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diff --git a/43672-8.txt b/43672-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 8d33381..0000000 --- a/43672-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,15426 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Expositor's Bible, by George Adam Smith - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Expositor's Bible - The Book of Isaiah, Volume II - -Author: George Adam Smith - -Editor: W. Robertson Nicoll - -Release Date: September 8, 2013 [EBook #43672] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE *** - - - - -Produced by Douglas L. Alley, III, Colin Bell and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE. - - - EDITED BY THE REV. - W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D., - _Editor of "The Expositor," etc._ - - - - - - THE BOOK OF ISAIAH. - VOL. II. - - - BY THE REV. - GEORGE ADAM SMITH, M.A., - - - - - =London:= - HODDER AND STOUGHTON, - 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. - - MDCCCXC. - - - - - THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE. - - EDITED BY THE REV. W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D. - - _Crown 8vo, cloth, price_ 7s. 6d. _each vol._ - - FIRST SERIES, 1887-88. - - -Colossians. - By A. MACLAREN, D.D. - -St. Mark. - By Very Rev. the Dean of Armagh. - -Genesis. - By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D. - -Samuel, I. - By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D. - -Samuel, II. - By the same Author. - -Hebrews. - By Principal T. C. EDWARDS, D.D. - - - SECOND SERIES, 1888-89. - -Galatians. - By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A. - -The Pastoral Epistles. - By Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D. - -Isaiah I.-XXXIX. - By G. A. SMITH, M.A. Vol. I. - -The Book of Revelation. - By Prof. W. MILLIGAN, D.D. - -1 Corinthians. - By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D. - -The Epistles of St. John. - By Rt. Rev. W. ALEXANDER, D.D. - - - THIRD SERIES, 1889-90. - -Judges and Ruth. - By Rev. R. A. WATSON, M.A. - -Jeremiah. - By Rev. C. J. BALL, M.A. - -Isaiah XL.-LXVI. - By G. A. SMITH, M.A. Vol. II. - -St. Matthew. - By Rev. J. MONRO GIBSON, D.D. - -Exodus. - By Very Rev. the Dean of Armagh. - -St. Luke. - By Rev. H. BURTON, B.A. - - - FOURTH SERIES, 1890-91. - -Ecclesiastes. - By Rev. SAMUEL COX, D.D. - -St. James and St. Jude. - By Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D. - -Proverbs. - By Rev. R. F. HORTON, M.A. - -Leviticus. - By Rev. S. H. KELLOGG, D.D. - -St. John. - By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D. Vol. I. - -The Acts of the Apostles. - By Rev. Prof. G. T. STOKES, D.D. - - LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON, 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. - - - - - THE - BOOK OF ISAIAH - - - - - BY THE REV. - GEORGE ADAM SMITH, M.A., - _Minister of Queen's Cross Church, Aberdeen_ - - - - - _IN TWO VOLUMES._ - VOL. II.--ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. - _WITH A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL FROM ISAIAH - TO THE EXILE._ - - - - - =LONDON:= - HODDER AND STOUGHTON, - 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. - - MDCCCXC. - - - - - _Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._ - - - - - CONTENTS. - - - PAGE - - TABLE OF DATES viii - - INTRODUCTION ix - - - BOOK I. - - _THE EXILE._ - - CHAP. - - I. THE DATE OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. 3 - - II. FROM ISAIAH TO THE FALL OF JERUSALEM 26 - 701-587 B.C. - - III. WHAT ISRAEL TOOK INTO EXILE 36 - - IV. ISRAEL IN EXILE 48 - FROM 597 TILL ABOUT 550 B.C. - - - BOOK II. - - _THE LORD'S DELIVERANCE._ - - V. THE PROLOGUE: THE FOUR HERALD VOICES 71 - ISAIAH xl. 1-11. - - VI. GOD: A SACRAMENT 87 - ISAIAH xl. 12-31. - - VII. GOD: AN ARGUMENT FROM HISTORY 106 - ISAIAH xli. - - VIII. THE PASSION OF GOD 132 - ISAIAH xlii. 13-17. - - IX. FOUR POINTS OF A TRUE RELIGION 143 - ISAIAH xliii.-xlviii. - - X. CYRUS 162 - ISAIAH xli. 2, 25; xliv. 28-xlv. 13; - xlvi. 11; xlviii. 14, 15. - - XI. BEARING OR BORNE 177 - ISAIAH xlvi. - - XII. BABYLON 189 - ISAIAH xlvii. - - XIII. THE CALL TO GO FORTH 205 - ISAIAH xlviii. - - XIV. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF ISRAEL AND THE - RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD 214 - ISAIAH xl.-lxvi. - - - BOOK III. - - _THE SERVANT OF THE LORD._ - - XV. ONE GOD, ONE PEOPLE 236 - ISAIAH xli. 8-20, xlii.-xliii. - - XVI. THE SERVANT OF THE LORD 252 - ISAIAH xli. 8-20; xlii. 1-7, 18 ff.; - xliii. 5-10; xlix. 1-9; l. 4-11; - lii. 13-liii. - - XVII. THE SERVANT OF THE LORD IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 278 - - XVIII. THE SERVICE OF GOD AND MAN 290 - ISAIAH xlii. 1-7. - - XIX. PROPHET AND MARTYR 313 - ISAIAH xlix. 1-9; l, 4-11. - - XX. THE SUFFERING SERVANT 336 - ISAIAH lii. 13-liii. - - - BOOK IV. - - _THE RESTORATION._ - - XXI. DOUBTS IN THE WAY 381 - ISAIAH xlix.-lii. 12. - - XXII. ON THE EVE OF RETURN 397 - ISAIAH liv.-lvi. 8. - - XXIII. THE REKINDLING OF THE CIVIC CONSCIENCE 408 - ISAIAH lvi. 9-lix. - - XXIV. SALVATION IN SIGHT 428 - ISAIAH lx.-lxiii. 7. - - XXV. A LAST INTERCESSION AND THE JUDGEMENT 445 - ISAIAH lxiii. 7-lxvi. - - INDEX OF CHAPTERS 469 - - INDEX OF SUBJECTS 471 - - - - - TABLE OF DATES. - - B.C. - - 721. Fall of Samaria. Captivity of Northern Israel. - - 701. Deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib. - - 696?-641. Reign of Manasseh. Supposed time of Isaiah's death. - - 630. Josiah's Reformation begun. - - 629 or 628. Jeremiah called to be a prophet. - - 621. The Book of Deuteronomy discovered. - - 607. Fall of Nineveh and Assyria. Babylon supreme. - - - THE EXILE. - - 599-598. Siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar. First Captivity of - the Jews. - - 594. Ezekiel begins to prophesy in Chaldea. - - 587. Destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar. Second Captivity - of the Jews. Flight of many Jews with Jeremiah to Egypt. - - 585. Battle of the Eclipse. Triple League: Babylon, Media, Lydia. - - 561. Nebuchadrezzar dies. Evil-Merodach succeeds. - - 559. Neriglissar succeeds Evil-Merodach. - - 554. Nabunahid or Nabonidos usurps the throne of Babylon. Harder - times for the Jews. - - 549. Fall of Median monarchy before Cyrus. - - 545. Cyrus attacks Babylonia from the north, and is repulsed. - Invades Lydia, and takes Sardis and King Croesus. - - 538. Cyrus captures Babylon. - - Permission to the Jews to return and rebuild Jerusalem. Zerubbabel, - Joshua. - - * * * * * - - 529. Cyrus dies. Cambyses sole king. - - 522. Cambyses dies. - - 521. Babylon revolts. Retaken by Darius. - - 486. Xerxes succeeds Darius. - - 466. Artaxerxes Longimanus. - - 458. Second great return of Jews. Ezra. - - 401. Revolt and defeat of Cyrus. The Anabasis. #/ - - - - - INTRODUCTION. - - -This volume upon Isaiah xl.-lxvi. carries on the exposition of the -Book of Isaiah from the point reached by the author's previous volume -in the same series. But as it accepts these twenty-seven chapters, -upon their own testimony, as a separate prophecy from a century and -a half later than Isaiah himself, in a style and on subjects not -altogether the same as his, and as it accordingly pursues a somewhat -different method of exposition from the previous volume, a few words -of introduction are again necessary. - -The greater part of Isaiah i.-xxxix. was addressed to a nation upon -their own soil,--with their temple, their king, their statesmen, -their tribunals and their markets,--responsible for the discharge of -justice and social reform, for the conduct of foreign policies and the -defence of the fatherland. But chs. xl.-lxvi. came to a people wholly -in exile, and partly in servitude, with no civic life and few social -responsibilities: a people in the passive state, with occasion for the -exercise of almost no qualities save those of penitence and patience, -of memory and hope. This difference between the two parts of the Book -is summed up in their respective uses of the word _Righteousness_. In -Isaiah i.-xxxix., or at least in such of these chapters as refer to -Isaiah's own day, righteousness is man's moral and religious duty, in -its contents of piety, purity, justice and social service. In Isaiah -xl.-lxvi. righteousness (except in a very few cases) is something -which the people expect from God--their historical vindication by His -restoral and reinstatement of them as His people. - -It is, therefore, evident that what rendered Isaiah's own -prophecies of so much charm and of so much meaning to the modern -conscience--their treatment of those political and social questions -which we have always with us--cannot form the chief interest of -chapters xl.-lxvi. But the empty place is taken by a series of -historical and religious questions of supreme importance. Into the -vacuum created in Israel's life by the Exile, there comes rushing -the meaning of the nation's whole history--all the conscience of -their past, all the destiny with which their future is charged. It -is not with the fortunes and duties of a single generation that -this great prophecy has to do: it is with a people in their entire -significance and promise. The standpoint of the prophet may be the -Exile, but his vision ranges from Abraham to Christ. Besides the -business of the hour,--the deliverance of Israel from Babylon,--the -prophet addresses himself to these questions: What is Israel? What -is Israel's God? How is Jehovah different from other gods? How is -Israel different from other peoples? He recalls the making of the -nation, God's treatment of them from the beginning, all that they and -Jehovah have been to each other and to the world, and especially the -meaning of this latest judgement of Exile. But the instruction and -the impetus of that marvellous past he uses in order to interpret and -proclaim the still more glorious future,--the ideal, which God has -set before His people, and in the realisation of which their history -shall culminate. It is here that the Spirit of God lifts the prophet -to the highest station in prophecy--to the richest consciousness of -spiritual religion--to the clearest vision of Christ. - -Accordingly, to expound Isaiah xl.-lxvi. is really to write the -religious history of Israel. A prophet whose vision includes both -Abraham and Christ, whose subject is the whole meaning and promise of -Israel, cannot be adequately interpreted within the limits of his own -text or of his own time. Excursions are necessary both to the history -that is behind him, and to the history that is still in front of -him. This is the reason of the appearance in this volume of chapters -whose titles seem at first beyond its scope--such as From Isaiah to -the Fall of Jerusalem: What Israel took into Exile: One God, One -People: The Servant of the Lord in the New Testament. Moreover, much -of this historical matter has an interest that is only historical. -If in Isaiah's own prophecies it is his generation's likeness to -ourselves, which appeals to our conscience, in chs. xl.-lxvi. of the -Book called by his name it is Israel's unique meaning and office for -God in the world, which we have to study. We are called to follow an -experience and a discipline unshared by any other generation of men; -and to interest ourselves in matters that then happened once for all, -such as the victory of the One God over the idols, or His choice of -a single people through whom to reveal Himself to the world. We are -called to watch work, which that representative and priestly people -did for humanity, rather than, as in Isaiah's own prophecies, work -which has to be repeated by each new generation in its turn, and -to-day also by ourselves. This is the reason why in an exposition of -Isaiah xl.-lxvi., like the present volume, there should be a good -deal more of historical recital, and a good deal less of practical -application, than in the exposition of Isaiah i.-xxxix. - -At the same time we must not suppose that there is not very much in -Isaiah xl.-lxvi. with which to stir our own consciences and instruct -our own lives. For, to mention no more, there is that sense of sin -with which Israel entered exile, and which has made the literature -of Israel's Exile the confessional of the world; there is that great -unexhausted programme of the Service of God and Man, which our -prophet lays down as Israel's duty and example to humanity; and there -is that prophecy of the virtue and glory of vicarious suffering for -sin, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ and His Cross. - -I have found it necessary to devote more space to critical questions -than in the previous volume. Chs. xl.-lxvi. approach more nearly -to a unity than chs. i.-xxxix.: with very few exceptions they lie -in chronological order. But they are not nearly so clearly divided -and grouped: their connection cannot be so briefly or so lucidly -explained. The form of the prophecy is dramatic, but the scenes -and the speakers are not definitely marked off. In spite of the -chronological advance, which we shall be able to trace, there are no -clear stages--not even, as we shall see, at those points at which -most expositors divide the prophecy, the end of ch. xlix. and of ch. -lviii. The prophet pursues simultaneously several lines of thought; -and though the close of some of these and the rise of others may be -marked to a verse, his frequent passages from one to another are -often almost imperceptible. He everywhere requires a more continuous -translation, a closer and more elaborate exegesis, than were -necessary for Isaiah i.-xxxix. - -In order to effect some general arrangement and division of Isa. -xl.-lxvi. it is necessary to keep in view that the immediate problem -which the prophet had before him was twofold. It was political, -and it was spiritual. There was, first of all, the deliverance of -Israel from Babylon, according to the ancient promises of Jehovah: -to this were attached such questions as Jehovah's omnipotence, -faithfulness and grace; the meaning of Cyrus; the condition of the -Babylonian Empire. But after their political deliverance from Babylon -was assured, there remained the really larger problem of Israel's -spiritual readiness for the freedom and the destiny to which God was -to lead them through the opened gates of their prison-house: to this -were attached such questions as the original calling and mission of -Israel; the mixed and paradoxical character of the people; their need -of a Servant from the Lord, since they themselves had failed to be -His Servant; the coming of this Servant, his methods and results. - -This twofold division of the prophet's problem will not, it is true, -strike his prophecy into separate and distinct groups of chapters. -He who attempts such a division simply does not understand "Second -Isaiah." But it will make clear to us the different currents of -the sacred argument, which flow sometimes through and through one -another, and sometimes singly and in succession; and it will give us -a plan for grouping the twenty-seven chapters very nearly, if not -quite, in the order in which they lie. - -On these principles, the following exposition is divided into Four -Books. The First is called THE EXILE: it contains an argument for -placing the date of the prophecy about 550 B.C., and brings the -history of Israel down to that date from the time of Isaiah; it -states the political and spiritual sides of the double problem to -which the prophecy is God's answer; it describes what Israel took -with them into exile, and what they learned and suffered there, -till, after half a century, the herald voices of our prophecy broke -upon their waiting ears. The Second Book, THE LORD'S DELIVERANCE, -discusses the political redemption from Babylon, with the questions -attached to it about God's nature and character, about Cyrus and -Babylon, or all of chs. xl.-xlviii., except the passages about -the Servant, which are easily detached from the rest, and refer -rather to the spiritual side of Israel's great problem. The Third -Book, THE SERVANT OF THE LORD, expounds all the passages on that -subject, both in chs. xl.-xlviii. and in chs. xlix.-liii., with the -development of the subject in the New Testament, and its application -to our life to-day. The Servant and his work are the solution of all -the spiritual difficulties in the way of the people's Return and -Restoration. To these latter and their practical details the rest of -the prophecy is devoted; that is, all chs. xlix.-lxvi., except the -passages on the Servant, and these chapters are treated in the Fourth -Book of this volume, THE RESTORATION. - -As much as possible of the merely critical discussion has been put -in Chapter I., or in the opening paragraphs of the other chapters, -or in foot-notes. A new translation from the original (except where -a few verses have been taken from the Revised English Version) has -been provided for nearly the whole prophecy. Where the rhythm of the -original is at all discernible, the translation has been made in it. -But it must be kept in mind that this reproduction of the original -rhythm is only approximate, and that in it no attempt has been made -to elegance; its chief aim being to make clear the order and the -emphases of the original. The translation is almost quite literal. - -Having felt the want of a clear account of the prophet's use of his -great key-word Righteousness, I have inserted for students, at the end -of Book II., a chapter on this term. Summaries of our prophet's use of -such cardinal terms as Mishpat, R'ishonoth, The Isles, etc., will be -found in notes. For want of space I have had to exclude some sections -on the Style of Isaiah, xl.-lxvi., on the Influence of Monotheism on -the Imagination, and on What Isaiah xl.-lxvi. owes to Jeremiah. This -debt, as we shall be able to trace, is so great that "Second Jeremiah" -would be a title no less proper for the prophecy than "Second Isaiah." - -I had also wished to append a chapter on Commentaries on the Book of -Isaiah. No Scripture has been so nobly served by its commentaries. To -begin with there was Calvin, and there is Calvin,--still as valuable -as ever for his strong spiritual power, his sanity, his moderation, -his sensitiveness to the changes and shades of the prophet's meaning. -After him Vitringa, Gesenius, Hitzig, Ewald, Delitzsch, all the great -names of the past in Old Testament criticism, are connected with -Isaiah. In recent years (besides Nägelsbach in Lange's _Bibelwerk_) -we have had Cheyne's two volumes, too well known both here and in -Germany to need more than mention; Bredenkamp's clear and concise -exposition, the characteristic of which is an attempt--not, however, -successful--to distinguish authentic prophecies of Isaiah in the -disputed chapters; Orelli's handy volume (in Strack and Zöckler's -compendious Commentary, and translated into English by Professor -Banks in Messrs. Clarks' Foreign Theological Library), from the -conservative side, but accepting, as Delitzsch does in his last -edition, the dual authorship; and this year Dillmann's great work, -replacing Knobel's in the "Kurzgefasstes Exegetisches Handbuch" -series. I regret that I did not receive Dillmann's work till more -than half of this volume was written. English students will have all -they can possibly need if they can add Dillmann to Delitzsch and -Cheyne, though Calvin and Ewald must never be forgotten. Professor -Driver's _Isaiah: His Life and Times_ is a complete handbook to the -prophet. On the theology, besides the relevant portions of Schultz's -_Alt-Testamentliche Theologie_ (4th ed., 1889), and Duhm's _Theologie -der Propheten_, the student will find invaluable Professor Robertson -Smith's _Prophets of Israel_ for Isaiah i.-xxxix., and Professor A. -B. Davidson's papers in the _Expositor_ for 1884 on the theology -of Isaiah xl.-lxvi. There are also Krüger's able and lucid _Essai -sur la Théologie d'Isaïe xl.-lxvi._ (Paris, 1882), and Guthe's _Das -Zukunftsbild Jesaias_, and Barth's and Giesebrecht's respective -_Beiträge zur Jesaiakritik_, the latter published this year. - -In conclusion, I have to express my thanks for the very great -assistance which I have derived in the composition of both volumes from -my friend the Rev. Charles Anderson Scott, B.A., who has sought out -facts, read nearly all the proofs and helped to prepare the Index. - - - - - BOOK I. - - _THE EXILE._ - - - - - - - CHAPTER I. - - _THE DATE OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI._ - - -The problem of the date of Isaiah xl.-lxvi. is this: In a book called -by the name of the prophet Isaiah, who flourished between 740 and 700 -B.C., the last twenty-seven chapters deal with the captivity suffered -by the Jews in Babylonia from 598 to 538, and more particularly with -the advent, about 550, of Cyrus, whom they name. Are we to take for -granted that Isaiah himself prophetically wrote these chapters, or -must we assign them to a nameless author or authors of the period of -which they treat? - -Till the end of last century it was the almost universally accepted -tradition, and even still is an opinion retained by many, that Isaiah -was carried forward by the Spirit, out of his own age to the standpoint -of one hundred and fifty years later; that he was inspired to utter -the warning and comfort required by a generation so very different -from his own, and was even enabled to hail by name their redeemer, -Cyrus. This theory, involving as it does a phenomenon without parallel -in the history of Holy Scripture, is based on these two grounds: -_first_, that the chapters in question form a considerable part--nearly -nine-twentieths--of the "Book of Isaiah;" and _second_, that portions -of them are quoted in the New Testament by the prophet's name. The -theory is also supported by arguments drawn from resemblances of style -and vocabulary between these twenty-seven chapters and the undisputed -oracles of Isaiah; but, as the opponents of the Isaian authorship also -appeal to vocabulary and style, it will be better to leave this kind of -evidence aside for the present, and to discuss the problem upon other -and less ambiguous grounds. - -The first argument, then, for the Isaian authorship of chapters -xl.-lxvi. is that they form part of a book called by Isaiah's name. -But, to be worth anything, this argument must rest on the following -facts: that everything in a book called by a prophet's name is -necessarily by that prophet, and that the compilers of the book -intended to hand it down as altogether from his pen. Now there is no -evidence for either of these conclusions. On the contrary, there is -considerable testimony in the opposite direction. The Book of Isaiah -is not one continuous prophecy. It consists of a number of separate -orations, with a few intervening pieces of narrative. Some of these -orations claim to be Isaiah's own: they possess such titles as _The -vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz_.[1] But such titles describe only -the individual prophecies they head, and other portions of the book, -upon other subjects and in very different styles, do not possess -titles at all. It seems to me, that those, who maintain the Isaian -authorship of the whole book, have the responsibility cast upon them -of explaining why some chapters in it should be distinctly said to -be by Isaiah, while others should not be so entitled. Surely this -difference affords us sufficient ground for understanding, that the -whole book is not necessarily by Isaiah, nor intentionally handed -down by its compilers as the work of that prophet.[2] - -Now, when we come to chs. xl.-lxvi., we find that, occurring in a -book which we have just seen no reason for supposing to be in every -part of it by Isaiah, these chapters nowhere claim to be his. They -are separated from that portion of the book, in which his undisputed -oracles are placed, by a historical narrative of considerable length. -And there is not anywhere upon them nor in them a title nor other -statement that they are by the prophet, nor any allusion which could -give the faintest support to the opinion, that they offer themselves -to posterity as dating from his time. It is safe to say, that, if -they had come to us by themselves, no one would have dreamt for an -instant of ascribing them to Isaiah; for the alleged resemblances, -which their language and style bear to his language and style, are -far more than overborne by the undoubted differences, and have never -been employed, even by the defenders of the Isaian authorship, except -in additional and confessedly slight support of their main argument, -viz. that the chapters must be Isaiah's because they are included in -a book called by his name. - -Let us understand, therefore, at this very outset, that in discussing -the question of the authorship of "Second Isaiah," we are not -discussing a question, upon which the text itself makes any statement, -or into which the credibility of the text enters. No claim is made by -the Book of Isaiah itself for the Isaian authorship of chs. xl.