, after the end of seventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre, and she returneth to her hire of whoredom, and whoreth with all the kingdoms of the earth upon the surface of the earth. Ver. 18. And her gain and hire of whoredom shall be holy unto the Lord; not is it treasured and laid up, but to those who sit before the Lord its gain shall be, that they may eat and be satisfied, and for durable clothing."

On the "70 years, like the days of one king," Michaelis very pertinently remarks: "Not of one individual, but of one reign or empire, i.e. as long as the Babylonian empire shall last, which, after 70 years, was destroyed by Cyrus." The necessary qualification follows from ver. 13. According to that verse, the one king can be the king of the Chaldeans only. Parallel are the 70 years which, in Jer. xxv. 11, 12, are assigned to the Chaldean empire: "And these nations serve the king of Babylon 70 years. And it shall come to pass, when the 70 years are accomplished, I will visit upon the king of Babylon, and upon that nation, saith the Lord, their iniquity." In the Commentary on Rev. ii. 1, p. 75, 200, it was proved that, in Scripture, kings are frequently ideal persons; not individuals, but personifications of their kingdoms. Gesenius' objection, that the time of the Babylonish dynasty, from the pretended destruction of Tyre to the destruction of Babylon, did not last 70 years, vanishes by the remark that the Prophet says "like the days;" that, hence, it is expressly intimated that the 70 years here, differently from what is the case in Jeremiah, are to be considered as a round designation of the time. From a comparison of Jeremiah we learn that the Chaldean dominion will last 70 years in all. Into which point of that period the destruction of Tyre is to fall, Isaiah does not disclose. It is quite proper that in reference to Tyre the announcement should not be so definite, in point of chronology, as in reference to Judah. That the capture of [Pg 148] Tyre by the Chaldeans, which is here announced, really took place, has been more thoroughly established in my book: De rebus Tyriorum; and afterwards by Drechsler in his Commentary on Isaiah, and by Haevernick in his Commentary on Ezekiel.

After the end of the 70 years. Tyre is to resume her trade of whoring, and is to carry it on to a wide extent, and with great success. "By the image of whoredom"—so we remarked in commenting upon Rev. xiv. 8—"in some passages of the Old Testament, that selfishness is designated which clothes itself in the garb of love, and, under its appearance, seeks the gratification of its own desires. In Is. xxiii. 15 ff., Tyre is, on account of her mercantile connections, called a whore, and the profit from trade is designated as the reward of whoredom. The point of comparison is the endeavour to please, to feign love for the sake of gain." Under the dominion of the Persians, Tyre again began to flourish.

Tyre's reward of whoredom is consecrated to the Lord, and the bodily wants of His servants are provided from it,—quite in agreement with the words of the Apostle: [Greek: ei hemeis humin ta pneumatika espeiramen, mega, ei emeis humon ta sarkika therisomen]; 1 Cor. ix. 11. Converted Tyre offers, in these gifts, its thanks for the noble gift which it received from the sanctuary.

Vitringa, who remarks that the Prophet was fully aware of "the great interval of time that would intervene betwixt the restoration of Tyre, and her dedication of herself, with her gains, to the Lord," is right, while Drechsler, who is of opinion that the doings of consecrated Tyre also are represented under the image of whoring, is wrong. Whoring designates a sinful conversation which is irreconcilable with conversion to the Lord. It does not designate trade, as such, but trade as it is earned on by those who, with unrenewed hearts, serve the god Mammon. We have here before us two stages, strictly separated. First, she resumes her old whorings; then, she consecrates her gain to the Lord. The severe catastrophe intervening, the new capture of Tyre, as it took place by Alexander, is not yet beheld by Isaiah. The announcement of it was reserved for the post-exilic Prophet Zechariah, chap. ix. 3.

The announcement of the future conversion of Tyre received, [Pg 149] in the time of Christ, a symbolical representation as it were, in the Canaanitish woman. Vitringa says: "The first fruits of this grace were received by that wise Canaanitish woman, who had been taught, as if she had been in the school of Christ, to ask for divine grace; whom Matth. xv. 22, calls a woman of Canaan, Mark vii. 26, a Syrophenician; but who was no doubt a Tyrian, inasmuch as she obtained mercy from Christ the Lord himself, while He sojourned in the territory of Tyre and Sidon. Paul found at Tyre a congregation of disciples of Christ already in existence, Acts xxi. 3 ff." At a subsequent period, there existed at Tyre a flourishing and wealthy church. Eusebius and Jerome describe to us, from their own experience, the fulfilment of this prophecy.



CHAPTERS XXIV.-XXVII.

Upon the ten single "burdens" as they were called forth by the threatening Assyrian catastrophe, there follows here a comprehensive description of the judgments of God upon His people, and upon the world's power hostile to His Kingdom, The characteristic feature in it is, that the Prophet abstains from all details.

The prophecy begins in chap. xxiv. 1-13, with the threatening of the judgment upon Judah, The fact that Judah is here spoken of, not alone, it is true, but together with his companions in suffering, with all the other nations crushed like him by the world's power in its various phases (verse 4 most clearly shows that it is not Judah alone which is spoken of; comp. the same comprehensive mode of representation in Jer. xxv.; Hab. ii. 6), appears from ver. 5: "For they transgressed the laws, violated the ordinances, broke the everlasting covenant," where there can exist only a collateral reference to the Gentile world; from ver. 13, where the continuing gleaning is characteristic of the covenant-people (comp. xvii. 6); but especially from ver. 23, where, after the time of punishment, the Lord reigneth on Mount Zion.

The judgment upon Judah bears a comprehensive character. [Pg 150] As the single phases of the world's power, by which the sins of the people of God are visited, there had been mentioned in the cycle of the burdens, Asshur in chap. xiv. 25; Babylon in chap. xiii., xiv., xxi., (the circumstance that the first burden of the first half of the burdens, and likewise the first burden of the second half of the burdens—the ten burdens being thus divided into twice five—is directed against Babylon, shows that specially heavy judgments were to be inflicted by Babel); Elam in chap. xxii. 6 (comp. remarks on chap. xi. 11). Here the idea of judgment upon the covenant-people is viewed per se, and irrespective of the particular forms of its realisation.

In vers. 14, 15, there is a sudden transition from the threatening to the promise: "They (the remnant left according to ver. 13) shall lift their voice, they shall shout for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud from the sea,"—from the sea into which they were driven away by the storm of the judgments of the Lord. To the "sea" here, correspond the "islands of the sea," in ver. 15; compare the mention of the islands in chap. xi. 11. Ver. 15. "Therefore, in the light praise ye the Lord, in the isles of the sea the name of the Lord God of Israel." The words are addressed to the elect in the time of salvation. The Plural [Hebrew: ariM] denotes the fulness of light or salvation, comp. chap. xxvi. 19; [Hebrew: b] is, in both instances, used in a local sense. The light is the spiritual territory; the isles of the sea, the natural.

Ver. 16 returns to the threatening: "From the uttermost parts of the earth we hear songs: Glory to the righteous! And I say: Misery to me, misery to me, woe to me! the treacherous are treacherous, and very treacherous are the treacherous." The song of praise of the redeemed, which is heard coming forth from a far distant future, is suppressed by the same affliction which is immediately impending, by the look to the rod of chastisement by the world's power with its treachery, its policy feigning love and concealing hatred, with which the Lord is to visit His people, and the floods of which, like a new flood, are, according to ver. 15, to overflow the whole earth. Compare the very similar transition from triumphant hope to lamentation over the misery of the future more immediately at hand, in Hab. iii. 16.

In ver. 21, ff. the promise breaks forth anew. Ver. 21: [Pg 151] "And it shall come to pass in that day: the Lord shall visit the host of the height in the height, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. Ver. 22. And they are all of them gathered together as prisoners in the pit, and are shut up in the prison, and after many days they are visited. Ver. 23. And the moon blusheth, and the sun is ashamed, for the Lord of hosts reigneth on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients is glory."

In ver. 21 the destruction of the world's power is announced. The "kings of the earth" form the explanation of the "host of the height." It is very common to represent rulers under the image of stars; compare Numb. xxiv. 17; Rev. vi. 13, viii. 10; Is. xiv. 12, xxxiv. 4, 5, compared with ver. 12. [Hebrew: mrvM] is used in reference to the great ones of the earth in ver. 4, and in chap. xxvi. 5, also. The explanation by evil heavenly powers has no Old Testament analogies in its favour.—In ver. 22, the words: "And after many days they are visited," intimates that the time will appear very long to Zion, until the visitation takes place. "Many days," or "a long time," viz., after the beginning of their raging, which was to continue for a series of centuries, until Christ at length spoke: "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." The visitation consists in their being gathered together.—In ver. 23, the words: "The Lord reigneth," contain an allusion to the formula used in proclaiming the accession of earthly kings to the throne, and point to an impending new and glorious manifestation of the government of the Lord,—as it were, a new accession to the throne; compare remarks on Ps. xciii. 1; Rev. xix. 6. The "ancients" are the ideal representatives of the Church; compare remarks on Rev. iv. 4. Before them is glory, inasmuch as the Lord imparts to them of His glory.

