The Lord Comforts Zion and Calls His People to Awake

Isa 51:6 The people of God are now summoned to turn their eyes upwards and downwards: the old world above their heads and under their feet is destined to destruction. “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens will pass away like smoke, and the earth fall to pieces like a garment, and its inhabitants die out like a nonentity; and my salvation will last for ever, and my righteousness does not go to ruin.

” The reason for the summons follows with kı̄ . The heavens will be resolved into atoms, like smoke: nimlâchū from mâlach , related to mârach , root mal , from which comes mâlal (see at Job 14:2), to rub to pieces, to crumble to pieces, or mangle; Aquila, ἠλοήθησαν, from ἀλοᾶν, to thresh. As melâchı̄m signifies rags, the figure of a garment that has fallen to pieces, which was then quite ready to hand (Isa 50:9), presented itself from the natural association of ideas.

כּמו־כן, however, cannot mean “in like manner” (lxx, Targ. , Jerome); for if we keep to the figure of a garment falling to pieces, the figure is a very insipid one; and if we refer it to the fate of the earth generally, the thought which it offers is a very tame one. The older expositors were not even acquainted with what is now the favourite explanation, viz.

, “as gnats perish” (Hitzig, Ewald, Umbreit, Knobel, Stier, etc.) ; since the singular of kinnı̄m is no more kēn than the singular of בּיצים is בּיץ. The gnat (viz. , a species of stinging gnat, probably the diminutive but yet very troublesome species which is called akol uskut , “eat and be silent,” in Egyptian) is called kinnâh , as the talmudic usage shows, where the singular, which does not happen to be met with in the Old Testament, is found in the case of kinnı̄m as well as in that of bētsı̄m .

We must explain the word in the same manner as in 2Sa 23:5; Num 13:33; Job 9:35. In all these passages kēn merely signifies “so” ( ita , sic ); but just as in the classical languages, these words often derive their meaning from the gesture with which they are accompanied (e. g. , in Terence’s Eunuch: Cape hoc flabellum et ventulum sic facito ). This is probably Rückert’s opinion, when he adopts the rendering: and its inhabitants “like so” ( so wie so ) do they die.

But “like so” is here equivalent to “like nothing. ” That the heavens and the earth do not perish without rising again in a renewed form, is a thought which may naturally be supplied, and which is distinctly expressed in Isa 51:16; Isa 65:17; Isa 66:22. Righteousness ( tsedâqâh ) and salvation ( yeshū‛âh ) are the heavenly powers, which acquire dominion through the overthrow of the ancient world, and become the foundations of the new (2Pe 3:13).

That the tsedâqâh will endure for ever, and the yeshū‛âh will not be broken ( yēchath , as in Isa 7:8, confringetur , whereas in Isa 51:7 the meaning is consternemini ), is a prospect that opens after the restoration of the new world, and which indirectly applies to men who survive the catastrophe, having become partakers of righteousness and salvation. For righteousness and salvation require beings in whom to exert their power.

Isa 51:7-8 Upon this magnificent promise of the final triumph of the counsel of God, an exhortation is founded to the persecuted church, not to be afraid of men. “Hearken unto me, ye that know about righteousness, thou people with my law in the heart; fear ye not the reproach of mortals, and be ye not alarmed at their revilings. For the moth will devour them like a garment, and the worm devour them like woollen cloth; and my righteousness will stand for ever, and my salvation to distant generations.

” The idea of the “servant of Jehovah,” in its middle sense, viz. , as denoting the true Israel, is most clearly set forth in the address here. They that pursue after righteousness, and seek Jehovah (Isa 51:1), that is to say, the servants of Jehovah (Isa 65:8-9), are embraced in the unity of a “people,” as in Isa 65:10 (cf. , Isa 10:24), i. e. , of the true people of God in the people of His choice, and therefore of the kernel in the heart of the whole mass - an integral intermediate link in the organism of the general idea, which Hävernick and, to a certain extent, Hofmann eliminate from it, but not without thereby destroying the typical mirror in which the prophet beholds the passion of the One.

The words are addressed to those who know from their own experience what righteousness is as a gift of grace, and as conduct in harmony with the plan of salvation, i. e. , to the nation, which bears in its heart the law of God as the standard and impulse of its life, the church which not only has it as a letter outside itself, but as a vital power within (cf.

, Psa 40:9). None of these need to be afraid of men. Their despisers and blasphemers are men ( 'ĕnōsh ; cf. , Isa 51:12, Psa 9:20; Psa 10:18), whose pretended omnipotence, exaltation, and indestructibility, are an unnatural self-convicted lie. The double figure in Isa 51:8, which forms a play upon words that cannot well be reproduced, affirms that the smallest exertion of strength is quite sufficient to annihilate their sham greatness and sham power; and that long before they are actually destroyed, they carry the constantly increasing germ of it within themselves.

The sâs , says a Jewish proverb, is brother to the ‛âsh . The latter (from ‛âshēsh , collabi , Arab. ‛aththa , trans. corrodere ) signifies a moth; the former (like the Arabic sūs , sūse , Gr. σής) a moth, and also a weevil, curculio . The relative terms in Greek are σής (Armen. tzetz ) and κίς. But whilst the persecutors of the church succumb to these powers of destruction, the righteousness and salvation of God, which are even now the confidence and hope of His church, and the full and manifest realization of which it will hereafter enjoy, stand for ever, and from “generation to generation,” ledōr dōrı̄m , i.

e. , to an age which embraces endless ages within itself.

Isa 51:7-8 Upon this magnificent promise of the final triumph of the counsel of God, an exhortation is founded to the persecuted church, not to be afraid of men. “Hearken unto me, ye that know about righteousness, thou people with my law in the heart; fear ye not the reproach of mortals, and be ye not alarmed at their revilings. For the moth will devour them like a garment, and the worm devour them like woollen cloth; and my righteousness will stand for ever, and my salvation to distant generations.

” The idea of the “servant of Jehovah,” in its middle sense, viz. , as denoting the true Israel, is most clearly set forth in the address here. They that pursue after righteousness, and seek Jehovah (Isa 51:1), that is to say, the servants of Jehovah (Isa 65:8-9), are embraced in the unity of a “people,” as in Isa 65:10 (cf. , Isa 10:24), i. e. , of the true people of God in the people of His choice, and therefore of the kernel in the heart of the whole mass - an integral intermediate link in the organism of the general idea, which Hävernick and, to a certain extent, Hofmann eliminate from it, but not without thereby destroying the typical mirror in which the prophet beholds the passion of the One.

The words are addressed to those who know from their own experience what righteousness is as a gift of grace, and as conduct in harmony with the plan of salvation, i. e. , to the nation, which bears in its heart the law of God as the standard and impulse of its life, the church which not only has it as a letter outside itself, but as a vital power within (cf.

, Psa 40:9). None of these need to be afraid of men. Their despisers and blasphemers are men ( 'ĕnōsh ; cf. , Isa 51:12, Psa 9:20; Psa 10:18), whose pretended omnipotence, exaltation, and indestructibility, are an unnatural self-convicted lie. The double figure in Isa 51:8, which forms a play upon words that cannot well be reproduced, affirms that the smallest exertion of strength is quite sufficient to annihilate their sham greatness and sham power; and that long before they are actually destroyed, they carry the constantly increasing germ of it within themselves.

The sâs , says a Jewish proverb, is brother to the ‛âsh . The latter (from ‛âshēsh , collabi , Arab. ‛aththa , trans. corrodere ) signifies a moth; the former (like the Arabic sūs , sūse , Gr. σής) a moth, and also a weevil, curculio . The relative terms in Greek are σής (Armen. tzetz ) and κίς. But whilst the persecutors of the church succumb to these powers of destruction, the righteousness and salvation of God, which are even now the confidence and hope of His church, and the full and manifest realization of which it will hereafter enjoy, stand for ever, and from “generation to generation,” ledōr dōrı̄m , i.

e. , to an age which embraces endless ages within itself.

Isa 51:9-11 But just as such an exhortation as this followed very naturally from the grand promises with which they prophecy commenced, so does a longing for the promised salvation spring out of this exhortation, together with the assurance of its eventual realization. “Awake, awake, clothe thyself in might, O arm of Jehovah; awake, as in the days of ancient time, the ages of the olden world!

Was it not thou that didst split Rahab in pieces, and pierced the dragon? Was it not thou that didst dry up the sea, the waters of the great billow; that didst turn the depths of the sea into a way for redeemed to pass through? Ad the emancipated of Jehovah will return, and come to Zion with shouting, and everlasting joy upon their head: they grasp at gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing flee away.

” The paradisaical restoration of Zion, the new world of righteousness and salvation, is a work of the arm of Jehovah, i. e. , of the manifestation of His might. His arm is now in a sleeping state. It is not lifeless, indeed, but motionless. Therefore the church calls out to it three times, “Awake” ( ‛ūrı̄ : to avoid monotony, the milra and milel tones are interchanged, as in Jdg 5:12).

It is to arise and put on strength out of the fulness of omnipotence ( lâbhēsh as in Psa 93:1; cf. , λαμβάνειν δύναμιν Rev 11:17, and δύσεο ἀλκήν, arm thyself with strength, in Il . 19:36; 9:231). The arm of Jehovah is able to accomplish what the prophecy affirms and the church hopes for; since it has already miraculously redeemed Israel once. Rahabh is Egypt represented as a monster of the waters (see Isa 30:7), and tannı̄n is the same (cf.

, Isa 27:1), but with particular reference to Pharaoh (Eze 29:3). אתּ־היא, tu illud , is equivalent to “thou, yea thou” (see at Isa 37:16). The Red Sea is described as the “waters of the great deep” ( tehōm rabbâh ), because the great storehouse of waters that lie below the solid ground were partially manifested there. השּׂמה has double pashta ; it is therefore milel , and therefore the third pr.

= שׂמה אשׁר (Ges. §109, Anf.) Isa 35:10 is repeated in Isa 51:11, being attached to גּאוּלים of the previous verse, jut as it is there. Instead of נסוּ ישּׂיגוּן, which we find here, we have there ונסוּ ישּׂיגוּ; in everything else the two passages are word for word the same. Hitzig, Ewald, and Knobel suppose that Isa 51:11 was not written by the author of these addresses, but was interpolated by some one else.

But in Isa 65:25 we meet with just the same kind of repetition from chapters 1-39; and in the first part we find, at any rate, repetitions in the form of refrains and others of a smaller kind (like Isa 19:15, cf. , Isa 9:13). And Isa 51:11 forms a conclusion here, just as it does in Isa 35:10. An argument is founded upon the olden time with reference to the things to be expected now; the look into the future is cleared and strengthened by the look into the past.

And thus will the emancipated of Jehovah return, being liberated from the present calamity as they were delivered from the Egyptian then. The first half of this prophecy is here brought to a close. It concludes with expressions of longing and of hope, the echo of promises that had gone before.

Isa 51:9-11 But just as such an exhortation as this followed very naturally from the grand promises with which they prophecy commenced, so does a longing for the promised salvation spring out of this exhortation, together with the assurance of its eventual realization. “Awake, awake, clothe thyself in might, O arm of Jehovah; awake, as in the days of ancient time, the ages of the olden world!

Was it not thou that didst split Rahab in pieces, and pierced the dragon? Was it not thou that didst dry up the sea, the waters of the great billow; that didst turn the depths of the sea into a way for redeemed to pass through? Ad the emancipated of Jehovah will return, and come to Zion with shouting, and everlasting joy upon their head: they grasp at gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing flee away.

” The paradisaical restoration of Zion, the new world of righteousness and salvation, is a work of the arm of Jehovah, i. e. , of the manifestation of His might. His arm is now in a sleeping state. It is not lifeless, indeed, but motionless. Therefore the church calls out to it three times, “Awake” ( ‛ūrı̄ : to avoid monotony, the milra and milel tones are interchanged, as in Jdg 5:12).