-lxvi. - -A second fact in Scripture, which seems at first sight to make -strongly for the unity of the Book of Isaiah, is that in the New -Testament, portions of the disputed chapters are quoted by Isaiah's -name, just as are portions of his admitted prophecies. These -citations are nine in number.[3] None is by our Lord Himself. They -occur in the Gospels, Acts and Paul. Now if any of these quotations -were given in answer to the question, Did Isaiah write chs. xl.-lxvi. -of the book called by his name? or if the use of his name along -with them were involved in the arguments which they are borrowed to -illustrate (as, for instance, is the case with David's name in the -quotation made by our Lord from Psalm cx.), then those who deny the -unity of the Book of Isaiah would be face to face with a very serious -problem indeed. But in none of the nine cases is the authorship of -the Book of Isaiah in question. In none of the nine cases is there -anything in the argument, for the purpose of which the quotation has -been made, that depends on the quoted words being by Isaiah. For -the purposes, for which the Evangelists and Paul borrow the texts, -these might as well be unnamed, or attributed to any other canonical -writer. Nothing in them requires us to suppose that Isaiah's name is -mentioned with them for any other end than that of reference, viz., -to point out that they lie in the part of prophecy usually known -by his name. But, if there is nothing in these citations to prove -that Isaiah's name is being used for any other purpose than that of -reference, then it is plain--and this is all that we ask assent to at -the present time--that they do not offer the authority of Scripture -as a bar to our examining the evidence of the chapters in question. - -It is hardly necessary to add that neither is there any other -question of doctrine in our way. There is none about the nature of -prophecy, for, to take an example, ch. liii., as a prophecy of Jesus -Christ, is surely as great a marvel if you date it from the Exile -as if you date it from the age of Isaiah. And, in particular, let -us understand that no question need be started about the ability -of God's Spirit to inspire a prophet to mention Cyrus by name one -hundred and fifty years before Cyrus appeared. The question is not, -_Could_ a prophet have been so inspired?--to which question, were it -put, our answer might only be, God is great!--but the question is, -_Was_ our prophet so inspired? does he himself offer evidence of the -fact? Or, on the contrary, in naming Cyrus does he give himself out -as a contemporary of Cyrus, who already saw the great Persian above -the horizon? To this question only the writings under discussion can -give us an answer. Let us see what they have to say. - -Apart from the question of the date, no chapters in the Bible are -interpreted with such complete unanimity as Isa. xl.-xlviii. They -plainly set forth certain things as having already taken place--the -Exile and Captivity, the ruin of Jerusalem, and the devastation of -the Holy Land. Israel is addressed as having exhausted the time of -her penalty, and is proclaimed to be ready for deliverance. Some of -the people are comforted as being in despair because redemption -does not draw near; others are exhorted to leave the city of their -bondage, as if they were growing too familiar with its idolatrous -life. Cyrus is named as their deliverer, and is pointed out as -already called upon his career, and as blessed with success by -Jehovah. It is also promised that he will immediately add Babylon to -his conquests, and so set God's people free. - -Now all this is not predicted, as if from the standpoint of a previous -century. It is nowhere said--as we should expect it to be said, if -the prophecy had been uttered by Isaiah--that Assyria, the dominant -world-power of Isaiah's day, was to disappear and Babylon to take her -place; that then the Babylonians should lead the Jews into an exile -which they had escaped at the hands of Assyria; and that after nearly -seventy years of suffering God would raise up Cyrus as a deliverer. -There is none of this prediction, which we might fairly have expected -had the prophecy been Isaiah's; because, however far Isaiah carries -us into the future, he never fails to start from the circumstances of -his own day. Still more significant, however--there is not even the -kind of prediction that we find in Jeremiah's prophecies of the Exile, -with which indeed it is most instructive to compare Isa. xl.-lxvi. -Jeremiah also spoke of exile and deliverance, but it was always with -the grammar of the future. He fairly and openly predicted both; and, -let us especially remember, he did so with a meagreness of description, -a reserve and reticence about details, which are simply unintelligible -if Isa. xl.-lxvi. was written before his day, and by so well-known -a prophet as Isaiah. No: in the statements, which our chapters make -concerning the Exile and the condition of Israel under it, there is -no prediction, not the slightest trace of that grammar of the future -in which Jeremiah's prophecies are constantly uttered. But there is -a direct appeal to the conscience of a people already long under the -discipline of God; their circumstance of exile is taken for granted; -there is a most vivid and delicate appreciation of their present fears -and doubts, and to these the deliverer Cyrus is not only named, but -introduced as an actual and notorious personage already upon the midway -of his irresistible career. - -These facts are more broadly based than just at first sight appears. -You cannot turn their flank by the argument that Hebrew prophets were -in the habit of employing in their predictions what is called "the -prophetic perfect"--that is, that in the ardour of their conviction -that certain things would take place they talked of these, as the -flexibility of the Hebrew tenses allowed them to do, in the past or -perfect as if the things had actually taken place. No such argument -is possible in the case of the introduction of Cyrus. For it is not -only that the prophecy, with what might be the mere ardour of vision, -represents the Persian as already above the horizon and upon the -flowing tide of victory; but that, in the course of a sober argument -for the unique divinity of the God of Israel, which takes place -throughout chs. xli.-xlviii., Cyrus, alive and irresistible, already -accredited by success, and with Babylonia at his feet, is pointed out -as the unmistakable proof that _former_ prophecies of a deliverance for -Israel are at last coming to pass. Cyrus, in short, is not presented as -a prediction, but as the proof that a prediction is being fulfilled. -Unless he had already appeared in flesh and blood, and was on the point -of striking at Babylon, with all the prestige of unbroken victory, a -great part of Isa. xli.-xlviii. would be utterly unintelligible. - -This argument is so conclusive for the date of Second Isaiah, that it -may be well to state it a little more in detail, even at the risk of -anticipating some of the exposition of the text. - -Among the Jews at the close of the Exile there appear to have been -two classes. One class was hopeless of deliverance, and to their -hearts is addressed such a prophecy as ch. xl.: _Comfort ye, comfort -ye My people_. But there was another class, of opposite temperament, -who had only too strong opinions on the subject of deliverance. In -bondage to the letter of Scripture and to the great precedents of -their history, these Jews appear to have insisted that the Deliverer -to come must be a Jew, and a descendant of David. And the bent of -much of the prophet's urgency in ch. xlv. is to persuade those -pedants, that the Gentile Cyrus, who had appeared to be not only -the biggest man of his age, but the very likely means of Israel's -redemption, was of Jehovah's own creation and calling. Does not such -an argument necessarily imply that Cyrus was already present, an -object of doubt and debate to earnest minds in Israel? Or are we to -suppose that all this doubt and debate were foreseen, rehearsed and -answered one hundred and fifty years before the time by so famous a -prophet as Isaiah, and that, in spite of his prediction and answer, -the doubt and debate nevertheless took place in the minds of the very -Israelites, who were most earnest students of ancient prophecy? The -thing has only to be stated to be felt to be impossible. - -But besides the pedants in Israel, there is apparent through these -prophecies another body of men, against whom also Jehovah claims the -actual Cyrus for His own. They are the priests and worshippers of the -heathen idols. It is well known that the advent of Cyrus cast the -Gentile religions of the time and their counsellors into confusion. The -wisest priests were perplexed; the oracles of Greece and Asia Minor -either were dumb when consulted about the Persian, or gave more than -usually ambiguous answers. Over against this perplexity and despair -of the heathen religions, our prophet confidently claims Cyrus for -Jehovah's own. In a debate in ch. xli., in which he seeks to establish -Jehovah's righteousness--that is, Jehovah's faithfulness to His word, -and power to carry out His predictions--the prophet speaks of ancient -prophecies which have come from Jehovah, and points to Cyrus as their -fulfilment. It does not matter to us in the meantime what those -prophecies were. They may have been certain of Jeremiah's predictions; -we may be sure that they cannot have contained anything so definite -as Cyrus' name, or such a proof of Divine foresight must certainly -have formed part of the prophet's plea. It is enough that they could -be quoted; our business is rather with the evidence which the prophet -offers of their fulfilment. That evidence is Cyrus. Would it have been -possible to refer the heathen to Cyrus as proof that those ancient -prophecies were being fulfilled, unless Cyrus had been visible to the -heathen,--unless the heathen had been beginning already to feel this -Persian "from the sunrise" in all his weight of war? It is no esoteric -doctrine which the prophet is unfolding to initiated Israelites about -Cyrus. He is making an appeal to men of the world to face facts. Could -he possibly have made such an appeal unless the facts had been _there_, -unless Cyrus had been within the ken of "the natural man"? Unless -Cyrus and his conquests were already historically present, the argument -in xli.-xlviii. is unintelligible. - -If this evidence for the exilic date of Isa. xl.-xlviii.--for all these -chapters hang together--required any additional support, it would -find it in the fact that the prophet does not wholly treat of what is -past and over, but makes some predictions as well. Cyrus is on the -way of triumph, but Babylon has still to fall by his hand. Babylon -has still to fall, before the exiles can go free. Now, if our prophet -were predicting from the standpoint of one hundred and forty years -before, why did he make this sharp distinction between two events which -appeared so closely together? If he had both the advent of Cyrus and -the fall of Babylon in his long perspective, why did he not use "the -prophetic perfect" for both? That he speaks of the first as past and -of the second as still to come, would most surely, if there had been -no tradition the other way, have been accepted by all as sufficient -evidence, that the advent of Cyrus was behind him and the fall of -Babylon still in front of him, when he wrote these chapters. - -Thus the earlier part, at least, of Isa. xl.-lxvi.--that is, chs. -xl.-xlviii.--compels us to date it between 555, Cyrus' advent, and -538, Babylon's fall. But some think that we may still further narrow -the limits. In ch. xli. 25, Cyrus, whose own kingdom lay east of -Babylonia, is described as invading Babylonia from the north. This, -it has been thought, must refer to his union with the Medes in 549, -and his threatened descent upon Mesopotamia from their quarter of -the prophet's horizon.[4] If it be so, the possible years of our -prophecy are reduced to eleven, 549-538. But even if we take the -wider and more certain limit, 555 to 538, we may well say that there -are very few chapters in the whole of the Old Testament whose date -can be fixed so precisely as the date of chs. xl.-xlviii. - -If what has been unfolded in the preceding paragraphs is recognised -as the statement of the chapters themselves, it will be felt that -further evidence of an exilic date is scarcely needed. And those, who -are acquainted with the controversy upon the evidence furnished by -the style and language of the prophecies, will admit how far short -in decisiveness it falls of the arguments offered above. But we -may fairly ask whether there is anything opposed to the conclusion -we have reached, either, _first_, in the local colour of the -prophecies; or, _second_, in their language; or, _third_, in their -thought--anything which shows that they are more likely to have been -Isaiah's than of exilic origin. - -1. It has often been urged against the exilic date of these -prophecies, that they wear so very little local colour, and one -of the greatest of critics, Ewald, has felt himself, therefore, -permitted to place their home, not in Babylonia, but in Egypt, while -he maintains the exilic date. But, as we shall see in surveying the -condition of the exiles, it was natural for the best among them, -their psalmists and prophets, to have no eyes for the colours of -Babylon. They lived inwardly; they were much more the inhabitants -of their own broken hearts than of that gorgeous foreign land; when -their thoughts rose out of themselves it was to seek immediately the -far-away Zion. How little local colour is there in the writings of -Ezekiel! Isa. xl.-lxvi. has even more to show; for indeed the absence -of local colour from our prophecy has been greatly exaggerated. -We shall find as we follow the exposition, break after break of -Babylonian light and shadow falling across our path,--the temples, -the idol-manufactories, the processions of images, the diviners -and astrologers, the gods and altars especially cultivated by the -characteristic mercantile spirit of the place; the shipping of that -mart of nations, the crowds of her merchants; the glitter of many -waters, and even that intolerable glare, which so frequently curses -the skies of Mesopotamia (xlix. 10). The prophet speaks of the -hills of his native land with just the same longing, that Ezekiel -and a probable psalmist of the Exile[5] betray,--the homesickness -of a highland-born man whose prison is on a flat, monotonous plain. -The beasts he mentions have for the most part been recognised as -familiar in Babylonia; and while the same cannot be said of the -trees and plants he names, it has been observed that the passages, -into which he brings them, are passages where his thoughts are -fixed on the restoration to Palestine.[6] Besides these, there are -many delicate symptoms of the presence, before the prophet, of a -people in a foreign land, engaged in commerce, but without political -responsibilities, each of which, taken by itself, may be insufficient -to convince, but the reiterated expression of which has even betrayed -commentators, who lived too early for the theory of a second Isaiah, -into the involuntary admission of an exilic authorship. It will -perhaps startle some to hear John Calvin quoted on behalf of the -exilic date of these prophecies. But let us read and consider this -statement of his: "Some regard must be had to the time when this -prophecy was uttered; for since the rank of the kingdom had been -obliterated, and the name of the royal family had become mean and -contemptible, during the captivity in Babylon, it might seem as if -through the ruin of that family the truth of God had fallen into -decay; and therefore he bids them contemplate by faith the throne of -David, which had been cast down."[7] - -2. What we have seen to be true of the local colour of our prophecy, -holds good also of its style and language. There is nothing in -either of these to commit us to an Isaian authorship, or to make an -exilic date improbable; on the contrary, the language and style, -while containing no stronger nor more frequent resemblances to the -language and style of Isaiah than may be accounted for by the natural -influence of so great a prophet upon his successors, are signalised by -differences from his undisputed oracles, too constant, too subtle, and -sometimes too sharp, to make it at all probable that the whole book -came from the same man. On this point it is enough to refer our readers -to the recent exhaustive and very able reviews of the evidence by Canon -Cheyne in the second volume of his Commentary, and by Canon Driver in -the last chapter of _Isaiah: His Life and Times_, and to quote the -following words of so great an authority as Professor A. B. Davidson. -After remarking on the difference in vocabulary of the two parts of -the Book of Isaiah, he adds that it is not so much words in themselves -as the peculiar uses and combinations of them, and especially "the -peculiar articulation of sentences and the movement of the whole -discourse, by which an impression is produced so unlike the impression -produced by the earlier parts of the book."[8] - -3. It is the same with the thought and doctrine of our prophecy. -In this there is nothing to make the Isaian authorship probable, -or an exilic date impossible. But, on the contrary, whether we -regard the needs of the people or the analogies of the development -of their religion, we find that, while everything suits the Exile, -nearly everything is foreign both to the subjects and to the methods -of Isaiah. We shall observe the items of this as we go along, but -one of them may be mentioned here (it will afterwards require a -chapter to itself), our prophet's use of the terms _righteous_ and -_righteousness_. No one, who has carefully studied the meaning which -these terms bear in the authentic oracles of Isaiah, and the use to -which they are put in the prophecies under discussion, can fail to -find in the difference a striking corroboration of our argument--that -the latter were composed by a different mind than Isaiah's, speaking -to a different generation.[9] - - * * * * * - -To sum up this whole argument. We have seen that there is no evidence -in the Book of Isaiah to prove that it was all by himself, but much -testimony which points to a plurality of authors; that chs. xl.-lxvi. -nowhere assert themselves to be by Isaiah; and that there is no -other well-grounded claim of Scripture or of doctrine on behalf of -his authorship. We have then shown that chs. xl.-xlviii. do not only -present the Exile as if nearly finished and Cyrus as if already come, -while the fall of Babylon is still future; but that it is essential to -one of their main arguments that Cyrus should be standing before Israel -and the world, as a successful warrior, on his way to attack Babylon. -That led us to date these chapters between 555 and 538. Turning then to -other evidence,--the local colour they show, their language and style, -and their theology,--we have found nothing which conflicts with that -date, but, on the contrary, a very great deal, which much more agrees -with it than with the date, or with the authorship, of Isaiah. - -It will be observed, however, that the question has been limited to -the earlier chapters of the twenty-seven under discussion, viz., to -xl.-xlviii. Does the same conclusion hold good of xlix. to lxvi.? This -can be properly discovered only as we closely follow their exposition; -it is enough in the meantime to have got firm footing on the Exile. We -can feel our way bit by bit from this standpoint onwards. Let us now -merely anticipate the main features of the rest of the prophecy. - -A new section has been marked by many as beginning with ch. xlix. -This is because ch. xlviii. concludes with a refrain: _There is no -peace, saith Jehovah, to the wicked_, which occurs again at the end -of ch. lvii., and because with ch. xlviii. Babylon and Cyrus drop -out of sight. But the circumstances are still those of exile, and, -as Professor Davidson remarks, ch. xlix. is parallel in thought to -ch. xlii., and also takes for granted the restoration of Israel -in ch. xlviii., proceeding naturally from that to the statement -of Israel's world-mission. Apart from the alternation of passages -dealing with the Servant of the Lord, and passages whose subject -is Zion--an alternation which begins pretty early in the prophecy, -and has suggested to some its composition out of two different -writings[10]--the first real break in the sequence occurs at ch. lii. -13, where the prophecy of the sin-bearing Servant is introduced. By -most critics this is held to be an insertion, for ch. liv. 1 follows -naturally upon ch. lii. 12, though it is undeniable that there is -also some association between chs. lii. 13-liii., and ch. liv.[11] In -chs. liv.-lv. we are evidently still in exile. It is in commenting on -a verse of these chapters that Calvin makes the admission of exilic -origin which has been quoted above. - -A number of short prophecies now follow, till the end of ch. lix. -is reached. These, as we shall see, make it extremely difficult to -believe in the original unity of "Second Isaiah." Some of them, -it is true, lie in evident circumstance of exile; but others are -undoubtedly of earlier date, reflecting the scenery of Palestine, -and the habits of the people in their political independence, with -Jehovah's judgement-cloud still unburst, but lowering. Such is ch. -lvi. 9-lvii., which regards the Exile as still to come, quotes the -natural features of Palestine, and charges the Jews with unbelieving -diplomacy--a charge not possible against them when they were in -captivity. But others of these short prophecies are, in the opinion -of some critics, post-exilic. Cheyne assigns ch. lvi. to after the -Return, when the temple was standing, and the duty of holding fasts -and sabbaths could be enforced, as it was enforced by Nehemiah. I -shall give, when we reach the passage, my reasons for doubting his -conclusion. The chapter seems to me as likely to have been written -upon the eve of the Return as after the Return had taken place. - -Ch. lvii., the eighteenth of our twenty-seven chapters, closes with -the same refrain as ch. xlviii., the ninth of the series: _There is no -peace, saith Jehovah, to the wicked._ Ch. lviii. has, therefore, been -regarded as beginning the third great division of the prophecy. But -here again, while there is certainly an advance in the treatment of the -subject, and the prophet talks less of the redemption of the Jews and -more of the glory of the restoration of Zion, the point of transition -is very difficult to mark. Some critics[12] regard ch. lviii. as -post-exilic; but when we come to it we shall find a number of reasons -for supposing it to belong, just as much as Ezekiel, to the Exile. Ch. -lix. is perhaps the most difficult portion of all, because it makes -the Jews responsible for civic justice in a way they could hardly be -conceived to be in exile, and yet speaks, in the language of other -portions of "Second Isaiah," of a deliverance that cannot well be other -than the deliverance from exile. We shall find in this chapter likely -marks of the fusion of two distinct addresses, making the conclusion -probable that it is Israel's earlier conscience which we catch here, -following her into the days of exile, and reciting her former guilt -just before pardon is assured. Chs. lx., lxi., and lxii. are certainly -exilic. The inimitable prophecy, ch. lxiii. 1-6, complete within -itself, and unique in its beauty, is either a promise given just before -the deliverance from a long captivity of Israel under heathen nations -(ver. 4), or an exultant song of triumph immediately after such a -deliverance has taken place. Ch. lxiii. 