In chap. xxv. 1-5, the Lord is praised on account of the glorious redemption bestowed upon His people. "For thou hast made"—it is said in ver. 2—"of a city a heap, of a firm city a ruin, the palace of strangers to be no city; it shall not be built in eternity." The city, palace (we must think of such an one as comes up to a city, as is even now the case with the palaces of the princes in India) bear an ideal character, and represent the whole fashion of the world, the whole world's power; comp. ver. 12, chaps. xxvi. 5, xxvii. 10. Gesenius [Pg 152] speaks of "the strange conjectures of interpreters who have guessed all possible cities." But he himself has lost himself in the sphere of strange conjectures and guesses, by remarking: "The city whose destruction is here spoken of can be none other than Babylon." The circumstance that Babylon is not mentioned at all in the whole prophecy in chaps. xxiv.-xxvii. shows plainly enough that a special reference to Babylon cannot here be entertained; and the less so, that it would be against the character of our prophecy, which abstains from all details.

While in vers. 1-5 the discourse was laudatory and glorifying, and addressed to the Lord, in vers. 6-8 the Lord is spoken of:

Ver. 6. "And in this mountain the Lord of hosts maketh unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of lees well-refined. Ver 7. And destroyeth in the mountain the surface of the vail covering all the nations, and the covering cast upon all the nations. Ver. 8. And destroyeth death for ever, and the Lord Jehovah wipeth away the tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from of all the earth; for the Lord hath spoken."

"In this mountain," ver. 6, where He enters upon His government (chap. xxiv. 23), and dwells in the midst of His people in a manner formerly unheard of.—"Unto all people," comp. chap. ii. 2 ff. The verse under consideration forms the foundation for the words of Christ in Matthew viii. 2: [Greek: lego de humin hoti polloi apo anatolon kai dusmon hexousi kai anaklithesontai meta Abraam kai Isaak kai Iakob en te basileia ton ouranon]; comp. xxii. 1 ff.; Luke xxii. 30. In ver. 7, "the surface of the vail" is the vail itself, inasmuch as it lies over it. The "covering" here comes into consideration as a sign of mourning, comp. 2 Sam. xv. 30: "And David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet, weeping, and his head covered, and so also all the people with him." The explanation is given in ver. 8, where the [Hebrew: ble] is intentionally resumed. We cannot, therefore, agree with Drechsler who explains the being "covered," by "dullness and deadness in reference to spiritual things."—The first part of ver. 8 is again resumed in Rev. vii. 17, xxi. 4. As death entered into the world by sin (Gen. ii. 17; Rom. v. 12), [Pg 153] so it ceases when sin is completely overcome; compare 1 Cor. xv. 54, where our passage is expressly quoted. Besides death, tears also are mentioned, inasmuch as they flow with special bitterness in the case of bereavements by death.—The Lord removes the rebuke of His people when all their hopes, which formerly were mocked and laughed at, are fulfilled, and when, out of the midst of them, salvation for the whole world rises.

With the people of God in their exaltation, Moab is, in vers. 9-12, contrasted in its weakness and humiliation, and in its vain attempts to withdraw from the supremacy of the God of Israel. Moab comes here into consideration, only as the representative of all the kingdoms hostile to God, and obstinately persevering in their opposition to His Kingdom; just as Edom in chap. xxxiv., lxiii. The representative character of Moab was recognized by Gesenius also, who thus determines the sense: "Whilst Jehovah's protecting hand rests upon Zion, His enemies helplessly perish." It is intentionally that Moab is mentioned, and not Asshur or Babel, because, in its case, the representative character could not so easily be mistaken or overlooked.—Ver. 12 returns to the world's power in general.

In chap. xxvi., the rejoicing and shouting for the salvation are continued. A characteristic Messianic feature is contained in ver. 19 only, in which, as in chap. xxv. 8, the ceasing of death and the resurrection of the righteous appear as taking place in the Messianic time.

Ver. 19. "Thy dead shall live, my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust! For a dew of light is thy dew, and thou makest fall to the earth the giants."

The saints are raised from the earth; the giants are sunk into the earth. The [Hebrew: rpaiM] "giants" are identical with the [Hebrew: iwbi tbl] in ver. 18. There it was said in reference to the time of wrath: "We have not wrought any deliverance in the land, neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen;" compare vers. 9 and 21; Numb. xiv. 32. Parallel is the announcement of the defeat of the world's power in ver. 14. [Hebrew: rpaiM], it is true, is there used of the dead; but the signification of the word remains the same: The bodiless spirits were called giants, because they were objects of terror to the living; comp. remarks on Ps. lxxxviii. 11. The word is, in ver. 14, used [Pg 154] with a certain irony.—"Light" is equivalent to "salvation." The Plural signifies the fulness of light or salvation. The complete fulfilment which the words, "Thy dead shall live," will find in the resurrection of the body, affords a guarantee for the fulfilment of the previous stages.

In chap. xxvii., it is especially ver. 1 which attracts our attention: "In that day the Lord with His sword, hard, great, and strong, shall visit the leviathan, the tortuous serpent, and killeth the dragon that is in the sea."

We have here three designations of one and the same monster. Gesenius, on the other hand, rightly brings forward the accumulation of the attributes of the sword: With the three epithets applied to the sword, the three epithets of the monster to be killed by it pertinently correspond. The leviathan, the dragon, is, as it were, the king of the sea-animals, compare remarks on Ps. lxxiv. 13, 14. In the spiritual sea of the world, its natural antitype is the conquering world's power; comp. remarks on Rev. xii. 3. But that which is meant is the whole world's power, according to all its phases, which is here viewed as a whole; comp. ver. 13, where it is designated by Asshur and Egypt. The special reference to Babylon rests, here also, on a mere fancy.

* * * * * * * * * *



After the single discourses out of the Assyrian time, from chap. vii-xxvii., there follows in chap. xxviii.-xxxiii. the sum and substance of those not fully communicated. Even the uncommonly large extent of the section suggests to us such a comprehensive character. And so likewise does the fact that the same thoughts are constantly recurring, as is the case in several of the minor prophets also, e.g. Hosea. But what is most decisive is, that in chap. xxviii. 1-4 Samaria appears as not yet destroyed. Considering that the chronological principle pervades the whole collection, this going back can be accounted for only by the circumstance that we have here a comprehensive representation. And we are the more led to this opinion that, in other passages of the same section, Jerusalem is represented as being threatened immediately. In this section, it is especially the passage in chap. xxviii. 16 [Pg 155] which attracts our attention; since, in the New Testament, it is referred to Christ.

"Behold I have laid for a foundation in Zion a stone, a tried (stone), a precious corner stone of perfect foundation; he that believeth need not make haste," viz., for an escape or refuge for himself, Ps. lv. 9. In opposition to false hopes, this stone is pointed to as the only true foundation, and all are threatened with unavoidable destruction who do not make it their foundation. The stone is the Kingdom of God, the Church; compare Zech. iii. 9, where the Kingdom of God likewise appears under the image of the stone. But since the Kingdom of God (which, in chap. viii. 16, had been represented under the image of the quietly flowing waters of Siloah) is, for all eternity, closely connected with the house of David which centres in Christ, that which, in the first instance, is said of the kingdom of God refers, at the same time, to its head and centre. Parallel is Is. xiv. 32; "The Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of His people trust in it." The [Hebrew: hamiN] here corresponds with the [Hebrew: Hsh] with [Hebrew: b] there. The difference is, that there Zion itself is the object of confidence, while here it is the stone which is in Zion. There, Zion is the spiritual Zion; not the mountain as an assemblage of stones, nor the outward temple as such, but Zion in so far as it is a sanctuary, the seat of the presence of the Lord. The Lord—such is the sense—has founded His Kingdom among us; and the circumstance that we are citizens of the Kingdom gives us security, enables us to be calm even in the midst of the greatest danger. Here, on the contrary, Zion is the outward Zion, and the Kingdom of God is the Church as distinguished from it. The Zion here corresponds to the holy mountains in Ps. lxxxvii. 1, where, in a similar manner, a distinction is drawn between the material and spiritual Zion: "His foundation is in the holy mountains," on which I remarked in my Commentary: "The foundation of Zion took place spiritually by its being chosen to be the seat of the sanctuary. It was then only that the place, already existing, received its spiritual foundation." The stone laid by God as a foundation in Zion, in the passage under consideration, is, in substance, identical with the "tent that He placed among men," in Ps. lxxviii. 60. "In substance the sanctuary was erected by God alone, who, by [Pg 156] fulfilling His promise, 'I dwell in the midst of them,'breathed the living soul into the body, and caused His name to dwell there." In Ezek. xi. the substance of the sanctuary, the Shechinah, withdraws into heaven.—Our passage, farther, touches very closely upon chap. viii. 14: "And He (the Lord) becomes a sanctuary and a stone of offence, and a rock of stumbling to both the houses of Israel, and a snare and a trap to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." The stone here is the Church; there it is the Lord himself, according to His relation to Israel, the Lord who has become manifest in His Church. Another point of contact is offered by Ps. cxviii. 22: "The stone which the builders rejected has become the corner-stone." In that passage, too, the stone is the Kingdom and people of God: "The people of God whom the kingdoms of the world despised, have, by the working of God, then been raised to the dignity of the world-ruling people."