It is to arise and put on strength out of the fulness of omnipotence ( lâbhēsh as in Psa 93:1; cf. , λαμβάνειν δύναμιν Rev 11:17, and δύσεο ἀλκήν, arm thyself with strength, in Il . 19:36; 9:231). The arm of Jehovah is able to accomplish what the prophecy affirms and the church hopes for; since it has already miraculously redeemed Israel once. Rahabh is Egypt represented as a monster of the waters (see Isa 30:7), and tannı̄n is the same (cf.

, Isa 27:1), but with particular reference to Pharaoh (Eze 29:3). אתּ־היא, tu illud , is equivalent to “thou, yea thou” (see at Isa 37:16). The Red Sea is described as the “waters of the great deep” ( tehōm rabbâh ), because the great storehouse of waters that lie below the solid ground were partially manifested there. השּׂמה has double pashta ; it is therefore milel , and therefore the third pr.

= שׂמה אשׁר (Ges. §109, Anf.) Isa 35:10 is repeated in Isa 51:11, being attached to גּאוּלים of the previous verse, jut as it is there. Instead of נסוּ ישּׂיגוּן, which we find here, we have there ונסוּ ישּׂיגוּ; in everything else the two passages are word for word the same. Hitzig, Ewald, and Knobel suppose that Isa 51:11 was not written by the author of these addresses, but was interpolated by some one else.

But in Isa 65:25 we meet with just the same kind of repetition from chapters 1-39; and in the first part we find, at any rate, repetitions in the form of refrains and others of a smaller kind (like Isa 19:15, cf. , Isa 9:13). And Isa 51:11 forms a conclusion here, just as it does in Isa 35:10. An argument is founded upon the olden time with reference to the things to be expected now; the look into the future is cleared and strengthened by the look into the past.

And thus will the emancipated of Jehovah return, being liberated from the present calamity as they were delivered from the Egyptian then. The first half of this prophecy is here brought to a close. It concludes with expressions of longing and of hope, the echo of promises that had gone before.

Isa 51:9-11 But just as such an exhortation as this followed very naturally from the grand promises with which they prophecy commenced, so does a longing for the promised salvation spring out of this exhortation, together with the assurance of its eventual realization. “Awake, awake, clothe thyself in might, O arm of Jehovah; awake, as in the days of ancient time, the ages of the olden world!

Was it not thou that didst split Rahab in pieces, and pierced the dragon? Was it not thou that didst dry up the sea, the waters of the great billow; that didst turn the depths of the sea into a way for redeemed to pass through? Ad the emancipated of Jehovah will return, and come to Zion with shouting, and everlasting joy upon their head: they grasp at gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing flee away.

” The paradisaical restoration of Zion, the new world of righteousness and salvation, is a work of the arm of Jehovah, i. e. , of the manifestation of His might. His arm is now in a sleeping state. It is not lifeless, indeed, but motionless. Therefore the church calls out to it three times, “Awake” ( ‛ūrı̄ : to avoid monotony, the milra and milel tones are interchanged, as in Jdg 5:12).

It is to arise and put on strength out of the fulness of omnipotence ( lâbhēsh as in Psa 93:1; cf. , λαμβάνειν δύναμιν Rev 11:17, and δύσεο ἀλκήν, arm thyself with strength, in Il . 19:36; 9:231). The arm of Jehovah is able to accomplish what the prophecy affirms and the church hopes for; since it has already miraculously redeemed Israel once. Rahabh is Egypt represented as a monster of the waters (see Isa 30:7), and tannı̄n is the same (cf.

, Isa 27:1), but with particular reference to Pharaoh (Eze 29:3). אתּ־היא, tu illud , is equivalent to “thou, yea thou” (see at Isa 37:16). The Red Sea is described as the “waters of the great deep” ( tehōm rabbâh ), because the great storehouse of waters that lie below the solid ground were partially manifested there. השּׂמה has double pashta ; it is therefore milel , and therefore the third pr.

= שׂמה אשׁר (Ges. §109, Anf.) Isa 35:10 is repeated in Isa 51:11, being attached to גּאוּלים of the previous verse, jut as it is there. Instead of נסוּ ישּׂיגוּן, which we find here, we have there ונסוּ ישּׂיגוּ; in everything else the two passages are word for word the same. Hitzig, Ewald, and Knobel suppose that Isa 51:11 was not written by the author of these addresses, but was interpolated by some one else.

But in Isa 65:25 we meet with just the same kind of repetition from chapters 1-39; and in the first part we find, at any rate, repetitions in the form of refrains and others of a smaller kind (like Isa 19:15, cf. , Isa 9:13). And Isa 51:11 forms a conclusion here, just as it does in Isa 35:10. An argument is founded upon the olden time with reference to the things to be expected now; the look into the future is cleared and strengthened by the look into the past.

And thus will the emancipated of Jehovah return, being liberated from the present calamity as they were delivered from the Egyptian then. The first half of this prophecy is here brought to a close. It concludes with expressions of longing and of hope, the echo of promises that had gone before.

Isa 51:12-15 In the second half the promise commences again, but with more distinct reference to the oppression of the exiles and the sufferings of Jerusalem. Jehovah Himself begins to speak now, setting His seal upon what is longed and hoped for. “I am your comforter: who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a mortal who will die, and of a son of man who is made a blade of grass; that thou shouldst forget Jehovah thy Creator, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth; that thou shouldst be afraid continually all the day of the fury of the tormentor, as he aims to destroy?

and where is the fury of the tormentor left? He that is bowed down is quickly set loose, and does not die to the grave, and his bread does not fail him; as truly as I Jehovah am thy God, who frighteneth up the sea, so that its waves roar: Jehovah of hosts is His name. ” הוּא after אנכי אנכי is an emphatic repetition, and therefore a strengthening of the subject (αὐτὸς ἐγώ), as above, in Isa 51:10, in אתּ־היא.

From this major, that Jehovah is the comforter of His church, and by means of a minor, that whoever has Him for a comforter has no need to fear, the conclusion is drawn that the church has no cause to fear. Consequently we cannot adopt Knobel’s explanation, “How small thou art, that thou art afraid. ” The meaning is rather, “Is it really the case with thee (i.

e. , art thou then so small, so forsaken), that thou hast any need to fear” (fut. consec. , according to Ges. §129, 1; cf. , ki , Exo 3:11; Jdg 9:28)? The attributive sentence tâmūth (who will die) brings out the meaning involved in the epithet applied to man, viz. , 'ĕnōsh (compare in the Persian myth Gayomard , from the old Persian gaya meretan , mortal life); חציר = כּחציר (Psa 37:2; Psa 90:5; Psa 103:15; compare above, Isa 40:6-8) is an equation instead of a comparison.

In Isa 51:12 the address is thrown into a feminine form, in Isa 51:13 into a masculine one; Zion being the object in the former, and (what is the same thing) Israel in the latter: that thou forgettest thy Creator, who is also the almighty Maker of the universe, and soarest about in constant endless alarm at the wrath of the tormentor, whilst he is aiming to destroy ( pichad , contremiscere , as in Pro 28:14; ka'ăsher as in Psa 66:7; Num 27:14, lit. , according as; kōnēn , viz.

, his arrows, or even his bow, as in Psa 11:2; Psa 7:13, cf. , Isa 21:13). We must not translate this quasi disposuisset , which is opposed to the actual fact, although syntactically possible (Job 10:19; Zec 10:6). The question with which the fear is met, “And where is the fury of the tormentor? ” looks into the future: “There is not a trace of him to be seen, he is utterly swept away.

” If hammētsı̄q signifies the Chaldean, Isa 51:14, in which the warning passes into a promise, just as in the first half the promise passed into a warning, is not to be understood as referring to oppression by their own countrymen, who were more heathenish than Israelitish in their disposition, as Knobel supposes; but tsō‛eh (from tsâ‛âh , to stoop or bend) is an individualizing description of the exiles, who were in captivity in Babylon, and some of them actually in prison (see Isa 42:7, Isa 42:22). Those who were lying there in fetters, and were therefore obliged to bend, hastened to be loosed, i.

e. , would speedily be set at liberty (the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus may be referred to here); they would not die and fall into the pit ( constr. praegnans ), nor would their bread fail; that is to say, if we regard the two clauses as the dissection of one thought (which is not necessary, however, though Hitzig supports it), “he will not die of starvation.

” The pledge of this is to be found in the all-sufficiency of Jehovah, who throws the sea into a state of trembling (even by a threatening word, geârâh ; רגע is the construct of the participle, with the tone upon the last syllable, as in Lev 11:7; Psa 94:9 : see Bär’s Psalter , p. 132, from râga‛ , tremefacere ), so that its waves roar (cf. , Jer 31:35, and the original passage in Job 26:12).

Isa 51:12-15 In the second half the promise commences again, but with more distinct reference to the oppression of the exiles and the sufferings of Jerusalem. Jehovah Himself begins to speak now, setting His seal upon what is longed and hoped for. “I am your comforter: who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a mortal who will die, and of a son of man who is made a blade of grass; that thou shouldst forget Jehovah thy Creator, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth; that thou shouldst be afraid continually all the day of the fury of the tormentor, as he aims to destroy?

and where is the fury of the tormentor left? He that is bowed down is quickly set loose, and does not die to the grave, and his bread does not fail him; as truly as I Jehovah am thy God, who frighteneth up the sea, so that its waves roar: Jehovah of hosts is His name. ” הוּא after אנכי אנכי is an emphatic repetition, and therefore a strengthening of the subject (αὐτὸς ἐγώ), as above, in Isa 51:10, in אתּ־היא.

From this major, that Jehovah is the comforter of His church, and by means of a minor, that whoever has Him for a comforter has no need to fear, the conclusion is drawn that the church has no cause to fear. Consequently we cannot adopt Knobel’s explanation, “How small thou art, that thou art afraid. ” The meaning is rather, “Is it really the case with thee (i.

e. , art thou then so small, so forsaken), that thou hast any need to fear” (fut. consec. , according to Ges. §129, 1; cf. , ki , Exo 3:11; Jdg 9:28)? The attributive sentence tâmūth (who will die) brings out the meaning involved in the epithet applied to man, viz. , 'ĕnōsh (compare in the Persian myth Gayomard , from the old Persian gaya meretan , mortal life); חציר = כּחציר (Psa 37:2; Psa 90:5; Psa 103:15; compare above, Isa 40:6-8) is an equation instead of a comparison.

In Isa 51:12 the address is thrown into a feminine form, in Isa 51:13 into a masculine one; Zion being the object in the former, and (what is the same thing) Israel in the latter: that thou forgettest thy Creator, who is also the almighty Maker of the universe, and soarest about in constant endless alarm at the wrath of the tormentor, whilst he is aiming to destroy ( pichad , contremiscere , as in Pro 28:14; ka'ăsher as in Psa 66:7; Num 27:14, lit. , according as; kōnēn , viz.

, his arrows, or even his bow, as in Psa 11:2; Psa 7:13, cf. , Isa 21:13). We must not translate this quasi disposuisset , which is opposed to the actual fact, although syntactically possible (Job 10:19; Zec 10:6). The question with which the fear is met, “And where is the fury of the tormentor? ” looks into the future: “There is not a trace of him to be seen, he is utterly swept away.

” If hammētsı̄q signifies the Chaldean, Isa 51:14, in which the warning passes into a promise, just as in the first half the promise passed into a warning, is not to be understood as referring to oppression by their own countrymen, who were more heathenish than Israelitish in their disposition, as Knobel supposes; but tsō‛eh (from tsâ‛âh , to stoop or bend) is an individualizing description of the exiles, who were in captivity in Babylon, and some of them actually in prison (see Isa 42:7, Isa 42:22). Those who were lying there in fetters, and were therefore obliged to bend, hastened to be loosed, i.

e. , would speedily be set at liberty (the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus may be referred to here); they would not die and fall into the pit ( constr. praegnans ), nor would their bread fail; that is to say, if we regard the two clauses as the dissection of one thought (which is not necessary, however, though Hitzig supports it), “he will not die of starvation.