7-lxiv. implies a ruined temple -(ver. 10), but bears no traces of the writer being in exile. It has -been assigned to the period of the first attempts to rebuild Jerusalem -after the Return. Ch. lxv. has been assigned to the same date, and its -local colour interpreted as that of Palestine. But we shall find the -colour to be just as probably that of Babylon, and again I do not see -any certain proofs of a post-exilic date. Ch. lxvi., however, betrays -more evidence of being written after the Return. It divides into two -parts. In verses 1 to 4 the temple is still unbuilt, but the building -would seem to be already begun. In verses 5 to 24, the arrival of the -Jews in Palestine, the resumption of the life of the sacred community, -and the disappointments of the returned at the first meagre results, -seem to be implied. And the music of the book dies out in tones of -warning, that sin still hinders the Lord's work with His people. - - * * * * * - -This rapid survey has made two things sufficiently clear. _First_, -that while the bulk of chs. xl.-lxvi. was composed in Babylonia during -the Exile of the Jews, there are considerable portions which date from -before the Exile, and betray a Palestinian origin; and one or two -smaller pieces that seem--rather less evidently, however--to take for -granted the Return from the Exile. But, _secondly_, all these pieces, -which it seems necessary to assign to different epochs and authors, -have been arranged so as to exhibit a certain order and progress--an -order, more or less observed, of date, and a progress very apparent (as -we shall see in the course of exposition) of thought and of clearness -in definition. The largest portion, of whose unity we are assured and -whose date we can fix, is found at the beginning. Chs. xl.-xlviii. -are certainly by one hand, and may be dated, as we have seen, between -555 and 538--the period of Cyrus' approach to take Babylon. There -the interest in Cyrus ceases, and the thought of the redemption from -Babylon is mainly replaced by that of the subsequent Return. Along -with these lines, we shall discover a development in the prophecy's -great doctrine of the Servant of Jehovah. But even this dies away, as -if the experience of suffering and discipline were being replaced by -that of return and restoration; and it is Zion in her glory, and the -spiritual mission of the people, and the vengeance of the Lord, and the -building of the temple, and a number of practical details in the life -and worship of the restored community, which fill up the remainder of -the book, along with a few echoes from pre-exilic times. Can we escape -feeling in all this a definite design and arrangement, which fails to -be absolutely perfect, probably, from the nature of the materials at -the arranger's disposal? - -We are, therefore, justified in coming to the provisional conclusion, -that Second Isaiah is not a unity, in so far as it consists of a -number of pieces by different men, whom God raised up at various -times before, during, and after the Exile, to comfort and exhort -amid the shifting circumstance and tempers of His people; but that -it is a unity, in so far as these pieces have been gathered together -by an editor very soon after the Return from the Exile, in an order -as regular both in point of time and subject as the somewhat mixed -material would permit. It is in this sense that throughout this -volume we shall talk of "our prophet," or "the prophet;" up to ch. -xlix., at least, we shall feel that the expression is literally true; -after that it is rather an editorial than an original unity which -is apparent. In this question of unity the dramatic style of the -prophecy forms, no doubt, the greatest difficulty. Who shall dare to -determine of the many soliloquies, apostrophes, lyrics and other -pieces that are here gathered, often in want of any connection save -that of dramatic grouping and a certain sympathy of temper, whether -they are by the same author or have been collected from several -origins? We must be content to leave the matter uncertain. One great -reason, which we have not yet quoted, for supposing that the whole -prophecy is not by one man, is that if it had been his name would -certainly have come down with it. - -Do not let it be thought that such a conclusion, as we have been led -to, is merely a dogma of modern criticism. Here, if anywhere, the -critic is but the patient student of Scripture, searching for the -testimony of the sacred text about itself, and formulating that. -If it be found that such a testimony conflicts with ecclesiastical -tradition, however ancient and universal, so much the worse for -tradition. In Protestant circles, at least, we have no choice. _Litera -Scripta manet_. When we know that the only evidence for the Isaian -authorship of chs. xl.-lxvi. is tradition, supported by an unthinking -interpretation of New Testament citations, while the whole testimony -of these Scriptures themselves denies them to be Isaiah's, we cannot -help making our choice, and accepting the testimony of Scripture. Do -we find them any the less wonderful or Divine? Do they comfort less? -Do they speak with less power to the conscience? Do they testify with -more uncertain voice to our Lord and Saviour? It will be the task of -the following pages to show that, interpreted in connection with the -history out of which they themselves say that God's Spirit drew them, -these twenty-seven chapters become only more prophetic of Christ, and -more comforting and instructive to men, than they were before. - -But the remarkable fact is, that anciently tradition itself appears -to have agreed with the results of modern scholarship. The original -place of the Book of Isaiah in the Jewish canon seems to have been -after both Jeremiah and Ezekiel,[13] a fact which goes to prove that -it did not reach completion till a later date than the works of these -two prophets of the Exile. - -If now it be asked, Why should a series of prophecies written in -the Exile be attached to the authentic works of Isaiah? that is a -fair question, and one which the supporters of the exilic authorship -have the duty laid upon them of endeavouring to answer. Fortunately -they are not under the necessity of falling back, for want of other -reasons, on the supposition that this attachment was due to the error -of some scribe, or to the custom which ancient writers practised -of filling up any part of a volume, that remained blank when one -book was finished, with the writing of any other that would fit the -place.[14] The first of these reasons is too accidental, the second -too artificial, in face of the undoubted sympathy which exists among -all parts of the Book of Isaiah. Isaiah himself plainly prophesied of -an exile longer than his own generation experienced, and prophesied -of a return from it (ch. xi.). We saw no reason to dispute his claims -to the predictions about Babylon in chs. xxi. and xxxix. Isaiah's, -too, more than any other prophet's, were those great and final hopes -of the Old Testament--the survival of Israel and the gathering of -the Gentiles to the worship of Jehovah at Jerusalem. But it is for -the express purpose of emphasizing the immediate fulfilment of such -ancient predictions, that Isa. xl.-lxvi. were published. Although our -prophet has _new things to publish_, his first business is to show -that the _former things have come to pass_, especially the Exile, -the survival of a Remnant, the sending of a Deliverer, the doom of -Babylon. What more natural than to attach to his utterances those -prophecies, of which the events he pointed to were the vindication -and fulfilment? The attachment was the more easy to arrange that the -authentic prophecies had not passed from Isaiah's hand in a fixed -form. They do not bear those marks of their author's own editing, -which are borne by the prophecies both of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. It -is impossible to be dogmatic on the point. But these facts--that -our chapters are concerned, as no other Scriptures are, with the -fulfilment of previous prophecies; that it is the prophecies of -Isaiah which are the original and fullest prediction of the events -they are busy with; and that the form, in which Isaiah's prophecies -are handed down, did not preclude additions of this kind to -them--contribute very evident reasons why Isa. xl.-lxvi., though -written in the Exile, should be attached to Isa. i.-xxxix.[15] - - * * * * * - -Thus we present a theory of the exilic authorship of Isa. xl.-lxvi. -within itself complete and consistent, suited to all parts of the -evidence, and not opposed by the authority of any part of Scripture. -In consequence of its conclusion, our duty, before proceeding to the -exposition of the chapters, is twofold: first, to connect the time -of Isaiah with the period of the Captivity, and then to sketch the -condition of Israel in Exile. This we shall undertake in the next -three chapters. - - - NOTE TO CHAPTER I. - - Readers may wish to have a reference to other passages of this - volume, in which the questions of the date, authorship and - structure of Isaiah xl.-lxvi. are discussed. See pp. 65-68, 112, - 146 f., 212, 223; Introduction to Book III.; opening paragraphs - of ch. xviii. and of ch. xix., etc. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Chs. i., ii., etc. The only title that could be offered as -covering the whole book is that in ch. i., ver. 1: _The vision of -Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, -in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah._ -But this manifestly cannot apply to any but the earlier chapters, of -which Judah and Jerusalem are indeed the subjects. - -[2] There are, it will be remembered, certain narratives in the Book -of Isaiah, which are not by the prophet. They speak of him in the -third person (chs. vii., xxxvi.-xxxix.), while in other narratives -(chs. vi. and viii.) he speaks of himself in the first person. Their -presence is sufficient proof that the Book of Isaiah, in its extant -shape, did not come from Isaiah's hands, but was compiled by others. - -[3] Matt. iii. 3, viii. 17, xii. 17; Luke iii. 4, iv. 17; John i. 23, -xii. 38; Acts viii. 28; Rom. x. 16-20. - -[4] Driver's _Isaiah_, pp. 137, 139. - -[5] Psalm cxxi. - -[6] Driver's _Isaiah: His Life and Times_, p. 191. - -[7] Calvin on Isa. lv. 3. - -[8] So quoted by Driver (_Isaiah_, etc., p. 200), from the _British -and Foreign Evangelical Review_, 1879, p. 339. - -[9] See p. 223. - -[10] Professor Briggs' _Messianic Prophecy_, 339 ff. - -[11] Ewald is very strong on this. - -[12] Including Professor Cheyne, _Encyc. Britann._, article "Isaiah." - -[13] According to the arrangement given in the Talmud (Baba bathra, -f. 14, col. 2): "Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, the Twelve." Cf. Bleek, -_Introduction to Old Testament_, on Isaiah; Orelli's _Isaiah_, Eng. -ed., p. 214. - -[14] Robertson Smith, _The Old Testament in Jewish Church_, 109. - -[15] It is the theory of some, that although Isa. xl.-lxvi. dates -as a whole from the Exile, there are passages in it by Isaiah -himself, or in his style by pupils of his (Klostermann in Herzog's -_Encyclopædia_ and Bredenkamp in his _Commentary_). But this, while -possible, is beyond proof. - - - - - CHAPTER II. - - _FROM ISAIAH TO THE FALL OF JERUSALEM._ - - 701-587 B.C. - - -At first sight, the circumstances of Judah in the last ten years of -the seventh century present a strong resemblance to her fortunes -in the last ten years of the eighth. The empire of the world, to -which she belongs, is again divided between Egypt and a Mesopotamian -power. Syria is again the field of their doubtful battle, and the -question, to which of the two shall homage be paid, still forms the -politics of all her states. Judah still vacillates, intrigues and -draws down on herself the wrath of the North by her treaties with -Egypt. Again there is a great prophet and statesman, whose concern is -righteousness, who exposes both the immorality of his people and the -folly of their politics, and who summons the _evil from the North_ -as God's scourge upon Israel: Isaiah has been succeeded by Jeremiah. -And, as if to complete the analogy, the nation has once more passed -through a puritan reformation. Josiah has, even more thoroughly than -Hezekiah, effected the disestablishment of idols. - -Beneath this circumstantial resemblance, however, there is one -fundamental difference. The strength of Isaiah's preaching was bent, -especially during the closing years of the century, to establish the -inviolableness of Jerusalem. Against the threats of the Assyrian -siege, and in spite of his own more formidable conscience of his -people's corruption, Isaiah persisted that Zion should not be taken, -and that the people, though cut down to their roots, should remain -planted in the land,--the stock of an imperial nation in the latter -days. This prophecy was vindicated by the marvellous relief of -Jerusalem on the apparent eve of her capture in 701. But its echoes -had not yet died away, when Jeremiah to his generation delivered the -very opposite message. Round him the popular prophets babbled by -rote Isaiah's ancient assurances about Zion. Their soft, monotonous -repetitions lapped pleasantly upon the immovable self-confidence of -the people. But Jeremiah called down the storm. Even while prosperity -seemed to give him the lie, he predicted the speedy ruin of Temple -and City, and summoned Judah's enemies against her in the name of -the God, on whose former word she relied for peace. The contrast -between the two great prophets grows most dramatic in their conduct -during the respective sieges, of which each was the central figure. -Isaiah, alone steadfast in a city of despair, defying the taunts of -the heathen, rekindling within the dispirited defenders, whom the -enemy sought to bribe to desertion, the passions of patriotism and -religion, proclaiming always, as with the voice of a trumpet, that -Zion must stand inviolate; Jeremiah, on the contrary, declaring the -futility of resistance, counselling each citizen to save his own -life from the ruin of the state, in treaty with the enemy, and even -arrested as a deserter,--these two contrasting figures and attitudes -gather up the difference which the century had wrought in the -fortunes of the City of God. And so, while in 701 Jerusalem triumphed -in the Lord by the sudden raising of the Assyrian siege, three years -after the next century was out she twice succumbed to the Assyrian's -successor, and nine years later was totally destroyed. - -What is the reason of this difference, which a century sufficed -to work? Why was the sacredness of Judah's shrine not as much an -article of Jeremiah's as of Isaiah's creed,--as much an element of -Divine providence in 600 as in 700 B.C.? This is not a very hard -question to answer, if we keep in our regard two things--firstly, -the moral condition of the people, and, secondly, the necessities of -the spiritual religion, which was identified for the time with their -fortunes. - -The Israel, which was delivered into captivity at the word of -Jeremiah, was a people at once more hardened and more exhausted -than the Israel, which, in spite of its sin, Isaiah's efforts had -succeeded in preserving upon its own land. A century had come and -gone of further grace and opportunity, but the grace had been -resisted, the opportunity abused, and the people stood more guilty -and more wilful than ever before God. Even clearer, however, than the -deserts of the people was the need of their religion. That local and -temporary victory--after all, only the relief of a mountain fortress -and a tribal shrine--with which Isaiah had identified the will and -honour of Almighty God, could not be the climax of the history of -a spiritual religion. It was impossible for Monotheism to rest on -so narrow and material a security as that. The faith, which was to -overcome the world, could not be satisfied with a merely national -triumph. The time must arrive--were it only by the ordinary progress -of the years and unhastened by human guilt--for faith and piety -to be weaned from the forms of an earthly temple, however sacred; -for the individual--after all, the real unit of religion--to be -rendered independent of the community and cast upon his God alone; -and for this people, to whom the oracles of the living God had been -entrusted, to be led out from the selfish pride of guarding these -for their own honour--to be led out, were it through the breaches -of their hitherto inviolate walls, and amid the smoke of all that -was most sacred to them, so that in level contact with mankind they -might learn to communicate their glorious trust. Therefore, while the -Exile was undoubtedly the penance, which an often-spared but ever -more obdurate people had to pay for their accumulated sins, it was -also for the meek and the pure-hearted in Israel a step upwards even -from the faith and the results of Isaiah--perhaps the most effectual -step which Israel's religion ever took. Schultz has finely said: "The -proper Tragedy of History--doom required by long-gathering guilt, -and launched upon a generation which for itself is really turning -towards good--is most strikingly consummated in the Exile." Yes: but -this is only half the truth. The accomplishment of the moral tragedy -is really but one incident in a religious epic--the development of a -spiritual faith. Long-delaying Nemesis overtakes at last the sinners, -but the shock of the blows, which beat the guilty nation into -captivity, releases their religion from its material bonds. Israel on -the way to Exile is on the way to become Israel after the Spirit. - -With these principles to guide us, let us now, for a little, thread -our way through the crowded details of the decline and fall of the -Jewish state. - -Isaiah's own age had foreboded the necessity of exile for Judah. -There was the great precedent of Samaria, and Judah's sin was not -less than her sister's. When the authorities at Jerusalem wished -to put Jeremiah to death for the heresy of predicting the ruin of -the sacred city, it was pointed out in his defence that a similar -prediction had been made by Micah, the contemporary of Isaiah. And -how much had happened since then! The triumph of Jehovah in 701, -the stronger faith and purer practice, which had followed as long -as Hezekiah reigned, gave way to an idolatrous reaction under his -successor Manasseh. This reaction, while it increased the guilt of -the people, by no means diminished their religious fear. They carried -into it the conscience of their former puritanism--diseased, we might -say delirious, but not dead. Men felt their sin and feared Heaven's -wrath, and rushed headlong into the gross and fanatic exercises -of idolatry, in order to wipe away the one and avert the other. -It availed nothing. After an absence of thirty years the Assyrian -arms returned in full strength, and Manasseh himself was carried -captive across the Euphrates. But penitence revived, and for a time -it appeared as if it were to be at last valid for salvation. Israel -made huge strides towards their ideal life of a good conscience -and outward prosperity. Josiah, the pious, came to the throne. The -Book of the Law was discovered in 621, and king and people rallied -to its summons with the utmost loyalty. All the nation _stood to -the covenant_. The single sanctuary was vindicated, the high places -destroyed, the land purged of idols. There were no great military -triumphs, but Assyria, so long the accepted scourge of God, gave -signs of breaking up; and we can feel the vigour and self-confidence, -induced by years of prosperity, in Josiah's ambition to extend his -borders, and especially in his daring assault upon Necho of Egypt -at Megiddo, when Necho passed north to the invasion of Assyria. -Altogether, it was a people that imagined itself righteous, and -counted upon a righteous God. In such days who could dream of exile? - -But in 608 the ideal was shivered. Israel was threshed at Megiddo, -and Josiah, the king after God's own heart, was slain on the field. -And then happened, what happened at other times in Israel's history -when disillusion of this kind came down. The nation fell asunder -into the elements of which it was ever so strange a composition. The -masses, whose conscience did not rise beyond the mere performance -of the Law, nor their view of God higher than that of a Patron of -the state, bound by His covenant to reward with material success the -loyalty of His clients, were disappointed with the results of their -service and of His providence. Being a new generation from Manasseh's -time, they thought to give the strange gods another turn. The idols -were brought back, and after the discredit which righteousness -received at Megiddo, it would appear that social injustice and crime -of many kinds dared to be very bold. Jehoahaz, who reigned for -three months after Josiah, and Jehoiakim, who succeeded him, were -idolaters. The loftier few, like Jeremiah, had never been deceived -by the people's outward allegiance to the Temple or the Law, nor -considered it valid either to atone for the past or now to fulfil -the holy demands of Jehovah; and were confirmed by the disaster at -Megiddo, and the consequent reaction to idolatry, in the stern and -hopeless views of the people which they had always entertained. They -kept reiterating a speedy captivity. Between these parties stood -the formal successors of earlier prophets, so much the slaves of -tradition that they had neither conscience for their people's sins -nor understanding of the world around them, but could only affirm in -the strength of ancient oracles that Zion should not be destroyed. -Strange is it to see how this party, building upon the promises of -Jehovah through a prophet like Isaiah, should be taken advantage of -by the idolaters, but scouted by Jehovah's own servants. Thus they -mingle and conflict. Who indeed can distinguish all the elements of -so ancient and so rich a life, as they chase, overtake and wrestle -with each other, hurrying down the rapids to the final cataract? Let -us leave them for a moment, while we mark the catastrophe itself. -They will be more easily distinguished in the calm below. - -It was from the North that Jeremiah summoned the vengeance of God -upon Judah. In his earlier threats he might have meant the Scythians; -but by 605, when Nebuchadrezzar, Nabopolassar of Babylon's son, the -rising general of the age, defeated Pharaoh at Carchemish, all men -accepted Jeremiah's nomination for this successor of Assyria in the -lordship of Western Asia. From Carchemish Nebuchadrezzar overran -Syria. Jehoiakim paid tribute to him, and Judah at last felt the grip -of the hand that was to drag her into exile. Jehoiakim attempted -to throw it off in 602; but, after harassing him for four years by -means of some allies, Nebuchadrezzar took his capital, executed him, -suffered Jehoiachin, his successor, to reign only three months, took -Jerusalem a second time, and carried off to Babylon the first great -portion of the people. This was in 598, only ten years from the death -of Josiah, and twenty-one from the discovery of the Book of the Law. - -The exact numbers of this first captivity of the Jews it is -impossible to determine. The annalist sets the soldiers at seven -thousand, the smiths and craftsmen at one thousand; so that, making -allowance for other classes whom he mentions, the grown men must -alone have been over ten thousand;[16] but how many women went, and -how many children--the most important factor for the period of the -Exile with which we have to deal--it is impossible to estimate. The -total number of persons can scarcely have been less than twenty-five -thousand. More important, however, than their number was the quality -of these exiles, and this we can easily appreciate. The royal family -and the court were taken, a large number of influential persons, -_the mighty men of the land_, or what must have been nearly all the -fighting men, with the necessary artificers; priests also went, -Ezekiel among them, and probably representatives of other classes not -mentioned by the annalist. That this was the virtue and flower of the -nation is proved by a double witness. Not only did the citizens, for -the remaining ten years of Jerusalem's life, look to these exiles for -her deliverance, but Jeremiah himself counted them the sound half of -Israel--_a basket of good figs_, as he expressed it, beside _a basket -of bad ones_. They were at least under discipline, but the remnant of -Jerusalem