A simple quotation of the passage before us is found in Rom. x. 11: [Greek: legei gar he graphe. pas ho pisteuon ep'auto ou kataischunthesetai.] In chap. ix. ver. 3, we have chap. viii. 14, and the passage under consideration blended in a remarkable manner: [Greek: idou tithemi en Sion lithon prokommatos kai petran skandalou. kai pas ho pisteuon ep'auto ou kataischunthesetai], and from the remarks already offered, the right to this blending is evident. Peter, in 1 Pet. ii. 6, 7, adds to these two passages, that in Ps. cxviii. 22: [Greek: dioti periechei en te graphe: idou tithemi en Sion lithon akrogoniaion, eklekton, entimon, kai ho pisteuon ep'auto ou me kataischunthe. humin houn he time tois pisteuousin. apeithousi de lithon hon apedokimasan hoi oikodomountes, houtos egenethe eis kephalen gonias, kai lithos proskommatos kai petra skandalou], on which Bengel remarks: "Peter quotes, in ver. 6 and 7, three passages, the first from Isaiah, the second from the Psalms, the third again from Isaiah. To the third he alludes in ver. 8, but to the second and first, in ver. 4, having, even then already both of them in his mind." Matth. xxi. 42-44 refers only to Ps. cxviii. and to Is. viii. 14, 15. to the latter passage in ver. 44; Acts iv. has Ps. cxviii. only in view.

The second Messianic passage of the section which is of importance for our purpose, is chap. xxxiii. 17.

"Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty; they shall see the land that is far off."

[Pg 157]

The "King" is the Messiah. This appears from the reference to the Song of Solomon i. 16, where the bride says to the bridegroom, the heavenly Solomon, "Behold thou art fair, my beloved" (comp. Ps. xlv. 3;) and from the words immediately following: "they shall see the land that is far off." The wide extension of the Kingdom of God is indissolubly connected with the appearance of the Messiah. Those who refer the prophecy to Hezekiah refer "the land that is far off" (literally: "the land of distances") to "a land stretching far out," in antithesis to the siege when the people of Jerusalem were limited to its area, since the whole country was occupied by the Assyrians. But the passage, chap. xxvi. 15: "Thou increasest the nation, O God, thou art glorified, thou removest all the boundaries of the land," is conclusive against this explanation. Comparing this passage, as also chap. lx. 4; Zech. x. 9, Michaelis correctly explains: "The land of distances is the Kingdom of Christ most widely propagated." In chap. viii. 9, likewise, the Gentile countries are designated by the "distances of the earth." Farther—Hezekiah could not be designated simply by [Hebrew: mlK] without the article. It is only by the utmost violence that the whole announcement can be limited to the events under Hezekiah, which everywhere form the foreground only. We might rather, with Vitringa, think of Jehovah, with a comparison of ver. 22: "For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our King; He will save us," and of Ps. xlviii. 3, where he is called [Hebrew: mlK rb]. To Jehovah, the passage, chap. xxx. 20, 21 also refers,—a passage which has been so often misunderstood: "And the Lord giveth you bread of adversity, and water of affliction, and not does thy teacher conceal himself any more, and thine eyes see thy Teacher. And thine ears hear a voice behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it; do not turn to the right hand, nor to the left." The affliction prepares for the coming of the heavenly teacher; by it the eyes of the people have been opened, so that they are able to behold His glorious form. But although we should understand Jehovah by "the King in His beauty," we must, at all events, think of His glorious manifestation in Christ Jesus, who said, He who sees me sees the Father, and in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily; and it was indeed in Christ that God, [Pg 158] in the truest manner, revealed and manifested himself as the Teacher of His people.

The close of the whole of the first part of Isaiah is, in chaps. xxxiv., xxxv. formed by a comprehensive announcement, on the one hand, of the judgments upon the God-hating world, here individualized by Edom, that hereditary enemy of Israel, who was so much the more fitted for this representation that his enmity was the most obstinate of all, and remained the same throughout all the phases of Israel's oppression by the great kingdoms of the world (he always appears as he who helped to bring misery upon his brethren); and, on the other hand, of the mercy and salvation which should be bestowed upon the Church trampled upon by the world.

On chap. xxxiv. 4;, 5, where the heaven is that of the princes, the whole order of rulers and magistrates; the stars, the single princes and nobles, compare my remarks on Rev. vi. 13.



The description of the salvation in store for the Church, in chap. xxxv., is pre-eminently Messianic, although the lower blessings also are included which preceded the appearance of Christ. The description contains features so characteristic, that we must necessarily submit it to a closer examination.

Ver. 1. "The wilderness and dry land shall be glad for it, and the desert shall rejoice and sprout like the bulb."

The wilderness is Zion—the Church to be devastated by the world.—"For it,"—i.e. for the judgment upon the world, as it was described in chap. xxxiv. with which the changed fate of the Church is indissolubly connected.

Ver. 2. "It shall sprout, and rejoice with joy and shouting. The glory of Lebanon is given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the excellency of our God."

"The glory of Lebanon," &c. is a glory like unto that of Lebanon. The real condition of the glory of Zion, or the Church, is brought before us in the subsequent verses only; it consists in the Lords glory being manifested in it. The majestic, wooded Lebanon, and fruitful Carmel, are contrasted with one another; the latter is put together with the lovely fruitful plain of Sharon, rich in flowers; compare remarks on Song of Sol. vii. 6. Michaelis says: "The Lebanon excels among the forests; the Carmel among the fruitful hills; the [Pg 159] Sharon among the lovely fields or valleys."—To "see the glory of the Lord, the excellency of God" means to behold Him in the revelation of the full glory of His nature. Prophecy would have fed the minds of the people with vain hopes, if God had revealed himself in any other way than in Christ, the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Col. ii. 9), and who, along with His own glory, revealed, at the same time, that of the Father; for it was the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, John i. 14; ii. 11.

Ver. 3. "Strengthen ye the slack hands, and confirm ye the tottering knees." The words are addressed to all the members of the people of God; they are to strengthen and confirm one another by pointing to the future revelation of the glory of the Lord.

Ver. 4. "Say to them that are of a fearful heart: Be strong, fear not; behold, your God will come for vengeance, for a gift of God: He will come and save you."

"To them that are of a fearful heart,"—literally of a "hasty heart," who allow themselves to be carried away by the Present, and are unmindful of the respice finem.—[Hebrew: mqM] and [Hebrew: gmvl] are Accusatives, used in the same manner as in verbs of motion, to designate the object of the motion.—On [Hebrew: gmvl], "gift," comp. remarks on Ps. vii. 5. "The gift of God" forms a contrast to the poor gifts, such as men offer. He comes for vengeance upon His enemies, and for bestowing the most glorious divine gifts upon His people. The words: "He will come and save you," are an explanation of "the gift of God." It is in Christ that the words: "He will come and save you," found their true fulfilment,—a fulfilment to which every lower blessing pointed, and which is still going on, and constantly advancing.—That which, in the subsequent verses, is said of the concomitant circumstances of this salvation, is by far too high to admit of the fulfilment being sought in any other than Christ. All these forced explanations, such as: "In their joy they feel as if they were healed" (Knobel, after the example of Gesenius), only serve to show this more clearly. They are overthrown even by the parallel announcement of the impending resurrection of the dead in chap. xxv. 8; xxvi. 19.