” The pledge of this is to be found in the all-sufficiency of Jehovah, who throws the sea into a state of trembling (even by a threatening word, geârâh ; רגע is the construct of the participle, with the tone upon the last syllable, as in Lev 11:7; Psa 94:9 : see Bär’s Psalter , p. 132, from râga‛ , tremefacere ), so that its waves roar (cf. , Jer 31:35, and the original passage in Job 26:12).

Isa 51:12-15 In the second half the promise commences again, but with more distinct reference to the oppression of the exiles and the sufferings of Jerusalem. Jehovah Himself begins to speak now, setting His seal upon what is longed and hoped for. “I am your comforter: who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a mortal who will die, and of a son of man who is made a blade of grass; that thou shouldst forget Jehovah thy Creator, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth; that thou shouldst be afraid continually all the day of the fury of the tormentor, as he aims to destroy?

and where is the fury of the tormentor left? He that is bowed down is quickly set loose, and does not die to the grave, and his bread does not fail him; as truly as I Jehovah am thy God, who frighteneth up the sea, so that its waves roar: Jehovah of hosts is His name. ” הוּא after אנכי אנכי is an emphatic repetition, and therefore a strengthening of the subject (αὐτὸς ἐγώ), as above, in Isa 51:10, in אתּ־היא.

From this major, that Jehovah is the comforter of His church, and by means of a minor, that whoever has Him for a comforter has no need to fear, the conclusion is drawn that the church has no cause to fear. Consequently we cannot adopt Knobel’s explanation, “How small thou art, that thou art afraid. ” The meaning is rather, “Is it really the case with thee (i.

e. , art thou then so small, so forsaken), that thou hast any need to fear” (fut. consec. , according to Ges. §129, 1; cf. , ki , Exo 3:11; Jdg 9:28)? The attributive sentence tâmūth (who will die) brings out the meaning involved in the epithet applied to man, viz. , 'ĕnōsh (compare in the Persian myth Gayomard , from the old Persian gaya meretan , mortal life); חציר = כּחציר (Psa 37:2; Psa 90:5; Psa 103:15; compare above, Isa 40:6-8) is an equation instead of a comparison.

In Isa 51:12 the address is thrown into a feminine form, in Isa 51:13 into a masculine one; Zion being the object in the former, and (what is the same thing) Israel in the latter: that thou forgettest thy Creator, who is also the almighty Maker of the universe, and soarest about in constant endless alarm at the wrath of the tormentor, whilst he is aiming to destroy ( pichad , contremiscere , as in Pro 28:14; ka'ăsher as in Psa 66:7; Num 27:14, lit. , according as; kōnēn , viz.

, his arrows, or even his bow, as in Psa 11:2; Psa 7:13, cf. , Isa 21:13). We must not translate this quasi disposuisset , which is opposed to the actual fact, although syntactically possible (Job 10:19; Zec 10:6). The question with which the fear is met, “And where is the fury of the tormentor? ” looks into the future: “There is not a trace of him to be seen, he is utterly swept away.

” If hammētsı̄q signifies the Chaldean, Isa 51:14, in which the warning passes into a promise, just as in the first half the promise passed into a warning, is not to be understood as referring to oppression by their own countrymen, who were more heathenish than Israelitish in their disposition, as Knobel supposes; but tsō‛eh (from tsâ‛âh , to stoop or bend) is an individualizing description of the exiles, who were in captivity in Babylon, and some of them actually in prison (see Isa 42:7, Isa 42:22). Those who were lying there in fetters, and were therefore obliged to bend, hastened to be loosed, i.

e. , would speedily be set at liberty (the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus may be referred to here); they would not die and fall into the pit ( constr. praegnans ), nor would their bread fail; that is to say, if we regard the two clauses as the dissection of one thought (which is not necessary, however, though Hitzig supports it), “he will not die of starvation.

” The pledge of this is to be found in the all-sufficiency of Jehovah, who throws the sea into a state of trembling (even by a threatening word, geârâh ; רגע is the construct of the participle, with the tone upon the last syllable, as in Lev 11:7; Psa 94:9 : see Bär’s Psalter , p. 132, from râga‛ , tremefacere ), so that its waves roar (cf. , Jer 31:35, and the original passage in Job 26:12).

Isa 51:12-15 In the second half the promise commences again, but with more distinct reference to the oppression of the exiles and the sufferings of Jerusalem. Jehovah Himself begins to speak now, setting His seal upon what is longed and hoped for. “I am your comforter: who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a mortal who will die, and of a son of man who is made a blade of grass; that thou shouldst forget Jehovah thy Creator, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth; that thou shouldst be afraid continually all the day of the fury of the tormentor, as he aims to destroy?

and where is the fury of the tormentor left? He that is bowed down is quickly set loose, and does not die to the grave, and his bread does not fail him; as truly as I Jehovah am thy God, who frighteneth up the sea, so that its waves roar: Jehovah of hosts is His name. ” הוּא after אנכי אנכי is an emphatic repetition, and therefore a strengthening of the subject (αὐτὸς ἐγώ), as above, in Isa 51:10, in אתּ־היא.

From this major, that Jehovah is the comforter of His church, and by means of a minor, that whoever has Him for a comforter has no need to fear, the conclusion is drawn that the church has no cause to fear. Consequently we cannot adopt Knobel’s explanation, “How small thou art, that thou art afraid. ” The meaning is rather, “Is it really the case with thee (i.

e. , art thou then so small, so forsaken), that thou hast any need to fear” (fut. consec. , according to Ges. §129, 1; cf. , ki , Exo 3:11; Jdg 9:28)? The attributive sentence tâmūth (who will die) brings out the meaning involved in the epithet applied to man, viz. , 'ĕnōsh (compare in the Persian myth Gayomard , from the old Persian gaya meretan , mortal life); חציר = כּחציר (Psa 37:2; Psa 90:5; Psa 103:15; compare above, Isa 40:6-8) is an equation instead of a comparison.

In Isa 51:12 the address is thrown into a feminine form, in Isa 51:13 into a masculine one; Zion being the object in the former, and (what is the same thing) Israel in the latter: that thou forgettest thy Creator, who is also the almighty Maker of the universe, and soarest about in constant endless alarm at the wrath of the tormentor, whilst he is aiming to destroy ( pichad , contremiscere , as in Pro 28:14; ka'ăsher as in Psa 66:7; Num 27:14, lit. , according as; kōnēn , viz.

, his arrows, or even his bow, as in Psa 11:2; Psa 7:13, cf. , Isa 21:13). We must not translate this quasi disposuisset , which is opposed to the actual fact, although syntactically possible (Job 10:19; Zec 10:6). The question with which the fear is met, “And where is the fury of the tormentor? ” looks into the future: “There is not a trace of him to be seen, he is utterly swept away.

” If hammētsı̄q signifies the Chaldean, Isa 51:14, in which the warning passes into a promise, just as in the first half the promise passed into a warning, is not to be understood as referring to oppression by their own countrymen, who were more heathenish than Israelitish in their disposition, as Knobel supposes; but tsō‛eh (from tsâ‛âh , to stoop or bend) is an individualizing description of the exiles, who were in captivity in Babylon, and some of them actually in prison (see Isa 42:7, Isa 42:22). Those who were lying there in fetters, and were therefore obliged to bend, hastened to be loosed, i.

e. , would speedily be set at liberty (the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus may be referred to here); they would not die and fall into the pit ( constr. praegnans ), nor would their bread fail; that is to say, if we regard the two clauses as the dissection of one thought (which is not necessary, however, though Hitzig supports it), “he will not die of starvation.

” The pledge of this is to be found in the all-sufficiency of Jehovah, who throws the sea into a state of trembling (even by a threatening word, geârâh ; רגע is the construct of the participle, with the tone upon the last syllable, as in Lev 11:7; Psa 94:9 : see Bär’s Psalter , p. 132, from râga‛ , tremefacere ), so that its waves roar (cf. , Jer 31:35, and the original passage in Job 26:12).

Isa 51:16 The promise, as the pledge of which Jehovah has staked His absolute power, to which everything must yield, now rises up to an eschatological height, from the historical point at which it began. “And I put my words into thy mouth, and in the shadow of my hand have I covered thee, to plant heavens, and to found an earth, and to say to Zion, Thou art my people.

” It is a lofty calling, a glorious future, for the preparation and introduction of which Israel, although fallen as low as Isa 51:7 describes, has been equipped and kept in the shadow of unapproachable omnipotence. Jehovah has put His words into the mouth of this Israel - His words, the force and certainty of which are measured by His all-determining absoluteness.

And what is the exalted calling which it is to subserve through the medium of these words, and for which it is preserved, without previously, or indeed at any time, passing away? We must not render it, “that thou mayest plant,” etc. , with which the conclusion does not harmonize, viz. , “that thou mayest say,” etc. ; for it is not Israel who says this to Israel, but Jehovah says it to Israel.

The planter, founder, speaker, is therefore Jehovah. It is God’s own work, to which Israel is merely instrumentally subservient, by means of the words of God place din its mouth, viz. , the new creation of the world, and the restoration of Israel to favour; both of them, the former as well as the latter, regalia of God. The reference is to the last times. The Targum explains it thus: “to restore the people of whom it is said, They will be as numerous as the stars of heaven; and to perfect the church, of which it is said, They will be as numerous as the dust of the earth.

” Knobel understands by this a completion of the theocracy, and a new arrangement of the condition of the world; Ewald, a new spiritual creation, of which the liberation of Israel is the first corner-stone. But the prophecy speaks of a new heaven and a new earth, in something more than a figurative sense, as a new creation of God (Isa 65:17). Jehovah intends to create a new world of righteousness and salvation, and practically to acknowledge Zion as His people.

The preparation for this great and all-renewing work of the future is aided by the true Israel, which is now enslaved by the heathen, and disowned and persecuted by its own countrymen. A future of salvation, embracing Israel and the heaven and the earth, is implied in the words placed by Jehovah in the mouth of His church, which was faithful to its calling. These words in their mouth are the seed-corns of a new world in the midst of the old.

The fact that the very same thing is said here of the true spiritual Israel, as in Isa 49:2 of the one servant of Jehovah, may be explained in the same manner as when the apostles apply to themselves, in Act 13:47, a word of God relating to the one Servant of Jehovah, by saying, “So hath the Lord commanded us. ” The One is, in fact, one with this Israel; He is this Israel in its highest potency; He towers above it, but only as the head rises above the members of the body, with which it forms a living whole.

There is no necessity, therefore, to assume, as Hengstenberg and Philippi do, that Isa 51:13 contains an address from the One who then stood before the mind of the prophet. “There is no proof,” as Vitringa affirms, “of any change in the object in this passage, nor any solid reason for assuming it. ” The circumference of the idea is always the same. Here, however, it merely takes the direction towards the centre, and penetrates its smaller inner circle, but does not go back to the centre itself.

Isa 51:17-23 Just as we found above, that the exclamation “awake” ( ‛ūrı̄ ), which the church addresses to the arm of Jehovah, grew out of the preceding great promises; so here there grows out of the same another “awake” ( hith‛ōrerı̄ ), which the prophet addresses to Jerusalem in the name of his God, and the reason for which is given in the form of new promises. “Wake thyself up, wake thyself up, stand up, O Jerusalem, thou that hast drunk out of the hand of Jehovah the goblet of His fury: the goblet cup of reeling hast thou drunk, sipped out.

There was none who guided her of all the children that she had brought forth; and none who took her by the hand of all the children that she had brought up. There were two things that happened to thee; who should console thee? Devastation, and ruin, and famine, and the sword: how should I comfort thee? Thy children were benighted, lay at the corners of all the streets like a snared antelope: as those who were full of the fury of Jehovah, the rebuke of thy God.

