self to chastise his people, with cruelty in regard to them. They exceeded the bounds of justice and humanity in oppressing and destroying them; and though they were really executing the righteous decree of God, yet, as far as it regarded themselves, they were only indulging their own ambition and violence. The prophet Zechariah sets this matter in the same light: "I was but a little angry, and they helped forward to affliction." Ch. i. 15. 7. Because thou didst not-] For y, read by ; edition. And for п, the latter end of it, read so thirteen MSS. and two editions, and Vulg. so two MSS. and one 8, thy latter end: 9. On a sudden-] Instead of an, in their perfection, as our translation renders it, the LXX. and Syr. read in the copies, from which they translated, no; suddenly; parallel to y, in a moment, in the preceding alternate member of the sentence. The concurrent testimony of LXX. and Syr. favoured by the context, may be safely opposed to the authority of the present text. Ibid. Notwithstanding the multitude-] ; for this sense of the particle, see NUM. xiv. 11. 11. how to deprecate] nw : so the Chaldee renders it; which is approved by Jarchi on the place; and Michaelis, Epim. in Prælect. xix. see Ps. lxxviii. 34. Ibid. "Videtur in fine [hujus commatis] deesse verbum, ut hoc membrum prioribus respondeat. SECKER. In order to set in a proper light this judicous remark, it is necessary to give the reader an exact verbal translation of the whole verse: "And evil shall come upon thee, thou shalt not know how to deprecate it; And mischief shall fall upon thee, thou shalt not be able to expiate it; And destruction shall come suddenly upon thee, thou shalt not know”What? how to escape, to avoid it, to be delivered from it; (perhaps л, TODD, JER. Xi. 11.) I am persuaded, that a phrase is here lost out of the text. But as the ancient versions retain no traces of it, and a wide field lies open to uncertain conjecture, I have not attempted to fill up the chasm n; but have in the translation, as others have done before me, palliated and disguised the defect, which I cannot with any assurance pretend to supply. 13. What are the events .so the LXX : מה אשר read מאשר For 15. -to his own business] 15, expositors give no very good account of this word in this place. In a MS. it was first 1729, which is probably the true reading. The sense however is pretty much the same with the common interpretation. CHAP. XLVIII. 1. Ye that flow from the fountain of Judah] DD, from the waters. "Perhaps yon, from the bowels, [so many others have conjectured,] or [7717] *ID, or MTD, from Judah." SECKER. But see Michaelis in Prælect. Not. 22. And we have apys ry, the fountain of Jacob, Deut. xxxiii. 28. and 3¬¬ppa, from the fountain of Israel, Ps. lxviii. 27. twenty-seven MSS. and three editions, have pn, from the days; which makes no good sense. 6. behold the whole is accomplished] For , see, a MS. has, this ; thou hast heard the whole of this: the Syriac has nm, thou hast heard, and thou hast seen, the whole. Perhaps it should be nan, behold. In order to express the full sense, I have rendered it somewhat paraphrastically. 9. And for the sake of my praise] I read nn was. The word pr3, though not absolutely necessary here, for it may be understood as supplied from the preceding member, yet seems to have been removed from hence to ver. 11; where it is redundant, and where it is not repeated, in LXX. Syr. and a MS. I have therefore omitted it in the latter place; and added it here. 10. I have tried thee-] For TM, I have chosen thee, a MS. has , I have tried thee. And so perhaps read the Syriac and Chaldee interpreters: they retain the same word na; but in those languages it signifies, I have tried thee., quasi argentum. Vulg. 11. for how would my name be blasphemed ?] The word nw, my name is dropt out of the text: it is supplied by a MS. which has w; and by LXX. oti te ɛmov ovoμa ßebnλstai. The Syr. and Vulg. get over the difficulty, by making the verb in the first person: that I may not be blasphemed. 12. O Jacob, my servant] After app, a MS. and the two old editions of 1486, and 1488, add the word Ty, which is lost out of the present text; and there is a rasure in its place in another ancient MS. The Jerusalem Talmud has the same word. Ibid. For 88, even I, two ancient MSS. and the ancient versions, read ***, and I; more properly. 