[Pg 160]

Ver. 5. "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped."

The blind and deaf are the individualizing designations of the wretched; in Luke xiv. 13-21, the blind are named along with the poor, lame, and maimed as an individualizing designation of the whole genus of personae miserabiles; comp. John v. 3. But this individualizing designation must be carefully distinguished from the image. The blind and deaf are mentioned as the most perspicuous species in the genus; but they themselves are, in the first instance, meant, and that which has been said must, in the first instance, be fulfilled upon them. Farther—as blind and deaf are, without farther remark and qualification, spoken of, we shall, in the first instance, be obliged to think of the bodily blind and deaf, inasmuch as they, according to the common usus loquendi, are thus designated. But a collateral reference to the spiritually blind and deaf must so much the rather be assumed, that they, too, form a portion of the genus here represented by the blind and deaf; and the more so that it is just Isaiah who so frequently speaks of spiritual blindness and deafness; comp. chap. xxix. 18: "And in that day (in the time of the future salvation, when the Lord of the Church shall have put to shame the pusillanimity and timidity of His people), the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind see out of obscurity and darkness;" xlii. 18: "Hear ye deaf, and look ye blind and see;" xliii. 8: "Bring forth the blind people, that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears;" lvi. 10; vi. 10; Matth. xv. 14; John ix. 39; Ephes. i. 18; 2 Pet. i. 9. Spiritual blindness and deafness are specially seen in the relation of the people to the leadings of the Church, and to the promises of Scripture. The blind cannot understand the complicated ways of God; the deaf have, especially in the time of misery, no ear for His promises. Besides the natural and spiritual blindness, Scripture knows of still a third; it designates as blind those who cannot see the way of salvation, the helpless and drooping; compare my Commentary on Ps. cxlvi. 8; Zeph. i. 17; Isa. xlii. 7. Now, it is blindness and deafness of every kind which, along with all other misery, shall find a remedy at the time of salvation.—If we ask for the fulfilment, our eye is, in the first instance, attracted by Matt. [Pg 161] xi. 5, where, with an evident reference to the passage before us, the Lord gives to the question of John: "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another," the matter-of-fact answer, that the blind receive their sight, the deaf hear, the lame walk: comp. Matth. xv. 31: [Greek: hoste tous ochlous thaumasai blepontas kophous laloutas, kullous hugieis, cholous peripatountas kai tuphlous blepontas]; xxi. 14; [Greek: kai proselthon auto tuphloi kai choloi en to hiero kai etherapeusen autous]; Mark vii. 37, where after the healing of the deaf and dumb, the people say: [Greek: kalos panta pepoieke. kai tous kophous poiei akouein, kai tous alalous lalein.] Yet shall we not be able to see, in these facts, the complete fulfilment of the prophecy, in so far as it refers to the healing of the bodily blind and deaf—inasmuch as it promises the healing of all, not of some only—but only a pledge of the complete fulfilment of it; just as Christ's raising some from the dead only prefigures what He shall do in the end of the days. The complete fulfilment belongs to the time of the resurrection of the just, of which it is said: Whatever is here afflicted, groans, prays, shall then go on brightly and gloriously. More comprehensive was the fulfilment which the prophecy received, in reference to spiritual blindness and deafness, immediately at the first appearance of Christ, who declared that He had come into the world, that they which see not, might see (John ix. 39). But even here the completion as certainly belongs to the future world, as [Greek: blepomen arti di'esoptrou hen ainigmati].

Ver. 6. "Then shall the lame leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall shout; for in the wilderness shall waters be opened, and streams in the desert."

The leaping and shouting imply that they have obtained deliverance from their bodily defects,—at this deliverance the preceding verse stopped—and proceed from the natural delight at the appearance of this salvation, personal as well as general, of which these are an emanation. On the first words especially. Acts iii. 8 is to be compared, where it is said of the lame man to whom Peter, in the name of Jesus spoke. Arise and walk: [Greek: kai exallomenos este kai periepatei, kai eiselthe sun autois eis to hieron, peripaton kai allomenos kai ainon ton theon]; farther. Acts viii. 7: [Greek: polloi de paralelumenoi kai choloi etherapeuthesan]; xiv. 8; John v. 9. Of spiritual lameness, Heb. xii. 13 is spoken. It appears especially in dark times of affliction, as Vitringa says: "In the time of wild persecution, and when the Church languishes, [Pg 162] not a few men begin to halt, to vacillate in their views, to suspend their opinions," &c. On the words: "the tongue of the dumb shall shout," compare Matt. xii. 22: [Greek: tote prosenechthe auto daimonzomenos, tuphlos kai kophos. kai etherapeusen auton, hoste ton tuphlon kai kophon kai lalein kai blepein.] Spiritual dumbness is the incapacity for the praise of God which, in the time when salvation is withheld, so easily creeps in, and which is removed by the bestowal of salvation. The words: "For in the wilderness," &c., state the ground of the leaping and shouting, point to the bestowal of salvation, which forms the cause. The waters are the waters of salvation, compare remarks on chap. xii. 3. The words contain, moreover, an allusion to Exod. xvii. 3 ff.; Numb. xx. 11, where, during the journey through the wilderness, salvation is represented by the bestowal of water. The desert here is an image of misery.

Ver. 7. "And the scorching heat of the sun becomes a pool, and the thirsty land, springs of water; in the habitation of dragons shall be their couching place, grass where formerly reeds and rushes."

"The scorching heat of the sun," stands for "places scorched by the heat" ("parched ground," English version). The passage chap. xlix. 10, forbids us to explain it by mirage, the appearance of water. The suffix in [Hebrew: rbch] refers to Zion. Dragons like to make their abode especially in the waterless wilderness. The circumstance that Zion has there her couching place, supposes that it has been changed into a garden of God; while, on the contrary, in chap. xxxiv. 13, it is said of the world that "it becomes an habitation of dragons." Besides the dry land, the moor-land which bears nothing but barren reeds, shall undergo a change; nourishing grass is to take its place; [Hebrew: Hcir] has no other signification than this.

Ver. 8. "And a high-way shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the holy way; an unclean shall not pass over it; and it shall be for them, that they may walk on it, that fools also may not err."

"The way" is the way of salvation which God opens up to His people in the wilderness of misery; comp. chap. xliii. 19: "I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert;" Ps. cvii. 4: "They wandered in the wilderness, in the desert without ways," where the pathless wilderness is the image of misery; [Pg 163] Ps. xxv. 4; xxvii. 11, where the ways of God are the ways of salvation which He reveals to His people, that they may walk in them. The way is holy (comp. remarks on chap. iv. 3), because inaccessible to the profane world, to the unclean, who are not allowed to disturb the righteous walking on it; comp. ver. 9, which shows how entirely out of place is the remark that "the author, in his national hatred, will not allow any Gentiles to walk along with the covenant-people." It is only as converted, as fellows and companions of the saints, that the Gentiles are allowed to enter on the way, and not as unclean and their enemies. The circumstance that even the foolish cannot miss the way, indicates the abundant fulness of the salvation, in consequence of which it is so easily accessible; and no human effort, skill, or excellence, is required to attain the possession of it.

Ver. 9. "No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast go up thereon, it shall not be found there; and the redeemed walk on it."

By the lion, the ravenous beast, heathenish wickedness and tyranny, the world's power pernicious to the Kingdom of God, is designated; comp. remarks on chap. xi. 7. The Lord declared that the fulfilment had taken place, when He said: Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

Ver. 10. "And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. Joy and gladness they shall obtain, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."



GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON CHAPTERS XL.-LXVI.

