The Servant Restores Israel and Becomes a Light for the Nations

Isa 49:5-6 The expression “and now” (ועתּה), which follows, evidently indicates a fresh turn in the official life of the person speaking here. At the same time, it is evident that it is the failure of his labours within his own people, which has forced out the lamentation in Isa 49:4 . For his reason for addressing his summons in Isa 49:1 to the world of nations, is that Jehovah has not guaranteed to him, the undaunted one, success to his labours among his own people, but has assigned him a mission extending far beyond and reaching to all mankind.

“And now, saith Jehovah, that formed me from the womb to be His servant, to bring back Jacob to Him, and that Israel may be gathered together to Him; and I am honoured in the eyes of Jehovah, and my God has become my strength. He saith, It is only a small thing that thou becomest my servant, to set up the tribes of Jacob, and to bring back the preserved of Israel.

I have set thee for the light of the Gentiles, to become my salvation to the end of the earth. ” Both shōbhēbh and hâshı̄bh unite within themselves the meanings reducere (Jer 50:19) and restituere . On לא = לו generally, see at Isa 9:2; Isa 63:9. Jerome is wrong in his rendering, et Israel qui non congregabitur (what could a prophecy of the rejection of the Jews do here?)

; so also is Hitzig’s rendering, “since Israel is not swept away;” and Hofmann’s, “Israel, which is not swept away. ” In the present instance, where the restoration of Israel is the event referred to, אצף must signify “the gathering together of Israel,” as in Isa 11:12. לו (parallel אליו) points to Jehovah as the author of the gathering, and as the object of it also.

The transition from the infinitive of design to the finite verb of desire, is the same as in Isa 13:9; Isa 14:25. The attributive clause, added to the name Jehovah, expresses the lofty mission of the servant of God with regard to Israel. The parenthesis, “I have honour in the eyes of Jehovah, and my God has become my strength, i. e. , has become mighty in me, the apparently weak one,” looks beyond to the still loftier mission, by which the former lofty one is far surpassed.

On account of this parenthetically inserted praise of Jehovah, the אמר is resumed in ויּאמר. Instead of נקל היותך (compare 1Ki 16:31), i. e. , it is a small thing that thou shouldst be, we have it here, as in Eze 8:17, with a comparative min , which must not, however, be logically pressed: “It is smaller than that,” i. e. , it is too small a thing that thou shouldst be.

The netsı̄rē ( Keri , netsūrē ) of Israel are those who have been preserved in exile (Eze 6:12); in other cases, we find שׁאר, שׁארית, or פּלטה. Not only is the restoration of the remnant of Israel the work of the servant of Jehovah; but Jehovah has appointed him for something higher than this. He has given or set him for the light of the heathen (“a light to lighten the Gentiles,” Luk 2:32), to become His salvation to the end of the earth (lxx: τοῦ εἶναι σε εἰς σωτηρίαν ἕως ἐσχάτου τῆς γῆς).

Those who regard Israel as a nation as speaking here (e. g. , Hitzig, Ewald, Umbreit, etc.) go right away from this, which is the most natural sense of the words, and explain them as meaning, “that my salvation may be, reach, or penetrate to the end of the earth. ” But inasmuch as the servant of Jehovah is the light of the world, he is through that very fact the salvation of the world; and he is both of these through Jehovah, whose counsels of ישׁוּעה are brought by him into historical realization and visible manifestation.

Isa 49:7 The words of the servant of God, in which he enforces his claim upon the nations, are now lost in words of Jehovah to him, which are no longer reported by him, but are appended as an independent address. His present condition is one of the deepest humiliation. “Thus saith Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel, His Holy One, to him of contemptible soul, to the abhorrence of the people, to the servant of tyrants: kings shall see and arise; princes, and prostrate themselves for the sake of Jehovah, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, that He hath chosen thee.

” As bâzōh with a changeable kamtez (cf. , châmōts , Isa 1:17) has, if not exactly a passive force, yet something very like a passive circumstantial meaning, בּזה־נפשׁ must mean the man who is contemptible as regards his soul, i. e. , held in contempt, or, as Hofmann explains it, whom men do not think worthy to live (though he follows Ewald, and takes bezōh as an infinitive treated as a substantive).

Accordingly מתעב is also to be taken personally. The meaning abhorring is unsuitable; but תּעב is also used in a causative sense, to cause to abhor, i. e. , to make a thing an abomination (Eze 16:25), or to excite abhorrence: hence, “to him who excites the people’s abhorrence,” which is the same, so far as the sense is concerned, as “to the object of their abhorrence.

” But even as a participial substantive מתעב would literally mean the thing exciting abhorrence, i. e. , the abhorrence, just as mekhasseh in Isa 23:18 signifies the thing covering, i. e. , the covering. All these participial substantives of the piel indicate the thing, place, or instrument accomplishing that which the piel affirms. We need not raise the question whether gōi refers to Israel or to the heathen.

It signifies the mass of men, the people, like ‛âm in Psa 62:9, and in those passages in which it is used by our prophet for the human race generally. The mōsheilim , of whom the person here addressed is the servant or enslaved one, are obviously heathen tyrants. What is here affirmed of the “one servant of Jehovah” was no doubt also applicable to the nation generally, and more especially to that portion of the nation which was true to its calling and confession.

He in whom Israel’s relation of servant to Jehovah was fully realized, did indeed spring out of His own nation, when it was under the oppression of the powers of this world; and all the shame and persecution which those who remained faithful among His people had to endure from the heathen oppressors, and also from the ungodly among their own countrymen (see, for example, Isa 66:5), discharge their force like a violent storm upon Him as an individual. When, therefore, we find the sufferings of the people and the glory of which they became partakers described in other passages in just the same terms, we must not infer from this that “servant of Jehovah” is a collective epithet in the passage before us.

The person addressed here is the Restorer of Israel, the Light of the Gentiles, the Salvation of Jehovah for all mankind. When kings and princes shall behold Him who was once brought so low, delivered from His humiliation, and exalted to the glorious height of the work to which He has been called, they will rise up with reverence from their thrones, and prostrate themselves upon the ground in worship for the sake of Jehovah, as before Him who (אשׁר emphatic, utpote qui ) is faithful, showing Himself sincere in His promises, and for the sake of the Holy One of Israel, in that, as is now made manifest, “He hath chosen thee.

” The fut. consec. particularizes the general motive assigned, and carries it still further.

Isa 49:8-12 The next two vv. describe (though only with reference to Israel, the immediate circle) what is the glory of the vocation to which Jehovah, in accordance with His promise, exalts His chosen One. “Thus saith Jehovah, In a time of favour have I heard thee, and in the day of salvation have I helped thee: and I form thee, and set thee for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to apportion again desolate inheritances, saying to prisoners, Go ye out: to those who are in darkness, Come ye to the light.

” Jehovah heard His servant, and came to his help when he prayed to Him out of the condition of bondage to the world, which he shared with his people. He did it at the time for the active display of His good pleasure, and for the realizing of salvation, which had been foreseen by Him, and had now arrived. The futures which follow are to be taken as such. The fact that Jehovah makes His servant “a covenant of the people,” i.

e. , the personal bond which unites Israel and its God in a new fellowship (see Isa 42:6), is the fruit of his being heard and helped. The infinitives with Lamed affirm in what way the new covenant relation will be made manifest. The land that has fallen into decay rises into prosperity again, and the desolate possessions return to their former owners. This manifestation of the covenant grace, that has been restored to the nation again, is effected through the medium of the servant of Jehovah.

The rendering of the lxx is quite correct: τοῦ καταστῆσαι τὴν γῆν καὶ κληρονομῆσαι κληρονομίας ἐρήμους λέγοντα לאמר is a dicendo governed by both infinitives. The prisoners in the darkness of the prison and of affliction are the exiles (Isa 42:22). The mighty word of the servant of Jehovah brings to them the light of liberty, in connection with which (as has been already more than once observed) the fact should be noticed, that the redemption is viewed in connection with the termination of the captivity, and, in accordance with the peculiar character of the Old Testament, is regarded as possessing a national character, and therefore is purely external.

The person of the servant of Jehovah now falls into the background again, and the prophecy proceeds with a description of the return of the redeemed. “They shall feed by the ways, and there is pasture for them upon all field-hills. They shall not hunger nor thirst, and the mirage and sun shall not blind them: for He that hath mercy on them shall lead them, and guide them by bubbling water-springs.

And I make all my mountains ways, and my roads are exalted. Behold these, they come from afar; and, behold, these from the north and from the sea; and these from the land of the Sinese. ” The people returning home are represented as a flock. By the roads that they take to their homes, they are able to obtain sufficient pasture, without being obliged to go a long way round in order to find a sufficient supply; and even upon bare sandy hills (Isa 41:18) there is pasture found for them.

Nothing is wanting; even the shârâb (see Isa 35:7) and the sun do not hurt them, the former by deceiving and leading astray, the latter by wearying them with its oppressive heat: for He whose compassion has been excited by their long pining misery (Isa 41:17-20) is leading them, and bringing them along in comfort by bubbling springs of real and refreshing water (ינחל, as Petrarch once says of shepherds, Move la schiêra sua soavemente ). Jehovah also makes all the mountains into roads for those who are returning home, and the paths of the desert are lifted up, as it were, into well-made roads ( yerumūn , Ges.

§47, Anm. 4). They are called my mountains and my highways (differently from Isa 14:25), because they are His creation; and therefore He is also able to change them, and now really does change them for the good of His people, who are returning to the land of their forefathers out of every quarter of the globe. Although in Psa 107:3 yâm (the sea) appears to stand for the south, as referring to the southern part of the Mediterranean, which washes the coast of Egypt, there is no ground at all in the present instance for regarding it as employed in any other than its usual sense, namely the west ; mērâchōq (from far) is therefore either the south (cf.