14. Who among you-] For On, among them, twenty-one MSS. (nine ancient,) and two editions, (one of them that of the year 1488,) have □2, among you and so the Syriac. Ibid. He, whom JEHOVAH hath loved, will execute] That is Cyrus: so Symmachus has well rendered it. Ὁν ὁ Κύριος ηγάπησε, ποιήσει το θέλημα αυτού. Ibid. on the Chaldeans] The preposition is lost; it is supplied in the edition of 1486, which has : and so Chald and Vulg. 16. Draw near unto me, and hear ye this] After the word 12p, draw near, a MS. adds □, O ye nations; which, as this, and the two preceding verses are plainly addressed to the idolatrous nations, reproaching their gods, as unable to predict future events, is probably genuine. Ibid. —and hear-] A MS. adds the conjunction, wow); and so LXX. Syr. Vulg. Ibid. —I have not spoken in secret] The Alexandrine copy of LXX. adds here, oude ev rowg yng oxoteng, nor in a dark place of the earth, as in xlv. 19. That it stands rightly, or at least stood very early, in this place of the version of the LXX. is highly probable; because it is acknowledged by the Arabic version, and by the Coptic, MS. St. Germain de Prez, Paris, translated likewise from the LXX. But whether it should be inserted, as of right belonging to the Hebrew text, may be doubted; for a transcriber of the Greek version might easily add it by memory from the parallel place; and it is not necessary to the sense. Ibid. —when it began to exist] An ancient MS. has □n, they began to exist and so another had it at first. : Ibid. I had decreed it] I take □ for a verb, not an adverb. Ibid. And now the Lord JEHOVAH hath sent me, and his Spirit] Tiss εν τῷ Ησαια λίγων ; και νυν Κύριος απέσειλε με και το 'Πνευμα αυτού· εν ώ αμφιβόλου οντος του ῥητου, πότερον ὁ Πατηρ και το Αγιον Πνευμα απέσειλαν τον Ιησουν, η ὁ Πατηρ απέςειλε τον τε Χρισον και το Αγιον Πνευμα· το δεύτερον εσιν αληθες. σε Who is it, that saith in Isaiah, And now the Lord hath sent me and his spirit? in which, as the expression is ambiguous, is it the Father and the Holy Spirit who have sent Jesus; or the Father, who hath sent both Christ and the Holy Spirit? The latter is the true interpretation." Origen. cont. Cels. lib. i. I have kept to the order of the words of the original, on purpose that the ambiguity, which Origen remarks in the version of LXX. and which is the same in the Hebrew, might still remain, and the sense, which he gives to it, be offered to the reader's judgement; which is wholly excluded in our vulgar trans, lation. 18. like the river] That is, the Euphrates. בצאצאי מעי הים והם הדנים [like that of the bowels thereof- .19 "As the issue of the bowels of the sea; that is, the fishes." Salom. b. Melec. And so likewise Aben Ezra, Jarchi, Kimchi, &c. Ibid. Thy name] For wow, his name, the LXX. had in the copy from which they translated ow, thy name. 20. and make it heard-] Twenty-seven MSS. (ten ancient) and one edition, prefix to the verb the conjunction 1, wa#M). 21. They thirsted not in the deserts-] Kimchi has a surprising observation upon this placc: "If the prophecy," says he, "relates to the return from the Babylonish captivity, as it seems to do, it is to be wondered, how it comes to pass, that in the book of Ezra, in which he gives an account of their return, no mention is made, that such miracles were wrought for them; as, for instance, that God clave the rock for them in the desert." It is really much to be wondered, that one of the most learned and judicious of the Jewish expositors of the Old Testament, having advanced so far in a large comment on Isaiah, should appear to be totally ignorant of the prophet's manner of writing; of the parabolic style, which prevails in the writings of all the prophets; and more particularly in the prophecy of Isaiah ; which abounds throughout in parabolic images from the beginning to the end; from "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth," to "the worm and the fire" in the last verse. And how came he to keep his wonderment to himself so long? Why did he not expect, that the historian should have related, how, as they passed through the desert, cedars, pines, and olive trees shot up at once on the side of the way to shade them; and