Therefore hearken to this, O wretched and drunken, but not with wine: Thus saith thy Lord, Jehovah, and thy God that defendeth His people, Behold, I take out of thine hand the goblet of reeling, the goblet cup of my fury: thou shalt not continue to drink it any more. And I put it into the hand of thy tormentors; who said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over; and thou madest thy back like the ground, and like a public way for those who go over it.

” In Isa 51:17, Jerusalem is regarded as a woman lying on the ground in the sleep of faintness and stupefaction. She has been obliged to drink, for her punishment, the goblet filled with the fury of the wrath of God, the goblet which throws those who drink it into unconscious reeling; and this goblet, which is called qubba‛ath kōs (κύπελλον ποτηιρίου, a genitive construction, though appositional in sense), for the purpose of giving greater prominence to its swelling sides, she has not only had to drink, but to drain quite clean (cf.

, Psa 75:9, and more especially Eze 23:32-34). Observe the plaintive falling of the tone in shâthı̄th mâtsı̄th . In this state of unconscious stupefaction was Jerusalem lying, without any help on the part of her children; there was not one who came to guide the stupefied one, or took her by the hand to lift her up. The consciousness of the punishment that their sins had deserved, and the greatness of the sufferings that the punishment had brought, pressed so heavily upon all the members of the congregation, that not one of them showed the requisite cheerfulness and strength to rise up on her behalf, so as to make her fate at any rate tolerable to her, and ward off the worst calamities.

What elegiac music we have here in the deep cadences: mikkol - bânı̄m yâlâdâh , mikkol - bânı̄m giddēlâh ! So terrible was her calamity, that no one ventured to break the silence of the terror, or give expression to their sympathy. Even the prophet, humanly speaking, is obliged to exclaim, “How ( mı̄ , literally as who, as in Amo 7:2, Amo 7:5) should I comfort thee!

” He knew of no equal or greater calamity, to which he could point Jerusalem, according to the principle which experience confirms, solamen miseris socios habuisse malorum . This is the real explanation, according to Lam 2:13, though we must not therefore take mı̄ as an accusative = bemı̄ , as Hitzig does. The whole of the group is in the tone of the Lamentations of Jeremiah.

There were two kinds of things (i. e. , two kinds of evils: mishpâchōth , as in Jer 15:3) that had happened to her (קרא = קרה, with which it is used interchangeably even in the Pentateuch) - namely, the devastation and ruin of their city and their land, famine and the sword to her children, their inhabitants. In Isa 51:20 this is depicted with special reference to the famine.

Her children were veiled ( ‛ullaph , deliquium pati , lit. , obvelari ), and lay in a state of unconsciousness like corpses at the corner of every street, where this horrible spectacle presented itself on every hand. They lay ketho' mikhmâr (rendered strangely and with very bad taste in the lxx, viz. , like a half-cooked turnip; but given correctly by Jerome, sicut oryx , as in the lxx at Deu 14:5, illaqueatus ), i.

e. , like a netted antelope (see at Job 39:9), i. e. , one that has been taken in a hunter’s net and lies there exhausted, after having almost strangled itself by ineffectual attempts to release itself. The appositional וגו המלאים, which refers to בניך, gives as a quippe qui the reason for all this suffering. It is the punishment decreed by God, which has pierced their very heart, and got them completely in its power.

This clause assigning the reason, shows that the expression “thy children” ( bânayikh ) is not to be taken here in the same manner as in Lam 2:11-12; Lam 4:3-4, viz. , as referring to children in distinction from adults; the subject is a general one, as in Isa 5:25. With lâkhē̄n (therefore, Isa 51:21) the address turns from the picture of sufferings to the promise, in the view of which the cry was uttered, in Isa 51:17, to awake and arise.

Therefore, viz. , because she had endured the full measure of God’s wrath, she is to hear what His mercy, that has now begun to move, purposes to do. The connecting form shekhurath stands here, according to Ges. §116, 1, notwithstanding the (epexegetical) Vav which comes between. We may see from Isa 29:9 how thoroughly this “drunk, but not with wine,” is in Isaiah’s own style (from this distinction between a higher and lower sphere of related facts, compare Isa 47:14; Isa 48:10).

The intensive plural 'ădōnı̄m is only applied to human lords in other places in the book of Isaiah; but in this passage, in which Jerusalem is described as a woman, it is used once of Jehovah. Yârı̄bh ‛ammō is an attributive clause, signifying “who conducts the cause of His people,” i. e. , their advocate or defender. He takes the goblet of reeling and wrath, which Jerusalem has emptied, for ever out of her hand, and forces it newly filled upon her tormentors.

There is no ground whatever for reading מוניך (from ינה, to throw down, related to יון, whence comes יון, a precipitate or sediment) in the place of מוגי ( pret. hi. of יגה, ( laborare , dolere ), that favourite word of the Lamentations of Jeremiah (Lam 1:5, Lam 1:12; Lam 3:32, cf. , Isa 1:4), the tone of which we recognise here throughout, as Lowth, Ewald, and Umbreit propose after the Targum ליך מונן דהוו.

The words attributed to the enemies, shechı̄ vena‛ăbhorâh (from shâchâh , the kal of which only occurs here), are to be understood figuratively, as in Psa 129:3. Jerusalem has been obliged to let her children be degraded into the defenceless objects of despotic tyranny and caprice, both at home in their own conquered country, and abroad in exile. But the relation is reversed now.

Jerusalem is delivered, after having been punished, and the instruments of her punishment are given up to the punishment which their pride deserved.

Isa 51:17-23 Just as we found above, that the exclamation “awake” ( ‛ūrı̄ ), which the church addresses to the arm of Jehovah, grew out of the preceding great promises; so here there grows out of the same another “awake” ( hith‛ōrerı̄ ), which the prophet addresses to Jerusalem in the name of his God, and the reason for which is given in the form of new promises. “Wake thyself up, wake thyself up, stand up, O Jerusalem, thou that hast drunk out of the hand of Jehovah the goblet of His fury: the goblet cup of reeling hast thou drunk, sipped out.

There was none who guided her of all the children that she had brought forth; and none who took her by the hand of all the children that she had brought up. There were two things that happened to thee; who should console thee? Devastation, and ruin, and famine, and the sword: how should I comfort thee? Thy children were benighted, lay at the corners of all the streets like a snared antelope: as those who were full of the fury of Jehovah, the rebuke of thy God.

Therefore hearken to this, O wretched and drunken, but not with wine: Thus saith thy Lord, Jehovah, and thy God that defendeth His people, Behold, I take out of thine hand the goblet of reeling, the goblet cup of my fury: thou shalt not continue to drink it any more. And I put it into the hand of thy tormentors; who said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over; and thou madest thy back like the ground, and like a public way for those who go over it.

” In Isa 51:17, Jerusalem is regarded as a woman lying on the ground in the sleep of faintness and stupefaction. She has been obliged to drink, for her punishment, the goblet filled with the fury of the wrath of God, the goblet which throws those who drink it into unconscious reeling; and this goblet, which is called qubba‛ath kōs (κύπελλον ποτηιρίου, a genitive construction, though appositional in sense), for the purpose of giving greater prominence to its swelling sides, she has not only had to drink, but to drain quite clean (cf.

, Psa 75:9, and more especially Eze 23:32-34). Observe the plaintive falling of the tone in shâthı̄th mâtsı̄th . In this state of unconscious stupefaction was Jerusalem lying, without any help on the part of her children; there was not one who came to guide the stupefied one, or took her by the hand to lift her up. The consciousness of the punishment that their sins had deserved, and the greatness of the sufferings that the punishment had brought, pressed so heavily upon all the members of the congregation, that not one of them showed the requisite cheerfulness and strength to rise up on her behalf, so as to make her fate at any rate tolerable to her, and ward off the worst calamities.

What elegiac music we have here in the deep cadences: mikkol - bânı̄m yâlâdâh , mikkol - bânı̄m giddēlâh ! So terrible was her calamity, that no one ventured to break the silence of the terror, or give expression to their sympathy. Even the prophet, humanly speaking, is obliged to exclaim, “How ( mı̄ , literally as who, as in Amo 7:2, Amo 7:5) should I comfort thee!

” He knew of no equal or greater calamity, to which he could point Jerusalem, according to the principle which experience confirms, solamen miseris socios habuisse malorum . This is the real explanation, according to Lam 2:13, though we must not therefore take mı̄ as an accusative = bemı̄ , as Hitzig does. The whole of the group is in the tone of the Lamentations of Jeremiah.

There were two kinds of things (i. e. , two kinds of evils: mishpâchōth , as in Jer 15:3) that had happened to her (קרא = קרה, with which it is used interchangeably even in the Pentateuch) - namely, the devastation and ruin of their city and their land, famine and the sword to her children, their inhabitants. In Isa 51:20 this is depicted with special reference to the famine.

Her children were veiled ( ‛ullaph , deliquium pati , lit. , obvelari ), and lay in a state of unconsciousness like corpses at the corner of every street, where this horrible spectacle presented itself on every hand. They lay ketho' mikhmâr (rendered strangely and with very bad taste in the lxx, viz. , like a half-cooked turnip; but given correctly by Jerome, sicut oryx , as in the lxx at Deu 14:5, illaqueatus ), i.

e. , like a netted antelope (see at Job 39:9), i. e. , one that has been taken in a hunter’s net and lies there exhausted, after having almost strangled itself by ineffectual attempts to release itself. The appositional וגו המלאים, which refers to בניך, gives as a quippe qui the reason for all this suffering. It is the punishment decreed by God, which has pierced their very heart, and got them completely in its power.

This clause assigning the reason, shows that the expression “thy children” ( bânayikh ) is not to be taken here in the same manner as in Lam 2:11-12; Lam 4:3-4, viz. , as referring to children in distinction from adults; the subject is a general one, as in Isa 5:25. With lâkhē̄n (therefore, Isa 51:21) the address turns from the picture of sufferings to the promise, in the view of which the cry was uttered, in Isa 51:17, to awake and arise.

Therefore, viz. , because she had endured the full measure of God’s wrath, she is to hear what His mercy, that has now begun to move, purposes to do. The connecting form shekhurath stands here, according to Ges. §116, 1, notwithstanding the (epexegetical) Vav which comes between. We may see from Isa 29:9 how thoroughly this “drunk, but not with wine,” is in Isaiah’s own style (from this distinction between a higher and lower sphere of related facts, compare Isa 47:14; Isa 48:10).

The intensive plural 'ădōnı̄m is only applied to human lords in other places in the book of Isaiah; but in this passage, in which Jerusalem is described as a woman, it is used once of Jehovah. Yârı̄bh ‛ammō is an attributive clause, signifying “who conducts the cause of His people,” i. e. , their advocate or defender. He takes the goblet of reeling and wrath, which Jerusalem has emptied, for ever out of her hand, and forces it newly filled upon her tormentors.

There is no ground whatever for reading מוניך (from ינה, to throw down, related to יון, whence comes יון, a precipitate or sediment) in the place of מוגי ( pret. hi. of יגה, ( laborare , dolere ), that favourite word of the Lamentations of Jeremiah (Lam 1:5, Lam 1:12; Lam 3:32, cf. , Isa 1:4), the tone of which we recognise here throughout, as Lowth, Ewald, and Umbreit propose after the Targum ליך מונן דהוו.

The words attributed to the enemies, shechı̄ vena‛ăbhorâh (from shâchâh , the kal of which only occurs here), are to be understood figuratively, as in Psa 129:3. Jerusalem has been obliged to let her children be degraded into the defenceless objects of despotic tyranny and caprice, both at home in their own conquered country, and abroad in exile. But the relation is reversed now.

Jerusalem is delivered, after having been punished, and the instruments of her punishment are given up to the punishment which their pride deserved.