The historical section, chap. xxxvi.-xxxix., forms the transition from the first to the second part of the prophecies of Isaiah. Its close is formed by the announcement of Judah's being carried away to Babylon, an announcement which Isaiah uttered to Hezekiah after the impending danger from the [Pg 164] Assyrians had been successfully warded off, as had been mentioned in the preceding chapter. In chap. xxxix. 6, 7, it is said: "Behold days are coming, and all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon, and nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And of thy sons shall they take away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." In this announcement, we have at the same time the concentration of the rebuking and threatening mission of the Prophet, and the point from which proceeds the comforting mission which, in the second part, is pre-eminently attended to. This second part at once begins with the words: "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people," which stand in closest connection with the preceding announcement of a great calamity, yea, even necessarily demand this. It is just for this reason that the historical chapters cannot be a later addition and interpolation, but must be an original element of the collection written by the Prophet himself.[1]

The contents of the second part are stated at once, and generally, in the introductory words, chap. xl. 1, 2: "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she receives of the Lord's hand double for all her sins." The comfort must, accordingly, form the fundamental character of the second part. But since, for the people of God, there does not exist any purely external salvation; since, for them, salvation is indissolubly connected with repentance,—exhortation must necessarily go hand ill hand with the announcement of salvation. This second feature and element concealed behind the first, is, moreover, expressly brought forward in what immediately follows, inasmuch as by it the "Comfort ye" does not receive any addition, [Pg 165] but is only commented upon and enlarged. The servants of the Lord (the whole chorus of the messengers of the divine salvation is addressed in vers. 3, 5), complying with His command, announce the impending salvation, designating it as a manifestation of the Lord's glory, and exhort to a worthy preparation for it. Vers. 3 and 4 treat of preparing in the desert a high-way for the Lord, who is to manifest himself gloriously. The way is prepared by repentance; the desert symbolizes the condition of bodily and spiritual misery. It is from this miserable condition that the Lord is to deliver and redeem His people; but in order that He may perform His part, they must, previously, have performed theirs. In ver. 5, this manifestation itself is described, with which is connected the fulness of salvation for the covenant-people. The servants of God are to announce the approach of salvation to mourning Jerusalem, in which the covenant-people appears to the Prophet as personified. (Jerusalem does not stand for "the carried away Zionites;" it is an ideal person, the afflicted and bowed down widow sitting on the ground in sackcloth; the distressed and mourning mother of the children partly carried away, and partly killed,—compare chap. iii. 26, where Jerusalem, desolate and emptied, sits upon the ground.) But this salvation can be granted to those only whose hearts are prepared to receive it. Thus the announcement of salvation is preceded by the [Greek: metanoeite], by the call to remove all the obstacles which render impassable the path through the desert into the land of promise; which render impossible the transition from misery to salvation; which prevent the Lord from coming to His people in their misery, and leading them out from it. Then, to those who have complied with the exhortation, the manifestation of the glory of the Lord is promised—He comes to them, in a glorious manifestation, in the way which, in the power of His Spirit, they have prepared and opened up to Him—and in, and with it, all the glorious things which, according to ver. 2, the servants of the Lord were to promise regarding the Future.

The comfort oftentimes moves in general terms, and consists in pointing to a Future full of salvation and grace. But, in other passages, the announcement of salvation is more individualised, becomes more special. These special announcements [Pg 166] refer to a twofold object, First—The Prophet comforts his people by announcing the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity. This deliverance he describes by the most lovely images, frequently taken from the deliverance of the people from Egypt. But it is to be well observed that even those prophecies which pre-eminently refer to the lower object, have something exuberant and overflowing; so that, even after having been fulfilled, they cannot be looked upon as antiquated. He states the name of the ruler, Koresh, the king from the rising of the sun, who, sent by the Lord, shall punish the oppressors of Zion, and bring back the people to their land. The second object is the deliverance and salvation by the Servant of God, the Messiah, who, after having passed through humiliation, suffering, and death, and having thereby effected redemption, will remove from the glorified Kingdom of God all the evil occasioned by sin. Of this higher salvation the soul of the Prophet is so full, that the references to it are constantly pressing forward, even where, in the first instance, he has to do with the lower salvation. In the description of the higher salvation, the relation of time is not observed. Now, the Prophet beholds its Author in His humiliation and suffering; then, the most distant Future of the Kingdom of Christ presents itself to his enraptured eye,—the time in which the Gentile world, alienated from God, shall have returned to Him; when all that is opposed to God shall have been destroyed; when inward and outward peace shall prevail, and all the evil caused by sin shall have been removed. Elevated above time and space, from the height in which the Holy Spirit has placed him, he surveys the whole development of the Messianic Kingdom, from its small beginnings to its glorious end.

While the first part, containing the predictions which the Prophet uttered for the present generation during the time of his ministry, consists mainly of single prophecies which, separated by time and occasion, were first made publicly known singly, and afterwards united in a collected whole, having been marked out as different prophecies, either by inscriptions, or in any other distinguishable way,—the second part, destined as a legacy for posterity, forms a continuous, collected whole. The fact, first observed by Fr. Rueckert, that it is divided into three sections or books, is, in the first instance, indicated by the [Pg 167] circumstance that, at the close of chap. xlviii. and chap. lvii., the same thought recurs in the same words: "There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked;" and that the same thought, viz. the exclusion of the wicked from the promised salvation, is found also a third time at the close of the whole, although there in another form. Yet, if nothing else could be advanced in favour of this tri-partition, we might perhaps be permitted to speak of an accident as Knobel indeed does. But a closer consideration shows that the three sections are, inwardly and essentially, distinguished from one another. Beyond chap. xlviii. 22, there is no farther mention of Babel, which in the first book is mentioned four times (chap. xliii. 14, xlvii. 1, xlviii. 14, 20); nor of the Chaldeans, which occur there five times (chap. xliii. 14, xlvii. 1, 5, xlviii. 14, 20); nor any farther mention of Koresh, neither of his name (chap. xliv. 28, xlv. 1), nor of his person, which in chap. xl.-xlviii. is so prominently brought before us (chap. xli. 2, 25, xlvi. 11, xlviii. 14, 15, i.e. immediately at the beginning, after the introduction contained in chap. xl., at the close, and several times in the middle); nor of Bel and Nebo. Farther—The whole first book is pervaded with the argumentation by which the God of Israel is proved to be the true God, from His having foretold the deliverance to be effected by Koresh. This argumentation we meet with in chap. xli., immediately after the introductory chap. xl., and so still in the last chap. xlviii.; but never again afterwards. With the end of the first book, this arguing and proving from prophecy, that the Lord is the true God, as well as the reference to Koresh, the subject of this prophecy, altogether disappear. But, in like manner, the announcement of a personal Messiah is wanting in the first book, the sole exception being chap. xlii. 1-9, where, after the first announcement of the author of the lower salvation, the Author of the higher salvation is, by way of anticipation, contrasted with him. To give a more minute and finished description of the Author of the higher salvation is the object of the second book. In the third book, the person of the Redeemer is spoken of briefly only, is, as it were, only hinted at, in order to connect this book with the second; just as, by chap. xlii., the first book is connected with the second. The third book in so far as it is promising, is taken up with the description of the [Pg 168] glory of the Kingdom of God, in that new stage upon which it enters by the Redeemer,—a glory, the culminating point of which is the creation of the new heavens and the new earth, chap. lxv. 17, lxvi. 22. A description of the glory of Zion, like that in chap. lxii., is not found in the first and second book. In the third book, however, reproof and exhortation prevail, in contradistinction to the first and second book, in which the direct promise prevails. A transition from this, however, to the reproof and exhortation, is made at the close of the second book. From chap. lv. 1, the preaching of repentance appears first intermingled with the announcement of salvation. Up to that the prevailing tendency of the Prophet had been, throughout, to comfort the godly; but from chap. lv. 1, the other tendency shows itself by the side of it, that of calling sinners to repentance, by which alone they can obtain a participation in the promised salvation. In chap. lvi. 9, lvii. 21, the latter tendency appears distinctly and exclusively. The second book had commenced with the announcement of salvation, and thence to the close had advanced to reproof and threatening. The third book takes the opposite course; and thus the two principal portions of reproof and threatening border upon one another. Yet, the reproof and threatening do not go on without interruption and distinction, so that no boundary line could be recognized between the two books. At the close of the second book, the Prophet has preeminently to do with apostates, while, at the beginning of the third, he has to do with hypocrites; so that thus these two portions of reproof supplement one another, and conjointly form a complete disclosure of the prevailing corruption, according to its two principal tendencies. But the third book is distinguished from the second by this circumstance, that in it reproof and threatening are not limited to the beginning, which corresponds with the close of the second book. At the close of chap. lix. the Prophet returns to the announcement of salvation; but with chap. lxiii. 7, a new preaching of repentance commences, which goes on to the end of chap. lxiv. The Prophet, in the Spirit, transposes himself into the time when the visitation has already taken place, and puts into the mouth of the people the words by which they are, at that time, to supplicate for the mercy of the Lord. This discourse [Pg 169] implies what has preceded. In the view of the glorious manifestation of the Lord's mercy and grace which are there exhibited, the Prophet calls here upon the people to repent and be converted, in order that they may become partakers of that mercy. If they, as a people, are anxious to attain that object, they must repeat what the Prophet here pronounces before them. But that up to this time has not been done, and hence that has taken place which is spoken of by St Paul: "The election have obtained it, but the rest have been blinded." In chap. lxv., which contains the Lord's answer to this repenting prayer of the people, and is nothing else than an indirect paraenesis, reproof and threatening likewise prevail, and it is only at the close that the promise appears. The last chapter, too, begins with reproof and threatening. Rightly have the Church Fathers called Isaiah the Evangelist among the prophets. This appears also from the circumstance that the reproof is so thoroughly an appendage of the promise, that it is only at the close, after the whole riches of the promise have been exhibited, that it expands itself It appears, farther, also from the circumstance that, even in the last book, the threatening does not prevail exclusively, but that, even there, it is still interwoven with the most glorious promises which are so exceedingly fitted to allure sinners to repentance.