that in. stead of briers and brambles the acacia and the myrtle sprung up under their feet, according to God's promises, chap. xli. 19, and lv. 13? These and a multitude of the like parabolical or poetical images were never intended to be understood literally. All that the prophet designed in this place, and which he has executed in the most elegant manner, was an amplification and illustration of the gracious care and protection of God, vouchsafed to his people in their return from Babylon, by an allusion to the miraculous Exodus from Egypt. See De S. Poesi Hebr. Præl. ix. 22 There is no peace, saith JEHOVAH, to the wicked.] See below note on chap. Ivii. 21. CHAP. XLIX. 1. Hearken unto me, O ye distant lands-] HITHERTO the subject of the prophecy has been chiefly confined to the redemption from the captivi, ty of Babylon; with strong intimations of a more important deliverance sometimes thrown in; to the refutation of idolatry; and the demonstration of the infinite power, wisdom, and foreknowledge of God. The character and office of the Messiah was exhibited in general terms at the beginning of chap. xlii. but here he is introduced in person, declaring the full extent of his commission; which is not only to restore the Israelites, and reconcile them to their Lord and Father, from whom they had so often revolted; but to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, to call them to the knowledge and obedience of the true God, and to bring them to be one church together with the Israelites, and to partake with them of the same common salvation procured for all by the great Redeemer and Reconciler of man to God. 2. And he hath made my mouth a sharp sword-] The servant of God, who speaks in the former part of this chapter, must be the Messiah. If any part of this character can, in any sense, belong to the prophet; yet in 66 some parts it must belong exclusively to Christ; and in all parts, to him in a much fuller and more proper sense. Isaiah's mission was to the Jews; not to distant nations, to whom the speaker in this place addresses himself. “He hath made my mouth a sharp sword :" " to reprove the wicked, and to denounce unto them punishment," says Jarchi, understanding it of Isaiah: but how much better does it suit him, who is represented as having a sharp two-edged sword going out of his mouth," REV. i. 16, who is himself the Word of God; which "Word is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." HEB. iv. 12. This mighty Agent and Instrument of God, " long laid up in store with him, and sealed up among his treasures," is at last revealed, and produced by his power, and under his protection, to execute his great and holy purposes: he is compared to a polished shaft stored in his quiver for use in his due time. The polished shaft denotes the same efficacious word, which is before represented by the sharp sword. The doctrine of the gospel pierced the hearts of its hearers, 'bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." The metaphor of the sword and the arrow, applied to powerful speech, is bold, yet just. It has been employed by the most ingenious heathen writers, if with equal elegance, not with equal force. It is said of Pericles by Aristophanes, (see Cicero Epist. ad Atticum xii. 6. Όντως εκηλεί, και μονος των ῥητορων Το κέντρον εγκατέλειπε τοις ακροωμένοις. His powerful speech Pierced the hearer's soul, and left behind Deep in his bosom its keen point infixt. Apud Diod. Lib. xii. Pindar is particularly fond of this metaphor, and frequently applies it to his own poetry: Επεχε νυν σκοπῳ τοξον, Αγε, θυμε. τινα βαλλομεν Εκ μαλθακας αυτε φρε νος ευκλέας οίςους Τεντες ; "Come on! thy brightest shafts prepare, Say, through what paths of liquid air Olymp. ii. 160. WEST. See also ver. 149, of the same ode, and Olymp. ix. 17, on the former of which places the Scholiast says, τροπικος ὁ λόγος· βελη δε τους λόγους είρηκε, δια το οξυ και καίριον των εγκωμίων. "He calls his verses shafts by a metaphor, signifying the acuteness and the application of his panegyric." This person who is, ver. 3, called Israel, cannot in any sense be Isaiah. That name in its original design and full import can only belong to him, who contended powerfully with God in behalf of mankind, and prevailed. GEN. xxxii. 28. |