persisted in the wilfulness of the past. - -For although Jeremiah remained in the city, and the house of David -and a considerable population, and although Jeremiah himself held a -higher position in public esteem since the vindication of his word -by the events of 598, yet he could not be blind to the unchanged -character of the people, and the thorough doom which their last -respite had only more evidently proved to be inevitable. Gangs of -false prophets, both at home and among the exiles, might predict a -speedy return. All the Jewish ability of intrigue, with the lavish -promises of Egypt and frequent embassies from other nations, might -work for the overthrow of Babylon. But Jeremiah and Ezekiel knew -better. Across the distance which now separated them they chanted, -as it were in antiphon, the alternate strophes of Judah's dirge. -Jeremiah bade the exiles not to remember Zion, but "let them settle -down," he said, "into the life of the land they are in, building -houses, planting gardens, and begetting children, and _seek the peace -of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, -and pray unto Jehovah for it, for in the peace thereof ye shall have -peace_--the Exile shall last seventy years." And as Jeremiah in Zion -blessed Babylon, so Ezekiel in Babylon cursed Zion, thundering back -that Jerusalem must be utterly wasted through siege and famine, -pestilence and captivity. There is no rush of hope through Ezekiel. -His expectations are all distant. He lives either in memory or in -cold fancy. His pictures of restoration are too elaborate to mean -speedy fulfilment. They are the work of a man with time on his hands; -one does not build so colossally for to-morrow. Thus reinforced -from abroad, Jeremiah proclaimed Nebuchadrezzar as _the servant of -Jehovah_, and summoned him to work Jehovah's doom upon the city. The -predicted blockade came in the ninth year of Zedekiah. The false -hopes which still sustained the people, their trust in Egypt, the -arrival of an Egyptian army in result of their intrigue, as well as -all their piteous bravery, only afforded time for the fulfilment of -the terrible details of their penalty. For nearly eighteen months the -siege closed in--months of famine and pestilence, of faction and -quarrel and falling away to the enemy. Then Jerusalem broke up. The -besiegers gained the northern suburb and stormed the middle gate. -Zedekiah and the army burst their lines only to be captured on an -aimless flight at Jericho. A few weeks more, and a forlorn defence by -civilians of the interior parts of the city was at last overwhelmed. -The exasperated besiegers gave her up to fire--_the house of -Jehovah, the king's house, and every great house_--and tore to the -stones the stout walls that resisted the conflagration. As the city -was levelled, so the citizens were dispersed. A great number--and -among them the king's family--were put to death. The king himself -was blinded, and, along with a host of his subjects, impossible -for us to estimate, and with all the temple furniture, was carried -to Babylon. A few peasants were left to cultivate the land; a few -superior personages--perhaps such as, with Jeremiah, had favoured the -Babylonians, and Jeremiah was among them--were left at Mizpah under a -Jewish viceroy. It was a poor apparition of a state; but, as if the -very ghost of Israel must be chased from the land, even this small -community was broken up, and almost every one of its members fled to -Egypt. The Exile was complete. - -FOOTNOTE: - -[16] The figure actually mentioned in 2 Kings xxiv. 14, but, as Stade -points out (_Geschichte_, p. 680), vv. 14, 15 interrupt the narrative, -and may have been intruded here from the account of the later captivity. - - - - - CHAPTER III. - - _WHAT ISRAEL TOOK INTO EXILE._ - - -Before we follow the captives along the roads that lead to exile, we -may take account of the spiritual goods which they carried with them, -and were to realise in their retirement. Never in all history did -paupers of this world go forth more richly laden with the treasures -of heaven. - -1. First of all, we must emphasize and define their MONOTHEISM. We must -emphasize it as against those who would fain persuade us that Israel's -monotheism was for the most part the product of the Exile; we must -analyse its contents and define its limits among the people, if we -would appreciate the extent to which it spread and the peculiar temper -which it assumed, as set forth in the prophecy we are about to study. - -Idolatry was by no means dead in Israel at the fall of Jerusalem. -On the contrary, during the last years which the nation spent -within those sacred walls, that had been so miraculously preserved -in the sight of the world by Jehovah, idolatry increased, and -to the end remained as determined and fanatic as the people's -defence of Jehovah's own temple. The Jews who fled to Egypt applied -themselves to the worship of the Queen of Heaven, in spite of all -the remonstrances of Jeremiah and him they carried with them, not -because they listened to him as the prophet of the One True God, -but superstitiously, as if he were a pledge of the favour of one -of the many gods, whom they were anxious to propitiate. And the -earliest effort, upon which we shall have to follow our own prophet, -is the effort to crush the worship of images among the Babylonian -exiles. Yet when Israel returned from Babylon the people were wholly -monotheist; when Jerusalem was rebuilt no idol came back to her. - -That this great change was mainly the result of the residence in -Babylon and of truths learned there, must be denied by all who -remember the creed and doctrine about God, which in their literature -the people carried with them into exile. The law was already written, -and the whole nation had sworn to it: _Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our -God; Jehovah is One, and thou shalt worship Jehovah thy God with -all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength._ -These words, it is true, may be so strictly interpreted as to mean -no more than that there was one God for Israel: other gods might -exist, but Jehovah was Sole Deity for His people. It is maintained -that such a view receives some support from the custom of prophets, -who, while they affirmed Jehovah's supremacy, talked of other gods -as if they were real existences. But argument from this habit of -the prophets is precarious: such a mode of speech may have been -a mere accommodation to a popular point of view. And, surely, we -have only to recall what Isaiah and Jeremiah had uttered concerning -Jehovah's Godhead, to be persuaded that Israel's monotheism, before -the beginning of the Exile, was a far more broad and spiritual faith -than the mere belief that Jehovah was the Sovereign Deity of the -nation, or the satisfaction of the desires of Jewish hearts alone. -Righteousness was not coincident with Israel's life and interest; -righteousness was universally supreme, and it was in righteousness -that Isaiah saw Jehovah exalted.[17] There is no more prevailing -witness to the unity of God than the conscience, which in this matter -takes far precedence of the intellect; and it was on the testimony of -conscience that the prophets based Israel's monotheism. Yet they did -not omit to enlist the reason as well. Isaiah and Jeremiah delight -to draw deductions from the reasonableness of Jehovah's working in -nature to the reasonableness of His processes in history,--analogies -which could not fail to impress both intellect and imagination with -the fact that men inhabit a universe, that One is the will and mind -which works in all things. But to this training of conscience and -reason, the Jews, at the beginning of the Exile, felt the addition of -another considerable influence. Their history lay at last complete, -and their conscience was at leisure from the making of its details -to survey it as a whole. That long past, seen now by undazzled eyes -from under the shadow of exile, presented through all its changing -fortunes a single and a definite course. One was the intention of it, -one its judgement from first to last. The Jew saw in it nothing but -righteousness, the quality of a God, who spake the same word from the -beginning, who never broke His word, and who at last had summoned to -its fulfilment the greatest of the world-powers. In those historical -books, which were collected and edited during the Exile, we observe -each of the kings and generations of Israel, in their turn, -confronted with the same high standard of fidelity to the One True -God and His holy Law. The regularity and rigour, with which they are -thus judged, have been condemned by some critics as an arbitrary and -unfair application of the standard of a later faith to the conduct -of ruder and less responsible ages. But, apart from the question of -historical accuracy, we cannot fail to remark that this method of -writing history is at least instinct with the Oneness of God, and the -unvarying validity of His Law from generation to generation. Israel's -God was the same, their conscience told them, down all their history; -but now as He summoned one after another of the great world-powers -to do His bidding,--Assyria, Babylon, Persia,--how universal did He -prove His dominion to be! Unchanging through all time, He was surely -omnipotent through all space. - -This short review--in which, for the sake of getting a complete view -of our subject, we have anticipated a little--has shown that Israel -had enough within themselves, in the teaching of their prophets and -in the lessons of their own history, to account for that consummate -expression of Jehovah's Godhead, which is contained in our prophet, -and to which every one allows the character of an absolute monotheism. -We shall find this, it is true, to be higher and more comprehensive -than anything which is said about God in pre-exilic Scriptures. The -prophet argues the claims of Jehovah, not only with the ardour that is -born of faith, but often with the scorn which indicates the intellect -at work. It is monotheism, treated not only as a practical belief or -a religious duty, but as a necessary truth of reason; not only as the -secret of faith and the special experience of Israel, but also as an -essential conviction of human nature, so that not to believe in One -God is a thing irrational and absurd for Gentiles as well as Jews. -God's infinitude in the works of creation, His universal providence in -history, are preached with greater power than ever before; and the gods -of the nations are treated as things, in whose existence no reasonable -person can possibly believe. In short, our great prophet of the Exile -has already learned to obey the law of Deuteronomy as it was expounded -by Christ. Deuteronomy says, _Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all -thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength_. Christ -added, _and with all thy mind_. This was what our prophet did. He held -his monotheism _with all his mind_. We shall find him conscious of it, -not only as a religious affection, but as a necessary intellectual -conviction; which if a man has not, he is less than a man. Hence the -scorn, which he pours upon the idols and mythologies of his conquerors. -Beside his tyrants, though in physical strength he was but a worm to -them, the Jew felt that he walked, by virtue of his faith in One God, -their intellectual master. - -We shall see all this illustrated later on. Meantime, what we are -concerned to show is, that there is enough to account for this high -faith within Israel themselves--in their prophecy and in the lessons -of their history. And where indeed are we to be expected to go in -search of the sources of Israel's monotheism, if not to themselves? -To the Babylonians? The Babylonians had nothing spiritual to teach -to Israel; our prophet regards them with scorn. To the Persians, who -broke across Israel's horizon with Cyrus? Our prophet's high statement -of monotheism is of earlier date than the advent of Cyrus to Babylon. -Nor did Cyrus, when he came, give any help to the faith, for in his -public edicts he owned the gods of Babylon and the God of Israel with -equal care and equal policy. It was not because Cyrus and his Persians -were monotheists, that our prophet saw the sovereignty of Jehovah -vindicated, but it was because Jehovah was sovereign that the prophet -knew the Persians would serve His holy purposes. - -2. But if in Deuteronomy the exiles carried with them the Law of the -One God, they preserved in Jeremiah's writings what may be called the -charter of the INDIVIDUAL MAN. Jeremiah had found religion in Judah -a public and a national affair. The individual derived his spiritual -value only from being a member of the nation, and through the public -exercises of the national faith. But, partly by his own religious -experience, and partly by the course of events, Jeremiah was enabled -to accomplish what may be justly described as the vindication of the -individual. Of his own separate value before God, and of his right -of access to his Maker apart from the nation, Jeremiah himself was -conscious, having belonged to God before he belonged to his mother, -his family, or his nation. _Before I found thee in the belly I knew -thee, and before thou camest out of the womb I consecrated thee._ His -whole life was but the lesson of how _one_ man can be for God and -all the nation on the other side. And it was in the strength of this -solitary experience, that he insisted, in his famous thirty-first -chapter, on the individual responsibility of man and on every man's -immediate communication with God's Spirit; and that, when the ruin of -the state was imminent, he advised each of his friends to _take his -own life_ out of it _for a prey_.[18] But Jeremiah's doctrine of the -religious value and independence of the individual had a complement. -Though the prophet felt so keenly his separate responsibility and -right of access to God, and his religious independence of the -people, he nevertheless clave to the people with all his heart. He -was not, like some other prophets, outside the doom he preached. -He might have saved himself, for he had many offers from the -Babylonians. But he chose to suffer with his people--he, the saint of -God, with the idolaters. More than that, it may be said that Jeremiah -suffered for the people. It was not they, with their dead conscience -and careless mind, but he, with his tender conscience and breaking -heart, who bore the reproach of their sins, the anger of the Lord, -and all the agonizing knowledge of his country's inevitable doom. In -Jeremiah one man did suffer for the people. - -In our prophecy, which is absorbed with the deliverance of the nation -as a whole, there was, of course, no occasion to develop Jeremiah's -remarkable suggestions about each individual soul of man. In fact, -these suggestions were germs, which remained uncultivated in Israel -till Christ's time. Jeremiah himself uttered them, not as demands for -the moment, but as ideals that would only be realised when the New -Covenant was made.[19] Our prophecy has nothing to say about them. But -that figure, which Jeremiah's life presented, of One Individual--of -One Individual standing in moral solitude over against the whole -nation, and in a sense suffering for the nation, can hardly have been -absent from the influences, which moulded the marvellous confession of -the people in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, where they see the -solitary servant of God on one side and themselves on the other, _and -Jehovah made to light on him the iniquities of us all_. It is true that -the exiles themselves had some consciousness of suffering for others. -_Our fathers_, cried a voice in their midst, when Jerusalem broke -up, _Our fathers have sinned, and we have borne their iniquities_. -But Jeremiah had been a willing sufferer for his people; and the -fifty-third chapter is, as we shall see, more like his way of bearing -his generation's guilt for love's sake than their way of bearing their -fathers' guilt in the inevitable entail of sin.[20] - -3. To these beliefs in the unity of God, the religious worth of the -individual and the virtue of his self-sacrifice, we must add some -experiences of scarcely less value rising out of the DESTRUCTION -OF THE MATERIAL AND POLITICAL FORMS--the temple, the city, the -monarchy--with which the faith of Israel had been so long identified. - -Without this destruction, it is safe to say, those beliefs could not -have assumed their purest form. Take, for instance, the belief in the -unity of God. There is no doubt that this belief was immensely helped -in Israel by the abolition of all the provincial sanctuaries under -Josiah, by the limitation of Divine worship to one temple and of valid -sacrifice to one altar. But yet it was well that this temple should -enjoy its singular rights for only thirty years and then be destroyed. -For a monotheism, however lofty, which depended upon the existence -of any shrine, however gloriously vindicated by Divine providence, -was not a purely spiritual faith. Or, again, take the individual. The -individual could not realise how truly he himself was the highest -temple of God, and God's most pleasing sacrifice a broken and a -contrite heart, till the routine of legal sacrifice was interrupted and -the ancient altar torn down. Or, once more, take that high, ultimate -doctrine of sacrifice, that the most inspiring thing for men, the most -effectual propitiation before God, is the self-devotion and offering up -of a free and reasonable soul, the righteous for the unrighteous--how -could common Jews have adequately learned that truth, in days when, -according to immemorial practice, the bodies of bulls and goats bled -daily on the one valid altar? The city and temple, therefore, went up -in flames that Israel might learn that God is a Spirit, and dwelleth -not in a house made with hands; that men are His temple, and their -hearts the sacrifices well-pleasing in His sight; and that beyond -the bodies and blood of beasts, with their daily necessity of being -offered, He was preparing for them another Sacrifice, of perpetual and -universal power, in the voluntary sufferings of His own holy Servant. -It was for this Servant, too, that the monarchy, as it were, abdicated, -yielding up to Him all its title to represent Jehovah and to save and -rule Jehovah's people. - -4. Again, as we have already hinted, the fall of the state and city of -Jerusalem gave scope to ISRAEL'S MISSIONARY CAREER. The conviction, -that had inspired many of Isaiah's assertions of the inviolableness -of Zion, was the conviction that, if Zion were overthrown and the -last remnant of Israel uprooted from the land, there must necessarily -follow the extinction of the only true testimony to the living God -which the world contained. But by a century later that testimony was -firmly secured in the hearts and consciences of the people, wheresoever -they might be scattered; and what was now needed was exactly such a -dispersion,--in order that Israel might become aware of the world -for whom the testimony was meant, and grow expert in the methods by -which it was to be proclaimed. Priesthood has its human as well as its -Godward side. The latter was already sufficiently secured for Israel -by Jehovah's age-long seclusion of them in their remote highlands--a -people peculiar to Himself. But now the same Providence completed its -purpose by casting them upon the world. They mixed with men face to -face, or, still more valuably to themselves, on a level with the most -downtrodden and despised of the peoples. With no advantage but the -truth, they met the other religions of the world in argument, debating -with them upon the principles of a common reason and the facts of a -common history. They learned sympathy with the weak things of earth. -They discovered that their religion could be taught. But, above all, -they became conscious of martyrdom, the indispensable experience of a -religion that is to prevail; and they realised the supreme influence -upon men of a love which sacrifices itself. In a word, Israel, in -going into exile, put on humanity with all its consequences. How real -and thorough the process was, how successful in perfecting their -priesthood, may be seen not only from the hopes and obligations towards -all mankind, which burst in our prophecy to an urgency and splendour -unmatched elsewhere in their history, but still more from the fact that -when the Son of God Himself took flesh and became man, there were no -words oftener upon His lips to describe His experience and commission, -there are no passages which more clearly mirror His work for the world, -than the words and the passages in which these Jews of the Exile, -stripped to their bare humanity, relate their sufferings or exult in -their destiny that should follow. - -5. But with their temple in ruins, and all the world before them for -the service of God, the Jews go forth to exile upon the distinct -PROMISE OF RETURN. The material form of their religion is suspended, -not abolished. Let them feel religion in purely spiritual aspects, -unassisted by sanctuary or ritual; let them look upon the world and -the oneness of men; let them learn all God's scope for the truth -He has entrusted to them,--and then let them gather back again and -cherish their new experience and ideas for yet awhile in the old -seclusion. Jehovah's discipline of them as a nation is not yet -exhausted. They are no mere band of pilgrims or missionaries, with -the world for their home; they are still a people, with their own -bit of the earth. If we keep this in mind, it will explain certain -apparent anomalies in our prophecy. In all the writings of the Exile -the reader is confused by a strange mingling of the spiritual and the -material, the universal and the local. The moral restoration of the -people to pardon and righteousness is identified with their political -restoration to Judah and Jerusalem. They have been separated from -ritual in order to cultivate a more spiritual religion, but it is to -this that a restoration to ritual is promised for a reward. While -Jeremiah insists upon the free and immediate communication of every -believer with Jehovah, Ezekiel builds a more exclusive priesthood, -a more elaborate system of worship. Within our prophecy, while one -voice deprecates a house for God built with hands, affirming that -Jehovah dwells with every one who is of a poor and contrite spirit, -other voices dwell fondly on the prospect of the new temple and -exult in its material glory. This double line of feeling is not -merely due to the presence in Israel of those two opposite tempers -of mind, which so naturally appear in every national literature. -But a special purpose of God is in it. Dispersed to obtain more -spiritual ideas of God and man and the world, Israel must be gathered -back again to get these by heart, to enshrine them in literature, -and to transmit them to posterity, as they could alone be securely -transmitted, in the memories of a nation, in the liturgies and canons -of a living Church. - -Therefore the Jews, though torn for their discipline from Jerusalem, -continued to identify themselves more passionately than ever with -their desecrated city. A prayer of the period exclaims: _Thy saints -take pleasure in her stones, and her dust is dear to them._[21] The -exiles proved this by taking her name. Their prophets addressed -them as _Zion_ and _Jerusalem_. Scattered and leaderless groups of -captives in a far-off land, they were still that City of God. She had -not ceased to be; ruined and forsaken as she lay, she was yet _graven -on the palms of Jehovah's hands; and her walls were continually -before Him_.[22] The exiles kept up the register of her families; -they prayed towards her; they looked to return to build her bulwarks; -they spent long hours of their captivity in tracing upon the dust of -that foreign land the groundplan of her restored temple. - - * * * * * - -With such beliefs in God and man and sacrifice, with such hopes and -opportunities for their world-mission, but also with such a bias back -to the material Jerusalem, did Israel pass into exile. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[17] See vol. i., p. 100 f. - -[18] Jer. xlv. - -[19] This is especially clear from ch. xxxi. - -[20] Having read through the Book of Jeremiah once again since I -wrote the above paragraph, I am more than ever impressed with the -influence of his life upon Isa. xl.