, Isa 43:6) or the east, according to the interpretation that we give to 'erets Sı̄nı̄m , as signifying a land to the east or to the south. The Phoenician Sinim (Ges. Isa 10:17), the inhabitants of a fortified town in the neighbourhood of Area, which has now disappeared, but which was seen not only by Jerome, but also by Mariono Sanuto ( de castro Arachas ad dimidiam leucam est oppidum Sin ), cannot be thought of, for the simple reason that this Sin was too near, and was situated to the west of Babylon and to the north of Jerusalem; whilst Sin (= Pelusium) in Egypt, to which Ewald refers, did not give its name to either a tribe or a land.

Arias Montanus was among the first to suggest that the Sinim are the Sinese (Chinese); and since the question has been so thoroughly discussed by Gesenius (in his Commentary and Thesaursu ), most of the commentators, and also such Orientalists as Langles (in his Recherches asiatiques ), Movers (in his Phoenicians ), Lassen (in his Indische Alterthumskunde , i. 856-7), have decided in favour of this opinion.

The objection brought against the supposition, that the name of the Chinese was known to the nations of the west at so early a period as this, viz. , that this could not have been the case till after the reign of the emperor Shi-hoang-ti , of the dynasty of Thsin , who restored the empire that had been broken up into seven smaller kingdoms (in the year 247 b.

c.) , and through whose celebrated reign the name of his dynasty came to be employed in the western nations as the name of China generally, is met by Lassen with the simple fact that the name occurs at a much earlier period than this, and in many different forms, as the name of smaller states into which the empire was broken up after the reign of Wu-wang (1122-1115 b.

c.) “The name Θῖναι (Strabo), Σῖναι (Ptol.) , Τζίνιτζα (Kosmas), says the Sinologist Neumann, did not obtain currency for the first time from the founder of the great dynasty of Tsin ; but long before this, Tsin was the name of a feudal kingdom of some importance in Shen-si , one of the western provinces of the Sinese land, and Fei-tse , the first feudal king of Tsin, began to reign as early as 897 b.

c. ” It is quite possible, therefore, that the prophet, whether he were Isaiah or any other, may have heard of the land of the Sinese in the far east, and this is all that we need assume; not that Sinese merchants visited the market of the world on the Euphrates (Movers and Lassen), but only that information concerning the strange people who were so wealthy in rare productions, had reached the remote parts of the East through the medium of commerce, possibly from Ophir, and through the Phoenicians.

But Egli replies: “The seer on the streams of Babel certainly could not have described any exiles as returning home from China, if he had not known that some of his countrymen were pining there in misery, and I most positively affirm that this was not the case. ” What is here assumed - namely, that there must have been a Chinese diaspora in the prophet’s own time - is overthrown by what has been already observed in Isa 11:11; and we may also see that it is to purely by accident that the land of the Sinese is given as the farthest point to the east, from my communications concerning the Jews of China in the History of the Post-biblical Poetry of the Jews (1836, pp.

58-62, cf. , p. 21). I have not yet seen Sionnet’s work, which has appeared since, viz. , Essai sur les Juifs de la Chine et sur l'influence, qu'ils ont eue sur la litérature de ce vaste empire, avant l'ère chrétienne ; but I have read the Mission of Enquiry to the Jews in China in the Jewish Intelligence , May 1851, where a facsimile of their thorah is given.

The immigration took place from Persia (cf. , ‛Elâm , Isa 11:11), at the latest, under the Han dynasty (205 b. c. -220 a. d.) , and certainly before the Christian era.

Isa 49:8-12 The next two vv. describe (though only with reference to Israel, the immediate circle) what is the glory of the vocation to which Jehovah, in accordance with His promise, exalts His chosen One. “Thus saith Jehovah, In a time of favour have I heard thee, and in the day of salvation have I helped thee: and I form thee, and set thee for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to apportion again desolate inheritances, saying to prisoners, Go ye out: to those who are in darkness, Come ye to the light.

” Jehovah heard His servant, and came to his help when he prayed to Him out of the condition of bondage to the world, which he shared with his people. He did it at the time for the active display of His good pleasure, and for the realizing of salvation, which had been foreseen by Him, and had now arrived. The futures which follow are to be taken as such. The fact that Jehovah makes His servant “a covenant of the people,” i.

e. , the personal bond which unites Israel and its God in a new fellowship (see Isa 42:6), is the fruit of his being heard and helped. The infinitives with Lamed affirm in what way the new covenant relation will be made manifest. The land that has fallen into decay rises into prosperity again, and the desolate possessions return to their former owners. This manifestation of the covenant grace, that has been restored to the nation again, is effected through the medium of the servant of Jehovah.

The rendering of the lxx is quite correct: τοῦ καταστῆσαι τὴν γῆν καὶ κληρονομῆσαι κληρονομίας ἐρήμους λέγοντα לאמר is a dicendo governed by both infinitives. The prisoners in the darkness of the prison and of affliction are the exiles (Isa 42:22). The mighty word of the servant of Jehovah brings to them the light of liberty, in connection with which (as has been already more than once observed) the fact should be noticed, that the redemption is viewed in connection with the termination of the captivity, and, in accordance with the peculiar character of the Old Testament, is regarded as possessing a national character, and therefore is purely external.

The person of the servant of Jehovah now falls into the background again, and the prophecy proceeds with a description of the return of the redeemed. “They shall feed by the ways, and there is pasture for them upon all field-hills. They shall not hunger nor thirst, and the mirage and sun shall not blind them: for He that hath mercy on them shall lead them, and guide them by bubbling water-springs.

And I make all my mountains ways, and my roads are exalted. Behold these, they come from afar; and, behold, these from the north and from the sea; and these from the land of the Sinese. ” The people returning home are represented as a flock. By the roads that they take to their homes, they are able to obtain sufficient pasture, without being obliged to go a long way round in order to find a sufficient supply; and even upon bare sandy hills (Isa 41:18) there is pasture found for them.

Nothing is wanting; even the shârâb (see Isa 35:7) and the sun do not hurt them, the former by deceiving and leading astray, the latter by wearying them with its oppressive heat: for He whose compassion has been excited by their long pining misery (Isa 41:17-20) is leading them, and bringing them along in comfort by bubbling springs of real and refreshing water (ינחל, as Petrarch once says of shepherds, Move la schiêra sua soavemente ). Jehovah also makes all the mountains into roads for those who are returning home, and the paths of the desert are lifted up, as it were, into well-made roads ( yerumūn , Ges.

§47, Anm. 4). They are called my mountains and my highways (differently from Isa 14:25), because they are His creation; and therefore He is also able to change them, and now really does change them for the good of His people, who are returning to the land of their forefathers out of every quarter of the globe. Although in Psa 107:3 yâm (the sea) appears to stand for the south, as referring to the southern part of the Mediterranean, which washes the coast of Egypt, there is no ground at all in the present instance for regarding it as employed in any other than its usual sense, namely the west ; mērâchōq (from far) is therefore either the south (cf.

, Isa 43:6) or the east, according to the interpretation that we give to 'erets Sı̄nı̄m , as signifying a land to the east or to the south. The Phoenician Sinim (Ges. Isa 10:17), the inhabitants of a fortified town in the neighbourhood of Area, which has now disappeared, but which was seen not only by Jerome, but also by Mariono Sanuto ( de castro Arachas ad dimidiam leucam est oppidum Sin ), cannot be thought of, for the simple reason that this Sin was too near, and was situated to the west of Babylon and to the north of Jerusalem; whilst Sin (= Pelusium) in Egypt, to which Ewald refers, did not give its name to either a tribe or a land.

Arias Montanus was among the first to suggest that the Sinim are the Sinese (Chinese); and since the question has been so thoroughly discussed by Gesenius (in his Commentary and Thesaursu ), most of the commentators, and also such Orientalists as Langles (in his Recherches asiatiques ), Movers (in his Phoenicians ), Lassen (in his Indische Alterthumskunde , i. 856-7), have decided in favour of this opinion.

The objection brought against the supposition, that the name of the Chinese was known to the nations of the west at so early a period as this, viz. , that this could not have been the case till after the reign of the emperor Shi-hoang-ti , of the dynasty of Thsin , who restored the empire that had been broken up into seven smaller kingdoms (in the year 247 b.

c.) , and through whose celebrated reign the name of his dynasty came to be employed in the western nations as the name of China generally, is met by Lassen with the simple fact that the name occurs at a much earlier period than this, and in many different forms, as the name of smaller states into which the empire was broken up after the reign of Wu-wang (1122-1115 b.

c.) “The name Θῖναι (Strabo), Σῖναι (Ptol.) , Τζίνιτζα (Kosmas), says the Sinologist Neumann, did not obtain currency for the first time from the founder of the great dynasty of Tsin ; but long before this, Tsin was the name of a feudal kingdom of some importance in Shen-si , one of the western provinces of the Sinese land, and Fei-tse , the first feudal king of Tsin, began to reign as early as 897 b.

c. ” It is quite possible, therefore, that the prophet, whether he were Isaiah or any other, may have heard of the land of the Sinese in the far east, and this is all that we need assume; not that Sinese merchants visited the market of the world on the Euphrates (Movers and Lassen), but only that information concerning the strange people who were so wealthy in rare productions, had reached the remote parts of the East through the medium of commerce, possibly from Ophir, and through the Phoenicians.

But Egli replies: “The seer on the streams of Babel certainly could not have described any exiles as returning home from China, if he had not known that some of his countrymen were pining there in misery, and I most positively affirm that this was not the case. ” What is here assumed - namely, that there must have been a Chinese diaspora in the prophet’s own time - is overthrown by what has been already observed in Isa 11:11; and we may also see that it is to purely by accident that the land of the Sinese is given as the farthest point to the east, from my communications concerning the Jews of China in the History of the Post-biblical Poetry of the Jews (1836, pp.

58-62, cf. , p. 21). I have not yet seen Sionnet’s work, which has appeared since, viz. , Essai sur les Juifs de la Chine et sur l'influence, qu'ils ont eue sur la litérature de ce vaste empire, avant l'ère chrétienne ; but I have read the Mission of Enquiry to the Jews in China in the Jewish Intelligence , May 1851, where a facsimile of their thorah is given.