In the whole of the second part, the Prophet, as a rule, takes his stand in the time which was announced and foretold in the former prophecies, and especially, with the greatest clearness and distinctness, in chap. xxxix., on the threshold of the second part,—the time when Jerusalem is captured by the Chaldeans, the temple destroyed, the country desolated, and the people carried away. It is in this time that he thinks, feels, and acts; it has become present to him; from it he looks out into the Future, yet in such a manner that he does not everywhere consistently maintain this ideal stand-point. He addresses his discourse to the people pining away in captivity and misery. He comforts them by opening up a view into a better Future, and exhorts them to remove by repentance the obstacles to the coming salvation.

Rationalistic Exegesis, everywhere little able to sympathize with, and enter into existing circumstances and conditions, and always ready to make its own shadowy, coarse views the rule [Pg 170] and arbiter, has been little able to enter into, and sympathize with this ideal stand-point occupied by the Prophet; nor has it had the earnest will to do so. To its rationalistic tendencies, which took offence at the clear knowledge of the Future, a welcome pretext was here offered. Thus the opinion arose, that the second part was not written by Isaiah, but was the work of some anonymous prophet, living about the end of the exile,—an opinion which, at the time of the absolute dominion of Rationalism, has obtained so firm a footing, that it has become all but an axiom, and, by the power of tradition, carries away even such as would not think of entertaining it, if they were to enter independently and without prejudice upon the investigation.

The fact which here meets us does not by any means stand isolated. The prophets did not prophesy in the state of rational reflection, but in exstasis. As even their ordinary name, "seers," indicates, the objects were presented to them in inward vision. They did not behold the Future from a distance, but they were rapt into the future. This inward vision is frequently reflected in their representation. Very frequently, that appears with them as present which, in reality, was still future. They depict the Future before the eyes of their hearers and readers, and thus, as it were, by force, drag them into it out of the Present, the coercing force of which exerts so pernicious an influence upon them. Our Prophet expressly intimates this peculiar manner of the prophetic announcement by making, in chap. xlix. 7, the Lord say: "First I said to Zion: Behold there, behold there," by which the graphic character of prophecy is precisely expressed, and by which it is intimated that hearers and readers were led in rem praesentem by the prophets. Even grammar has long ago acknowledged this fact, inasmuch as it speaks of Praeterita prophetica, i.e., such as denote the ideal Past, in contrast to those which denote the real Past. Unless we have attained to this view and insight, it is only by inconsistency that we can escape from Eichhorn's view, that the prophecies are, for the most part, disguised historical descriptions,—a view into which even expositors, such as Ewald and Hitzig, frequently relapse. Frequently, the whole of the Future appears with the prophets in the form of the Present. At other times, they take their stand in the [Pg 171] more immediate Future; and this becomes to them the ideal Present, from which they direct the eye to the distant Future. From the rich store of proofs which we can adduce for our view, we shall here mention only a few.

This mode of representation meets us frequently so early as in the parting hymn of Moses, Deut. xxxii., which may be considered as the germ of all prophetism; compare e.g. vers. 7 and 8. On the latter verse, Clericus remarks: "Moses mourns over this in his hymn, as if it were already past, because he foresees that it will be so, and he, in the Spirit, transfers himself into those future times, and says that which then only should be said."

In Isaiah himself, the very first chapter presents a remarkable proof The Present in chap. i. 5-9 is not a real, but an ideal Present. In the Spirit, the Prophet transfers himself into the time of the calamity impending upon the apostate people, and, stepping back upon the real Present, he, in the farther course of the prophecy, predicts this calamity as future. The reasons for this view have been thoroughly stated, even to exhaustion, by Caspari, in his Beitraege zur Einleitung in das Buch Jesaia. In the second half of ver. 2, the kingdom appears as flourishing and powerful. To the same result we are led also by the description of the rich sacrificial worship in vers. 15-19. If, then, we view vers. 5-9 as a description of the Present, we obtain an irreconcilable contradiction. Farther—Everywhere else Isaiah always connects, with the description of the sin, that of the punishment following upon it, but never that of the punishment which has followed it.—In chap. v. 13, in a prophecy from the first time of his ministry, the future carrying away of the people presents itself to the Prophet as present. Similarly, in vers. 25, 26, the Praet. and Fut. with Vav Conv. must be understood prophetically; for in chap. i.-v., the Prophet has, throughout, to do with future calamity. In the Present, according to ver. 19, the people are yet in a condition of prosperity and luxury,—as yet, it is the time of mocking; it is only of future calamity that vers. 5 and 6 in the parable speak of, the threatenings of which are here detailed and expanded.—In the prophecy against Tyre, chap. xxiii., the Prophet beholds as present the siege by the Chaldeans impending over the city, and describes [Pg 172] as an eye-witness the flight of the inhabitants, and the impression which the intelligence of their calamity makes upon the nations connected with them. From the more immediate Future, which to him has become present, he then casts a glance to the more distant. He announces that after 70 years—counting not from the real, but from the ideal Present—the city shall again attain to its ancient greatness. His look then rises still higher, and he beholds how at length, in the days of Messiah, the Tyrians shall be received into the communion of the true God.—The future dispersion and carrying away of the people is anticipated by the Prophet in the passage, chap. xi. 11, also, which may be considered as a comprehensive view of the whole second part.—It is true that, in the second part, as a rule, the misery, and not the salvation, appears as present; but, not unfrequently, the latter, too, is viewed as present by the Prophet, and spoken of in Preterites, comp. e.g., chap. xl. 2, xlvi. 1, 2, li. 3, lii. 9, 10, lx. 1. If, then, the Prophet is to be measured by the ordinary rule, these passages, too, must have been written at a time when the salvation had already taken place.—In chap. xlv. 20, the escaped of the nations are those Gentiles who have been spared in the divine judgments. They are to become wise by the sufferings of others. The Prophet takes his stand in a time when these judgments, which were to be inflicted by Cyrus, had already been completed. Even those who maintain the spuriousness of the second part must here acknowledge that the Prophet takes his stand in an ideal Present.—In chap. liii. the Prophet takes his stand between the sufferings and the glorification of the Messiah. The sufferings appear to him as past; the glorification he represents as future.