Isa 51:17-23 Just as we found above, that the exclamation “awake” ( ‛ūrı̄ ), which the church addresses to the arm of Jehovah, grew out of the preceding great promises; so here there grows out of the same another “awake” ( hith‛ōrerı̄ ), which the prophet addresses to Jerusalem in the name of his God, and the reason for which is given in the form of new promises. “Wake thyself up, wake thyself up, stand up, O Jerusalem, thou that hast drunk out of the hand of Jehovah the goblet of His fury: the goblet cup of reeling hast thou drunk, sipped out.

There was none who guided her of all the children that she had brought forth; and none who took her by the hand of all the children that she had brought up. There were two things that happened to thee; who should console thee? Devastation, and ruin, and famine, and the sword: how should I comfort thee? Thy children were benighted, lay at the corners of all the streets like a snared antelope: as those who were full of the fury of Jehovah, the rebuke of thy God.

Therefore hearken to this, O wretched and drunken, but not with wine: Thus saith thy Lord, Jehovah, and thy God that defendeth His people, Behold, I take out of thine hand the goblet of reeling, the goblet cup of my fury: thou shalt not continue to drink it any more. And I put it into the hand of thy tormentors; who said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over; and thou madest thy back like the ground, and like a public way for those who go over it.

” In Isa 51:17, Jerusalem is regarded as a woman lying on the ground in the sleep of faintness and stupefaction. She has been obliged to drink, for her punishment, the goblet filled with the fury of the wrath of God, the goblet which throws those who drink it into unconscious reeling; and this goblet, which is called qubba‛ath kōs (κύπελλον ποτηιρίου, a genitive construction, though appositional in sense), for the purpose of giving greater prominence to its swelling sides, she has not only had to drink, but to drain quite clean (cf.

, Psa 75:9, and more especially Eze 23:32-34). Observe the plaintive falling of the tone in shâthı̄th mâtsı̄th . In this state of unconscious stupefaction was Jerusalem lying, without any help on the part of her children; there was not one who came to guide the stupefied one, or took her by the hand to lift her up. The consciousness of the punishment that their sins had deserved, and the greatness of the sufferings that the punishment had brought, pressed so heavily upon all the members of the congregation, that not one of them showed the requisite cheerfulness and strength to rise up on her behalf, so as to make her fate at any rate tolerable to her, and ward off the worst calamities.

What elegiac music we have here in the deep cadences: mikkol - bânı̄m yâlâdâh , mikkol - bânı̄m giddēlâh ! So terrible was her calamity, that no one ventured to break the silence of the terror, or give expression to their sympathy. Even the prophet, humanly speaking, is obliged to exclaim, “How ( mı̄ , literally as who, as in Amo 7:2, Amo 7:5) should I comfort thee!

” He knew of no equal or greater calamity, to which he could point Jerusalem, according to the principle which experience confirms, solamen miseris socios habuisse malorum . This is the real explanation, according to Lam 2:13, though we must not therefore take mı̄ as an accusative = bemı̄ , as Hitzig does. The whole of the group is in the tone of the Lamentations of Jeremiah.

There were two kinds of things (i. e. , two kinds of evils: mishpâchōth , as in Jer 15:3) that had happened to her (קרא = קרה, with which it is used interchangeably even in the Pentateuch) - namely, the devastation and ruin of their city and their land, famine and the sword to her children, their inhabitants. In Isa 51:20 this is depicted with special reference to the famine.

Her children were veiled ( ‛ullaph , deliquium pati , lit. , obvelari ), and lay in a state of unconsciousness like corpses at the corner of every street, where this horrible spectacle presented itself on every hand. They lay ketho' mikhmâr (rendered strangely and with very bad taste in the lxx, viz. , like a half-cooked turnip; but given correctly by Jerome, sicut oryx , as in the lxx at Deu 14:5, illaqueatus ), i.

e. , like a netted antelope (see at Job 39:9), i. e. , one that has been taken in a hunter’s net and lies there exhausted, after having almost strangled itself by ineffectual attempts to release itself. The appositional וגו המלאים, which refers to בניך, gives as a quippe qui the reason for all this suffering. It is the punishment decreed by God, which has pierced their very heart, and got them completely in its power.

This clause assigning the reason, shows that the expression “thy children” ( bânayikh ) is not to be taken here in the same manner as in Lam 2:11-12; Lam 4:3-4, viz. , as referring to children in distinction from adults; the subject is a general one, as in Isa 5:25. With lâkhē̄n (therefore, Isa 51:21) the address turns from the picture of sufferings to the promise, in the view of which the cry was uttered, in Isa 51:17, to awake and arise.

Therefore, viz. , because she had endured the full measure of God’s wrath, she is to hear what His mercy, that has now begun to move, purposes to do. The connecting form shekhurath stands here, according to Ges. §116, 1, notwithstanding the (epexegetical) Vav which comes between. We may see from Isa 29:9 how thoroughly this “drunk, but not with wine,” is in Isaiah’s own style (from this distinction between a higher and lower sphere of related facts, compare Isa 47:14; Isa 48:10).

The intensive plural 'ădōnı̄m is only applied to human lords in other places in the book of Isaiah; but in this passage, in which Jerusalem is described as a woman, it is used once of Jehovah. Yârı̄bh ‛ammō is an attributive clause, signifying “who conducts the cause of His people,” i. e. , their advocate or defender. He takes the goblet of reeling and wrath, which Jerusalem has emptied, for ever out of her hand, and forces it newly filled upon her tormentors.

There is no ground whatever for reading מוניך (from ינה, to throw down, related to יון, whence comes יון, a precipitate or sediment) in the place of מוגי ( pret. hi. of יגה, ( laborare , dolere ), that favourite word of the Lamentations of Jeremiah (Lam 1:5, Lam 1:12; Lam 3:32, cf. , Isa 1:4), the tone of which we recognise here throughout, as Lowth, Ewald, and Umbreit propose after the Targum ליך מונן דהוו.

The words attributed to the enemies, shechı̄ vena‛ăbhorâh (from shâchâh , the kal of which only occurs here), are to be understood figuratively, as in Psa 129:3. Jerusalem has been obliged to let her children be degraded into the defenceless objects of despotic tyranny and caprice, both at home in their own conquered country, and abroad in exile. But the relation is reversed now.

Jerusalem is delivered, after having been punished, and the instruments of her punishment are given up to the punishment which their pride deserved.

Isa 51:17-23 Just as we found above, that the exclamation “awake” ( ‛ūrı̄ ), which the church addresses to the arm of Jehovah, grew out of the preceding great promises; so here there grows out of the same another “awake” ( hith‛ōrerı̄ ), which the prophet addresses to Jerusalem in the name of his God, and the reason for which is given in the form of new promises. “Wake thyself up, wake thyself up, stand up, O Jerusalem, thou that hast drunk out of the hand of Jehovah the goblet of His fury: the goblet cup of reeling hast thou drunk, sipped out.

There was none who guided her of all the children that she had brought forth; and none who took her by the hand of all the children that she had brought up. There were two things that happened to thee; who should console thee? Devastation, and ruin, and famine, and the sword: how should I comfort thee? Thy children were benighted, lay at the corners of all the streets like a snared antelope: as those who were full of the fury of Jehovah, the rebuke of thy God.

Therefore hearken to this, O wretched and drunken, but not with wine: Thus saith thy Lord, Jehovah, and thy God that defendeth His people, Behold, I take out of thine hand the goblet of reeling, the goblet cup of my fury: thou shalt not continue to drink it any more. And I put it into the hand of thy tormentors; who said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over; and thou madest thy back like the ground, and like a public way for those who go over it.

” In Isa 51:17, Jerusalem is regarded as a woman lying on the ground in the sleep of faintness and stupefaction. She has been obliged to drink, for her punishment, the goblet filled with the fury of the wrath of God, the goblet which throws those who drink it into unconscious reeling; and this goblet, which is called qubba‛ath kōs (κύπελλον ποτηιρίου, a genitive construction, though appositional in sense), for the purpose of giving greater prominence to its swelling sides, she has not only had to drink, but to drain quite clean (cf.

, Psa 75:9, and more especially Eze 23:32-34). Observe the plaintive falling of the tone in shâthı̄th mâtsı̄th . In this state of unconscious stupefaction was Jerusalem lying, without any help on the part of her children; there was not one who came to guide the stupefied one, or took her by the hand to lift her up. The consciousness of the punishment that their sins had deserved, and the greatness of the sufferings that the punishment had brought, pressed so heavily upon all the members of the congregation, that not one of them showed the requisite cheerfulness and strength to rise up on her behalf, so as to make her fate at any rate tolerable to her, and ward off the worst calamities.

What elegiac music we have here in the deep cadences: mikkol - bânı̄m yâlâdâh , mikkol - bânı̄m giddēlâh ! So terrible was her calamity, that no one ventured to break the silence of the terror, or give expression to their sympathy. Even the prophet, humanly speaking, is obliged to exclaim, “How ( mı̄ , literally as who, as in Amo 7:2, Amo 7:5) should I comfort thee!

” He knew of no equal or greater calamity, to which he could point Jerusalem, according to the principle which experience confirms, solamen miseris socios habuisse malorum . This is the real explanation, according to Lam 2:13, though we must not therefore take mı̄ as an accusative = bemı̄ , as Hitzig does. The whole of the group is in the tone of the Lamentations of Jeremiah.

There were two kinds of things (i. e. , two kinds of evils: mishpâchōth , as in Jer 15:3) that had happened to her (קרא = קרה, with which it is used interchangeably even in the Pentateuch) - namely, the devastation and ruin of their city and their land, famine and the sword to her children, their inhabitants. In Isa 51:20 this is depicted with special reference to the famine.

Her children were veiled ( ‛ullaph , deliquium pati , lit. , obvelari ), and lay in a state of unconsciousness like corpses at the corner of every street, where this horrible spectacle presented itself on every hand. They lay ketho' mikhmâr (rendered strangely and with very bad taste in the lxx, viz. , like a half-cooked turnip; but given correctly by Jerome, sicut oryx , as in the lxx at Deu 14:5, illaqueatus ), i.

e. , like a netted antelope (see at Job 39:9), i. e. , one that has been taken in a hunter’s net and lies there exhausted, after having almost strangled itself by ineffectual attempts to release itself. The appositional וגו המלאים, which refers to בניך, gives as a quippe qui the reason for all this suffering. It is the punishment decreed by God, which has pierced their very heart, and got them completely in its power.

This clause assigning the reason, shows that the expression “thy children” ( bânayikh ) is not to be taken here in the same manner as in Lam 2:11-12; Lam 4:3-4, viz. , as referring to children in distinction from adults; the subject is a general one, as in Isa 5:25. With lâkhē̄n (therefore, Isa 51:21) the address turns from the picture of sufferings to the promise, in the view of which the cry was uttered, in Isa 51:17, to awake and arise.

Therefore, viz. , because she had endured the full measure of God’s wrath, she is to hear what His mercy, that has now begun to move, purposes to do. The connecting form shekhurath stands here, according to Ges. §116, 1, notwithstanding the (epexegetical) Vav which comes between. We may see from Isa 29:9 how thoroughly this “drunk, but not with wine,” is in Isaiah’s own style (from this distinction between a higher and lower sphere of related facts, compare Isa 47:14; Isa 48:10).

The intensive plural 'ădōnı̄m is only applied to human lords in other places in the book of Isaiah; but in this passage, in which Jerusalem is described as a woman, it is used once of Jehovah. Yârı̄bh ‛ammō is an attributive clause, signifying “who conducts the cause of His people,” i. e. , their advocate or defender. He takes the goblet of reeling and wrath, which Jerusalem has emptied, for ever out of her hand, and forces it newly filled upon her tormentors.

There is no ground whatever for reading מוניך (from ינה, to throw down, related to יון, whence comes יון, a precipitate or sediment) in the place of מוגי ( pret. hi. of יגה, ( laborare , dolere ), that favourite word of the Lamentations of Jeremiah (Lam 1:5, Lam 1:12; Lam 3:32, cf. , Isa 1:4), the tone of which we recognise here throughout, as Lowth, Ewald, and Umbreit propose after the Targum ליך מונן דהוו.