The immigration took place from Persia (cf. , ‛Elâm , Isa 11:11), at the latest, under the Han dynasty (205 b. c. -220 a. d.) , and certainly before the Christian era.

Isa 49:8-12 The next two vv. describe (though only with reference to Israel, the immediate circle) what is the glory of the vocation to which Jehovah, in accordance with His promise, exalts His chosen One. “Thus saith Jehovah, In a time of favour have I heard thee, and in the day of salvation have I helped thee: and I form thee, and set thee for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to apportion again desolate inheritances, saying to prisoners, Go ye out: to those who are in darkness, Come ye to the light.

” Jehovah heard His servant, and came to his help when he prayed to Him out of the condition of bondage to the world, which he shared with his people. He did it at the time for the active display of His good pleasure, and for the realizing of salvation, which had been foreseen by Him, and had now arrived. The futures which follow are to be taken as such. The fact that Jehovah makes His servant “a covenant of the people,” i.

e. , the personal bond which unites Israel and its God in a new fellowship (see Isa 42:6), is the fruit of his being heard and helped. The infinitives with Lamed affirm in what way the new covenant relation will be made manifest. The land that has fallen into decay rises into prosperity again, and the desolate possessions return to their former owners. This manifestation of the covenant grace, that has been restored to the nation again, is effected through the medium of the servant of Jehovah.

The rendering of the lxx is quite correct: τοῦ καταστῆσαι τὴν γῆν καὶ κληρονομῆσαι κληρονομίας ἐρήμους λέγοντα לאמר is a dicendo governed by both infinitives. The prisoners in the darkness of the prison and of affliction are the exiles (Isa 42:22). The mighty word of the servant of Jehovah brings to them the light of liberty, in connection with which (as has been already more than once observed) the fact should be noticed, that the redemption is viewed in connection with the termination of the captivity, and, in accordance with the peculiar character of the Old Testament, is regarded as possessing a national character, and therefore is purely external.

The person of the servant of Jehovah now falls into the background again, and the prophecy proceeds with a description of the return of the redeemed. “They shall feed by the ways, and there is pasture for them upon all field-hills. They shall not hunger nor thirst, and the mirage and sun shall not blind them: for He that hath mercy on them shall lead them, and guide them by bubbling water-springs.

And I make all my mountains ways, and my roads are exalted. Behold these, they come from afar; and, behold, these from the north and from the sea; and these from the land of the Sinese. ” The people returning home are represented as a flock. By the roads that they take to their homes, they are able to obtain sufficient pasture, without being obliged to go a long way round in order to find a sufficient supply; and even upon bare sandy hills (Isa 41:18) there is pasture found for them.

Nothing is wanting; even the shârâb (see Isa 35:7) and the sun do not hurt them, the former by deceiving and leading astray, the latter by wearying them with its oppressive heat: for He whose compassion has been excited by their long pining misery (Isa 41:17-20) is leading them, and bringing them along in comfort by bubbling springs of real and refreshing water (ינחל, as Petrarch once says of shepherds, Move la schiêra sua soavemente ). Jehovah also makes all the mountains into roads for those who are returning home, and the paths of the desert are lifted up, as it were, into well-made roads ( yerumūn , Ges.

§47, Anm. 4). They are called my mountains and my highways (differently from Isa 14:25), because they are His creation; and therefore He is also able to change them, and now really does change them for the good of His people, who are returning to the land of their forefathers out of every quarter of the globe. Although in Psa 107:3 yâm (the sea) appears to stand for the south, as referring to the southern part of the Mediterranean, which washes the coast of Egypt, there is no ground at all in the present instance for regarding it as employed in any other than its usual sense, namely the west ; mērâchōq (from far) is therefore either the south (cf.

, Isa 43:6) or the east, according to the interpretation that we give to 'erets Sı̄nı̄m , as signifying a land to the east or to the south. The Phoenician Sinim (Ges. Isa 10:17), the inhabitants of a fortified town in the neighbourhood of Area, which has now disappeared, but which was seen not only by Jerome, but also by Mariono Sanuto ( de castro Arachas ad dimidiam leucam est oppidum Sin ), cannot be thought of, for the simple reason that this Sin was too near, and was situated to the west of Babylon and to the north of Jerusalem; whilst Sin (= Pelusium) in Egypt, to which Ewald refers, did not give its name to either a tribe or a land.

Arias Montanus was among the first to suggest that the Sinim are the Sinese (Chinese); and since the question has been so thoroughly discussed by Gesenius (in his Commentary and Thesaursu ), most of the commentators, and also such Orientalists as Langles (in his Recherches asiatiques ), Movers (in his Phoenicians ), Lassen (in his Indische Alterthumskunde , i. 856-7), have decided in favour of this opinion.

The objection brought against the supposition, that the name of the Chinese was known to the nations of the west at so early a period as this, viz. , that this could not have been the case till after the reign of the emperor Shi-hoang-ti , of the dynasty of Thsin , who restored the empire that had been broken up into seven smaller kingdoms (in the year 247 b.

c.) , and through whose celebrated reign the name of his dynasty came to be employed in the western nations as the name of China generally, is met by Lassen with the simple fact that the name occurs at a much earlier period than this, and in many different forms, as the name of smaller states into which the empire was broken up after the reign of Wu-wang (1122-1115 b.

c.) “The name Θῖναι (Strabo), Σῖναι (Ptol.) , Τζίνιτζα (Kosmas), says the Sinologist Neumann, did not obtain currency for the first time from the founder of the great dynasty of Tsin ; but long before this, Tsin was the name of a feudal kingdom of some importance in Shen-si , one of the western provinces of the Sinese land, and Fei-tse , the first feudal king of Tsin, began to reign as early as 897 b.

c. ” It is quite possible, therefore, that the prophet, whether he were Isaiah or any other, may have heard of the land of the Sinese in the far east, and this is all that we need assume; not that Sinese merchants visited the market of the world on the Euphrates (Movers and Lassen), but only that information concerning the strange people who were so wealthy in rare productions, had reached the remote parts of the East through the medium of commerce, possibly from Ophir, and through the Phoenicians.

But Egli replies: “The seer on the streams of Babel certainly could not have described any exiles as returning home from China, if he had not known that some of his countrymen were pining there in misery, and I most positively affirm that this was not the case. ” What is here assumed - namely, that there must have been a Chinese diaspora in the prophet’s own time - is overthrown by what has been already observed in Isa 11:11; and we may also see that it is to purely by accident that the land of the Sinese is given as the farthest point to the east, from my communications concerning the Jews of China in the History of the Post-biblical Poetry of the Jews (1836, pp.

58-62, cf. , p. 21). I have not yet seen Sionnet’s work, which has appeared since, viz. , Essai sur les Juifs de la Chine et sur l'influence, qu'ils ont eue sur la litérature de ce vaste empire, avant l'ère chrétienne ; but I have read the Mission of Enquiry to the Jews in China in the Jewish Intelligence , May 1851, where a facsimile of their thorah is given.

The immigration took place from Persia (cf. , ‛Elâm , Isa 11:11), at the latest, under the Han dynasty (205 b. c. -220 a. d.) , and certainly before the Christian era.

Isa 49:8-12 The next two vv. describe (though only with reference to Israel, the immediate circle) what is the glory of the vocation to which Jehovah, in accordance with His promise, exalts His chosen One. “Thus saith Jehovah, In a time of favour have I heard thee, and in the day of salvation have I helped thee: and I form thee, and set thee for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to apportion again desolate inheritances, saying to prisoners, Go ye out: to those who are in darkness, Come ye to the light.

” Jehovah heard His servant, and came to his help when he prayed to Him out of the condition of bondage to the world, which he shared with his people. He did it at the time for the active display of His good pleasure, and for the realizing of salvation, which had been foreseen by Him, and had now arrived. The futures which follow are to be taken as such. The fact that Jehovah makes His servant “a covenant of the people,” i.

e. , the personal bond which unites Israel and its God in a new fellowship (see Isa 42:6), is the fruit of his being heard and helped. The infinitives with Lamed affirm in what way the new covenant relation will be made manifest. The land that has fallen into decay rises into prosperity again, and the desolate possessions return to their former owners. This manifestation of the covenant grace, that has been restored to the nation again, is effected through the medium of the servant of Jehovah.

The rendering of the lxx is quite correct: τοῦ καταστῆσαι τὴν γῆν καὶ κληρονομῆσαι κληρονομίας ἐρήμους λέγοντα לאמר is a dicendo governed by both infinitives. The prisoners in the darkness of the prison and of affliction are the exiles (Isa 42:22). The mighty word of the servant of Jehovah brings to them the light of liberty, in connection with which (as has been already more than once observed) the fact should be noticed, that the redemption is viewed in connection with the termination of the captivity, and, in accordance with the peculiar character of the Old Testament, is regarded as possessing a national character, and therefore is purely external.

The person of the servant of Jehovah now falls into the background again, and the prophecy proceeds with a description of the return of the redeemed. “They shall feed by the ways, and there is pasture for them upon all field-hills. They shall not hunger nor thirst, and the mirage and sun shall not blind them: for He that hath mercy on them shall lead them, and guide them by bubbling water-springs.

And I make all my mountains ways, and my roads are exalted. Behold these, they come from afar; and, behold, these from the north and from the sea; and these from the land of the Sinese. ” The people returning home are represented as a flock. By the roads that they take to their homes, they are able to obtain sufficient pasture, without being obliged to go a long way round in order to find a sufficient supply; and even upon bare sandy hills (Isa 41:18) there is pasture found for them.

Nothing is wanting; even the shârâb (see Isa 35:7) and the sun do not hurt them, the former by deceiving and leading astray, the latter by wearying them with its oppressive heat: for He whose compassion has been excited by their long pining misery (Isa 41:17-20) is leading them, and bringing them along in comfort by bubbling springs of real and refreshing water (ינחל, as Petrarch once says of shepherds, Move la schiêra sua soavemente ). Jehovah also makes all the mountains into roads for those who are returning home, and the paths of the desert are lifted up, as it were, into well-made roads ( yerumūn , Ges.

