"But thou, O Israel, my servant,

Thou, Jacob, whom I have chosen,

Offspring of Abraham, my friend!

Thou, whom I have led by the hand from the ends of the earth,

And called from the extremities thereof,

And said to thee, 'Thou art my servant,

I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away!

Fear not, for I am with thee;

Faint not, for I, thy God, will strengthen thee.

I will help thee, and sustain thee with my right hand of salvation!

In this passage no one can doubt that the Servant of God denotes the Jewish nation, regarded as the chosen people of God. The nation is very distinctly personified as a single man, as the offspring of Abraham, as one whom Jehovah took by the hand. It is the more necessary to attend to this representation by which the people of God is undeniably represented as an individual person, because in other passages the representation has been thought too harsh to be admitted. It is also to be observed, that, when the Jewish people is represented as the Servant of Jehovah, it is described as worthy of the name, as the true Israel, whom God will not cast away.

The next passage in which the expression occurs is at the beginning of the next chapter, xlii. 1 – 7 : –

"Behold my servant, whom I uphold,

My chosen, in whom my soul delighteth,
I have put my spirit upon him;

He shall cause law to go forth to the nations.
He shall not cry aloud, nor lift up his voice,
Nor cause it to be heard in the street.

The bruised reed shall he not break,

And the glimmering flax shall he not quench;
He shall send forth law according to truth.

He shall not fail, nor become weary,

Until he shall have established justice in the earth,

And distant nations shall wait for his law.

"Thus saith God Jehovah,

Who created the heavens and stretched them out,

Who spread forth the earth, and that which springeth forth from it,

Who gave breath to the people upon it,

And spirit to them that walk thereon:
I, Jehovah, have called thee for salvation;

I will hold thee by the hand;

I will defend thee, and make thee a covenant to the people,
A light to the nations;

To open the blind eyes;

To bring out the prisoners from the prison,

And them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house."

Now this passage occurs in close connection with the preceding chapter. It is a part of the same discourse. What reason, then, can be given why the phrase Servant of God should not have the same meaning in this passage as in that. When the prophet represents the Deity as saying without explanation, " Behold my servant, whom I uphold," the laws of interpretation require us to believe that he refers to the same servant Jacob, the chosen Jewish people, more definitely described in the preceding chapter. The same epithet must be supposed to relate to the same subject, unless some decisive reason, arising out of the connection, can be given for a different application of it. But in this passage we find no such reason. On the contrary, we find confirmation of the impression that the phrase must mean the chosen people of God in ch. xlii. as well as in ch. xli. God is said, in the first verse, to put "his spirit" upon his servant. But this is just what is promised in ch. lix. 21, where it is said:

"My spirit which is upon thee,

And my words which I have put in thy mouth,

They shall not depart from thy mouth,

Nor from the mouth of thy sons,

Nor from the mouth of thy sons' sons, saith Jehovah,

From this time forth forever."

So it is said of the whole nation, "They shall be all taught of God." The Servant of God is also said to "cause law to go forth to the nations." But this corresponds exactly to the promise made to Abraham, “In thy race or posterity shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”

The representation, then, that the people of God, having the spirit of God, should be a mediator and a prophet to the nations, is perfectly agreeable to the phraseology of this writer.

Of this we have strong confirmation in verses 18-22 of this chapter, such as leaves no doubt of the meaning of the phrase "my servant" in the first seven verses:

"Hear, O ye deaf!

And look, ye blind, and see!

Who is blind, if not my servant?

And who so deaf as my messenger, whom I send?
Who so blind as the friend of God,

So blind as the servant of Jehovah?

Thou seest many things, but regardest them not;
Thou hast thine ears open, but hearest not!

It pleased Jehovah for his goodness' sake

To give him a law, great and glorious;

•

And yet it is a robbed and plundered people," &c.