-lxvi. - -[21] Psalm cii. 14. - -[22] Isa. xlix. 16. - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - - _ISRAEL IN EXILE._ - - FROM 589 TILL ABOUT 550 B.C. - - -It is remarkable how completely the sound of the march from Jerusalem -to Babylon has died out of Jewish history. It was an enormous -movement: twice over within ten years, ten thousand Jews, at the -very least, must have trodden the highway to the Euphrates; and -yet, except for a doubtful verse or two in the Psalter, they have -left no echo of their passage. The sufferings of the siege before, -the remorse and lamentation of the Exile after, still pierce our -ears through the Book of Lamentations and the Psalms by the rivers -of Babylon. We know exactly how the end was fulfilled. We see most -vividly the shifting panorama of the siege,--the city in famine, -under the assault, and in smoke; upon the streets the pining -children, the stricken princes, the groups of men with sullen, -famine-black faces, the heaps of slain, mothers feeding on the bodies -of the infants whom their sapless breasts could not keep alive; by -the walls the hanging and crucifixion of multitudes, with all the -fashion of Chaldean cruelty, the delicate and the children stumbling -under heavy loads, no survivor free from the pollution of blood. -Upon the hills around, the neighbouring tribes are gathered to jeer -at _the day of Jerusalem_, and to cut off her fugitives, we even -see the departing captives turn, as the worm turns, to curse _those -children of Edom_. But there the vision closes. Was it this hot hate -which blinded them to the sights of the way, or that weariness and -depression among strange scenes, that falls upon all unaccustomed -caravans, and has stifled the memory of nearly every other great -historical march? The roads which the exiles traversed were of -immemorial use in the history of their fathers; almost every day they -must have passed names which, for at least two centuries, had rung -in the market-place of Jerusalem--the Way of the Sea, across Jordan, -Galilee of the Gentiles, round Hermon, and past Damascus; between -the two Lebanons, past Hamath, and past Arpad; or less probably by -Tadmor-in-the-Wilderness and Rezeph,--till they reached the river -on which the national ambition had lighted as the frontier of the -Messianic Empire, and whose rolling greatness had so often proved -the fascination and despair of a people of uncertain brooks and -trickling aqueducts. Crossing the Euphrates by one of its numerous -passages--either at Carchemish, if they struck the river so high, or -at the more usual Thapsacus, Tiphsah, _the passage_, where Xenophon -crossed with his Greeks, or at some other place--the caravans -must have turned south across the Habor, on whose upper banks the -captives of Northern Israel had been scattered, and then have -traversed the picturesque country of Aram-Naharaim, past Circesium -and Rehoboth-of-the-River, and many another ancient place mentioned -in the story of the Patriarchs, till through dwindling hills they -reached His--that marvellous site which travellers praise as one -of the great view-points of the world--and looked out at last upon -the land of their captivity, the boundless, almost level tracts of -Chaldea, the first home of the race, the traditional Garden of Eden. -But of all that we are told nothing. Every eye in the huge caravans -seems to have been as the eyes of the blinded king whom they carried -with them,--able to weep, but not to see. - -One fact, however, was too large to be missed by these sad, wayworn -men; and it has left traces on their literature. In passing from home -to exile, the Jews passed from the hills to the plain. They were -highlanders. Jerusalem lies four thousand feet above the sea. From -its roofs the skyline is mostly a line of hills. To leave the city -on almost any side you have to descend. The last monuments of their -fatherland, on which the emigrants' eyes could have lingered, were -the high crests of Lebanon; the first prospect of their captivity -was a monotonous level. The change was the more impressive, that to -the hearts of Hebrews it could not fail to be sacramental. From the -mountains came the dew to their native crofts--the dew which, of -all earthly blessings, was likest God's grace. For their prophets, -the ancient hills had been the symbols of Jehovah's faithfulness. -In leaving their highlands, therefore, the Jews not only left the -kind of country to which their habits were most adapted and all -their natural affections clung; they left the chosen abode of God, -the most evident types of His grace, the perpetual witnesses to His -covenant. Ezekiel constantly employs _the mountains_ to describe his -fatherland. But it is far more with a sacramental longing than a mere -homesickness that a psalmist of the Exile cries out, _I will lift up -mine eyes to the hills: from whence cometh mine help?_ or that our -prophet exclaims: _How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of -him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that saith -unto Zion, Thy God reigneth_. - -By the route sketched above, it is at least seven hundred miles from -Jerusalem to Babylon--a distance which, when we take into account -that many of the captives walked in fetters, cannot have occupied -them less than three months. We may form some conception of the -aspect of the caravans from the transportations of captives which -are figured on the Assyrian monuments, as in the Assyrian basement -in the British Museum. From these it appears as if families were not -separated, but marched together. Mules, asses, camels, ox-waggons, -and the captives themselves carried goods. Children and women -suckling infants were allowed to ride on the waggons. At intervals -fully-armed soldiers walked in pairs.[23] - - - I. - -Mesopotamia, the land "in the middle of the rivers," Euphrates and -Tigris, consists of two divisions, an upper and a lower. The dividing -line crosses from near Hit or His on the Euphrates to below Samarah -on the Tigris. Above this line the country is a gently undulating -plain of secondary formation at some elevation above the sea. But -Lower Mesopotamia is absolutely flat land, an unbroken stretch of -alluvial soil, scarcely higher than the Persian Gulf, upon which it -steadily encroaches. Chaldea was confined to this Lower Mesopotamia, -and was not larger, Rawlinson estimates, than the kingdom of -Denmark.[24] It is the monotonous level which first impresses the -traveller; but if the season be favourable, he sees this only as the -theatre of vast and varied displays of colour, which all visitors vie -with one another in describing: "It is like a rich carpet;" "emerald -green, enamelled with flowers of every hue;" "tall wild grasses and -broad extents of waving reeds;" "acres of water-lilies;" "acres of -pansies." There was no such country in ancient times for wheat, -barley, millet, and sesame;[25] tamarisks, poplars, and palms; here -and there heavy jungle; with flashing streams and canals thickly -athwart the whole, and all shining the more brilliantly for the -interrupting patches of scurvy, nitrous soil, and the grey sandy -setting of the desert with its dry scrub. The possible fertility -of Chaldea is incalculable. But there are drawbacks. Bounded to -the north by so high a tableland, to the south and south-west by -a superheated gulf and broad desert, Mesopotamia is the scene of -violent changes of atmosphere. The languor of the flat country, the -stagnancy and sultriness of the air, of which not only foreigners but -the natives themselves complain, is suddenly invaded by southerly -winds, of tremendous force and laden with clouds of fine sand, which -render the air so dense as to be suffocating, and "produce a lurid -red haze intolerable to the eyes." Thunderstorms are frequent, and -there are very heavy rains. But the winds are the most tremendous. -In such an atmosphere we may perhaps discover the original shapes -and sounds of Ezekiel's turbulent visions--_the fiery wheels; the -great cloud with a fire infolding itself; the colour of amber_, with -_sapphire_, or lapis lazuli, breaking through; _the sound of a great -rushing_. Also the Mesopotamian floods are colossal. The increase of -both Tigris and Euphrates is naturally more violent and irregular -than that of the Nile.[26] Frequent risings of these rivers spread -desolation with inconceivable rapidity, and they ebb only to leave -pestilence behind them. If civilisation is to continue, there is need -of vast and incessant operations on the part of man. - -Thus, both by its fertility and by its violence, this climate--before -the curse of God fell on those parts of the world--tended to develop -a numerous and industrious race of men, whose numbers were swollen -from time to time both by forced and by voluntary immigration. The -population must have been very dense. The triumphal lists of Assyrian -conquerors of the land, as well as the rubbish mounds which to-day -cover its surface, testify to innumerable villages and towns; while -the connecting canals and fortifications, by the making of them and -the watching of them, must have filled even the rural districts with -the hum and activity of men. Chaldea, however, did not draw all her -greatness from herself. There was immense traffic with East and West, -between which Babylon lay, for the greater part of antiquity, the -world's central market and exchange. The city was practically a port -on the Persian Gulf, by canals from which vessels reached her wharves -direct from Arabia, India and Africa. Down the Tigris and Euphrates -rafts brought the produce of Armenia and the Caucasus; but of greater -importance than even these rivers were the roads, which ran from Sardis -to Shushan, traversed Media, penetrated Bactria and India, and may be -said to have connected the Jaxartes and the Ganges with the Nile and -the harbours of the Ægean Sea. These roads all crossed Chaldea and met -at Babylon. Together with the rivers and ocean highways, they poured -upon her markets the traffic of the whole ancient world. - -It was, in short, the very centre of the world--the most populous -and busy region of His earth--to which God sent His people for -their exile. The monarch, who transplanted them, was the genius -of Babylonia incarnate. The chief soldier of his generation, -Nebuchadrezzar will live in history as one of the greatest builders -of all time. But he fought as he built--that he might traffic. His -ambition was to turn the trade with India from the Red Sea to the -Persian Gulf, and he thought to effect this by the destruction of -Tyre, by the transportation of Arab and Nabathean merchants to -Babylon, and by the deepening and regulation of the river between -Babylon and the sea. - -There is no doubt that Nebuchadrezzar carried the Jews to Babylon not -only for political reasons, but in order to employ them upon those -large works of irrigation and the building of cities, for which his -ambition required hosts of labourers. Thus the exiles were planted, -neither in military prisons nor in the comparative isolation of -agricultural colonies, but just where Babylonian life was most busy, -where they were forced to share and contribute to it, and could not -help feeling the daily infection of their captors' habits. Do not let -us forget this. It will explain much in what we have to study. It -will explain how the captivity, which God inflicted upon the Jews as -a punishment, might become in time a new sin to them, and why, when -the day of redemption arrived, so many forgot that their citizenship -was in Zion, and clung to the traffic and the offices of Babylon. - -The majority of the exiles appear to have been settled within the city, -or, as it has been more correctly called, "the fortified district," -of Babylon itself. Their mistress was thus constantly before them, at -once their despair and their temptation. _Lady of Kingdoms_ she lifted -herself to heaven from broad wharves and ramparts, by wide flights -of stairs and terraces, high walls and hanging gardens, pyramids and -towers--so colossal in her buildings, so imperially lavish of space -between! No wonder that upon that vast, far-spreading architecture, -upon its great squares and between its high portals guarded by giant -bulls, the Jew felt himself, as he expressed it, but a poor _worm_. If, -even as they stand in our museums, captured and catalogued, one feels -as if one crawled in the presence of the fragments of these striding -monsters, with how much more of the feeling of the worm must the abject -members of that captive nation have writhed before the face of the -city, which carried these monsters as the mere ornaments of her skirts, -and rose above all kingdoms with her strong feet upon the poor and the -meek of the earth? - -Ah, the despair of it! To see _her_ every day so glorious, to be -forced to help _her_ ceaseless growth,--and to think how Jerusalem, -the daughter of Zion, lay forsaken in ruins! Yet the despair -sometimes gave way to temptation. There was not an outline or horizon -visible to the captive Jew, not a figure in the motley crowds in -which he moved, but must have fascinated him with the genius of his -conquerors. In that level land no mountain, with its witness of God, -broke the skyline; but the work of man was everywhere: curbed and -scattered rivers, artificial mounds, buildings of brick, gardens torn -from their natural beds and hung high in air by cunning hands to -please the taste of a queen; lavish wealth and force and cleverness, -all at the command of one human will. The signature ran across the -whole, "_I_ have done this, and with mine own hand have I gotten me -my wealth;" and all the nations of the earth came and acknowledged -the signature, and worshipped the great city. It was fascinating -merely to look on such cleverness, success and self-confidence; and -who was the poor Jew that he, too, should not be drawn with the -intoxicated nations to the worship of this glory that filled his -horizon? If his eyes rose higher, and from these enchantments of -men sought refuge in the heavens above, were not even they also a -Babylonian realm? Did not the Chaldean claim the great lights there -for his patron gods? were not the movements of sun, moon, and planets -the secret of his science? did not the tyrant believe that the very -stars in their courses fought for him? And he was vindicated; he was -successful; he did actually rule the world. There seemed to be no -escape from the enchantments of this sorceress city, as the prophets -called her, and it is not wonderful that so many Jews fell victims to -her worldliness and idolatry. - - - II. - -The social condition of the Jews in Exile is somewhat obscure, and -yet, both in connection with the date and with the exposition of -some portions of "Second Isaiah," it is an element of the greatest -importance, of which we ought to have as definite an idea as possible. - -What are the facts? By far the most significant is that which faces us -at the end of the Exile. There, some sixty years after the earlier, and -some fifty years after the later, of Nebuchadrezzar's two deportations, -we find the Jews a largely multiplied and still regularly organised -nation, with considerable property and decided political influence. -Not more than forty thousand can have gone into exile, but forty-two -thousand returned, and yet left a large portion of the nation behind -them. The old families and clans survived; the social ranks were -respected; the rich still held slaves; and the former menials of the -temple could again be gathered together. Large subscriptions were -raised for the pilgrimage, and for the restoration of the temple; a -great host of cattle was taken. To such a state of affairs do we see -any traces leading up through the Exile itself? We do. - -The first host of exiles, the captives of 598, comprised, as we -have seen, the better classes of the nation, and appear to have -enjoyed considerable independence. They were not scattered, like -the slaves in North America, as domestic bondsmen over the surface -of the land. Their condition must have much more closely resembled -that of the better-treated exiles in Siberia; though of course, as -we have seen, it was not a Siberia, but the centre of civilisation, -to which they were banished. They remained in communities, with -their own official heads, and at liberty to consult their prophets. -They were sufficiently in touch with one another, and sufficiently -numerous, for the enemies of Babylon to regard them as a considerable -political influence, and to treat with them for a revolution against -their captors. But Ezekiel's strong condemnation of this intrigue -exhibits their leaders on good terms with the government. Jeremiah -bade them throw themselves into the life of the land; buy and sell, -and increase their families and property. At the same time, we cannot -but observe that it is only religious sins, with which Ezekiel -upbraids them. When he speaks of civic duty or social charity, he -either refers to their past or to the life of the remnant still in -Jerusalem. There is every reason to believe, therefore, that this -captivity was an honourable and an easy one. The captives may have -brought some property with them; they had leisure for the pursuit -of business and for the study and practice of their religion. Some -of them suffered, of course, from the usual barbarity of Oriental -conquerors, and were made eunuchs; some, by their learning and -abstinence, rose to high positions in the court.[27] Probably to -the end of the Exile they remained _the good figs_, as Jeremiah had -called them. Theirs was, perhaps, the literary work of the Exile; and -theirs, too, may have been the wealth which rebuilt Jerusalem. - -But it was different with the second captivity, of 589. After the -famine, the burning of the city, and the prolonged march, this -second host of exiles must have reached Babylonia in an impoverished -condition. They were a lower class of men. They had exasperated -their conquerors, who, before the march began, subjected many of -them to mutilation and cruel death; and it is, doubtless, echoes of -their experience which we find in the more bitter complaints of our -prophet. _This is a people robbed and spoiled; all of them snared -in holes, and hid in prison-houses: they are for a prey, and for a -spoil._ _Thou_, that is, Babylon, _didst show them no mercy; upon the -aged hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke_.[28] Nebuchadrezzar used -them for his building, as Pharaoh had used their forefathers. Some of -them, or of their countrymen who had reached Babylonia before them, -became the domestic slaves and chattels of their conquerors. Among -the contracts and bills of sale of this period we find the cases of -slaves with apparently Jewish names.[29] - -In short, the state of the Jews in Babylonia resembled what seems to -have been their fortune wherever they have settled in a foreign land. -Part of them despised and abused, forced to labour or overtaxed; -part left alone to cultivate literature or to gather wealth. Some -treated with unusual rigour--and perhaps a few of these with reason, -as dangerous to the government of the land--but some also, by the -versatile genius of their race, advancing to a high place in the -political confidence of their captors. - -Their application to literature, to their religion, and to commerce -must be specially noted. - -1. Nothing is more striking in the writings of Ezekiel than the -air of large leisure which invests them. Ezekiel lies passive; he -broods, gazes and builds his visions up, in a fashion like none -of his terser predecessors; for he had time on his hands, not -available to them in days when the history of the nation was still -running. Ezekiel's style swells to a greater fulness of rhetoric; -his pictures of the future are elaborated with the most minute -detail. Prophets before him were speakers, but he is a writer. Many -in Israel besides Ezekiel took advantage of the leisure of the Exile -to the great increase and arrangement of the national literature. -Some Assyriologists have lately written, as if the schools of Jewish -scribes owed their origin entirely to the Exile.[30] But there were -scribes in Israel before this. What the Exile did for these, was to -provide them not only with the leisure from national business which -we have noted, but with a powerful example of their craft as well. -Babylonia at this time was a land full of scribes and makers of -libraries. They wrote a language not very different from the Jewish, -and cannot but have powerfully infected their Jewish fellows with the -spirit of their toil and of their methods. To the Exile we certainly -owe a large part of the historical books of the Old Testament, the -arrangement of some of the prophetic writings, as well as--though the -amount of this is very uncertain--part of the codification of the Law. - -2. If the Exile was opportunity to the scribes, it can only have -been despair to the priests. In this foreign land the nation was -unclean; none of the old sacrifice or ritual was valid, and the -people were reduced to the simplest elements of religion--prayer, -fasting and the reading of religious books. We shall find our -prophecy noting the clamour of the exiles to God for _ordinances -of righteousness_--that is, for the institution of legal and valid -rites.[31] But the great lesson, which prophecy brings to the people -of the Exile, is that pardon and restoration to God's favour are -won only by waiting upon Him with all the heart. It was possible, -of course, to observe some forms; to gather at intervals to inquire -of the Lord, to keep the Sabbath, and to keep fasts. The first -of these practices, out of which the synagogue probably took its -rise, is noted by our prophet,[32] and he enforces Sabbath-keeping -with words, that add the blessing of prophecy to the law's ancient -sanction of that institution. Four annual fasts were instituted in -memory of the dark days of Jerusalem--the day of the beginning of -Nebuchadrezzar's siege in the tenth month, the day of the capture in -the fourth month, the day of the destruction in the fifth month, and -the day of Gedaliah's murder in the tenth month. It might have been -thought, that solemn anniversaries of a disaster so recent and still -unrepaired would be kept with sincerity; but our prophet illustrates -how soon even the most outraged feelings may grow formal, and how on -their days of special humiliation, while their captivity was still -real, the exiles could oppress their own bondsmen and debtors. But -there is no religious practice of this epoch more apparent through -our prophecies than the reading of Scripture. Israel's hope was -neither in sacrifice, nor in temple, nor in vision nor in lot, but -in God's written Word; and when a new prophet arose like the one -we are about to study, he did not appeal for his authorisation, as -previous prophets had done, to the fact of his call or inspiration, -but it was enough for him to point to some former word of God, and -cry, "See! at last the day has dawned for the fulfilment of that." -Throughout Second Isaiah this is what the anonymous prophet cares to -establish--that the facts of to-day fit the promise of yesterday. We -shall not understand our great prophecy unless we realise a people -rising from fifty years' close study of Scripture, in strained -expectation of its immediate fulfilment. - -3. The third special feature of the people in exile is their -application to commerce. At home the Jews had not been a commercial -people.