§47, Anm. 4). They are called my mountains and my highways (differently from Isa 14:25), because they are His creation; and therefore He is also able to change them, and now really does change them for the good of His people, who are returning to the land of their forefathers out of every quarter of the globe. Although in Psa 107:3 yâm (the sea) appears to stand for the south, as referring to the southern part of the Mediterranean, which washes the coast of Egypt, there is no ground at all in the present instance for regarding it as employed in any other than its usual sense, namely the west ; mērâchōq (from far) is therefore either the south (cf.

, Isa 43:6) or the east, according to the interpretation that we give to 'erets Sı̄nı̄m , as signifying a land to the east or to the south. The Phoenician Sinim (Ges. Isa 10:17), the inhabitants of a fortified town in the neighbourhood of Area, which has now disappeared, but which was seen not only by Jerome, but also by Mariono Sanuto ( de castro Arachas ad dimidiam leucam est oppidum Sin ), cannot be thought of, for the simple reason that this Sin was too near, and was situated to the west of Babylon and to the north of Jerusalem; whilst Sin (= Pelusium) in Egypt, to which Ewald refers, did not give its name to either a tribe or a land.

Arias Montanus was among the first to suggest that the Sinim are the Sinese (Chinese); and since the question has been so thoroughly discussed by Gesenius (in his Commentary and Thesaursu ), most of the commentators, and also such Orientalists as Langles (in his Recherches asiatiques ), Movers (in his Phoenicians ), Lassen (in his Indische Alterthumskunde , i. 856-7), have decided in favour of this opinion.

The objection brought against the supposition, that the name of the Chinese was known to the nations of the west at so early a period as this, viz. , that this could not have been the case till after the reign of the emperor Shi-hoang-ti , of the dynasty of Thsin , who restored the empire that had been broken up into seven smaller kingdoms (in the year 247 b.

c.) , and through whose celebrated reign the name of his dynasty came to be employed in the western nations as the name of China generally, is met by Lassen with the simple fact that the name occurs at a much earlier period than this, and in many different forms, as the name of smaller states into which the empire was broken up after the reign of Wu-wang (1122-1115 b.

c.) “The name Θῖναι (Strabo), Σῖναι (Ptol.) , Τζίνιτζα (Kosmas), says the Sinologist Neumann, did not obtain currency for the first time from the founder of the great dynasty of Tsin ; but long before this, Tsin was the name of a feudal kingdom of some importance in Shen-si , one of the western provinces of the Sinese land, and Fei-tse , the first feudal king of Tsin, began to reign as early as 897 b.

c. ” It is quite possible, therefore, that the prophet, whether he were Isaiah or any other, may have heard of the land of the Sinese in the far east, and this is all that we need assume; not that Sinese merchants visited the market of the world on the Euphrates (Movers and Lassen), but only that information concerning the strange people who were so wealthy in rare productions, had reached the remote parts of the East through the medium of commerce, possibly from Ophir, and through the Phoenicians.

But Egli replies: “The seer on the streams of Babel certainly could not have described any exiles as returning home from China, if he had not known that some of his countrymen were pining there in misery, and I most positively affirm that this was not the case. ” What is here assumed - namely, that there must have been a Chinese diaspora in the prophet’s own time - is overthrown by what has been already observed in Isa 11:11; and we may also see that it is to purely by accident that the land of the Sinese is given as the farthest point to the east, from my communications concerning the Jews of China in the History of the Post-biblical Poetry of the Jews (1836, pp.

58-62, cf. , p. 21). I have not yet seen Sionnet’s work, which has appeared since, viz. , Essai sur les Juifs de la Chine et sur l'influence, qu'ils ont eue sur la litérature de ce vaste empire, avant l'ère chrétienne ; but I have read the Mission of Enquiry to the Jews in China in the Jewish Intelligence , May 1851, where a facsimile of their thorah is given.

The immigration took place from Persia (cf. , ‛Elâm , Isa 11:11), at the latest, under the Han dynasty (205 b. c. -220 a. d.) , and certainly before the Christian era.

Isa 49:8-12 The next two vv. describe (though only with reference to Israel, the immediate circle) what is the glory of the vocation to which Jehovah, in accordance with His promise, exalts His chosen One. “Thus saith Jehovah, In a time of favour have I heard thee, and in the day of salvation have I helped thee: and I form thee, and set thee for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to apportion again desolate inheritances, saying to prisoners, Go ye out: to those who are in darkness, Come ye to the light.

” Jehovah heard His servant, and came to his help when he prayed to Him out of the condition of bondage to the world, which he shared with his people. He did it at the time for the active display of His good pleasure, and for the realizing of salvation, which had been foreseen by Him, and had now arrived. The futures which follow are to be taken as such. The fact that Jehovah makes His servant “a covenant of the people,” i.

e. , the personal bond which unites Israel and its God in a new fellowship (see Isa 42:6), is the fruit of his being heard and helped. The infinitives with Lamed affirm in what way the new covenant relation will be made manifest. The land that has fallen into decay rises into prosperity again, and the desolate possessions return to their former owners. This manifestation of the covenant grace, that has been restored to the nation again, is effected through the medium of the servant of Jehovah.

The rendering of the lxx is quite correct: τοῦ καταστῆσαι τὴν γῆν καὶ κληρονομῆσαι κληρονομίας ἐρήμους λέγοντα לאמר is a dicendo governed by both infinitives. The prisoners in the darkness of the prison and of affliction are the exiles (Isa 42:22). The mighty word of the servant of Jehovah brings to them the light of liberty, in connection with which (as has been already more than once observed) the fact should be noticed, that the redemption is viewed in connection with the termination of the captivity, and, in accordance with the peculiar character of the Old Testament, is regarded as possessing a national character, and therefore is purely external.

The person of the servant of Jehovah now falls into the background again, and the prophecy proceeds with a description of the return of the redeemed. “They shall feed by the ways, and there is pasture for them upon all field-hills. They shall not hunger nor thirst, and the mirage and sun shall not blind them: for He that hath mercy on them shall lead them, and guide them by bubbling water-springs.

And I make all my mountains ways, and my roads are exalted. Behold these, they come from afar; and, behold, these from the north and from the sea; and these from the land of the Sinese. ” The people returning home are represented as a flock. By the roads that they take to their homes, they are able to obtain sufficient pasture, without being obliged to go a long way round in order to find a sufficient supply; and even upon bare sandy hills (Isa 41:18) there is pasture found for them.

Nothing is wanting; even the shârâb (see Isa 35:7) and the sun do not hurt them, the former by deceiving and leading astray, the latter by wearying them with its oppressive heat: for He whose compassion has been excited by their long pining misery (Isa 41:17-20) is leading them, and bringing them along in comfort by bubbling springs of real and refreshing water (ינחל, as Petrarch once says of shepherds, Move la schiêra sua soavemente ). Jehovah also makes all the mountains into roads for those who are returning home, and the paths of the desert are lifted up, as it were, into well-made roads ( yerumūn , Ges.

§47, Anm. 4). They are called my mountains and my highways (differently from Isa 14:25), because they are His creation; and therefore He is also able to change them, and now really does change them for the good of His people, who are returning to the land of their forefathers out of every quarter of the globe. Although in Psa 107:3 yâm (the sea) appears to stand for the south, as referring to the southern part of the Mediterranean, which washes the coast of Egypt, there is no ground at all in the present instance for regarding it as employed in any other than its usual sense, namely the west ; mērâchōq (from far) is therefore either the south (cf.

, Isa 43:6) or the east, according to the interpretation that we give to 'erets Sı̄nı̄m , as signifying a land to the east or to the south. The Phoenician Sinim (Ges. Isa 10:17), the inhabitants of a fortified town in the neighbourhood of Area, which has now disappeared, but which was seen not only by Jerome, but also by Mariono Sanuto ( de castro Arachas ad dimidiam leucam est oppidum Sin ), cannot be thought of, for the simple reason that this Sin was too near, and was situated to the west of Babylon and to the north of Jerusalem; whilst Sin (= Pelusium) in Egypt, to which Ewald refers, did not give its name to either a tribe or a land.

Arias Montanus was among the first to suggest that the Sinim are the Sinese (Chinese); and since the question has been so thoroughly discussed by Gesenius (in his Commentary and Thesaursu ), most of the commentators, and also such Orientalists as Langles (in his Recherches asiatiques ), Movers (in his Phoenicians ), Lassen (in his Indische Alterthumskunde , i. 856-7), have decided in favour of this opinion.

The objection brought against the supposition, that the name of the Chinese was known to the nations of the west at so early a period as this, viz. , that this could not have been the case till after the reign of the emperor Shi-hoang-ti , of the dynasty of Thsin , who restored the empire that had been broken up into seven smaller kingdoms (in the year 247 b.

c.) , and through whose celebrated reign the name of his dynasty came to be employed in the western nations as the name of China generally, is met by Lassen with the simple fact that the name occurs at a much earlier period than this, and in many different forms, as the name of smaller states into which the empire was broken up after the reign of Wu-wang (1122-1115 b.

c.) “The name Θῖναι (Strabo), Σῖναι (Ptol.) , Τζίνιτζα (Kosmas), says the Sinologist Neumann, did not obtain currency for the first time from the founder of the great dynasty of Tsin ; but long before this, Tsin was the name of a feudal kingdom of some importance in Shen-si , one of the western provinces of the Sinese land, and Fei-tse , the first feudal king of Tsin, began to reign as early as 897 b.

c. ” It is quite possible, therefore, that the prophet, whether he were Isaiah or any other, may have heard of the land of the Sinese in the far east, and this is all that we need assume; not that Sinese merchants visited the market of the world on the Euphrates (Movers and Lassen), but only that information concerning the strange people who were so wealthy in rare productions, had reached the remote parts of the East through the medium of commerce, possibly from Ophir, and through the Phoenicians.