Here, I suppose, all will admit that it is the people of God which is called the servant, friend, and messenger of Jehovah; his messenger to defend the cause of religion and to give light to the nations, and yet indifferent and blind in regard to the indications of Divine Providence having reference to their restoration, and consequently remaining a robbed and plundered people. The servant who is deaf and blind is also, in verse eighteenth, addressed in the plural number, "Hear, O ye deaf! and look, ye blind," &c. But if in verses 18-22 the Servant of God denotes the people of God, I do not see how we can escape the conclusion, that it has the same meaning in the first seven verses of this same chapter. No writer would employ a phrase in such a close connection, and with such similar accompaniments, without attaching to it the same meaning. Neither is it easy to see in what sense the epithets “deaf” and “blind" could be applied to Jesus Christ. It may also be remarked that the explanation of ch. xlii. 1, as denoting the people of God, is the most ancient explanation of the passage which is now extant. The Sept. version interpolates "Jacob" and "Israel" into the first verse.

Ἰακώβ, ὁ παῖς μου, ἀντιλήψομαι αὐτοῦ·

Ἰσραὴλ, ὁ ἐκλεκτός μου, προσεδέξατο αὐτὸν ἡ ψυχή μου.

We now proceed to the next chapter, xliii. Here, at the beginning of the chapter, we still find the Supreme Being represented as addressing his chosen people, personified as a single man :—

"But now thus saith Jehovah, that created thee, O Jacob,

That formed thee, O Israel:

Fear not, for I have redeemed thee;

I have called thee by name; thou art mine!"

In the same strain God is represented as speaking, until we come to verse tenth, where He says:—

"Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah,
And my servant whom I have chosen,
That ye may know and believe me,
And understand that I am He.
Before me was no God formed,

And after me there shall be none."

Israel is here addressed at the same time in the singular and the plural. "Ye are my witnesses," and "ye are my servant whom I have chosen." The passage thus corresponds with, and confirms, the previous representation of Israel as a collective body personified as an individual, and constituted God's servant for the purpose of knowing that of which foreign nations were ignorant, and bearing witness of it.

We now come to ch. xliv.

Here, in verses 1, 2, we read:

"Yet now hear, O Jacob, my servant,

And Israel, whom I have chosen;

Thus saith Jehovah, thy Creator,

He that formed thee, and hath helped thee from thy birth:

Fear not, O Jacob, my servant,

Jeshurun, whom I have chosen."

Then in the eighth verse:

"Ye are my witnesses;

Is there a God beside me

Yea, there is no other rock; I know not any."

Here Israel, the people of God, is still represented as an individual prophet, having God's spirit, his chosen servant, as bearing witness for God, &c.

Now turn to ch. xlviii. 20:

"Come

ye
forth from Babylon, flee ye from the land of the Chaldæans
with the voice of joy!

Publish ye this, and make it known;

Let it resound to the ends of the earth!

Say, 'Jehovah hath redeemed his servant Jacob.'

The people of God is still personified as a single man, the Servant of God.

Then, two verses beyond, in ch xlix. 1 -9, we have the following remarkable passage: —

"Listen to me, ye distant lands;
Attend, ye nations from afar!
Jehovah called me at my birth;

In my very childhood he called me by name.
He made my mouth like a sharp sword;

In the shadow of his hand did he hide me;
He made me a polished shaft;

In his quiver did he hide me.

He said to me, Thou art my servant;
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.

Then I said, I have labored in vain;

For naught, for vanity have I spent my strength;

Yet my cause is with Jehovah,

And my reward with my God.

And now thus saith Jehovah,

Who formed me from my birth to be his servant,

To bring Jacob to him again,

And that Israel might be gathered to him,

For I am honored in the eyes of Jehovah,

And my God is my strength,

He said, It is a small thing that thou shouldst be my servant

To raise up the tribes of Jacob,

And to restore the preserved of Israel;

I will also make thee the light of the nations,

That my salvation may reach the ends of the earth.

Thus saith Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One,

To him that is despised by men, abhorred by the people,
To the servant of tyrants:

Kings shall see, and stand up,

Princes, and they shall pay homage

On account of Jehovah, who is faithful,

The Holy One of Israel, who hath chosen thee.

Thus saith Jehovah:

In the time of favor will I hear thee;

And in the day of deliverance will I help thee;

I will preserve thee, and make thee a mediator for the people,
To restore the land, to distribute the desolated inheritances;

To say to the prisoners, Go forth!

To them that are in darkness, Come to the light!

They shall feed in the ways,

And on all high places shall be their pasture."

It is evident that the same "Servant of God," his chosen people, is here represented by the prophet as speaking in the first person. The personification is here carried to such an extreme, that it is