[33] But the opportunities of their Babylonian residence seem -to have started them upon those habits, for which, through their -longer exile in our era, the name of Jew has become a synonym. If -that be so, Jeremiah's advice _to build and plant_[34] is historic, -for it means no less than that the Jews should throw themselves into -the life of the most trafficking nation of the time. Their increasing -wealth proves how they followed this advice,--as well as perhaps such -passages as Isa. lv. 2, in which the commercial spirit is reproached -for overwhelming the nobler desires of religion. The chief danger, -incurred by the Jews from an intimate connection with the commerce -of Babylonia, lay in the close relations of Babylonian commerce with -Babylonian idolatry. The merchants of Mesopotamia had their own -patron gods. In completing business contracts, a man had to swear -by the idols,[35] and might have to enter their temples. In Isa. -lxv. 11, Jews are blamed _for forsaking Jehovah, and forgetting My -holy mountain; preparing a table for Luck, and filling up mixed wine -to Fortune_. Here it is more probable that mercantile speculation, -rather than any other form of gambling, is intended. - - - III. - -But while all this is certain and needing to be noted about the -habits of the mass of the people, what little trace it has left -in the best literature of the period! We have already noticed in -that the great absence of local colour. The truth is that what we -have been trying to describe as Jewish life in Babylon was only -a surface over deeps in which the true life of the nation was at -work--was volcanically at work. Throughout the Exile the true Jew -lived inwardly. _Out of the depths do I cry to Thee, O Lord._ He was -the inhabitant not so much of a foreign prison as of his own broken -heart. _He sat by the rivers of Babylon_; but _he thought upon Zion_. -Is it not a proof of what depths in human nature were being stirred, -that so little comes to the surface to tell us of the external -conditions of those days? There are no fossils in the strata of the -earth, which have been cast forth from her inner fires; and if we -find few traces of contemporary life in these deposits of Israel's -history now before us, it is because they date from an age in which -the nation was shaken and boiling to its centre. - -For if we take the writings of this period--the Book of Lamentations, -the Psalms of the Exile, and parts of other books--and put them -together, the result is the impression of one of the strangest -decompositions of human nature into its elements which the world has -ever seen. Suffering and sin, recollection, remorse and revenge, -fear and shame and hate--over the confusion of these the Spirit of -God broods as over a second chaos, and draws each of them forth in -turn upon some articulate prayer. Now it is the crimson flush of -shame: _our soul is exceedingly filled with contempt_. Now it is the -black rush of hate; for if we would see how hate can rage, we must -go to the Psalms of the Exile, which call on the God of vengeance -and curse the enemy and dash the little ones against the stones. But -the deepest surge of all in that whirlpool of misery was the surge -of sin. To change the figure, we see Israel's spirit writhing upward -from some pain it but partly understands, crying out, "What is this -that keeps God from hearing and saving me?" turning like a wounded -beast from the face of its master to its sore again, understanding -as no brute could the reason of its plague, till confession after -confession breaks away and the penalty is accepted, and acknowledged -guilt seems almost to act as an anodyne to the penalty it explains. -_Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment -of his sins? If thou, Jehovah, shouldest mark iniquity, who shall -stand?_ No wonder, that with such a conscience the Jews occupied -the Exile in writing the moral of their delinquent history, or that -the rest of their literature which dates from that time should have -remained ever since the world's confessional. - -But in this awful experience, there is still another strain, as -painful as the rest, but pure and very eloquent of hope--the sense -of innocent suffering. We cannot tell the sources, from which this -considerable feeling may have gathered during the Exile, any more -than we can trace from how many of the upper folds of a valley the -tiny rivulets start, which form the stream that issues from its -lower end. One of these sources may have been, as we have already -suggested, the experience of Jeremiah; another very probably sprang -with every individual conscience in the new generation. Children -come even to exiles, and although they bear the same pain with -the same nerves as their fathers, they do so with a different -conscience. The writings of the time dwell much on the sufferings -of the children. The consciousness is apparent in them, that souls -are born into the wrath of God, as well as banished there. _Our -fathers have sinned and are not, and we bear their iniquities._ This -experience developed with great force, till Israel felt that she -suffered not under God's wrath, but for His sake; and so passed from -the conscience of the felon to that of the martyr. But if we are to -understand the prophecy we are about to study, we must remember how -near akin these two consciences must have been in exiled Israel, -and how easy it was for a prophet to speak--as our prophet does, -sometimes with confusing rapidity of exchange--now in the voice of -the older and more guilty generation, and now in the voice of the -younger and less deservedly punished. - - * * * * * - -Our survey of the external as well as the internal conditions of Israel -in Exile is now finished. It has, I think, included every known feature -of their experience in Babylonia, which could possibly illustrate our -prophecy--dated, as we have felt ourselves compelled to date this, from -the close of the Exile. Thus, as we have striven to trace, did Israel -suffer, learn, grow and hope for fifty years--under Nebuchadrezzar till -561, under his successor Evil-merodach till 559, under Neriglassar till -554, and then under the usurper Nabunahid. The last named probably -oppressed the Jews more grievously than their previous tyrants, but -with the aggravation of their yoke there grew evident, at the same -time, the certainty of their deliverance. In 549, Cyrus overthrew the -Medes, and became lord of Asia from the Indus to the Halys. From that -event his conquest of Babylonia, however much delayed, could only be a -matter of time. - -It is at this juncture that our prophecy breaks in. Taking for -granted Cyrus' sovereignty of the Medes, it still looks forward to -his capture of Babylon. Let us, before advancing to its exposition, -once more cast a rapid glance over the people, to whom it is -addressed, and whom in their half century of waiting for it we have -been endeavouring to describe. - -_First_ and most manifest, they are a People with a Conscience--a -people with the most awful and most articulate conscience that ever -before or since exposed a nation's history or tormented a generation -with the curse of their own sin and the sin of their fathers. Behind -them, ages of delinquent life, from the perusal of the record of -which, with its regularly recurring moral, they have just risen: -the Books of Kings appear to have been finished after the accession -of Evil-merodach in 561. Behind them also nearly fifty years of -sore punishment for their sins--punishment, which, as their Psalms -confess, they at last understand and accept as deserved. - -But, _secondly_, they are a People with a Great Hope. With their -awful consciousness of guilt, they have the assurance that their -punishment has its limits; that, to quote ch. xl., ver. 2, it is a -_set period of service_: a former word of God having fixed it at not -more than seventy years, and having promised the return of the nation -thereafter to their own land. - -And, _thirdly_, they are a People with a Great Opportunity. History -is at last beginning to set towards the vindication of their hope: -Cyrus, the master of the age, is moving rapidly, irresistibly, down -upon their tyrants. - -But, _fourthly_, in face of all their hope and opportunity, they are -a People Disorganised, Distracted, and very Impotent--_worms and not -men_, as they describe themselves. The generation of the tried and -responsible leaders of the days of their independence are all dead, -for _flesh is like grass_; no public institutions remain in their -midst such as ever in the most hopeless periods of the past proved a -rallying-point of their scattered forces. There is no king, temple, -nor city; nor is there any great personality visible to draw their -little groups together, marshal them, and lead them forth behind -him. Their one hope is in the Word of God, for which they _wait more -than they that watch for the morning_; and the one duty of their -nameless prophets is to persuade them, that this Word has at last -come to pass, and, in the absence of king, Messiah, priest, and great -prophet, is able to lift them to the opportunity that God's hand has -opened before them, and to the accomplishment of their redemption. - -Upon Israel, with such a Conscience, such a Hope, such an -Opportunity, and such an unaided Reliance on God's bare Word, that -Word at last broke in a chorus of voices. - -Of these the first, as was most meet, spoke pardon to the people's -conscience and the proclamation that their set period of warfare was -accomplished; the second announced that circumstances and the politics -of the world, hitherto adverse, would be made easy to their return; the -third bade them, in their bereavement of earthly leaders, and their -own impotence, find their eternal confidence in God's Word; while the -fourth lifted them, as with one heart and voice, to herald the certain -return of Jehovah, at the head of His people, to His own City, and His -quiet, shepherdly rule of them on their own land. - -These herald voices form the prologue to our prophecy, ch. xl. 1-11, -to which we will now turn. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[23] If we would construct for ourselves some more definite idea -of that long march from Judah to Babylon, we might assist our -imagination by the details of the only other instance on so great a -scale of "exile by administrative process"--the transportation to -Siberia which the Russian Government effects (it is said, on good -authority) to the extent of eighteen thousand persons a year. Every -week throughout the year marching parties, three to four hundred -strong, leave Tomsk for Irkutsk, doing twelve to twenty miles daily -in fetters, with twenty-four hours' rest every third day, or three -hundred and thirty miles in a month (_Century Magazine_, Nov. 1888). - -[24] For the above details, see Rawlinson's _Five Great Monarchies of -the Ancient Eastern World_, vol. i. - -[25] _Herodotus_, Bk. I.; "Memoirs by Commander James Felix Jones, I. -N.," in _Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government_, No. -XLIII., New Series, 1857; Ainsworth's _Euphrates Valley Expedition_; -Layard's _Nineveh_. - -[26] Perrot and Chipiez, _Histoire de l'Art d'Antiquité_, vol. ii.; -Assyrie p. 9. - -[27] The Book of Daniel. - -[28] Isa. xlii. 22, xlvii. 6. - -[29] _Records of the Past_, second series, vol. i., M. Oppert's -Translations. - -[30] Mr. St. Chad Boscawen's recent lectures, of which I have been -able to see only the reports in the _Manchester Guardian_. - -[31] Ch. lviii. 2. - -[32] Ch. lviii. 13, 14. - -[33] See vol. i., p. 292 ff. - -[34] Jer. xxix. - -[35] _Records of the Past_, first series, ix., 95 _seq._ - - - - - BOOK II. - - _THE LORD'S DELIVERANCE._ - - - - - - - CHAPTER V. - - _THE PROLOGUE: THE FOUR HERALD VOICES._ - - ISAIAH xl. 1-11. - - -It is only Voices which we hear in this Prologue. No forms can be -discerned, whether of men or angels, and it is even difficult to -make out the direction from which the Voices come. Only one thing is -certain--that they break the night, that they proclaim the end of a -long but fixed period, during which God has punished and forsaken -His people. At first, the persons addressed are the prophets, that -they may speak to the people (vv. 1, 2); but afterwards Jerusalem -as a whole is summoned to publish the good tidings (ver. 9). This -interchange between a part of the people and the whole--this -commission to prophesy, made with one breath to some of the nation -for the sake of the rest, and with the next breath to the entire -nation--is a habit of our prophet to which we shall soon get -accustomed. How natural and characteristic it is, is proved by its -appearance in these very first verses. - -The beginning of the good tidings is Israel's pardon; yet it seems -not to be the people's return to Palestine which is announced in -consequence of this, so much as their God's return to them. _Prepare -ye the way of Jehovah, make straight a highway for our God. Behold the -Lord Jehovah will come._ We may, however, take _the way of Jehovah in -the wilderness_ to mean what it means in the sixty-eighth Psalm,--His -going forth before His people and leading of them back; while the -promise that He will come to _shepherd His flock_ (ver. 11) is, of -course, the promise that He will resume the government of Israel upon -their own land. There can be no doubt, therefore, that this chapter -was meant for the people at the close of their captivity in Babylon. -But do not let us miss the pathetic fact, that Israel is addressed not -in her actual shape of a captive people in a foreign land, but under -the name and aspect of her far-away, desolate country. In these verses -Israel is _Jerusalem_, _Zion_, _the cities of Judah_. Such designations -do not prove, as a few critics have rather pedantically supposed, that -the writer of the verses lived in Judah and addressed himself to what -was under his eyes. It is not the vision of a Jew at home that has -determined the choice of these names, but the desire and the dream of -a Jew abroad: that extraordinary passion, which, however distant might -be the land of his exile, ever filled the Jew's eyes with Zion, caused -him to feel the ruin and forsakenness of his Mother more than his own -servitude, and swept his patriotic hopes, across his own deliverance -and return, to the greater glory of her restoration.[36] There is -nothing, therefore, to prevent us taking for granted, as we did in the -previous chapter, that the speaker or speakers of these verses stood -among the exiles themselves; but who they were--men or angels, prophets -or scribes--is lost in the darkness out of which their music breaks.[37] - -Nevertheless the prophecy is not anonymous. By these impersonal -voices a personal revelation is made. The prophets may be nameless, -but the Deity who speaks through them speaks as already known and -acknowledged: _My people, saith your God._ - -This is a point, which, though it takes for its expression no more -than these two little pronouns, we must not hurriedly pass over. -All the prophecy we are about to study may be said to hang from -these pronouns. They are the hinges, on which the door of this new -temple of revelation swings open before the long-expectant people. -And, in fact, such a conscience and sympathy as these little words -express form the necessary premise of all revelation. Revelation -implies a previous knowledge of God, and cannot work upon men, except -there already exist in them the sense that they and God somehow -belong to each other. This sense need be neither pure, nor strong, -nor articulate. It may be the most selfish and cowardly of guilty -fears,--Jacob's dread as he drew near Esau, whom he had treacherously -supplanted,--the vaguest of ignorant desires, the Athenians' worship -of the Unknown God. But, whatever it is, the angel comes to wrestle -with it, the apostle is sent to declare it; revelation in some form -takes it as its premise and starting-point. This previous sense of -God may also be fuller than in the cases just cited. Take our Lord's -own illustration. Upon the prodigal in the strange country there -surged again the far-ebbed memory of his home and childhood, of -his years of familiarity with a Father; and it was this tide which -carried back his penitent heart within the hearing of his Father's -voice, and the revelation of the love that became his new life. Now -Israel, also in a far-off land, were borne upon the recollection of -home and of life in the favour of their God. We have seen with what -knowledge of Him and from what relations with Him they were banished. -To the men of the Exile God was already a Name and an Experience, and -because that Name was _The Righteous_, and that Experience was all -grace and promise, these men waited for His Word more than they that -wait for the morning; and when at length the Word broke from the long -darkness and silence, they received it, though its bearers might be -unseen and unaccredited, because they recognised and acknowledged in -it Himself. He who spoke was _their God_, and they were _His people_. -This conscience and sympathy was all the title or credential which -the revelation required. It is, therefore, not too much to say, as -we have said, that the two pronouns in ch. xl., ver. 1, are the -necessary premise of the whole prophecy which that verse introduces. - - * * * * * - -With this introduction we may now take up the four herald voices of -the Prologue. Whatever may have been their original relation to one -another, whether or not they came to Israel by different messengers, -they are arranged (as we saw at the close of the previous chapter) in -manifest order and progress of thought, and they meet in due succession -the experiences of Israel at the close of the Exile. For the first -of them (vv. 1 and 2) gives the _subjective assurance_ of the coming -redemption: it is the Voice of Grace. The second (vv. 3-5) proclaims -the _objective reality_ of that redemption: it may be called the -Voice of Providence, or--to use the name by which our prophecy loves -to entitle the just and victorious providence of God--the Voice of -Righteousness. The third (vv. 6-8) uncovers the pledge and earnest -of the redemption: in the weakness of men this shall be the Word of -God. While the fourth (vv. 9-11) is the Proclamation of Jehovah's -restored kingdom, when He cometh as a shepherd to shepherd His people. -To this progress and climax the music of the passage forms a perfect -accompaniment. It would be difficult to find in any language lips that -first more softly woo the heart, and then take to themselves so brave -a trumpet of challenge and assurance. The opening is upon a few short -pulses of music, which steal from heaven as gently as the first ripples -of light in a cloudless dawn-- - - Nahamu, nahamu ammi: - _Comfort ye, comfort ye my people_: - Dabberu `al-lev Yerushalaîm. - _Speak upon the heart of Jerusalem._[38] - -But then the trumpet-tone breaks forth, _Call unto her_; and on that -high key the music stays, sweeping with the second voice across hill -and dale like a company of swift horsemen, stooping with the third -for a while to the elegy upon the withered grass, but then recovering -itself, braced by all the strength of the Word of God, to peal from -tower to tower with the fourth, upon the cry, _Behold, the Lord -cometh_, till it sinks almost from sound to sight, and yields us, -as from the surface of still waters, that sweet reflection of the -twenty-third Psalm with which the Prologue concludes. - - 1. _Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. - Speak ye home to the heart of Jerusalem, and call unto her,_ - _That accomplished is her warfare, that absolved is her iniquity; - That she hath received of Jehovah's hand double for all her sins._ - -This first voice, with the music of which our hearts have been -thrilled ever since we can remember, speaks twice: first in a -whisper, then in a call--the whisper of the Lover and the call of the -Lord. _Speak ye home to the heart of Jerusalem, and call unto her._ - -Now Jerusalem lay in ruins, a city through whose breached walls all -the winds of heaven blew mournfully across her forsaken floors. And -the _heart of Jerusalem_, which was with her people in exile, was -like the city--broken and defenceless. In that far-off, unsympathetic -land it lay open to the alien; tyrants forced their idols upon it, -the peoples tortured it with their jests. - - _For they that led us captive required of us songs,_ - _And they that wasted us required of us mirth._ - -But observe how gently the Divine Beleaguerer approaches, how softly -He bids His heralds plead by the gaps, through which the oppressor -has forced his idols and his insults. Of all human language they -might use, God bids His messengers take and plead with the words -with which a man will plead at a maiden's heart, knowing that he -has nothing but love to offer as right of entrance, and waiting -until love and trust come out to welcome him. _Speak ye_, says the -original literally, _on to_, or _up against_, or _up round the heart -of Jerusalem_,--a forcible expression, like the German "An das Herz," -or the sweet Scottish, "It cam' up roond my heart," and perhaps best -rendered into English by the phrase, _Speak home to the heart_. -It is the ordinary Hebrew expression for wooing. As from man to -woman when he wins her, the Old Testament uses it several times. To -_speak home to the heart_ is to use language in which authority and -argument are both ignored, and love works her own inspiration. While -the haughty Babylonian planted by force his idols, while the folly -and temptations of heathendom surged recklessly in, God Himself, the -Creator of this broken heart, its Husband and Inhabitant of old,[39] -stood lowly by its breaches, pleading in love the right to enter. But -when entrance has been granted, see how He bids His heralds change -their voice and disposition. The suppliant lover, being received, -assumes possession and defence, and they, who were first bid whisper -as beggars by each unguarded breach, now leap upon the walls to -call from the accepted Lord of the city: _Fulfilled is thy time of -service, absolved thine iniquity, received hast thou of Jehovah's -hand double for all thy sins._ - -Now this is no mere rhetorical figure. This is the abiding attitude -and aim of the Almighty towards men. God's target is our heart. His -revelation, whatever of law or threat it send before, is, in its own -superlative clearness and urgency, Grace. It comes to man by way of -the heart; not at first by argument addressed to the intellect, nor by -appeal to experience, but by the sheer strength of a love laid _on to -the heart_. It is, to begin with, a subjective thing. Is revelation, -then, entirely a subjective assurance? Do the pardon and peace which -it proclaims remain only feelings of the heart, without anything to -correspond to them in real fact? By no means; for these Jews the -revelation now whispered to their heart will actually take shape in -providences of the most concrete kind. A voice will immediately call, -_Prepare ye the way of the Lord_, and the way will be prepared. Babylon -will fall; Cyrus will let Israel go; their release will appear--most -concrete of things!--in "black and white" on a Persian state-parchment. -Yet, before these events happen and become part of His people's -experience, God desires first to convince His people by the sheer -urgency of His love. Before He displays His Providence, He will speak -in the power and evidence of His Grace. Afterwards, His prophets shall -appeal to outward facts; we shall find them in succeeding chapters -arguing both with Israel and the heathen on grounds of reason and the -facts of history. But, in the meantime, let them only feel that in His -Grace they have something for the heart of men, which, striking home, -shall be its own evidence and force. - -Thus God adventures His Word forth by nameless and unaccredited men -upon no other authority than the Grace, with which it is fraught for -the heart of His people. The illustration, which this affords of -the method and evidence of Divine revelation, is obvious. Let us, -with all the strength of which we are capable, emphasize the fact -that our prophecy--which is full of the materials for an elaborate -theology, which contains the most detailed apologetic in the whole -Bible, and displays the most glorious prospect of man's service and -destiny--takes its source and origin from a simple revelation of -Grace and the subjective assurance of this in the heart of those to -whom it is addressed. This proclamation of Grace is as characteristic -and dominant in Second Isaiah, as we saw the proclamation of -conscience in ch. i. to be characteristic of the First Isaiah. - -Before we pass on, let us look for a moment at the contents of this -Grace, in the three clauses of the prophet's cry: _Fulfilled is her -warfare, absolved her guilt, received hath she of Jehovah's hand -double for all her sins._ The very grammar here is eloquent of grace. -The emphasis lies on the three predicates, which ought to stand in -translation, as they do in the original, at the beginning of each -clause. Prominence is given, not to the warfare, nor to the guilt, -nor to the sins, but to this, that _accomplished_ is the warfare, -_absolved_ the guilt, _sufficiently expiated_ the sins. It is a great -AT LAST which these clauses peal forth; but an At Last whose tone is -not so much inevitableness as undeserved grace. The term translated -warfare means _period of military service_, _appointed term of -conscription_; and the application is apparent when we remember that -the Exile had been fixed, by the Word of God through Jeremiah, to a -definite number of years. _Absolved_ is the passive of a verb meaning -to _pay off what is due_.