But Egli replies: “The seer on the streams of Babel certainly could not have described any exiles as returning home from China, if he had not known that some of his countrymen were pining there in misery, and I most positively affirm that this was not the case. ” What is here assumed - namely, that there must have been a Chinese diaspora in the prophet’s own time - is overthrown by what has been already observed in Isa 11:11; and we may also see that it is to purely by accident that the land of the Sinese is given as the farthest point to the east, from my communications concerning the Jews of China in the History of the Post-biblical Poetry of the Jews (1836, pp.

58-62, cf. , p. 21). I have not yet seen Sionnet’s work, which has appeared since, viz. , Essai sur les Juifs de la Chine et sur l'influence, qu'ils ont eue sur la litérature de ce vaste empire, avant l'ère chrétienne ; but I have read the Mission of Enquiry to the Jews in China in the Jewish Intelligence , May 1851, where a facsimile of their thorah is given.

The immigration took place from Persia (cf. , ‛Elâm , Isa 11:11), at the latest, under the Han dynasty (205 b. c. -220 a. d.) , and certainly before the Christian era.

Isa 49:13 In this return of the exiles from every quarter of the globe to their fatherland, and for this mighty work of God on behalf of His church, which has been scattered in all directions, the whole creation is to praise Him. “Sing, O heavens; and shout, O earth; and break out into singing, O mountains! for Jehovah hath comforted His people, and He hath compassion upon His afflicted ones.

” The phrase רנּה פּצח, like ורנּן פּצח (which occurs in Psa 98:4 as well as in Isaiah), is peculiarly Isaiah’s (Isa 14:7, and several times in chapters 40-66). “The afflicted ones” ( ‛ăniyyı̄m ) is the usual Old Testament name for the ecclesia militans . The future alternates with the perfect: the act of consolation takes place once for all, but the compassion lasts for ever.

Here again the glorious liberty of the children of God appears as the focus from which the whole world is glorified. The joy of the Israel of God becomes the joy of heaven and earth. With the summons to this joy the first half of the prophecy closes; for the word תאמר, which follows, shows clearly enough that the prophecy has merely reached a resting-point here, since this word is unsuitable for commencing a fresh prophecy.

Isa 49:14-16 The prophet, looking back at the period of suffering from the standpoint of the deliverance, exclaims from the midst of this train of thought: Isa 49:14 “Zion said, Jehovah hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me. ” The period of suffering which forces out this lamentation still continues. What follows, therefore, applies to the church of the present, i.

e. , of the captivity. Isa 49:15, Isa 49:16 “Does a woman forget her sucking child, so as not to have compassion upon the child of her womb? Even though mothers should forget, I will not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls stand continually before me. ” In reply to the complaining church, which knows that her home is in Zion-Jerusalem, and which has been kept so long away from her home, Jehovah sets forth His love, which is as inalienable as a mother’s love, yea, far greater than even maternal love.

On עוּל, the min in mērachēm is equivalent to ὥστε μή, as in Isa 23:1; Isa 24:10; Isa 33:15, etc. גּם, so far as the actual sense is concerned, is equivalent to גּם־כּי (Ewald, §§362, b ): “granted that such (mothers) should forget, i. e. , disown, their love. ” The picture of Zion (not merely the name, as Isa 49:16 clearly shows) is drawn in the inside of Jehovah’s hands, just as men are accustomed to burn or puncture ornamental figures and mementoes upon the hand, the arm, and the forehead, and to colour the punctures with alhenna or indigo (see Tafel, xii.

, in vol. ii. pp. 33-35 of Lane’s Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians ). There is the figure of Zion, unapproachable to every creature, as close to Him as He is to Himself, and facing Him amidst all the emotions of His divine life. There has He the walls of Zion constantly before Him (on neged , see at Isa 1:15; Isa 24:23); and even if for a time they are broken down here below, with Him they have an eternal ideal existence, which must be realized again and again in an increasingly glorious form.

Isa 49:14-16 The prophet, looking back at the period of suffering from the standpoint of the deliverance, exclaims from the midst of this train of thought: Isa 49:14 “Zion said, Jehovah hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me. ” The period of suffering which forces out this lamentation still continues. What follows, therefore, applies to the church of the present, i.

e. , of the captivity. Isa 49:15, Isa 49:16 “Does a woman forget her sucking child, so as not to have compassion upon the child of her womb? Even though mothers should forget, I will not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls stand continually before me. ” In reply to the complaining church, which knows that her home is in Zion-Jerusalem, and which has been kept so long away from her home, Jehovah sets forth His love, which is as inalienable as a mother’s love, yea, far greater than even maternal love.

On עוּל, the min in mērachēm is equivalent to ὥστε μή, as in Isa 23:1; Isa 24:10; Isa 33:15, etc. גּם, so far as the actual sense is concerned, is equivalent to גּם־כּי (Ewald, §§362, b ): “granted that such (mothers) should forget, i. e. , disown, their love. ” The picture of Zion (not merely the name, as Isa 49:16 clearly shows) is drawn in the inside of Jehovah’s hands, just as men are accustomed to burn or puncture ornamental figures and mementoes upon the hand, the arm, and the forehead, and to colour the punctures with alhenna or indigo (see Tafel, xii.

, in vol. ii. pp. 33-35 of Lane’s Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians ). There is the figure of Zion, unapproachable to every creature, as close to Him as He is to Himself, and facing Him amidst all the emotions of His divine life. There has He the walls of Zion constantly before Him (on neged , see at Isa 1:15; Isa 24:23); and even if for a time they are broken down here below, with Him they have an eternal ideal existence, which must be realized again and again in an increasingly glorious form.

Isa 49:14-16 The prophet, looking back at the period of suffering from the standpoint of the deliverance, exclaims from the midst of this train of thought: Isa 49:14 “Zion said, Jehovah hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me. ” The period of suffering which forces out this lamentation still continues. What follows, therefore, applies to the church of the present, i.

e. , of the captivity. Isa 49:15, Isa 49:16 “Does a woman forget her sucking child, so as not to have compassion upon the child of her womb? Even though mothers should forget, I will not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls stand continually before me. ” In reply to the complaining church, which knows that her home is in Zion-Jerusalem, and which has been kept so long away from her home, Jehovah sets forth His love, which is as inalienable as a mother’s love, yea, far greater than even maternal love.

On עוּל, the min in mērachēm is equivalent to ὥστε μή, as in Isa 23:1; Isa 24:10; Isa 33:15, etc. גּם, so far as the actual sense is concerned, is equivalent to גּם־כּי (Ewald, §§362, b ): “granted that such (mothers) should forget, i. e. , disown, their love. ” The picture of Zion (not merely the name, as Isa 49:16 clearly shows) is drawn in the inside of Jehovah’s hands, just as men are accustomed to burn or puncture ornamental figures and mementoes upon the hand, the arm, and the forehead, and to colour the punctures with alhenna or indigo (see Tafel, xii.

, in vol. ii. pp. 33-35 of Lane’s Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians ). There is the figure of Zion, unapproachable to every creature, as close to Him as He is to Himself, and facing Him amidst all the emotions of His divine life. There has He the walls of Zion constantly before Him (on neged , see at Isa 1:15; Isa 24:23); and even if for a time they are broken down here below, with Him they have an eternal ideal existence, which must be realized again and again in an increasingly glorious form.

Isa 49:17-18 It is this fact of a renewed glorification which presents itself afresh to the prophet’s mind. “Thy children make haste, thy destroyers and masters draw out from thee. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all these assemble themselves together, and come to thee. As truly as I live, saith Jehovah, thou wilt put them all on like jewellery, and gird them round thee like a bride.

” The pointing adopted by the lxx, Targ. , Jer. and Saad. , is בּניך. The antithesis favours this reading; but בּניך suits Isa 49:18, Isa 49:19 better; and the thought that Zion’s children come and restore her fallen walls, follows of itself from the very antithesis: her children come; and those who destroyed their maternal home, and made it a desolate ruin, have to depart from both city and land.

Zion is to lift up her eyes, that have been cast down till now, yea, to lift them up round about; for on all sides those whom she thought she had lost are coming in dense crowds לך (cf. , לא = לו with אליו, Isa 49:5), to her, i. e. , henceforth to belong to her again. Jehovah pledges His life ( chai 'ănı̄ , ζῶν ἐγώ, Ewald, §329, a ) that a time of glory is coming for Zion and her children.

כּי in the affirmative sense, springing out of the confirmative after an affirming oath, equivalent to אם־לא elsewhere (e. g. , Isa 5:9). The population which Zion recovers once more, will be to her like the ornaments which a woman puts on, like the ornamental girdle (Isa 3:20) which a bride fastens round her wedding dress.

Isa 49:17-18 It is this fact of a renewed glorification which presents itself afresh to the prophet’s mind. “Thy children make haste, thy destroyers and masters draw out from thee. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all these assemble themselves together, and come to thee. As truly as I live, saith Jehovah, thou wilt put them all on like jewellery, and gird them round thee like a bride.

” The pointing adopted by the lxx, Targ. , Jer. and Saad. , is בּניך. The antithesis favours this reading; but בּניך suits Isa 49:18, Isa 49:19 better; and the thought that Zion’s children come and restore her fallen walls, follows of itself from the very antithesis: her children come; and those who destroyed their maternal home, and made it a desolate ruin, have to depart from both city and land.

Zion is to lift up her eyes, that have been cast down till now, yea, to lift them up round about; for on all sides those whom she thought she had lost are coming in dense crowds לך (cf. , לא = לו with אליו, Isa 49:5), to her, i. e. , henceforth to belong to her again. Jehovah pledges His life ( chai 'ănı̄ , ζῶν ἐγώ, Ewald, §329, a ) that a time of glory is coming for Zion and her children.

כּי in the affirmative sense, springing out of the confirmative after an affirming oath, equivalent to אם־לא elsewhere (e. g. , Isa 5:9). The population which Zion recovers once more, will be to her like the ornaments which a woman puts on, like the ornamental girdle (Isa 3:20) which a bride fastens round her wedding dress.