The words attributed to the enemies, shechı̄ vena‛ăbhorâh (from shâchâh , the kal of which only occurs here), are to be understood figuratively, as in Psa 129:3. Jerusalem has been obliged to let her children be degraded into the defenceless objects of despotic tyranny and caprice, both at home in their own conquered country, and abroad in exile. But the relation is reversed now.

Jerusalem is delivered, after having been punished, and the instruments of her punishment are given up to the punishment which their pride deserved.

Isa 51:17-23 Just as we found above, that the exclamation “awake” ( ‛ūrı̄ ), which the church addresses to the arm of Jehovah, grew out of the preceding great promises; so here there grows out of the same another “awake” ( hith‛ōrerı̄ ), which the prophet addresses to Jerusalem in the name of his God, and the reason for which is given in the form of new promises. “Wake thyself up, wake thyself up, stand up, O Jerusalem, thou that hast drunk out of the hand of Jehovah the goblet of His fury: the goblet cup of reeling hast thou drunk, sipped out.

There was none who guided her of all the children that she had brought forth; and none who took her by the hand of all the children that she had brought up. There were two things that happened to thee; who should console thee? Devastation, and ruin, and famine, and the sword: how should I comfort thee? Thy children were benighted, lay at the corners of all the streets like a snared antelope: as those who were full of the fury of Jehovah, the rebuke of thy God.

Therefore hearken to this, O wretched and drunken, but not with wine: Thus saith thy Lord, Jehovah, and thy God that defendeth His people, Behold, I take out of thine hand the goblet of reeling, the goblet cup of my fury: thou shalt not continue to drink it any more. And I put it into the hand of thy tormentors; who said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over; and thou madest thy back like the ground, and like a public way for those who go over it.

” In Isa 51:17, Jerusalem is regarded as a woman lying on the ground in the sleep of faintness and stupefaction. She has been obliged to drink, for her punishment, the goblet filled with the fury of the wrath of God, the goblet which throws those who drink it into unconscious reeling; and this goblet, which is called qubba‛ath kōs (κύπελλον ποτηιρίου, a genitive construction, though appositional in sense), for the purpose of giving greater prominence to its swelling sides, she has not only had to drink, but to drain quite clean (cf.

, Psa 75:9, and more especially Eze 23:32-34). Observe the plaintive falling of the tone in shâthı̄th mâtsı̄th . In this state of unconscious stupefaction was Jerusalem lying, without any help on the part of her children; there was not one who came to guide the stupefied one, or took her by the hand to lift her up. The consciousness of the punishment that their sins had deserved, and the greatness of the sufferings that the punishment had brought, pressed so heavily upon all the members of the congregation, that not one of them showed the requisite cheerfulness and strength to rise up on her behalf, so as to make her fate at any rate tolerable to her, and ward off the worst calamities.

What elegiac music we have here in the deep cadences: mikkol - bânı̄m yâlâdâh , mikkol - bânı̄m giddēlâh ! So terrible was her calamity, that no one ventured to break the silence of the terror, or give expression to their sympathy. Even the prophet, humanly speaking, is obliged to exclaim, “How ( mı̄ , literally as who, as in Amo 7:2, Amo 7:5) should I comfort thee!

” He knew of no equal or greater calamity, to which he could point Jerusalem, according to the principle which experience confirms, solamen miseris socios habuisse malorum . This is the real explanation, according to Lam 2:13, though we must not therefore take mı̄ as an accusative = bemı̄ , as Hitzig does. The whole of the group is in the tone of the Lamentations of Jeremiah.

There were two kinds of things (i. e. , two kinds of evils: mishpâchōth , as in Jer 15:3) that had happened to her (קרא = קרה, with which it is used interchangeably even in the Pentateuch) - namely, the devastation and ruin of their city and their land, famine and the sword to her children, their inhabitants. In Isa 51:20 this is depicted with special reference to the famine.

Her children were veiled ( ‛ullaph , deliquium pati , lit. , obvelari ), and lay in a state of unconsciousness like corpses at the corner of every street, where this horrible spectacle presented itself on every hand. They lay ketho' mikhmâr (rendered strangely and with very bad taste in the lxx, viz. , like a half-cooked turnip; but given correctly by Jerome, sicut oryx , as in the lxx at Deu 14:5, illaqueatus ), i.

e. , like a netted antelope (see at Job 39:9), i. e. , one that has been taken in a hunter’s net and lies there exhausted, after having almost strangled itself by ineffectual attempts to release itself. The appositional וגו המלאים, which refers to בניך, gives as a quippe qui the reason for all this suffering. It is the punishment decreed by God, which has pierced their very heart, and got them completely in its power.

This clause assigning the reason, shows that the expression “thy children” ( bânayikh ) is not to be taken here in the same manner as in Lam 2:11-12; Lam 4:3-4, viz. , as referring to children in distinction from adults; the subject is a general one, as in Isa 5:25. With lâkhē̄n (therefore, Isa 51:21) the address turns from the picture of sufferings to the promise, in the view of which the cry was uttered, in Isa 51:17, to awake and arise.

Therefore, viz. , because she had endured the full measure of God’s wrath, she is to hear what His mercy, that has now begun to move, purposes to do. The connecting form shekhurath stands here, according to Ges. §116, 1, notwithstanding the (epexegetical) Vav which comes between. We may see from Isa 29:9 how thoroughly this “drunk, but not with wine,” is in Isaiah’s own style (from this distinction between a higher and lower sphere of related facts, compare Isa 47:14; Isa 48:10).

The intensive plural 'ădōnı̄m is only applied to human lords in other places in the book of Isaiah; but in this passage, in which Jerusalem is described as a woman, it is used once of Jehovah. Yârı̄bh ‛ammō is an attributive clause, signifying “who conducts the cause of His people,” i. e. , their advocate or defender. He takes the goblet of reeling and wrath, which Jerusalem has emptied, for ever out of her hand, and forces it newly filled upon her tormentors.

There is no ground whatever for reading מוניך (from ינה, to throw down, related to יון, whence comes יון, a precipitate or sediment) in the place of מוגי ( pret. hi. of יגה, ( laborare , dolere ), that favourite word of the Lamentations of Jeremiah (Lam 1:5, Lam 1:12; Lam 3:32, cf. , Isa 1:4), the tone of which we recognise here throughout, as Lowth, Ewald, and Umbreit propose after the Targum ליך מונן דהוו.

The words attributed to the enemies, shechı̄ vena‛ăbhorâh (from shâchâh , the kal of which only occurs here), are to be understood figuratively, as in Psa 129:3. Jerusalem has been obliged to let her children be degraded into the defenceless objects of despotic tyranny and caprice, both at home in their own conquered country, and abroad in exile. But the relation is reversed now.

Jerusalem is delivered, after having been punished, and the instruments of her punishment are given up to the punishment which their pride deserved.

Isa 51:17-23 Just as we found above, that the exclamation “awake” ( ‛ūrı̄ ), which the church addresses to the arm of Jehovah, grew out of the preceding great promises; so here there grows out of the same another “awake” ( hith‛ōrerı̄ ), which the prophet addresses to Jerusalem in the name of his God, and the reason for which is given in the form of new promises. “Wake thyself up, wake thyself up, stand up, O Jerusalem, thou that hast drunk out of the hand of Jehovah the goblet of His fury: the goblet cup of reeling hast thou drunk, sipped out.

There was none who guided her of all the children that she had brought forth; and none who took her by the hand of all the children that she had brought up. There were two things that happened to thee; who should console thee? Devastation, and ruin, and famine, and the sword: how should I comfort thee? Thy children were benighted, lay at the corners of all the streets like a snared antelope: as those who were full of the fury of Jehovah, the rebuke of thy God.

Therefore hearken to this, O wretched and drunken, but not with wine: Thus saith thy Lord, Jehovah, and thy God that defendeth His people, Behold, I take out of thine hand the goblet of reeling, the goblet cup of my fury: thou shalt not continue to drink it any more. And I put it into the hand of thy tormentors; who said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over; and thou madest thy back like the ground, and like a public way for those who go over it.

” In Isa 51:17, Jerusalem is regarded as a woman lying on the ground in the sleep of faintness and stupefaction. She has been obliged to drink, for her punishment, the goblet filled with the fury of the wrath of God, the goblet which throws those who drink it into unconscious reeling; and this goblet, which is called qubba‛ath kōs (κύπελλον ποτηιρίου, a genitive construction, though appositional in sense), for the purpose of giving greater prominence to its swelling sides, she has not only had to drink, but to drain quite clean (cf.

, Psa 75:9, and more especially Eze 23:32-34). Observe the plaintive falling of the tone in shâthı̄th mâtsı̄th . In this state of unconscious stupefaction was Jerusalem lying, without any help on the part of her children; there was not one who came to guide the stupefied one, or took her by the hand to lift her up. The consciousness of the punishment that their sins had deserved, and the greatness of the sufferings that the punishment had brought, pressed so heavily upon all the members of the congregation, that not one of them showed the requisite cheerfulness and strength to rise up on her behalf, so as to make her fate at any rate tolerable to her, and ward off the worst calamities.

What elegiac music we have here in the deep cadences: mikkol - bânı̄m yâlâdâh , mikkol - bânı̄m giddēlâh ! So terrible was her calamity, that no one ventured to break the silence of the terror, or give expression to their sympathy. Even the prophet, humanly speaking, is obliged to exclaim, “How ( mı̄ , literally as who, as in Amo 7:2, Amo 7:5) should I comfort thee!

” He knew of no equal or greater calamity, to which he could point Jerusalem, according to the principle which experience confirms, solamen miseris socios habuisse malorum . This is the real explanation, according to Lam 2:13, though we must not therefore take mı̄ as an accusative = bemı̄ , as Hitzig does. The whole of the group is in the tone of the Lamentations of Jeremiah.

There were two kinds of things (i. e. , two kinds of evils: mishpâchōth , as in Jer 15:3) that had happened to her (קרא = קרה, with which it is used interchangeably even in the Pentateuch) - namely, the devastation and ruin of their city and their land, famine and the sword to her children, their inhabitants. In Isa 51:20 this is depicted with special reference to the famine.

Her children were veiled ( ‛ullaph , deliquium pati , lit. , obvelari ), and lay in a state of unconsciousness like corpses at the corner of every street, where this horrible spectacle presented itself on every hand. They lay ketho' mikhmâr (rendered strangely and with very bad taste in the lxx, viz. , like a half-cooked turnip; but given correctly by Jerome, sicut oryx , as in the lxx at Deu 14:5, illaqueatus ), i.

e. , like a netted antelope (see at Job 39:9), i. e. , one that has been taken in a hunter’s net and lies there exhausted, after having almost strangled itself by ineffectual attempts to release itself. The appositional וגו המלאים, which refers to בניך, gives as a quippe qui the reason for all this suffering. It is the punishment decreed by God, which has pierced their very heart, and got them completely in its power.

This clause assigning the reason, shows that the expression “thy children” ( bânayikh ) is not to be taken here in the same manner as in Lam 2:11-12; Lam 4:3-4, viz. , as referring to children in distinction from adults; the subject is a general one, as in Isa 5:25. With lâkhē̄n (therefore, Isa 51:21) the address turns from the picture of sufferings to the promise, in the view of which the cry was uttered, in Isa 51:17, to awake and arise.

Therefore, viz. , because she had endured the full measure of God’s wrath, she is to hear what His mercy, that has now begun to move, purposes to do. The connecting form shekhurath stands here, according to Ges. §116, 1, notwithstanding the (epexegetical) Vav which comes between. We may see from Isa 29:9 how thoroughly this “drunk, but not with wine,” is in Isaiah’s own style (from this distinction between a higher and lower sphere of related facts, compare Isa 47:14; Isa 48:10).