Hosea had, in chap. xiii., predicted to Israel great divine judgments, the desolation of the country, and the carrying away of its inhabitants by powerful enemies. This punishment and judgment appear in chap. xiv. 1 (xiii. 16) as still future; but in ver. 2 (1 ff.) he transfers himself in spirit to the time when these judgments had already been inflicted. He anticipates the Future as having already taken place, and does not by any means exhort his contemporaries to a sincere repentance, but those upon whom the calamity had already been inflicted: "O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for [Pg 173] thou hast fallen by thine iniquity." This parallel passage shews especially, with what right it has been asserted that the addresses to the people pining away in exile "were out of place in the mouth of Isaiah, who, as he lived 150 years before, could prophesy only of the exiled" (Knobel).—Micah says in chap. iv. 8 (compare vol. i., p. 449 ff.): "And thou tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, unto thee it will come, and to thee cometh the former dominion." If the Prophet, a cotemporary of Isaiah, speaks here of a former dominion, and announces that it shall again come back to the house of David, he transfers himself from his time, in which the royal family of David still existed and flourished, into that period of which he had just before spoken, and during which the dominion of the Davidic dynasty was to cease. In vers. 9, 10: "Now why dost thou raise a cry! Is there no king in thee, or is thy counsellor gone? For pangs have seized thee as a woman in travail," &c., mourning Zion, at the time of the carrying away of her sons into captivity, stands before the eye of the Prophet, and is addressed by him. (In commenting upon this passage, we pointed already to Hosea xiii. 9-11 as an analogous instance of representing as present the time of the calamity.) The moment of the carrying away into exile forms to him the Present; the deliverance from it, the Future: "There shalt thou be delivered, there the Lord thy God shall redeem thee out of the hand of thine enemies." In chap. vii. 7, Micah introduces, as speaking, the people already carried away into exile, and makes them declare both the justice of the divine punishment, and their confidence in the divine mercy. In the answer of the Lord also, ver. 11, the city is supposed to be destroyed; for He promises that her walls shall be rebuilt.—The anticipation of the Future prevails throughout the whole prophecy of Obadiah also. The song of Habakkuk in chap. iii. takes its stand in the midst of the anticipated misery. In the announcement of the invasion of the Chaldeans in chap. i. 6 ff., the Future presents itself in the form of the Present. Here, as in the case of Obadiah, Hitzig and others, overlooking and misunderstanding this prophetic peculiarity, and considering the ideal, to be the real Present, have been led to fix the age of the Prophet in a manner notoriously erroneous.—Jeremiah, in chap. iii. 22, 25, [Pg 174] introduces as speaking the Israel of the Future. In chap. xxx. and xxxi., he anticipates the future carrying away of Judah. Even in the Psalms we perceive a faint trace of this prophetic peculiarity. On Ps. xciii. 1: "The Lord reigneth, He hath clothed himself with majesty," &c., we remarked: "The Preterites are to be explained from the circumstance that the Singer as a seer has the Future before his eyes. He beholds rejoicingly how the Lord enters upon His Kingdom, puts on the garment of majesty, and girds himself with the sword of strength in the face of the proud world." A similar anticipation of redemption, even before the catastrophe has taken place, we meet with in Ps. xciv. 1. The situation in the whole Psalm, yea in the whole cycle to which it belongs, the lyrical echo of the second part of Isaiah, is not a real, but an ideal one. This cycle bears witness that the singers and seers of Israel were living in the Future, in a manner which it would be so much the greater folly to measure by our rule as, for the people of the Old Covenant, the Future had a significance altogether different from that which it has for the people of the New Covenant. That which is common to all the Psalms, from xciii. onward, is the confident expectation of a glorious manifestation of the Lord, which the Psalmist, following the example of the prophets, beholds as present. A counterpart is the cycle Ps. cxxxviii.-cxlv., in which David, stirred up by the promise in 2 Sam. vii., accompanies his house throughout history.

Several interpreters cannot altogether resist the force of these facts. They grant "that other prophets also sometimes, in the Spirit, transfer themselves into later times, especially into the idealistic times of the Messiah," and draw their arguments from the circumstance only, that the latter again came back to their personal stand point, whilst our Prophet continues cleaving to the later time. Now it is true, and must be conceded, that this mode of representation is here employed to an extent greater than it is anywhere else in the Old Testament. But, in matters of this kind, measuring by the ell is quite out of place. In other respects also, the second part of Isaiah stands out as quite unique. There is, in the whole Old Testament, no other continuous prophecy which has so absolutely and pre-eminently proceeded from cura posteritatis. If [Pg 175] it be acknowledged that the prophesying activity of Isaiah falls into two great divisions,—the one—the results of which are contained in the first 39 chapters—chiefly, pre-eminently indeed, destined for the Present; the other,—which lies before us in the second part, belonging to the evening of the Prophet's life—forming a prophetical legacy, and hence, therefore, never delivered in public, but only committed to writing;—then we shall find it quite natural that the Prophet, writing, as he did, chiefly for the Future, should here also take his stand in the Future, to a larger extent than he has elsewhere done.

That it is in this manner only that this fact is to be accounted for, appears from the circumstance that, although our Prophet so extensively and frequently represents the Past as Present, yet he passes over, in numerous passages, from the ideal into the real Present.[2] We find a number of references which do not at all suit the condition of things after the exile, but necessarily require the age of Isaiah, or, at least, the time before the exile. If Isaiah be the author, these passages are easily accounted for. It is true that, in the Spirit, he had transferred himself into the time of the Babylonish exile; and this time had become Present to him. But it would surely be suspicious to us, if the real Present had not sometimes prevailed, and attracted the eye of the Prophet. It is just thus, however, that we find it. The Prophet frequently steps out of his ideal view and position, and refers to conditions and circumstances of his time. Now, he has before his eyes the condition of the unhappy people in the Babylonish exile; then, the State still existing at his time, but internally deranged by idolatry and apostacy. This apparent contradiction cannot be reconciled in any other way than by assuming that Isaiah is the author. As a rule, the punishment appears as already inflicted; city and temple as destroyed; the country as devastated; the people as carried away; compare e.g., chap. lxiv. 10, 11. But in a series of passages, in which the Prophet steps back from the ideal, to the real stand-point, the punishment appears as still future; city and temple as still existing. In chap. xliii. [Pg 176] 22-28, the Prophet meets the delusion, as if God had chosen Israel on account of their deserts. Far from having brought about their deliverance by their own merits, they, on the contrary, sinned thus against Him, that, to the inward apostacy, they added the outward also. The greater part of Israel had left off the worship of the Lord by sacrifices. It is the mercy alone of the Lord which will deliver them from the misery into which they have plunged themselves by their sins. But how can the Lord charge the people in exile for the omission of a service which, according to His own law, they could offer to Him in their native country only, in the temple consecrated to Him, but then destroyed? The words specially: "Put me in remembrance," in ver. 26, "of what I should have forgotten," imply that there existed a possibility of acquiring apparent merits, and that, hence, the view of our opponents who, in vers. 22-24, think of a compulsory, and hence, guiltless omission of the sacrificial service during the exile, must be rejected. Vers. 27, 28 also, which speak of the punishment which Israel deserves, just on account of the omitted service of the Lord, and which it has found in the way of its works, prove that this view must be rejected, and that vers. 22-24 contain a reproof. The passage can, hence, have been written only at the time when the temple was still standing. Of this there can so much the less be any doubt that, in vers. 27, 28, the exile is expressly designated as future: "Thy first father (the high-priestly office) hath sinned, and thy mediators have transgressed against me." (The sacrificial service was by a disgraceful syncretism profaned even by those whose office it was to attend to it). "Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, and will give Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches." Even [Hebrew: vaHll] is the common Future, and to [Hebrew: vatnh] the [Hebrew: h] optativum is added; and hence, we cannot by any means translate and explain it by: I gave.—In chap. lvi. 9, it is said: "All ye beasts of the field come ye to devour all the beasts in the forest." This utterance stands in connection with the [Hebrew: lnqbciv], at the close of the preceding verse. The gathering of Israel by God the good Shepherd, promised there, must be preceded by the scattering, by being given up to the world's power—mercy, by judgment. By the wild beasts are to be understood the Gentiles who shall be sent by God upon [Pg 177] His people for punishment. This mission they must first fulfil before they can, according to ver. 8, be added to, and gathered along with, the gathered ones of Israel. By the "beasts in the forest," brutalized, degraded, and secularized Israel is to be understood, comp. Jer. xii. 7-12; Ezek. xxxiv. 5; and my Commentary on Rev. ii. 1.