Isa 49:19-20 Thus will Zion shine forth once more with the multitude of her children as with a festal adorning. “For thy ruins and thy waste places and thy land full of ruin - yea, now thou wilt be too narrow for the inhabitants, and thy devourers are far away. Thy children, that were formerly taken from thee, shall say in thine ears, The space is too narrow for me; give way for me, that I may have room.

” The word “for” ( kı̄ ) introduces the explanatory reason for the figures just employed of jewellery and a bridal girdle. Instead of the three subjects, “thy ruins,” etc. , the comprehensive “thou” is employed permutatively, and the sentence commenced afresh. כּי is repeated emphatically in עתּה כּי (for now, or yea now); this has essentially the same meaning as in the apodosis of hypothetical protasis (e.

g. , Gen 31:42; Gen 43:10), except that the sense is more decidedly affirmative than in the present instance, where one sees it spring out of the confirmative. Zion, that has been hitherto desolate, now becomes too small to hold her inhabitants; and her devourers are far away, i. e. , those who took forcible possession of the land and cities, and made them untenable.

עוד is to be understood in accordance with Psa 42:6, and בעזניך in accordance with Psa 54:2 (see at Isa 5:9). It will even come to this, that the children of which Zion was formerly robbed will call to one another, so that she becomes a witness with her ears to that which they have so clearly seen: the space is too narrow, give way ( geshâh , from nâgash , to advance, then to move generally, also to move in an opposite direction, i.

e. , to fall back, as in Gen 19:9) for me, that I may be able to settle down.

Isa 49:19-20 Thus will Zion shine forth once more with the multitude of her children as with a festal adorning. “For thy ruins and thy waste places and thy land full of ruin - yea, now thou wilt be too narrow for the inhabitants, and thy devourers are far away. Thy children, that were formerly taken from thee, shall say in thine ears, The space is too narrow for me; give way for me, that I may have room.

” The word “for” ( kı̄ ) introduces the explanatory reason for the figures just employed of jewellery and a bridal girdle. Instead of the three subjects, “thy ruins,” etc. , the comprehensive “thou” is employed permutatively, and the sentence commenced afresh. כּי is repeated emphatically in עתּה כּי (for now, or yea now); this has essentially the same meaning as in the apodosis of hypothetical protasis (e.

g. , Gen 31:42; Gen 43:10), except that the sense is more decidedly affirmative than in the present instance, where one sees it spring out of the confirmative. Zion, that has been hitherto desolate, now becomes too small to hold her inhabitants; and her devourers are far away, i. e. , those who took forcible possession of the land and cities, and made them untenable.

עוד is to be understood in accordance with Psa 42:6, and בעזניך in accordance with Psa 54:2 (see at Isa 5:9). It will even come to this, that the children of which Zion was formerly robbed will call to one another, so that she becomes a witness with her ears to that which they have so clearly seen: the space is too narrow, give way ( geshâh , from nâgash , to advance, then to move generally, also to move in an opposite direction, i.

e. , to fall back, as in Gen 19:9) for me, that I may be able to settle down.

Isa 49:21 The words that sound in the ears of Zion are now followed by the thought of astonishment and surprise, that rises up in her heart. “And thou wilt say in thy heart, Who hath borne me these, seeing I was robbed of children, and barren, banished, and thrust away; and these, who hath brought them up? Behold, I was left alone; these, where were they? ” She sees herself suddenly surrounded by a great multitude of children, and yet she was robbed of children, and galmūdâh (lit.

hard, stony, Arab. 'galmad , 'gulmūd , e. g. , es - sachr el'gulmūd , the hardest stone, mostly as a sugstantive, stone or rock, from gâlam , from which comes the Syriac gelomo , stony ground, related to châlam , whence challâmı̄sh , gravel, root gal , gam , to press together, or heap up in a lump or mass), i. e. , one who seemed utterly incapacitated for bearing children any more.

She therefore asks, Who hath borne me these (not, who hath begotten, and which is an absurd question)? She cannot believe that they are the children of her body, and her children’s children. As a tree, whose foliage is all faded away, is called nōbheleth itself in Isa 1:30, so she calls herself gōlâh vesūrâh , extorris et remota ( sūr = mūsâr , like sūg in Pro 14:14 = nâsōg or mussâg ), because her children have been carried away into exile.

In the second question, the thought has dawned upon her mind, that those by whom she finds herself surrounded are her own children; but as she was left alone, whilst they went forth, as she thought to die in a foreign land, she cannot comprehend where they have been hitherto concealed, or where they have grown up into so numerous a people.

Isa 49:22 The prophecy now takes a step backward in the domain of the future, and describes the manner in which the children of Zion get back to their home. “Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I lift up my hand to nations, and set up my standard to peoples: and they bring thy sons in their bosom; and thy daughters, upon shoulders are they carried. ” The setting up of a standard (Isa 5:26; Isa 11:12; Isa 18:3, cf.

, Isa 62:10) is a favourite figure with Isaiah, as well as swaying the hand. Jehovah gives a sign to the heathen nations with His hand, and points out to them the mark that they are to keep in view, with a signal pole which is set up. They understand it, and carry out His instructions, and bring Zion’s sons and daughters thither, and that as a foster-father ( 'ōmēn ) carries an infant in the bosom of his dress ( chōtsen , as in Neh 5:13; Arabic as in Psa 129:7, hidn , from hadana , to embrace, to press tenderly to one’s self; vid.

, Num 11:12), or upon his arms, so that it reclines upon his shoulder ( ‛al - kâthēph ; cf. , ‛al - tsad , Isa 60:4; Isa 66:12).

Isa 49:23 Such affectionate treatment does the church receive, which is assembling once more upon its native soil, whilst kings and their consorts hasten to serve the re-assembled community. “And kings become thy foster-fathers, and their princesses they nurses: they bow down their face to thee to the earth, and they lick the dust of thy feet; and thou learnest that I am Jehovah, He whose hoping ones are not put to shame.

” As foster-fathers devote all their strength and care to those entrusted to them, and nurses nourish children from the very marrow of their own life, so will kings become the shelterers of Zion, and princesses the sustainers of her growth. All that is true in the regal headship of the church will be realized, and all that is false in regal territorialism will condemn itself: “ vultu in terram demisso adorabunt te et pulverem pedum tuorum lingent ” (Jerome).

They do homage to the church, and kiss the ground upon which she stands and walks. According to Isa 45:14, this adoration belongs to the God who is present in the church, and points the church itself away from all thought of her own merits to Jehovah, the God of salvation, cui qui confidunt non pudefient (וידעתּ with an auxiliary pathach , like יגעתּ in Isa 47:15; Ges.

§65, 2: אשׁר with the first person made into a relative as in Isa 41:8; Ges. §123, 1, Anm. 1). Observe, however, that the state will not be swallowed up by the church - a thing which never will occur, and is never meant to occur; but by the state becoming serviceable to the church, there is realized a prelude of the perfected kingdom of God, in which the dualism of the state and the church is entirely abolished.

Isa 49:24-26 There follows now a sceptical question prompted by weakness of faith; and the divine reply. The question, Isa 49:24 : “Can the booty indeed be wrested from a giant, or will the captive host of the righteous escape? ” The question is logically one, and only divided rhetorically into two (Ges. §153, 2). The giant, or gigantically strong one, is the Chaldean.

Knobel, in opposition to Hitzig, who supposes the Persian to be referred to, points very properly to Isa 51:12-13, and Isa 52:5. He is mistaken, however, in thinking that we must read עריץ שׁבי in Isa 49:24 , as Ewald does after the Syriac and Jerome, on account of the parallelism. The exiles are called shebhı̄ tsaddı̄q , not, however, as captives wrested from the righteous (the congregation of the righteous), as Meier thinks, taking tsaddı̄q as the gen.

obj. ; still less as captives carried off by the righteous one, i. e. , the Chaldean, for the Chaldean, even regarded as the accomplisher of the righteous judgment of God, is not tsaddı̄q , but “wicked” (Hab 1:13); but merely as a host of captives consisting of righteous men (Hitzig). The divine answer, Isa 49:25, Isa 49:26 : “Yea, thus saith Jehovah, Even the captive hosts of a giant are wrested from him, and the booty of a tyrant escapes: and I will make war upon him that warreth with thee, and I will bring salvation to thy children.

And I feed them that pain thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as if with new wine; and all flesh sees that I Jehovah am thy Saviour, and that thy Redeemer is the Mighty One of Jacob. ” We might take the kı̄ in Isa 49:25 as a simple affirmative, but it is really to be taken as preceded by a tacit intermediate thought. Rosenmüller’s explanation is the correct one: “that which is hardly credible shall take place, for thus hath Jehovah said.

” He has also given the true interpretation of gam : “although this really seems incredible, yet I will give it effect. ” Ewald, on the contrary, has quite missed the sense of Isa 49:24, Isa 49:25, which he gives as follows: “The booty in men which a hero has taken in war, may indeed be taken from him again; but Jehovah will never let the booty that He takes from the Chaldean (viz.

, Israel) be wrested from Him again. ” This is inadmissible, for the simple reason that it presupposes the emendation עריץ שׁבי עריץ noita; and this 'ârı̄ts is quite unsuitable, partly because it would be Jehovah to whom the case supposed referred, and still more, because the correspondence in character between Isa 49:24 and Isa 49:14 is thereby destroyed. The gibbōr and 'ârı̄ts is called יריבך in Isa 49:25 , with direct reference to Zion.

This is a noun formed from the future, like Jareb in Hos 5:13 and Hos 10:6 - a name chosen as the distinctive epithet of the Asiatic emperor (probably a name signifying “king Fighting-cock”). The self-laceration threatened against the Chaldean empire recals to mind Isa 9:19-20, and Zec 11:9, and has as revolting a sound as Num 23:24 and Zec 9:15 -passages which Daumer and Ghillany understand in the cannibal sense which they appear to have, whereas what they understand literally is merely a hyperbolical figure.