The intensive plural 'ădōnı̄m is only applied to human lords in other places in the book of Isaiah; but in this passage, in which Jerusalem is described as a woman, it is used once of Jehovah. Yârı̄bh ‛ammō is an attributive clause, signifying “who conducts the cause of His people,” i. e. , their advocate or defender. He takes the goblet of reeling and wrath, which Jerusalem has emptied, for ever out of her hand, and forces it newly filled upon her tormentors.

There is no ground whatever for reading מוניך (from ינה, to throw down, related to יון, whence comes יון, a precipitate or sediment) in the place of מוגי ( pret. hi. of יגה, ( laborare , dolere ), that favourite word of the Lamentations of Jeremiah (Lam 1:5, Lam 1:12; Lam 3:32, cf. , Isa 1:4), the tone of which we recognise here throughout, as Lowth, Ewald, and Umbreit propose after the Targum ליך מונן דהוו.

The words attributed to the enemies, shechı̄ vena‛ăbhorâh (from shâchâh , the kal of which only occurs here), are to be understood figuratively, as in Psa 129:3. Jerusalem has been obliged to let her children be degraded into the defenceless objects of despotic tyranny and caprice, both at home in their own conquered country, and abroad in exile. But the relation is reversed now.

Jerusalem is delivered, after having been punished, and the instruments of her punishment are given up to the punishment which their pride deserved.

Isa 51:17-23 Just as we found above, that the exclamation “awake” ( ‛ūrı̄ ), which the church addresses to the arm of Jehovah, grew out of the preceding great promises; so here there grows out of the same another “awake” ( hith‛ōrerı̄ ), which the prophet addresses to Jerusalem in the name of his God, and the reason for which is given in the form of new promises. “Wake thyself up, wake thyself up, stand up, O Jerusalem, thou that hast drunk out of the hand of Jehovah the goblet of His fury: the goblet cup of reeling hast thou drunk, sipped out.

There was none who guided her of all the children that she had brought forth; and none who took her by the hand of all the children that she had brought up. There were two things that happened to thee; who should console thee? Devastation, and ruin, and famine, and the sword: how should I comfort thee? Thy children were benighted, lay at the corners of all the streets like a snared antelope: as those who were full of the fury of Jehovah, the rebuke of thy God.

Therefore hearken to this, O wretched and drunken, but not with wine: Thus saith thy Lord, Jehovah, and thy God that defendeth His people, Behold, I take out of thine hand the goblet of reeling, the goblet cup of my fury: thou shalt not continue to drink it any more. And I put it into the hand of thy tormentors; who said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over; and thou madest thy back like the ground, and like a public way for those who go over it.

” In Isa 51:17, Jerusalem is regarded as a woman lying on the ground in the sleep of faintness and stupefaction. She has been obliged to drink, for her punishment, the goblet filled with the fury of the wrath of God, the goblet which throws those who drink it into unconscious reeling; and this goblet, which is called qubba‛ath kōs (κύπελλον ποτηιρίου, a genitive construction, though appositional in sense), for the purpose of giving greater prominence to its swelling sides, she has not only had to drink, but to drain quite clean (cf.

, Psa 75:9, and more especially Eze 23:32-34). Observe the plaintive falling of the tone in shâthı̄th mâtsı̄th . In this state of unconscious stupefaction was Jerusalem lying, without any help on the part of her children; there was not one who came to guide the stupefied one, or took her by the hand to lift her up. The consciousness of the punishment that their sins had deserved, and the greatness of the sufferings that the punishment had brought, pressed so heavily upon all the members of the congregation, that not one of them showed the requisite cheerfulness and strength to rise up on her behalf, so as to make her fate at any rate tolerable to her, and ward off the worst calamities.

What elegiac music we have here in the deep cadences: mikkol - bânı̄m yâlâdâh , mikkol - bânı̄m giddēlâh ! So terrible was her calamity, that no one ventured to break the silence of the terror, or give expression to their sympathy. Even the prophet, humanly speaking, is obliged to exclaim, “How ( mı̄ , literally as who, as in Amo 7:2, Amo 7:5) should I comfort thee!

” He knew of no equal or greater calamity, to which he could point Jerusalem, according to the principle which experience confirms, solamen miseris socios habuisse malorum . This is the real explanation, according to Lam 2:13, though we must not therefore take mı̄ as an accusative = bemı̄ , as Hitzig does. The whole of the group is in the tone of the Lamentations of Jeremiah.

There were two kinds of things (i. e. , two kinds of evils: mishpâchōth , as in Jer 15:3) that had happened to her (קרא = קרה, with which it is used interchangeably even in the Pentateuch) - namely, the devastation and ruin of their city and their land, famine and the sword to her children, their inhabitants. In Isa 51:20 this is depicted with special reference to the famine.

Her children were veiled ( ‛ullaph , deliquium pati , lit. , obvelari ), and lay in a state of unconsciousness like corpses at the corner of every street, where this horrible spectacle presented itself on every hand. They lay ketho' mikhmâr (rendered strangely and with very bad taste in the lxx, viz. , like a half-cooked turnip; but given correctly by Jerome, sicut oryx , as in the lxx at Deu 14:5, illaqueatus ), i.

e. , like a netted antelope (see at Job 39:9), i. e. , one that has been taken in a hunter’s net and lies there exhausted, after having almost strangled itself by ineffectual attempts to release itself. The appositional וגו המלאים, which refers to בניך, gives as a quippe qui the reason for all this suffering. It is the punishment decreed by God, which has pierced their very heart, and got them completely in its power.

This clause assigning the reason, shows that the expression “thy children” ( bânayikh ) is not to be taken here in the same manner as in Lam 2:11-12; Lam 4:3-4, viz. , as referring to children in distinction from adults; the subject is a general one, as in Isa 5:25. With lâkhē̄n (therefore, Isa 51:21) the address turns from the picture of sufferings to the promise, in the view of which the cry was uttered, in Isa 51:17, to awake and arise.

Therefore, viz. , because she had endured the full measure of God’s wrath, she is to hear what His mercy, that has now begun to move, purposes to do. The connecting form shekhurath stands here, according to Ges. §116, 1, notwithstanding the (epexegetical) Vav which comes between. We may see from Isa 29:9 how thoroughly this “drunk, but not with wine,” is in Isaiah’s own style (from this distinction between a higher and lower sphere of related facts, compare Isa 47:14; Isa 48:10).

The intensive plural 'ădōnı̄m is only applied to human lords in other places in the book of Isaiah; but in this passage, in which Jerusalem is described as a woman, it is used once of Jehovah. Yârı̄bh ‛ammō is an attributive clause, signifying “who conducts the cause of His people,” i. e. , their advocate or defender. He takes the goblet of reeling and wrath, which Jerusalem has emptied, for ever out of her hand, and forces it newly filled upon her tormentors.

There is no ground whatever for reading מוניך (from ינה, to throw down, related to יון, whence comes יון, a precipitate or sediment) in the place of מוגי ( pret. hi. of יגה, ( laborare , dolere ), that favourite word of the Lamentations of Jeremiah (Lam 1:5, Lam 1:12; Lam 3:32, cf. , Isa 1:4), the tone of which we recognise here throughout, as Lowth, Ewald, and Umbreit propose after the Targum ליך מונן דהוו.

The words attributed to the enemies, shechı̄ vena‛ăbhorâh (from shâchâh , the kal of which only occurs here), are to be understood figuratively, as in Psa 129:3. Jerusalem has been obliged to let her children be degraded into the defenceless objects of despotic tyranny and caprice, both at home in their own conquered country, and abroad in exile. But the relation is reversed now.

Jerusalem is delivered, after having been punished, and the instruments of her punishment are given up to the punishment which their pride deserved.

Isa 52:1-2 The same call, which was addressed in Isa 51:9 to the arm of Jehovah that was then represented as sleeping, is here addressed to Jerusalem, which is represented as a sleeping woman. “Awake, awake; clothe thyself in thy might, O Zion; clothe thyself in thy state dresses, O Jerusalem, thou holy city: for henceforth there will no more enter into thee one uncircumcised and unclean!

Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the chains of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion! ” Jerusalem is lying upon the ground stupefied with the wrath of God, and exhausted with grief; but this shameful prostration and degradation will now come to an end. She is to rise up and put on her might, which has long been broken down, and apparently has altogether disappeared, but which can and must be constantly renewed, because it rests upon the foundation of an inviolable promise.

She is to wake up and recover her ancient power, and put on her state robes, i. e. , her priestly and royal ornaments, which belong to her as a “royal city,” i. e. , as the city of Jehovah had His anointed one. For henceforth she will be what she was always intended to be, and that without any further desecration. Heathen, uncircumcised, and those who were unclean in heart and flesh (Eze 44:9), had entered her by force, and desecrated her: heathen, who had no right to enter the congregation of Jehovah as they were (Lam 1:10).

But she should no longer be defiled, not to say conquered, by such invaders as these (Joe 3:17; Nah 2:1 ; compare Joe 3:7 with Nah 2:1 ). On the construction non perget intrabit = intrare , see Ges. §142, 3, c . In Isa 52:2 the idea of the city falls into the background, and that of the nation takes its place. ירולשׁם שׁבי does not mean “captive people of Jerusalem,” however, as Hitzig supposes, for this would require שׁביה in accordance with the personification, as in Isa 52:2 .

The rendering supported by the lxx is the true one, “Sit down, O Jerusalem;” and this is also the way in which it is accentuated. The exhortation is the counterpart of Isa 47:1. Jerusalem is sitting upon the ground as a prisoner, having no seat to sit upon; but this is only that she may be the more highly exalted; - whereas the daughter of Babylon is seated as a queen upon a throne, but only to be the more deeply degraded.

The former is now to shake herself free from the dust, and to rise up and sit down (viz. , upon a throne, Targum). The captive daughter of Zion ( shebhiyyâh , αἰχμάλωτος, Exo 12:29, an adjective written first for the sake of emphasis, as in Isa 10:30; Isa 53:11) is to undo for herself ( sibi laxare according to p. 62, note, like hithnachēl , Isa 14:2, sibi possidendo capere ) the chains of her neck (the chethib התפתחו, they loosen themselves, is opposed to the beautiful parallelism); for she who was mourning in her humiliation is to be restored to honour once more, and she who was so shamefully laden with fetters to liberty.

Isa 52:1-2 The same call, which was addressed in Isa 51:9 to the arm of Jehovah that was then represented as sleeping, is here addressed to Jerusalem, which is represented as a sleeping woman. “Awake, awake; clothe thyself in thy might, O Zion; clothe thyself in thy state dresses, O Jerusalem, thou holy city: for henceforth there will no more enter into thee one uncircumcised and unclean!

Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the chains of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion! ” Jerusalem is lying upon the ground stupefied with the wrath of God, and exhausted with grief; but this shameful prostration and degradation will now come to an end. She is to rise up and put on her might, which has long been broken down, and apparently has altogether disappeared, but which can and must be constantly renewed, because it rests upon the foundation of an inviolable promise.

She is to wake up and recover her ancient power, and put on her state robes, i. e. , her priestly and royal ornaments, which belong to her as a “royal city,” i. e. , as the city of Jehovah had His anointed one. For henceforth she will be what she was always intended to be, and that without any further desecration. Heathen, uncircumcised, and those who were unclean in heart and flesh (Eze 44:9), had entered her by force, and desecrated her: heathen, who had no right to enter the congregation of Jehovah as they were (Lam 1:10).

But she should no longer be defiled, not to say conquered, by such invaders as these (Joe 3:17; Nah 2:1 ; compare Joe 3:7 with Nah 2:1 ). On the construction non perget intrabit = intrare , see Ges. §142, 3, c . In Isa 52:2 the idea of the city falls into the background, and that of the nation takes its place. ירולשׁם שׁבי does not mean “captive people of Jerusalem,” however, as Hitzig supposes, for this would require שׁביה in accordance with the personification, as in Isa 52:2 .