The beasts have not yet come; they are yet to come. We can here think of nothing else than the invasion of the Chaldeans, which the Prophet, stepping back to the stand-point of his time, beholds here as future; whilst, in what precedes, from his ideal stand-point, which he had taken in the Babylonish exile, he had, for the most part, considered it as past.—In chap. lvi. 10-12, we meet with corrupted rulers of the people, who are indolent, when everything depends upon warding off the danger, greedy, luxurious, gormandizing upon what they have stolen. The people are not under foreign dominion, but have rulers of their own, who tyrannize over, and impoverish them; comp. Is. chap. v.; Micah, chap. iii.—In chap. lvii. 1, it is said: "The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart, and the men of kindness are taken away, no one considering that, on account of the evil, the righteous is taken away." The Prophet mentions it as a sign of the people's hardening that, in the death of the righteous men who were truly bearing on their hearts the welfare of the whole, they did not recognize a harbinger of severe divine judgments, from which, according to a divine merciful decree, these righteous were to be preserved by an early death. "On account of the evil," i.e., in order to withdraw them from the judgments, which were to be inflicted upon the ungodly people, comp. Gen. xv. 15; 2 Kings xxii. 20; Is. xxxix. 8. The evil, i.e. according to 2 Kings xxii. 20, the Chaldean catastrophe, appears here as still future. In chap. lvii. 2: "They enter in peace, they rest in their beds who have walked before themselves in uprightness," the "peace" forms the contrast to the awful condition of suffering which the survivors have to encounter.—In chap. lvii. 9, it is said: "And thou lookest on the king anointed with oil, and increasest thy perfumes, and sendest thy messengers far off, sendest them down into hell." The apostacy from the Lord their God is manifested not only in idolatry, but also in their not leaving untried any means to [Pg 178] procure for themselves human helpers, in their courting human aid. The personification of Israel as a woman, which took place in the preceding verses, is here continued. She leaves no means untried to heighten her charms; she makes every effort to please the mighty kings. The king is an ideal person comprehending a real plurality within himself A parallel passage, in which the seeking for help among foreign nations is represented under the same image, is Ezek. xvi. 26 ff., comp. Hos. xii. 2 (1). It occurs also in immediate connexion with seeking help from the idols, in chap. xxx. 1 ff. The verb [Hebrew: wvr] means always "to see," "to look at;" and this signification is, here too, quite appropriate: Israel is coquetting with her lover, the king. The reproach which the Prophet here raises against the people has no meaning at all in the time of the exile, when the national independence was gone. We find ourselves all at once transferred to the time of Isaiah, who, in chap. xxxi. 1, utters a woe upon them "that go down to Egypt for help,"—who, in chap. xxx. 4, complains: "His princes are at Zoar, and his ambassadors come to Hanes,"—who, in chap. vii., exhibits the dangerous consequences of seeking help from Asshur. The historical point at issue is brought before us by passages such as 2 Kings xvi. 7: "And Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglathpileser, king of Assyria, saying: I am thy servant and thy son; come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Aram, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who rise against me."—In chap. lvii. 11-13, the thought is this: Israel is not becoming weary of seeking help and salvation from others than God. But He will soon show that He alone is to be feared, that He alone can help; that they are nothing against whom, and from whom help is sought. The words in ver. 11: "Am I not silent, even of old; therefore thou fearest me not," state the cause of the foolish forgetfulness of God, and hence form the transition to the subsequent announcement of judgment. The prophecy is uttered at a time when Israel still enjoyed the sparing divine forbearance, inasmuch as for time immemorial (since they were in Egypt), no destructive catastrophe had fallen upon them. It was in the Babylonish catastrophe only that the Egyptian received its counterpart. But how does this suit the time of the Babylonish exile, when the people were groaning under the severe judgments of God, [Pg 179] and had not experienced His forbearance, but, on the contrary, for almost 70 years, the full energy of His punitive justice? In ver. 13, it is said: "In thy crying, let thy hosts (thy whole Pantheon so rich, and yet so miserable) help thee." "In thy crying, i.e., when thou, in the judgment to be inflicted upon thee in future, wilt cry for help." In chap. lxvi. the punishment appears as future; temple and city as still existing; the Lord as yet enthroned in Zion. So specially in ver. 6: "A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, the voice of the Lord that rendereth recompence to His enemies," A controversy with the hypocrites who presumed upon the temple and their sacrificial service, in vers. 1, 3, has, at the time of the exile, no meaning at all, Gesenius, indeed, was of opinion that the Prophet might judge of the worship of God in temples, and of the value of sacrifices, although they were not offered at that time; but it must be strongly denied that the Prophet could do so in such a context and connection. For, the fact that the Prophet has in view a definite class of men of his time, and that he does not bring forward at random a locus communis which, at his time, was no longer applicable—a thing which, moreover, is not by any means his habit—appears from the close of the verse, and from ver. 4, where divine judgment is threatened to those men: "Because they choose their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations: I also will choose their derision, and will bring their fears upon them." Even in ver. 20: "And they (the Gentiles who are to be converted to the Lord), shall bring all your brethren out of all nations for a meat-offering unto the Lord, upon horses, &c., just as the children of Israel are bringing ([Hebrew: ibvav], expresses an habitual offering), the meat-offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord," the house of God appears as still standing, the sacrificial service in full operation; the future spiritual meat-offering of the Gentiles is compared to the bodily meat-offering which the children of Israel are now offering in the temple.

Throughout the whole second part we perceive the people under the, as yet, unbroken power of idolatry. It appears everywhere as the principal tendency of the sinful apostacy among the people; to counteract it appears to be the chief object of the Prophet. The controversy with idolatry pervades everything. At the very commencement, in chap. xl. 18-26, we are met [Pg 180] with a description of the nothingness of idolatry, and an impressive warning against it. In the whole series of passages, commencing with chap. xli.—of which we shall afterwards speak more in detail—the sole Deity of the God of Israel, and the vanity of the idols are proved from prophecy in connection with its fulfilment; and this series has for its supposition the power which, at the time when the prophecy was uttered, idolatry yet possessed over the minds of men. Chap. xlii. 17 announces that the future historical development shall bring confusion upon those "that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images: Ye are our gods." In chap. xliv. 12-20, the absurdity of idolatry is illustrated in a brilliant description. We have here before us the real locus classicus of the whole Scripture in this matter, the main description of the nothingness of idolatry. The emotion and excitement with which the Prophet speaks, shew that he has here to do with the principal enemy to the salvation of his people. According to chap. xlvi. the idols of Babel shall be overturned and carried away. From this, Israel may learn the nothingness of idolatry, and the apostates may return to the Lord. In the hortatory and reproving section, the punishment of idolatry forms the beginning; in chap. lvii. idolatry is described as far-spread, manifold, advancing to the greatest horrors. The offering up of children as sacrifices especially appears as being in vogue; and it can be proved that this penetrated into Israel, from the neighbouring nations, at the time of the Prophet (comp. 2 Chron. xxviii. 3; xxxiii. 6), while, at the time of the exile, there was scarcely any cause for warning against it,—at least, existing information does not mention any such sacrifices among the Babylonians (comp. Muenter, die Religion der Babylonier, S. 72). The people appear as standing under the dominion of idolatry in chap. lxv. 3: "The people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face, that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon the bricks;" comp. ver. 7: "Who have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills;" chap. lxvi. 17: "They that sanctify themselves and purify themselves in the gardens behind one in the midst, who eat swine's flesh, and the abominations, and mice, shall be consumed together, saith the Lord." Idolatry is the service of nature, and was, therefore, chiefly practised [Pg 181] in places where nature presents herself in all her splendour, as in gardens and on the hills. The gardens are mentioned in a similar way in chap. i. 29: "Ye shall blush on account of the gardens that ye have chosen." (On the words which precede in that verse: "For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired," chap. lvii. 5 offers an exact parallel: "Who inflame themselves among the oaks under every green tree.") In chap. lxv. 11, they are denounced who forsake the Lord, forget His holy mountain (on which, at the time when this was written, the temple must still have stood), who prepare a table to Fortune, and offer drink-offerings to Fate. The second main form of sinful apostacy—hypocrisy and dead ceremonial service—is only rarely mentioned by the Prophet (in chap. lvii., lxvi.), while he always anew reverts to idolatry. Now this absolutely prevailing regard to idolatry can be accounted for, only if Isaiah be the author of the second part. From Solomon, down to the time of the exile, the disposition to idolatry in Israel was never thoroughly broken. During Isaiah's ministry, it came to the fullest display under Ahaz. Under Hezekiah it was kept down, indeed; but with great difficulty only, as appears from the fact that, under the reign of Manasseh, who was a king after the heart of the people, it again broke openly forth; comp. 2 Kings xxi. 1-18; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 1-18; 2 Kings xxi. 6, according to which Manasseh made his own son to pass through the fire. But it is a tact generally admitted, and proved by all the books written during and after the exile, that, with the carrying away into exile, the idolatrous disposition among the people was greatly shaken. This fact has its cause not only in the deep impression which misery made upon their minds, but still more in the circumstance that it was chiefly the godly part of the nation that was carried away into captivity. The disproportionately large number of priests among the exiled and those who returned—they constitute the tenth part of the people—is to be accounted for only on the supposition, that the heathenish conquerors saw that the real essence and basis of the people consisted in the faith in the God of Israel, and were, therefore, above all, anxious to remove the priests as the main representatives of this principle. If, for this reason, they carried away the priests, we cannot think otherwise but that, in [Pg 182] the selection of the others also, they looked chiefly to the theocratic disposition on which the nationality of Israel rested. To this we are led by Jer. xxiv. also, where those carried away are designated as the flower of the nation, as the nursery and hope of the Kingdom of God. Incomprehensible, for the time of the exile, is also the strict antithesis between the servants of the Lord, and the servants of the idols—the latter hating, assailing, and persecuting the former—an antithesis which meets us especially in the last two chapters; comp. especially chap. lxv. 5 ff. 13-15; lxvi. 16. That such a state of things existed at the time of the Prophet is, among other passages, shown by 2 Kings xxi. 16, according to which Manasseh shed much innocent blood at Jerusalem, and, according to ver. 10, 11, especially the blood of the prophets, who had borne a powerful testimony against idolatry.