Moreover, it must not be forgotten that the Old Testament church was a nation, and that the spirit of revelation in the Old Testament assumed the national form, which it afterwards shattered to pieces. Knobel points to the revolt of the Hyrcanians and several satraps, who fought on the side of Cyrus against their former rulers ( Cyrop. iv 2, 6, v. 1-3). All this will be subservient to that salvation and redemption, which form the historical aim of Jehovah and the irresistible work of the Mighty One of Jacob.

The name of God which we meet with here, viz. , the Mighty One of Jacob, only occurs again in Isa 1:24, and shows who is the author of the prophecy which is concluded here. The first half set forth, in the servant of Jehovah, the mediator of Israel’s restoration and of the conversion of the heathen, and closed with an appeal to the heaven and the earth to rejoice with the ransomed church.

The second half (Isa 49:14-26) rebukes the despondency of Zion, which fancies itself forgotten of Jehovah, by pointing to Jehovah’s more than maternal love, and the superabundant blessing to be expected from Him. It also rebukes the doubts of Zion as to the possibility of such a redemption, by pointing to the faithfulness and omnipotence of the God of Israel, who will cause the exiles to be wrested from the Chaldean, and their tormentors to devour one another.

The following chapter commences a fresh train of ideas.

Isa 49:24-26 There follows now a sceptical question prompted by weakness of faith; and the divine reply. The question, Isa 49:24 : “Can the booty indeed be wrested from a giant, or will the captive host of the righteous escape? ” The question is logically one, and only divided rhetorically into two (Ges. §153, 2). The giant, or gigantically strong one, is the Chaldean.

Knobel, in opposition to Hitzig, who supposes the Persian to be referred to, points very properly to Isa 51:12-13, and Isa 52:5. He is mistaken, however, in thinking that we must read עריץ שׁבי in Isa 49:24 , as Ewald does after the Syriac and Jerome, on account of the parallelism. The exiles are called shebhı̄ tsaddı̄q , not, however, as captives wrested from the righteous (the congregation of the righteous), as Meier thinks, taking tsaddı̄q as the gen.

obj. ; still less as captives carried off by the righteous one, i. e. , the Chaldean, for the Chaldean, even regarded as the accomplisher of the righteous judgment of God, is not tsaddı̄q , but “wicked” (Hab 1:13); but merely as a host of captives consisting of righteous men (Hitzig). The divine answer, Isa 49:25, Isa 49:26 : “Yea, thus saith Jehovah, Even the captive hosts of a giant are wrested from him, and the booty of a tyrant escapes: and I will make war upon him that warreth with thee, and I will bring salvation to thy children.

And I feed them that pain thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as if with new wine; and all flesh sees that I Jehovah am thy Saviour, and that thy Redeemer is the Mighty One of Jacob. ” We might take the kı̄ in Isa 49:25 as a simple affirmative, but it is really to be taken as preceded by a tacit intermediate thought. Rosenmüller’s explanation is the correct one: “that which is hardly credible shall take place, for thus hath Jehovah said.

” He has also given the true interpretation of gam : “although this really seems incredible, yet I will give it effect. ” Ewald, on the contrary, has quite missed the sense of Isa 49:24, Isa 49:25, which he gives as follows: “The booty in men which a hero has taken in war, may indeed be taken from him again; but Jehovah will never let the booty that He takes from the Chaldean (viz.

, Israel) be wrested from Him again. ” This is inadmissible, for the simple reason that it presupposes the emendation עריץ שׁבי עריץ noita; and this 'ârı̄ts is quite unsuitable, partly because it would be Jehovah to whom the case supposed referred, and still more, because the correspondence in character between Isa 49:24 and Isa 49:14 is thereby destroyed. The gibbōr and 'ârı̄ts is called יריבך in Isa 49:25 , with direct reference to Zion.

This is a noun formed from the future, like Jareb in Hos 5:13 and Hos 10:6 - a name chosen as the distinctive epithet of the Asiatic emperor (probably a name signifying “king Fighting-cock”). The self-laceration threatened against the Chaldean empire recals to mind Isa 9:19-20, and Zec 11:9, and has as revolting a sound as Num 23:24 and Zec 9:15 -passages which Daumer and Ghillany understand in the cannibal sense which they appear to have, whereas what they understand literally is merely a hyperbolical figure.

Moreover, it must not be forgotten that the Old Testament church was a nation, and that the spirit of revelation in the Old Testament assumed the national form, which it afterwards shattered to pieces. Knobel points to the revolt of the Hyrcanians and several satraps, who fought on the side of Cyrus against their former rulers ( Cyrop. iv 2, 6, v. 1-3). All this will be subservient to that salvation and redemption, which form the historical aim of Jehovah and the irresistible work of the Mighty One of Jacob.

The name of God which we meet with here, viz. , the Mighty One of Jacob, only occurs again in Isa 1:24, and shows who is the author of the prophecy which is concluded here. The first half set forth, in the servant of Jehovah, the mediator of Israel’s restoration and of the conversion of the heathen, and closed with an appeal to the heaven and the earth to rejoice with the ransomed church.

The second half (Isa 49:14-26) rebukes the despondency of Zion, which fancies itself forgotten of Jehovah, by pointing to Jehovah’s more than maternal love, and the superabundant blessing to be expected from Him. It also rebukes the doubts of Zion as to the possibility of such a redemption, by pointing to the faithfulness and omnipotence of the God of Israel, who will cause the exiles to be wrested from the Chaldean, and their tormentors to devour one another.

The following chapter commences a fresh train of ideas.

Isa 49:24-26 There follows now a sceptical question prompted by weakness of faith; and the divine reply. The question, Isa 49:24 : “Can the booty indeed be wrested from a giant, or will the captive host of the righteous escape? ” The question is logically one, and only divided rhetorically into two (Ges. §153, 2). The giant, or gigantically strong one, is the Chaldean.

Knobel, in opposition to Hitzig, who supposes the Persian to be referred to, points very properly to Isa 51:12-13, and Isa 52:5. He is mistaken, however, in thinking that we must read עריץ שׁבי in Isa 49:24 , as Ewald does after the Syriac and Jerome, on account of the parallelism. The exiles are called shebhı̄ tsaddı̄q , not, however, as captives wrested from the righteous (the congregation of the righteous), as Meier thinks, taking tsaddı̄q as the gen.

obj. ; still less as captives carried off by the righteous one, i. e. , the Chaldean, for the Chaldean, even regarded as the accomplisher of the righteous judgment of God, is not tsaddı̄q , but “wicked” (Hab 1:13); but merely as a host of captives consisting of righteous men (Hitzig). The divine answer, Isa 49:25, Isa 49:26 : “Yea, thus saith Jehovah, Even the captive hosts of a giant are wrested from him, and the booty of a tyrant escapes: and I will make war upon him that warreth with thee, and I will bring salvation to thy children.

And I feed them that pain thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as if with new wine; and all flesh sees that I Jehovah am thy Saviour, and that thy Redeemer is the Mighty One of Jacob. ” We might take the kı̄ in Isa 49:25 as a simple affirmative, but it is really to be taken as preceded by a tacit intermediate thought. Rosenmüller’s explanation is the correct one: “that which is hardly credible shall take place, for thus hath Jehovah said.

” He has also given the true interpretation of gam : “although this really seems incredible, yet I will give it effect. ” Ewald, on the contrary, has quite missed the sense of Isa 49:24, Isa 49:25, which he gives as follows: “The booty in men which a hero has taken in war, may indeed be taken from him again; but Jehovah will never let the booty that He takes from the Chaldean (viz.

, Israel) be wrested from Him again. ” This is inadmissible, for the simple reason that it presupposes the emendation עריץ שׁבי עריץ noita; and this 'ârı̄ts is quite unsuitable, partly because it would be Jehovah to whom the case supposed referred, and still more, because the correspondence in character between Isa 49:24 and Isa 49:14 is thereby destroyed. The gibbōr and 'ârı̄ts is called יריבך in Isa 49:25 , with direct reference to Zion.

This is a noun formed from the future, like Jareb in Hos 5:13 and Hos 10:6 - a name chosen as the distinctive epithet of the Asiatic emperor (probably a name signifying “king Fighting-cock”). The self-laceration threatened against the Chaldean empire recals to mind Isa 9:19-20, and Zec 11:9, and has as revolting a sound as Num 23:24 and Zec 9:15 -passages which Daumer and Ghillany understand in the cannibal sense which they appear to have, whereas what they understand literally is merely a hyperbolical figure.

Moreover, it must not be forgotten that the Old Testament church was a nation, and that the spirit of revelation in the Old Testament assumed the national form, which it afterwards shattered to pieces. Knobel points to the revolt of the Hyrcanians and several satraps, who fought on the side of Cyrus against their former rulers ( Cyrop. iv 2, 6, v. 1-3). All this will be subservient to that salvation and redemption, which form the historical aim of Jehovah and the irresistible work of the Mighty One of Jacob.

The name of God which we meet with here, viz. , the Mighty One of Jacob, only occurs again in Isa 1:24, and shows who is the author of the prophecy which is concluded here. The first half set forth, in the servant of Jehovah, the mediator of Israel’s restoration and of the conversion of the heathen, and closed with an appeal to the heaven and the earth to rejoice with the ransomed church.

The second half (Isa 49:14-26) rebukes the despondency of Zion, which fancies itself forgotten of Jehovah, by pointing to Jehovah’s more than maternal love, and the superabundant blessing to be expected from Him. It also rebukes the doubts of Zion as to the possibility of such a redemption, by pointing to the faithfulness and omnipotence of the God of Israel, who will cause the exiles to be wrested from the Chaldean, and their tormentors to devour one another.

The following chapter commences a fresh train of ideas.

Isa 50:1 The words are no longer addressed to Zion, but to her children. “Thus saith Jehovah, Where is your mother’s bill of divorce, with which I put her away? Or where is one of my creditors, to whom I sold you? Behold, for your iniquities are ye sold, and for your transgressions is your mother put away. ” It was not He who had broken off the relation in which He stood to Zion; for the mother of Israel, whom Jehovah had betrothed to Himself, had no bill of divorce to show, with which Jehovah had put her away and thus renounced for ever the possibility of receiving her again (according to Deu 24:1-4), provided she should in the meantime have married another.