The rendering supported by the lxx is the true one, “Sit down, O Jerusalem;” and this is also the way in which it is accentuated. The exhortation is the counterpart of Isa 47:1. Jerusalem is sitting upon the ground as a prisoner, having no seat to sit upon; but this is only that she may be the more highly exalted; - whereas the daughter of Babylon is seated as a queen upon a throne, but only to be the more deeply degraded.

The former is now to shake herself free from the dust, and to rise up and sit down (viz. , upon a throne, Targum). The captive daughter of Zion ( shebhiyyâh , αἰχμάλωτος, Exo 12:29, an adjective written first for the sake of emphasis, as in Isa 10:30; Isa 53:11) is to undo for herself ( sibi laxare according to p. 62, note, like hithnachēl , Isa 14:2, sibi possidendo capere ) the chains of her neck (the chethib התפתחו, they loosen themselves, is opposed to the beautiful parallelism); for she who was mourning in her humiliation is to be restored to honour once more, and she who was so shamefully laden with fetters to liberty.

Isa 52:3-6 The reason for the address is now given in a well-sustained promise. “For thus saith Jehovah, Ye have been sold for nothing, and ye shall not be redeemed with silver. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, My people went down to Egypt in the beginning to dwell there as guests; and Asshur has oppressed it for nothing. And now, what have I to do here? saith Jehovah: for my people are taken away for nothing; their oppressors shriek, saith Jehovah, and my name is continually blasphemed all the day.

Therefore my people shall learn my name; therefore, in that day, that I am He who saith, There am I. ” Ye have been sold (this is the meaning of Isa 52:3); but this selling is merely a giving over to a foreign power, without the slightest advantage accusing to Him who had no other object in view than to cause them to atone for their sins (Isa 50:1), and without any other people taking their place, and serving Him in their stead as an equivalent for the loss He sustained.

And there would be no need of silver to purchase the favour of Him who had given them up, since a manifestation of divine power would be all that would be required (Isa 45:13). For whether Jehovah show Himself to Israel as the Righteous One or as the Gracious One, as a Judge or as a Redeemer, He always acts as the Absolute One, exalted above all earthly affairs, having no need to receive anything, but able to give everything.

He receives no recompense, and gives none. Whether punishing or redeeming, He always guards His people’s honour, proving Himself in the one case to be all-sufficient, and in the other almighty, but acting in both cases freely from Himself. In the train of thought in Isa 52:4-6 the reason is given for the general statement in Isa 52:3. Israel went down to Egypt, the country of the Nile valley, with the innocent intention of sojourning, i.

e. , living as a guest ( gūr ) there in a foreign land; and yet (as we may supply from the next clause, according to the law of a self-completing parallelism) there it fell into the bondage of the Pharaohs, who, whilst they did not fear Jehovah, but rather despised Him, were merely the blind instruments of His will. Asshur then oppressed it bephes , i. e. , not “at last” ( ultimo tempore , as Hävernick renders it), but (as אפס is the synonym of אין in Isa 40:17; Isa 41:2) “for nothing,” i.

e. , without having acquired any right to it, but rather serving in its unrighteousness simply as the blind instrument of the righteousness of Jehovah, who through the instrumentality of Asshur put an end first of all to the kingdom of Israel, and then to the kingdom of Judah. The two references to the Egyptian and Assyrian oppressions are expressed in as brief terms as possible.

But with the words “now therefore” the prophecy passes on in a much more copious strain to the present oppression in Babylon. Jehovah inquires, Quid mihi hic (What have I to do here)? Hitzig supposes pōh (here) to refer to heaven, in the sense of, “What pressing occupation have I here, that all this can take place without my interfering? ” But such a question as this would be far more appropriate to the Zeus of the Greek comedy than to the Jehovah of prophecy.

Knobel, who takes pōh as referring to the captivity, in accordance with the context, gives a ridiculous turn to the question, viz. , “What do I get here in Babylonia, from the fact that my people are carried off for nothing? Only loss. ” He observes himself that there is a certain wit in the question. But it would be silly rather than witty, if, after Jehovah had just stated that He had given up His people for nothing, the prophet represented Him as preparing to redeem it by asking, “What have I gained by it?

” The question can have no other meaning, according to Isa 22:16, than “What have I to do here? ” Jehovah is thought of as present with His people (cf. , Gen 46:4), and means to inquire whether He shall continue this penal condition of exile any longer (Targum, Rashi, Rosenmüller, Ewald, Stier, etc.) The question implies an intention to redeem Israel, and the reason for this intention is introduced with kı̄ .

Israel is taken away ( ablatus ), viz. , from its own native home, chinnâm , i. e. , without the Chaldeans having any human claim upon them whatever. The words יהיליילוּ משׁליו (משׁלו) are not to be rendered, “its singers lament,” as Reutschi and Rosenmüller maintain, since the singers of Israel are called meshōrerı̄m ; nor “its (Israel’s) princes lament,” as Vitringa and Hitzig supposed, since the people of the captivity, although they had still their national sârı̄m , had no other mōshelı̄m than the Chaldean oppressors (Isa 49:7; Isa 14:5).

It is the intolerable tyranny of the oppressors of His people, that Jehovah assigns in this sentence as the reason for His interposition, which cannot any longer be deferred. It is true that we do meet with hēlı̄l (of which we have the future here without any syncope of the first syllable) in other passages in the sense of ululare , as a cry of pain; but just as הריע, רנן, רזח signify a yelling utterance of either joy or pain, so heeliil may also be applied to the harsh shrieking of the capricious tyrants, like Lucan’s laetis ululare triumphis , and the Syriac ailel , which is used to denote a war-cry and other noises as well.

In connection with this proud and haughty bluster, there is also the practice of making Jehovah’s name the butt of their incessant blasphemy: מנּאץ is a part. hithpoel with an assimilated ת and a pausal ā for ē , although it might also be a passive hithpoal (for the ō in the middle syllable, compare מגאל, Mal 1:7; מבהל, Est 8:14). In Isa 52:6 there follows the closing sentence of the whole train of thought: therefore His people are to get to learn His name, i.

e. , the self-manifestation of its God, who is so despised by the heathen; therefore lâkhēn repeated with emphasis, like כּעל in Isa 59:18, and possibly min in Psa 45:9) in that day, the day of redemption, (supply “it shall get to learn”) that “I am he who saith, Here am I,” i. e. , that He who has promised redemption is now present as the True and Omnipotent One to carry it into effect.

Isa 52:3-6 The reason for the address is now given in a well-sustained promise. “For thus saith Jehovah, Ye have been sold for nothing, and ye shall not be redeemed with silver. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, My people went down to Egypt in the beginning to dwell there as guests; and Asshur has oppressed it for nothing. And now, what have I to do here? saith Jehovah: for my people are taken away for nothing; their oppressors shriek, saith Jehovah, and my name is continually blasphemed all the day.

Therefore my people shall learn my name; therefore, in that day, that I am He who saith, There am I. ” Ye have been sold (this is the meaning of Isa 52:3); but this selling is merely a giving over to a foreign power, without the slightest advantage accusing to Him who had no other object in view than to cause them to atone for their sins (Isa 50:1), and without any other people taking their place, and serving Him in their stead as an equivalent for the loss He sustained.

And there would be no need of silver to purchase the favour of Him who had given them up, since a manifestation of divine power would be all that would be required (Isa 45:13). For whether Jehovah show Himself to Israel as the Righteous One or as the Gracious One, as a Judge or as a Redeemer, He always acts as the Absolute One, exalted above all earthly affairs, having no need to receive anything, but able to give everything.

He receives no recompense, and gives none. Whether punishing or redeeming, He always guards His people’s honour, proving Himself in the one case to be all-sufficient, and in the other almighty, but acting in both cases freely from Himself. In the train of thought in Isa 52:4-6 the reason is given for the general statement in Isa 52:3. Israel went down to Egypt, the country of the Nile valley, with the innocent intention of sojourning, i.

e. , living as a guest ( gūr ) there in a foreign land; and yet (as we may supply from the next clause, according to the law of a self-completing parallelism) there it fell into the bondage of the Pharaohs, who, whilst they did not fear Jehovah, but rather despised Him, were merely the blind instruments of His will. Asshur then oppressed it bephes , i. e. , not “at last” ( ultimo tempore , as Hävernick renders it), but (as אפס is the synonym of אין in Isa 40:17; Isa 41:2) “for nothing,” i.

e. , without having acquired any right to it, but rather serving in its unrighteousness simply as the blind instrument of the righteousness of Jehovah, who through the instrumentality of Asshur put an end first of all to the kingdom of Israel, and then to the kingdom of Judah. The two references to the Egyptian and Assyrian oppressions are expressed in as brief terms as possible.

But with the words “now therefore” the prophecy passes on in a much more copious strain to the present oppression in Babylon. Jehovah inquires, Quid mihi hic (What have I to do here)? Hitzig supposes pōh (here) to refer to heaven, in the sense of, “What pressing occupation have I here, that all this can take place without my interfering? ” But such a question as this would be far more appropriate to the Zeus of the Greek comedy than to the Jehovah of prophecy.

Knobel, who takes pōh as referring to the captivity, in accordance with the context, gives a ridiculous turn to the question, viz. , “What do I get here in Babylonia, from the fact that my people are carried off for nothing? Only loss. ” He observes himself that there is a certain wit in the question. But it would be silly rather than witty, if, after Jehovah had just stated that He had given up His people for nothing, the prophet represented Him as preparing to redeem it by asking, “What have I gained by it?

” The question can have no other meaning, according to Isa 22:16, than “What have I to do here? ” Jehovah is thought of as present with His people (cf. , Gen 46:4), and means to inquire whether He shall continue this penal condition of exile any longer (Targum, Rashi, Rosenmüller, Ewald, Stier, etc.) The question implies an intention to redeem Israel, and the reason for this intention is introduced with kı̄ .

Israel is taken away ( ablatus ), viz. , from its own native home, chinnâm , i. e. , without the Chaldeans having any human claim upon them whatever. The words יהיליילוּ משׁליו (משׁלו) are not to be rendered, “its singers lament,” as Reutschi and Rosenmüller maintain, since the singers of Israel are called meshōrerı̄m ; nor “its (Israel’s) princes lament,” as Vitringa and Hitzig supposed, since the people of the captivity, although they had still their national sârı̄m , had no other mōshelı̄m than the Chaldean oppressors (Isa 49:7; Isa 14:5).

It is the intolerable tyranny of the oppressors of His people, that Jehovah assigns in this sentence as the reason for His interposition, which cannot any longer be deferred. It is true that we do meet with hēlı̄l (of which we have the future here without any syncope of the first syllable) in other passages in the sense of ululare , as a cry of pain; but just as הריע, רנן, רזח signify a yelling utterance of either joy or pain, so heeliil may also be applied to the harsh shrieking of the capricious tyrants, like Lucan’s laetis ululare triumphis , and the Syriac ailel , which is used to denote a war-cry and other noises as well.

In connection with this proud and haughty bluster, there is also the practice of making Jehovah’s name the butt of their incessant blasphemy: מנּאץ is a part. hithpoel with an assimilated ת and a pausal ā for ē , although it might also be a passive hithpoal (for the ō in the middle syllable, compare מגאל, Mal 1:7; מבהל, Est 8:14). In Isa 52:6 there follows the closing sentence of the whole train of thought: therefore His people are to get to learn His name, i.

e. , the self-manifestation of its God, who is so despised by the heathen; therefore lâkhēn repeated with emphasis, like כּעל in Isa 59:18, and possibly min in Psa 45:9) in that day, the day of redemption, (supply “it shall get to learn”) that “I am he who saith, Here am I,” i. e. , that He who has promised redemption is now present as the True and Omnipotent One to carry it into effect.