[40] But the third clause is especially -gracious. It declares that Israel has suffered of punishment more -than double enough to atone for her sins. This is not a way of -regarding either sin or atonement, which, theologically speaking, is -accurate. What of its relation to our Articles, that man cannot give -satisfaction for his sins by the work of his hands or the pains of -his flesh? No: it would scarcely pass some of our creeds to-day. But -all the more, that it thus bursts forth from strict terms of dealing, -does it reveal the generosity of Him who utters it. How full of -pity God is, to take so much account of the sufferings sinners have -brought upon themselves! How full of grace to reckon those sufferings -_double the sins_ that had earned them! It is, as when we have seen -gracious men make us a free gift, and in their courtesy insist that -we have worked for it. It is grace masked by grace. As the height of -art is to conceal art, so the height of grace is to conceal grace, -which it does in this verse. - -Such is the Voice of Grace. But, - - 2. _Hark, One calling! - In the wilderness prepare the way of Jehovah! - Make straight in the desert an highway for our God! - Every valley shall be exalted, - And every mountain and hill be made low: - And the crooked grow straight, - And rough places a plain: - And the glory of Jehovah be revealed, - And see it shall all flesh together; - For the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken._ - -The relation of this Voice to the previous one has already been -indicated. This is the witness of Providence following upon the -witness of Grace. Religion is a matter in the first place between -God and the heart; but religion does not, as many mock, remain an -inward feeling. The secret relation between God and His people issues -into substantial fact, visible to all men. History vindicates faith; -Providence executes Promise; Righteousness follows Grace. So, as -the first Voice was spoken _to the heart_, this second is for the -hands and feet and active will. _Prepare ye the way of the Lord._ If -you, poor captives as you are, begin to act upon the grace whispered -in your trembling hearts, the world will show the result. All -things will come round to your side. A levelled empire, an altered -world--across those your way shall lie clear to Jerusalem. You shall -go forth in the sight of all men, and future generations looking back -shall praise this manifest wonder of your God. _The glory of Jehovah -shall be revealed, and see it shall all flesh together._ - -On which word, how can our hearts help rising from the comfort of -grace to the sense of mastery over this world, to the assurance of -heaven itself? History must come round to the side of faith--as it -has come round not in the case of Jewish exiles only, but wheresoever -such a faith as theirs has been repeated. History must come round -to the side of faith, if men will only obey the second as well as -the first of these herald voices. But we are too ready to listen to -the Word of the Lord, without seeking to prepare His way. We are -satisfied with the personal comfort of our God; we are contented to -be forgiven and--oh mockery!--left alone. But the word of God will -not leave us alone, and not for comfort only is it spoken. On the -back of the voice, which sets our heart right with God, comes the -voice to set the world right, and no man is godly who has not heard -both. Are we timid and afraid that facts will not correspond to -our faith? Nay, but as God reigneth they shall, if only we put to -our hands and make them; _all flesh shall see it_, if we will but -_prepare the way of the Lord_. - -Have we only ancient proofs of this? On the contrary, God has done like -wonders within the lives of those of us who are yet young. During our -generation, a people has appealed from the convictions of her heart to -the arbitrament of history, and appealed not in vain. When the citizens -of the Northern States of the American Republic, not content as they -might have been with their protests against slavery, rose to vindicate -these by the sword, they faced, humanly speaking, a risk as great -as that to which Jew was ever called by the word of God. Their own -brethren were against them; the world stood aloof. But even so, unaided -by united patriotism and as much dismayed as encouraged by the opinions -of civilisation, they rose to the issue on the strength of conscience -and their hearts. They rose and they conquered. Slavery was abolished. -What had been but the conviction of a few men, became the surprise, the -admiration, the consent of the whole world. _The glory of the Lord was -revealed, and all flesh saw it together._ - -3. But the shadow of death falls on everything, even on the way of the -Lord. By 550 B.C.--that is, after thirty-eight years of exile--nearly -all the strong men of Israel's days of independence must have been -taken away. Death had been busy with the exiles for more than a -generation. There was no longer any human representative of Jehovah -to rally the people's trust; the monarchy, each possible Messiah who -in turn held it, the priesthood, and the prophethood--whose great -personalities so often took the place of Israel's official leaders--had -all alike disappeared. It was little wonder, then, that a nation -accustomed to be led, not by ideas like us Westerns, but by personages, -who were to it the embodiment of Jehovah's will and guidance, should -have been cast into despair by the call, _Prepare ye the way of the -Lord_. What sort of a call was this for a people, whose strong men were -like things uprooted and withered! How could one be, with any heart, a -herald of the Lord to such a people! - - _Hark one saying "Call."_[41] - _And I said:_ - "_What can I call?_ - _All flesh is grass,_ - _And all its beauty like a wild-flower!_ - _Withers grass, fades flower,_ - _When the breath of Jehovah blows on it._ - _Surely grass is the people._" - -Back comes a voice like the east wind's for pitilessness to the -flowers, but of the east wind's own strength and clearness, to -proclaim Israel's everlasting hope. - - _Withers grass, fades flower,_ - _But the word of our God endureth for ever._ - -Everything human may perish; the day may be past of the great -prophets, of the priests--of the King in his beauty, who was -vicegerent of God. But the people have God's word; when all their -leaders have fallen, and every visible authority for God is taken -away, this shall be their rally and their confidence. - -All this is too like the actual experience of Israel in Exile not -to be the true interpretation of this third, stern Voice. Their -political and religious institutions, which had so often proved the -initiative of a new movement, or served as a bridge to carry the -nation across disaster to a larger future, were not in existence. Nor -does any Moses, as in Egypt of old, rise to visibleness from among -his obscure people, impose his authority upon them, marshal them, and -lead them out behind him to freedom. But what we see is a scattered -and a leaderless people, stirred in their shadow, as a ripe cornfield -is stirred by the breeze before dawn--stirred in their shadow by the -ancient promises of God, and everywhere breaking out at the touch -of these into psalms and prophecies of hope. We see them expectant -of redemption, we see them resolved to return, we see them carried -across the desert to Zion, and from first to last it is the word of -God that is their inspiration and assurance. - -They, who formerly had rallied round the Ark or the Temple, or who had -risen to the hope of a glorious Messiah, do not now speak of all these, -but their _hope_, they tell us, _is in His word_; it is the instrument -of their salvation, and their destiny is to be its evangelists. - -4. To this high destiny the fourth Voice now summons them, by a vivid -figure. - - _Up on a high mountain, get thee up,_ - _Heraldess of good news, O Zion!_ - _Lift up with strength thy voice,_ - _Heraldess of good news, Jerusalem!_ - _Lift up, fear not, say to the cities of Judah:--_ - _Behold, your God._ - _Behold, my Lord Jehovah, with power He cometh,_ - _And His arm rules for Him._ - _Behold, His reward with Him,_ - _And His recompense before Him._ - _As a shepherd His flock He shepherds;_ - _With His right arm gathers the lambs,_ - _And in His bosom bears them._ - _Ewe-mothers He tenderly leads._ - -The title which I have somewhat awkwardly translated _heraldess_--but -in English there is really no better word for it--is the feminine -participle of a verb meaning to _thrill_, or _give joy, by means of -good news_. It is used generally to tell such happy news as the birth -of a child, but mostly in the special sense of carrying tidings of -victory or peace home from the field to the people. The feminine -participle would seem from Psalm lxviii., _the women who publish -victory to the great host_, to have been the usual term for the -members of those female choirs, who, like Miriam and her maidens, -celebrated a triumph in face of the army, or came forth from the city -to hail the returning conqueror, as the daughters of Jerusalem hailed -Saul and David. As such a chorister, Zion is now summoned to proclaim -Jehovah's arrival at the gates of the cities of Judah. - -The verses from _Behold, your God_, to the end of the Prologue -are the song of the heraldess. Do not their mingled martial and -pastoral strains exactly suit the case of the Return? For this is -an expedition, on which the nation's champion has gone forth, not -to lead His enemies captive to His gates, but that He may gather -His people home. Not mailed men, in the pride of a victory they -have helped to win, march in behind Him,--_armour and tumult and -the garment rolled in blood_,--but a herd of mixed and feeble folk, -with babes and women, in need of carriage and gentle leading, -wander wearily back. And, therefore, in the mouth of the heraldess -the figure changes from a warrior-king to the Good Shepherd. _With -His right arm He gathers the lambs, and in His bosom bears them. -Ewe-mothers He gently leads._ How true a picture, and how much it -recalls! Fifty years before, the exiles left their home (as we -can see to this day upon Assyrian sculptures) in closely-driven -companies, fettered, and with the urgency upon them of grim soldiers, -who marched at intervals in their ranks to keep up the pace, and who -tossed the weaklings impatiently aside. But now, see the slow and -loosely-gathered bands wander back, just as quickly as the weakest -feel strength to travel, and without any force or any guidance save -that of their Almighty, Unseen Shepherd. - -We are now able to appreciate the dramatic unity of this Prologue. -How perfectly it gathers into its four Voices the whole course of -Israel's redemption: the first assurance of Grace whispered to the -heart, co-operation with Providence, confidence in God's bare Word, -the full Return and the Restoration of the City. - -But its climax is undoubtedly the honour it lays upon the whole -people to be publishers of the good news of God. Of this it speaks -with trumpet tones. All Jerusalem must be a herald-people. And how -could Israel help owning the constraint and inspiration to so high -an office, after so heartfelt an experience of grace, so evident a -redemption, so glorious a proof of the power of the Word of God? To -have the heart thus filled with grace, to have the will enlisted in -so Divine a work, to have known the almightiness of the Divine Word -when everything else failed--after such an experience, who would not -be able to preach the good news of God, to foretell, as our prophet -bids Israel foretell, the coming of the Kingdom and Presence of -God--the day when the Lord's flock shall be perfect and none wanting, -when society, though still weary and weak and mortal, shall have no -stragglers nor outcasts nor reprobates. - -O God, so fill us with Thy grace and enlist us in Thy work, so manifest -the might of Thy word to us, that the ideal of Thy perfect kingdom may -shine as bright and near to us as to Thy prophet of old, and that we -may become its inspired preachers and ever labour in its hope. Amen. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[36] See p. 47. - -[37] From the sequence of the voices, it would seem that we had in -ch. xl. not a mere collection of anonymous prophecies arranged by -an editor, but one complete prophecy by the author of most of Isa. -xl.-lxvi., set in the dramatic form which obtains through the other -chapters. - -[38] Every one who appreciates the music of the original will agree -how incomparably Handel has interpreted it in those pulses of music -with which his _Messiah_ opens. - -[39] See ch. liv., where this figure is developed with great beauty. - -[40] Lev. xxvii. - -[41] The technical word to preach or proclaim. - - - - - CHAPTER VI. - - _GOD: A SACRAMENT._ - - ISAIAH xl. 12-31. - - -Such are the Four Voices which herald the day of Israel's redemption. -They are scarcely silent, before the Sun Himself uprises, and horizon -after horizon of His empire is displayed to the eyes of His starved -and waiting people. From the prologue of the prophecy, in ch. xl. -1-11, we advance to the presentation, in chs. xl. 12-xli., of its -primary and governing truth--the sovereignty and omnipotence of God, -the God of Israel. - -We may well call this truth the sun of the new day which Israel is -about to enter. For as it is the sun which makes the day, and not the -day which reveals the sun; so it is God, supreme and almighty, who -interprets, predicts and controls His people's history, and not their -history, which, in its gradual evolution, is to make God's sovereignty -and omnipotence manifest to their experience. Let us clearly understand -this. The prophecy, which we are about to follow, is an argument not -so much from history to God as from God to history. Israel already -have their God; and it is because He is what He is, and what they -ought to know Him to be,[42] that they are bidden believe that their -future shall take a certain course. The prophet begins with God, -and everything follows from God. All that in these chapters lends -light or force, all that interprets the history of to-day and fills -to-morrow with hope, fact and promise alike, the captivity of Israel, -the appearance of Cyrus, the fall of Babylon, Israel's redemption, the -extension of their mission to the ends of the earth, the conversion -of the Gentiles, the equipment, discipline and triumph of the Servant -Himself,--we may even say the expanded geography of our prophet, the -countries which for the first time emerge from the distant west within -the vision of a Hebrew seer,--all are due to that primary truth about -God with which we are now presented. It is God's sovereignty which -brings such far-off things into the interest of Israel; it is God's -omnipotence which renders such impossible things practical. And as -with the subjects, so with the style of the following chapters. The -prophet's style is throughout the effect of his perfect and brilliant -monotheism. It is the thought of God which everywhere kindles his -imagination. His most splendid passages are those, in which he soars -to some lofty vision of the Divine glory in creation or history; while -his frequent sarcasm and ridicule owe their effectiveness to the sudden -scorn, with which, from such a view, scattering epigrams the while, -he sweeps down upon the heathen's poor images, or Israel's grudging -thoughts of his God. The breadth and the force of his imagination, the -sweep of his rhetoric, the intensity of his scorn, may all be traced -to his sense of God's sovereignty, and are the signs to us of how -absolutely he was possessed by this as his main and governing truth. - -This, then, being the sun of Israel's coming day, we may call what -we find in ch. xl. 11-xli. the sunrise--the full revelation and -uprising on our sight of this original gospel of the prophet. It is -addressed to two classes of men; in ch. xl. 12-31 to Israel, but -in ch. xli. (for the greater part, at least) to the Gentiles. In -dealing with these two classes the prophet makes a great difference. -To Israel he presents their God, as it were, in sacrament; but to -the Gentiles he urges God's claims in challenge and argument. It is -to the past that he summons Israel, and to what they ought to know -already about their God; it is to the future, to history yet unmade, -that he proposes to the Gentiles they should together appeal, in -order to see whether his God or their gods are the true Deity. In -this chapter we shall deal with the first of these--God in sacrament. - - * * * * * - -The fact is familiar to all, that the Old Testament nowhere feels the -necessity of proving the existence of God. That would have been a proof -unintelligible to those to whom its prophets addressed themselves. In -the time when the Old Testament came to him, man as little doubted the -existence of God as he doubted his own life. But as life sometimes -burned low, needing replenishment, so faith would grow despondent and -morbid, needing to be led away from objects which only starved it, or -produced, as idolatry did, the veriest delirium of a religion. A man -had to get his faith lifted from the thoughts of his own mind and the -works of his own hand, to be borne upon and nourished by the works of -God,--to kindle with the sunrise, to broaden out by the sight of the -firmament, to deepen as he faced the spaces of night,--and win calmness -and strength to think life into order as he looked forth upon the -marshalled hosts of heaven, having all the time no doubt that the God -who created and guided these was his God. Therefore, when psalmist or -prophet calls Israel to lift their eyes to the hills, or to behold how -the heavens declare the glory of God, or to listen to that unbroken -tradition, which day passes to day and night to night, of the knowledge -of the Creator, it is not proofs to doubting minds which he offers: it -is spiritual nourishment to hungry souls. These are not arguments--they -are sacraments. When we Christians go to the Lord's Supper, we go not -to have the Lord proved to us, but to feed upon a life and a love -of whose existence we are past all doubt. Our sacrament fills all -the mouths by which needy faith is fed--such as outward sight, and -imagination, and memory, and wonder, and love. Now very much what the -Lord's Supper is to us for fellowship with God and feeding upon Him, -that were the glory of the heavens, and the everlasting hills, and the -depth of the sea, and the vision of the stars to the Hebrews. They were -the sacraments of God. By them faith was fed, and the spirit of man -entered into the enjoyment of God, whose existence indeed he had never -doubted, but whom he had lost, forgotten, or misunderstood. - -Now it is as such a minister of sacrament to God's starved and -disheartened people that our prophet appears in ch. xl. 12-31. - -There were three elements in Israel's starvation. Firstly, for nearly -fifty years they had been deprived of the accustomed ordinances -of religion. Temple and altar had perished; the common praise and -the national religious fellowship were impossible; the traditional -symbols of the faith lay far out of sight; there was at best only -a precarious ministry of the Word. But, in the second place, this -famine of the Word and of Sacraments was aggravated by the fact that -history had gone against the people. To the baser minds among them, -always ready to grant their allegiance to success, this could only -mean that the gods of the heathen had triumphed over Jehovah. It is -little wonder that such experience, assisted by the presentation, -at every turn in their ways, of idols and a splendid idol-worship, -the fashion and delight of the populations through whom they were -mixed, should have tempted many Jews to feed their starved hearts at -the shrines of their conquerors' gods. But the result could only be -the further atrophy of their religious nature. It has been held as a -reason for the worship of idols that they excite the affection and -imagination of the worshipper. They do no such thing: they starve -and they stunt these. The image reacts upon the imagination, infects -it with its own narrowness and poverty, till man's noblest creative -faculty becomes the slave of its own poor toy. But, thirdly, if the -loftier spirits in Israel refused to believe that Jehovah, exalted -in righteousness, could be less than the brutal deities whom Babylon -vaunted over Him, they were flung back upon the sorrowful conviction -that their God had cast them off; that He had retreated from the -patronage of so unworthy a people into the veiled depths of His own -nature. Then upon that heaven, from which no answer came to those -who were once its favourites, they cast we can scarcely tell what -reflection of their own weary and spiritless estate. As, standing -over a city by night, you will see the majestic darkness above -stained and distorted into shapes of pain or wrath by the upcast -of the city's broken, murky lights, so many of the nobler exiles -saw upon the blank, unanswering heaven a horrible mirage of their -own trouble and fear. Their weariness said, He is weary; the ruin -of their national life reflected itself as the frustration of His -purposes; their accusing conscience saw the darkness of His counsel -relieved only by streaks of wrath. - -But none of these tendencies in Israel went so far as to deny that -there was a God, or even to doubt His existence. This, as we have -said, was nowhere yet the temptation of mankind. When the Jew lapsed -from that true faith, which we have seen his nation carry into -exile, he fell into one of the two tempers just described--devotion -to false gods in the shape of idols, or despondency consequent upon -false notions of the true God. It is against these tempers, one after -another, that ch. xl. 12-31 is directed. And so we understand why, -though the prophet is here declaring the basis and spring of all -his subsequent prophecy, he does not adopt the method of abstract -argument. He is not treating with men, who have had no true knowledge -of God in the past, or whose intellect questions God's reality. He -is treating with men, who have a national heritage of truth about -God, but they have forgotten it; who have hearts full of religious -affection, but it has been betrayed; who have a devout imagination, -but it has been starved; who have hopes, but they are faint unto -death. He will recall to them their heritage, rally their shrinking -convictions by the courage of his own faith, feed their hunger after -righteousness[43] by a new hope set to noble music, and display to -the imagination that has been stunted by so long looking upon the -face of idols the wide horizons of Divine glory in earth and heaven. - -His style corresponds to his purpose. He does not syllogize; he -exhorts, recalls and convicts by assertion. The passage is a series -of questions, rallies and promises. _Have ye not known? have ye not -heard?_ is his chief note. Instead of arranging facts in history or -nature as in themselves a proof for God, he mentions them only by way -of provoking inward recollections. His sharp questions are as hooks -to draw from his hearers' hearts their timid and starved convictions, -that he may nourish these upon the sacramental glories of nature and -of history. - -Such a purpose and style trust little to method, and it would -be useless to search for any strict division of strophes in the -passage.