Moreover, He had not yielded to outward constraint, and therefore given her up to a foreign power; for where was there on of His creditors (there is not any one) to whom He would have been obliged to relinquish His sons, because unable to pay His debts, and in this way to discharge them? - a harsh demand, which was frequently made by unfelling creditors of insolvent debtors (Exo 21:7; 2Ki 4:1; Mat 18:25).

On nōsheh , a creditor, see at Isa 24:2. Their present condition was indeed that of being sold and put away; but this was not the effect of despotic caprice, or the result of compulsion on the part of Jehovah. It was Israel itself that had broken off the relation in which it stood to Jehovah; they had been sold through their own faults, and “for your transgressions is your mother put away.

” Instead of וּבפשׁעיה we have וּבפשׁעיכם. This may be because the church, although on the one hand standing higher and being older than her children (i. e. , her members at any particular time), is yet, on the other hand, orally affected by those to whom she has given birth, who have been trained by her, and recognised by her as her own.

Isa 50:2-3 The radical sin, however, which has lasted from the time of the captivity down to the present time, is disobedience to the word of God. This sin brought upon Zion and her children the judgment of banishment, and it was this which made it last so long. “Why did I come, and there was no one there? Why did I call, and there was no one who answered? Is my hand too short to redeem?

or is there no strength in me to deliver? Behold, through my threatening I dry up the sea; turn streams into a plain: their fish rot, because there is no water, and die for thirst. I clothe the heavens in mourning, and make sackcloth their covering. ” Jehovah has come, and with what? It follows, from the fact of His bidding them consider, that His hand is not too short to set Israel loose and at liberty, that He is not so powerless as to be unable to draw it out; that He is the Almighty, who by His mere threatening word (Psa 106:9; Psa 104:7) can dry up the sea, and turn streams into a hard and barren soil, so that the fishes putrefy for want of water (Exo 7:18, etc.)

, and die from thirst ( thâmōth a voluntative used as an indicative, as in Isa 12:1, and very frequently in poetical composition); who can clothe the heavens in mourning, and make sackcloth their (dull, dark) covering (for the expression itself, compare Isa 37:1-2); who therefore, fiat applicatio , can annihilate the girdle of waters behind which Babylon fancies herself concealed (see Isa 42:15; Isa 44:27), and cover the empire, which is now enslaving and torturing Israel, with a sunless and starless night of destruction (Isa 13:10). It follows from all this, that He has come with a gospel of deliverance from sin and punishment; but Israel has given no answer, has not received this message of salvation with faith, since faith is assent to the word of God.

And in whom did Jehovah come? Knobel and most of the commentators reply, “in His prophets. ” This answer is not wrong, but it does not suffice to show the connection between what follows and what goes before. For there it is one person who speaks; and who is that, but the servant of Jehovah, who is introduced in these prophecies with dramatic directness, as speaking in his own name?

Jehovah has come to His people in His servant. We know who was the servant of Jehovah in the historical fulfilment. It was He whom even the New Testament Scriptures describe as τὸν παῖδα τοῦ κυρίου, especially in the Acts (Act 3:13, Act 3:26; Act 4:27, Act 4:30). It was not indeed during the Babylonian captivity that the servant of Jehovah appeared in Israel with the gospel of redemption; but, as we shall never be tired of repeating, this is the human element in these prophecies, that they regard the appearance of the “servant of Jehovah,” the Saviour of Israel and the heathen, as connected with the captivity: the punishment of Israel terminating, according to the law of the perspective foreshortening of prophetic vision, with the termination of the captivity - a connection which we regard as one of the strongest confirmations of the composition of these addresses before the captivity, as well as of Isaiah’s authorship.

But this ἀνθρώπινον does not destroy the θεῖον in them, inasmuch as the time at which Jesus appeared was not only similar to that of the Babylonian captivity, but stood in a causal connection with it, since the Roman empire was the continuation of the Babylonian, and the moral state of the people under the iron arm of the Roman rule resembled that of the Babylonian exiles (Eze 2:6-7). At the same time, whatever our opinion on this point may be, it is perfectly certain that it is to the servant of Jehovah, who was seen by the prophet in connection with the Babylonian captivity, that the words “wherefore did I come” refer.

Isa 50:2-3 The radical sin, however, which has lasted from the time of the captivity down to the present time, is disobedience to the word of God. This sin brought upon Zion and her children the judgment of banishment, and it was this which made it last so long. “Why did I come, and there was no one there? Why did I call, and there was no one who answered? Is my hand too short to redeem?

or is there no strength in me to deliver? Behold, through my threatening I dry up the sea; turn streams into a plain: their fish rot, because there is no water, and die for thirst. I clothe the heavens in mourning, and make sackcloth their covering. ” Jehovah has come, and with what? It follows, from the fact of His bidding them consider, that His hand is not too short to set Israel loose and at liberty, that He is not so powerless as to be unable to draw it out; that He is the Almighty, who by His mere threatening word (Psa 106:9; Psa 104:7) can dry up the sea, and turn streams into a hard and barren soil, so that the fishes putrefy for want of water (Exo 7:18, etc.)

, and die from thirst ( thâmōth a voluntative used as an indicative, as in Isa 12:1, and very frequently in poetical composition); who can clothe the heavens in mourning, and make sackcloth their (dull, dark) covering (for the expression itself, compare Isa 37:1-2); who therefore, fiat applicatio , can annihilate the girdle of waters behind which Babylon fancies herself concealed (see Isa 42:15; Isa 44:27), and cover the empire, which is now enslaving and torturing Israel, with a sunless and starless night of destruction (Isa 13:10). It follows from all this, that He has come with a gospel of deliverance from sin and punishment; but Israel has given no answer, has not received this message of salvation with faith, since faith is assent to the word of God.

And in whom did Jehovah come? Knobel and most of the commentators reply, “in His prophets. ” This answer is not wrong, but it does not suffice to show the connection between what follows and what goes before. For there it is one person who speaks; and who is that, but the servant of Jehovah, who is introduced in these prophecies with dramatic directness, as speaking in his own name?

Jehovah has come to His people in His servant. We know who was the servant of Jehovah in the historical fulfilment. It was He whom even the New Testament Scriptures describe as τὸν παῖδα τοῦ κυρίου, especially in the Acts (Act 3:13, Act 3:26; Act 4:27, Act 4:30). It was not indeed during the Babylonian captivity that the servant of Jehovah appeared in Israel with the gospel of redemption; but, as we shall never be tired of repeating, this is the human element in these prophecies, that they regard the appearance of the “servant of Jehovah,” the Saviour of Israel and the heathen, as connected with the captivity: the punishment of Israel terminating, according to the law of the perspective foreshortening of prophetic vision, with the termination of the captivity - a connection which we regard as one of the strongest confirmations of the composition of these addresses before the captivity, as well as of Isaiah’s authorship.

But this ἀνθρώπινον does not destroy the θεῖον in them, inasmuch as the time at which Jesus appeared was not only similar to that of the Babylonian captivity, but stood in a causal connection with it, since the Roman empire was the continuation of the Babylonian, and the moral state of the people under the iron arm of the Roman rule resembled that of the Babylonian exiles (Eze 2:6-7). At the same time, whatever our opinion on this point may be, it is perfectly certain that it is to the servant of Jehovah, who was seen by the prophet in connection with the Babylonian captivity, that the words “wherefore did I come” refer.

Isa 50:4 He in whom Jehovah came to His nation, and proclaimed to it, in the midst of its self-induced misery, the way and work of salvation, is He who speaks in Isa 50:4 : “The Lord Jehovah hath given me a disciple’s tongue, that I may know how to set up the wearied with words: He wakeneth every morning; wakeneth mine ear to attend in disciple’s manner. ” The word limmūdı̄m , which is used in the middle of the verse, and which is the older word for the later talmidı̄m , μαθηταί, as in Isa 8:16; Isa 54:13, is repeated at the close of the verse, according to the figure of palindromy, which is such a favourite figure in both parts of the book of Isaiah; and the train of thought, “He wakeneth morning by morning, wakeneth mine ear,” recals to mind the parallelism with reservation which is very common in the Psalms, and more especially the custom of a “triolet-like” spinning out of the thoughts, from which the songs of “degrees” (or ascending steps, shı̄r hamma‛ălōth ) have obtained their name.

The servant of Jehovah affords us a deep insight here into His hidden life. The prophets received special revelations from God, for the most part in the night, either in dreams or else in visions, which were shown them in a waking condition, but yet in the more susceptible state of nocturnal quiet and rest. Here, however, the servant of Jehovah receives the divine revelations neither in dreams nor visions of the night; but every morning ( babbōqer babbōqer as in Isa 28:19), i.

e. , when his sleep is over, Jehovah comes to him, awakens his ear, by making a sign to him to listen, and then takes him as it were into the school after the manner of a pupil, and teaches him what and how he is to preach. Nothing indicates a tongue befitting the disciples of God, so much as the gift of administering consolation; and such a gift is possessed by the speaker here.

“To help with words him that is exhausted” (with suffering and self-torture): עוּת, Arab. gât̬ , med. Vav , related to אוּשׁ, חוּשׁ, signifies to spring to a person with words to help, Aq. ὑποστηρίσαι, Jer. sustentare . The Arabic gât̬ , med. Je , to rain upon or water (Ewald, Umbreit, etc.) , cannot possibly be thought of, since this has no support in the Hebrew; still less, however, can we take עוּת as a denom.

from עת, upon which Luther has founded his rendering, “to speak to the weary in due season” (also Eng. ver.) דּבר is an accusative of more precise definition, like אשׁר in Isa 50:1 (cf. , Isa 42:25; Isa 43:23). Jerome has given the correct rendering: “that I may know how to sustain him that is weary with a word. ”