[44] The following, however, is a manifest division of subject, -according to the two tempers to which the prophet had to appeal. Verses -12 to 25, and perhaps 26, are addressed to the idolatrous Jews. But in -26 there is a transition to the despair of the nobler hearts in Israel, -who, though they continued to believe in the One True God, imagined -that He had abandoned them; and to such vv. 27 to 31 are undoubtedly -addressed. The different treatment accorded to the two classes is -striking. The former of these the prophet does not call by any title of -the people of God; with the latter he pleads by a dear double name that -he may win them through every recollection of their gracious past, -_Jacob_ and _Israel_ (ver. 27). Challenge and sarcasm are his style -with the idolaters, his language clashing out in bursts too loud and -rapid sometimes for the grammar, as in ver. 24; but with the despondent -his way is gentle persuasiveness, with music that swells and brightens -steadily, passing without a break from the minor key of pleading to the -major of glorious promise. - -1. AGAINST THE IDOLATERS. A couple of sarcastic sentences upon -idols and their manufacture (vv. 19, 20) stand between two majestic -declarations of God's glory in nature and in history (vv. 12-17 -and 21-24). It is an appeal from the worshippers' images to their -imagination. _Who hath measured in his hollow hand the waters, and -heaven ruled off with a span? Or caught in a tierce the dust of the -earth, and weighed in scales mountains, and hills in a balance? -Who hath directed the spirit of Jehovah, and as man of His counsel -hath helped Him to know? With whom took He counsel, that such an -one informed Him and taught Him in the orthodox path, and taught -Him knowledge and helped Him to know the way of intelligence?_ The -term translated _orthodox path_ is literally _path of ordinance or -judgement, the regular path_, and is doubtless to be taken along -with its parallel, _way of intelligence_, as a conventional phrase -of education, which the prophet employed to make his sarcasm the -stronger. _Lo nations! as a drop from a bucket, and like dust in -a balance, are they reckoned. Lo the Isles!_[45] _as a trifle He -lifteth. And Lebanon is by no means enough for burning, nor its -brute-life enough for an offering. All the nations are as nothing -before Him, as spent and as waste are they reckoned for Him._ - -When he has thus soared enough, as on an archangel's wings, he swoops -with one rapid question down from the height of his imagination upon -the images. - -_To whom then will ye liken God, and what likeness will ye range by -Him?_ - -_The image! A smith cast it, and a smelter plates it with gold, and -smelts silver chains. He that is straitened for an offering--he -chooseth a tree that does not rot, seeks to him a cunning carver to -set up an image that will not totter._[46] - -The image shrivels up in face of that imagination; the idol is -abolished by laughter. There is here, and for almost the first time -in history, the same intellectual intolerance of images, the same -burning sense of the unreasonableness of their worship, which has -marked all monotheists, and turned even the meekest of their kind -into fierce scorners and satirists--Elijah, Mohammed, Luther, and -Knox.[47] We hear this laughter from them all. Sometimes it may sound -truculent or even brutal, but let us remember what is behind it. When -we hear it condemned--as, in the interests of art and imagination, -its puritan outbursts have often been condemned--as a barbarian -incapacity to sympathise with the æsthetic instincts of man, or to -appreciate the influence of a beautiful and elevating cult, we can -reply that it was the imagination itself which often inspired both -the laughter at, and the breaking of, images, and that, because the -iconoclast had a loftier vision of God than the image-maker, he has, -on the whole, more really furthered the progress of art than the -artist whose works he has destroyed. It is certain, for instance, -that no one would exchange the beauties of the prophecy now before -us, with its sublime imaginations of God, for all the beauty of all -the idols of Babylonia which it consigned to destruction. And we dare -to say the same of two other epochs, when the uncompromising zeal of -monotheists crushed to the dust the fruits of centuries of Christian -art. The Koran is not often appealed to as a model of poetry, but -it contains passages whose imagination of God, broad as the horizon -of the desert of its birth, and swift and clear as the desert dawn, -may be regarded as infinitely more than compensation--from a purely -artistic point of view--for the countless works of Christian ritual -and imagery which it inspired the rude cavalry of the desert to -trample beneath the hoofs of their horses. And again, if we are to -blame the Reformers of Western Christendom for the cruelty with which -they lifted their hammers against the carved work of the sanctuary, -do not let us forget how much of the spirit of the best modern art -is to be traced to their more spiritual and lofty conceptions of -God. No one will question how much Milton's imagination owed to his -Protestantism, or how much Carlyle's dramatic genius was the result -of his Puritan faith. But it is to the spirit of the Reformation, -as it liberated the worshipper's soul from bondage to artificial -and ecclesiastical symbols of the Deity, that we may also ascribe -a large part of the force of that movement towards Nature and the -imagination of God in His creation which inspired, for example, -Wordsworth's poetry, and those visual sacraments of rainbow, storm, -and dawn to which Browning so often lifts our souls from their -dissatisfaction with ritual or with argument. - -From his sarcasm on the idols our prophet returns to his task of -drawing forth Israel's memory and imagination. _Have ye not known? -Have ye not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? -Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? He that is -enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its dwellers are before -Him as grasshoppers; who stretcheth as a fine veil the heavens, and -spreadeth them like a dwelling tent_--that is, as easily as if they -were not even a pavilion or marquee, but only a humble dwelling -tent. _He who bringeth great men to nothing, the judges of the earth -He maketh as waste. Yea, they were not planted; yea, they were not -sown; yea, their root had not struck in the earth, but_ immediately -_He blew upon them and they withered, and a whirlwind like stubble -carried them away. To whom, then, will ye liken Me, that I may match -with him? saith the Holy One._ But this time it is not necessary to -suggest the idols; they were dissolved by that previous burst of -laughter. Therefore, the prophet turns to the other class in Israel -with whom he has to deal. - -2. TO THE DESPAIRERS OF THE LORD. From history we pass back to nature -in ver. 26, which forms a transition, the language growing steadier -from the impetuosity of the address to the idolaters to the serene -music of the second part. Enough rebuke has the prophet made. As he -now lifts his people's vision to the stars, it is not to shame their -idols, but to feed their hearts. _Lift up on high your eyes and see! -Who hath created these? Who leads forth by number their host, and all -of them calleth by name, by abundance of might, for He is powerful in -strength, not one is amissing._ Under such a night, that veils the -confusion of earth only to bring forth all the majesty and order of -heaven, we feel a moment's pause. Then as the expanding eyes of the -exiles gaze upon the infinite power above, the prophet goes on. _Why -then sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel? Hidden is my way -from Jehovah, and from my God my right hath passed._ - -Why does the prophet point his people to the stars? Because he is -among Israel on that vast Babylonian plain, from whose crowded and -confused populations, struggling upon one monotonous level, there -is no escape for the heart but to the stars. Think of that plain -when Nebuchadrezzar was its tyrant; of the countless families of -men torn from their far homes and crushed through one another upon -its surface; of the ancient liberties that were trampled in that -servitude, of the languages that were stifled in that Babel, of the -many patriotisms set to sigh themselves out into the tyrant's mud and -mortar. Ah heaven! was there a God in thee, that one man could thus -crush nations in his vat, as men crushed shell-fish in those days, -to dye his imperial purple? Was there any Providence above, that -he could tear peoples from the lands and seas, where their various -gifts and offices for humanity had been developed, and press them -to his selfish and monotonous servitude? In that medley of nations, -all upon one level of captivity, Israel was just as lost as the most -insignificant tribe; her history severed, her worship impossible, -her very language threatened with decay. No wonder, that from the -stifling crowd and desperate flatness of it all she cried, _Hidden is -my way from Jehovah, and from my God my right hath passed._ - -But from the flatness and the crowd the stars are visible; and it was -upon the stars that the prophet bade his people feed their hearts. -There were order and unfailing guidance; _for the greatness of His -might not one is missing_. And He is your God. Just as visible as those -countless stars are, one by one, in the dark heavens, to your eyes -looking up, so your lives and fortunes are to His eyes looking down -on this Babel of peoples. _He gathereth the outcasts of Israel.... -He telleth the number of the stars._[48] And so the prophet goes on -earnestly to plead: _Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard? that -an everlasting God is Jehovah, Creator of the ends of the earth. -He fainteth not, neither is weary. There is no searching of His -understanding. Giver to the weary of strength! And upon him that is -of no might, He lavisheth power. Even youths may faint and be weary, -and young men utterly fall; but they who hope in Jehovah shall renew -strength, put forth pinions like eagles, run and not weary, walk and -not faint._ Listen, ears, not for the sake of yourselves only, though -the music is incomparably sweet! Listen for the sake of the starved -hearts below, to whom you carry the sacraments of hope, whom you lift -to feed upon the clear symbols of God's omnipotence and unfailing grace. - -This chapter began with the assurance to the heart of Israel of their -God's will to redeem and restore them. It closes with bidding the -people take hope in God. Let us again emphasize--for we cannot do so -too often, if we are to keep ourselves from certain errors of to-day -on the subject of Revelation--the nature of this prophecy. It is not -a reading-off of history; it is a call from God. No deed has yet been -done pointing towards the certainty of Israel's redemption; it is not -from facts writ large on the life of their day, that the prophet bids -the captives read their Divine discharge. That discharge he brings from -God; he bids them find the promise and the warrant of it in their God's -character, in their own convictions of what that character is. In order -to revive those convictions, he does, it is true, appeal to certain -facts, but these facts are not the facts of contemporary history which -might reveal to any clear eye, that the current and the drift of -politics was setting towards the redemption of Israel. They are facts -of nature and facts of general providence, which, as we have said, like -sacraments evidence God's power to the pious heart, feed it with the -assurance of His grace, and bid it hope in His word, though history -should seem to be working quite the other way. - -This instance of the method of revelation does not justify two -opinions, which prevail at the present day regarding prophecy. In -the first place, it proves to us, that those are wrong who, too -much infected by the modern temper to judge accurately writers so -unsophisticated, describe prophecy as if it were merely a philosophy -of history, by which the prophets deduced from their observation of -the course of events their idea of God and their forecast of His -purposes. The prophets had indeed to do with history; they argued -from it, and they appealed to it. The history that was past was full -of God's condescension to men, and shone like Nature's self with -sacramental signs of His power and will: the history that was future -was to be His supreme tribunal, and to afford the vindication of the -word they claimed to have brought from Him. But still all this--their -trust in history and their use of it--was something secondary in -the prophetic method. With them God Himself was first; they came -forth from His presence, as they describe it, with the knowledge -of His will gained through the communion of their spirits with His -Spirit. If they then appealed to past history, it was to illustrate -their message; or to future, it was for vindication of this. But God -Himself was the Source and Author of it; and therefore, before they -had facts beneath their eyes to corroborate their promises, they -appealed to the people, like our prophet in ch. xl., to _wait on -Jehovah_. The day might not yet have dawned so as to let them read -the signs of the times. But in the darkness they _hoped in Jehovah_, -and borrowed for their starved hearts from the stars above, or other -sacrament, some assurance of His unfailing power. - -Jehovah, then, was the source of the prophets' word: His character -was its pledge. The prophets were not mere readers from history, but -speakers from God. - -But the testimony of our chapter to all this enables us also to -arrest an opinion about Revelation, which has too hurriedly run off -with some Christians, and to qualify it. In the inevitable recoil -from the scholastic view of revelation as wholly a series of laws and -dogmas and predictions, a number of writers on the subject have of -late defined Revelation as a chain of historical acts, through which -God uttered His character and will to men. According to this view, -Revelation is God manifesting Himself in history, and the Bible is -the record of this historical process. Now, while it is true that -the Bible is, to a large extent, the annals and interpretation of -the great and small events of a nation's history--of its separation -from the rest of mankind, its miraculous deliverances, its growth, -its defeats and humiliations, its reforms and its institutions; in -all of which God manifested His character and will--yet the Bible -also records a revelation, which preceded these historical deeds; -a revelation the theatre of which was not the national experience, -but the consciousness of the individual; which was recognised and -welcomed by choice souls in the secret of their own spiritual life, -before it was realised and observed in outward fact; which was -uttered by the prophet's voice and accepted by the people's trust in -the dark and the stillness, before the day of the Lord had dawned -or there was light to see His purposes at work. In a word, God's -revelation to men was very often made clear in their subjective -consciousness, before it became manifest in the history about them. - -And, for ourselves, let us remember that to this day true religion is -as independent of facts as it was with the prophet. True religion is a -conviction of the character of God, and a resting upon that alone for -salvation. We need nothing more to begin with; and everything else, in -our experience and fortune, helps us only in so far as it makes that -primary conviction more clear and certain. Darkness may be over us, and -we lonely and starved beneath it. We may be destitute of experience to -support our faith; we may be able to discover nothing in life about us -making in the direction of our hopes. Still, let _us wait on the Lord_. -It is by bare trust in Him, that we _renew our strength, put forth -wings like eagles, run and not weary, walk and not faint_. - -_Put forth wings--run--walk!_ Is the order correct? Hope swerves from -the edge of so descending a promise, which seems only to repeat -the falling course of nature--that droop, we all know, from short -ambitions, through temporary impulsiveness, to the old commonplace -and routine. Soaring, running, walking--and is not the next stage, a -cynic might ask, standing still? - -On the contrary, it is a natural and a true climax, rising from the -easier to the more difficult, from the ideal to the real, from dream to -duty, from what can only be the rare occasions of life to what must be -life's usual and abiding experience. History followed this course. Did -the prophet, as he promised, think of what should really prove to be -the fortune of his people during the next few years?--the great flight -of hope, on which we see them rising in their psalms of redemption as -on the wings of an eagle; the zeal and liberality of preparation for -departure from Babylon; the first rush at the Return; and then the long -tramp, day after day, with the slow caravan, at the pace of its most -heavily-laden beasts of burden, when _they shall walk and not faint_ -should indeed seem to them the sweetest part of their God's promise. - -Or was it the far longer perspective of Israel's history that bade -the prophet follow this descending scale? The spirit of prophecy -was with himself to soar higher than ever before, reaching by truly -eagle-flight to a vision of the immediate consummation of Israel's -glory: the Isles waiting for Jehovah, the Holy City radiant in His -rising, and open with all her gates to the thronging nations; the -true religion flashing from Zion across the world, and the wealth -of the world pouring back upon Zion. And some have wondered, and -some scoff, that after this vision there should follow centuries of -imperceptible progress--five-and-a-half centuries of preparation -for the coming of the Promised Servant; and then--Israel, indeed -gone forth over the world, but only in small groups, living upon -the grudged and fitful tolerance of the great centres of Gentile -civilisation. The prophet surely anticipates all this, when he -places the _walking_ after the _soaring_ and the _running_. When he -says last, and most impressively, of his people's fortunes, that -they _shall walk and not faint_, he has perhaps just those long -centuries in view, when, instead of a nation of enthusiasts taking -humanity by storm, we see small bands of pioneers pushing their way -from city to city by the slow methods of ancient travel,--Damascus, -Antioch, Tarsus, Iconium, Ephesus, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth and -Rome,--everywhere that Paul and the missionaries of the Cross found -a pulpit and a congregation ready for the Gospel; toiling from day -to day at their own trades, serving the alien for wages, here and -there founding a synagogue, now and then completing a version of -their Scriptures, oftentimes achieving martyrdom, but ever living a -pure and a testifying life in face of the heathen, with the passion -of these prophecies at their hearts. It was certainly for such -centuries and such men that the word was written, _they shall walk -and not faint_. This persistence under persecution, this monotonous -drilling of themselves in school and synagogue, this slow progress -without prize or praise along the common highways of the world and -by the world's ordinary means of livelihood, was a greater proof of -indomitableness than even the rapture which filled their hearts on -the golden eve of the Return, under the full diapason of prophecy. - -And so must it ever be. First the ideal, and then the rush at it with -passionate eyes, and then the daily trudge onward, when its splendour -has faded from the view, but is all the more closely wrapped round -the heart. For glorious as it is to rise to some great consummation -on wings of dream and song, glorious as it is, also, to bend that -impetus a little lower and take some practical crisis of life by -storm, an even greater proof of our religion and of the help our God -can give us is the lifelong tramp of earth's common surface, without -fresh wings of dream, or the excitement of rivalry, or the attraction -of reward, but with the head cool, and the face forward, and every -footfall upon firm ground. Let hope rejoice in a promise, which does -not go off into the air, but leaves us upon solid earth; and let -us hold to a religion, which, while it exults in being the secret -of enthusiasm and the inspiration of heroism, is daring and Divine -enough to find its climax in the commonplace. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[42] See xl. 21, _Have ye not known?_ - -[43] That is in the sense, in which our prophet uses the word, of -salvation. See Ch. XIV. of this volume. - -[44] Some intention of division undoubtedly appears. Notice the -double refrain, _To whom will ye liken_, etc., of vv. 18 and 25; -and then at equal distance from either occurrence of this challenge -the appeal, _Dost thou not know_, etc., vv. 21 and 28. But though -these signs of a strict division appear, the rest is submerged by -the strong flood of feeling which rushes too deep and rapid for any -hard-and-fast embankments. - -[45] See p. 109. - -[46] If an idol leant over or fell that was the very worst of omens; -_cf._ the case of Dagon. - -[47] When John Knox was a prisoner in France, "the officers brought -to him a painted board, which they called Our Lady, and commanded -him to kiss it. They violently thrust it into his face, and put it -betwixt his hands, who, seeing the extremity, took the idol, and -advisedly looking about, he cast it into the river, and said, 'Let -Our Lady now save herself; she is light enough; let her learn to -swim!' After that was no Scotsman urged with that idolatry."--Knox, -_History of the Reformation_. - -[48] Psalm cxlvii. - - - - - CHAPTER VII. - - _GOD: AN ARGUMENT FROM HISTORY._ - - ISAIAH xli. - - -Having revealed Himself to His own people in ch. xl., Jehovah now -turns in ch. xli. to the heathen, but, naturally, with a very -different kind of address. Displaying His power to His people in -certain sacraments, both of nature and history, He had urged them to -_wait upon Him_ alone for the salvation, of which there were as yet -no signs in the times. But with the heathen it is evidently to these -signs of the times, that He can best appeal. Contemporary history, -facts open to every man's memory and reason, is the common ground on -which Jehovah and the other gods can meet. Ch. xli. is, therefore, -the natural complement to ch. xl. In ch. xl. we have the element in -revelation that precedes history: in ch. xli. we have history itself -explained as a part of revelation. - -Ch. xli. is loosely cast in the same form of a Trial-at-Law, which -we found in ch. i. To use a Scotticism, which exactly translates -the Hebrew of ver. 1, Jehovah goes _to the law_ with the idols. His -summons to the Trial is given in ver. 1; the ground of the Trial is -advanced in vv. 2-7. Then comes a digression, vv. 8-20, in which the -Lord turns from controversy with the heathen to comfort His people. -In vv. 21-29 Jehovah's plea is resumed, and in the silence of the -defendants--a silence, which, as we shall presently see by calling in -the witness of a Greek historian, was actual fact--the argument is -summed up and the verdict given for the sole divinity of Israel's God. - -The main interest of the Trial lies, of course, in its appeal to -contemporary history, and to the central figure Cyrus, although it is -to be noted that the prophet as yet refrains from mentioning the hero -by name. This appeal to contemporary history lays upon us the duty -of briefly indicating, how the course of that history was tending -outside Babylon,--outside Babylon, as yet, but fraught with fate both -to Babylon and to her captives. - - * * * * * - -Nebuchadrezzar, although he had virtually succeeded to the throne of -the Assyrian, had not been able to repeat from Babylon that almost -universal empire, which his predecessors had swayed from Nineveh. -Egypt, it is true, was again as thoroughly driven from Asia as -in the time of Sargon: to the south the Babylonian supremacy was -as unquestioned as ever the Assyrian had been. But to the north -Nebuchadrezzar met with an almost equal rival, who had helped him -in the overthrow of Nineveh, and had fallen heir to the Assyrian -supremacy in that quarter. This was Kastarit or Kyaxares, an Aryan, -one of the pioneers of that Aryan invasion from the East, which, -though still tardy and sparse, was to be the leading force in -Western Asia for the next century. This Kyaxares had united under -his control a number of Median tribes,[49] a people of Turanian -stock. With these, when Nineveh fell, he established to the north of -Nebuchadrezzar's power the empire of Media, with its western boundary -at the river Halys, in Asia Minor, and its capital at Ecbatana under -Mount Elwand. It is said that the river Indus formed his frontier -to the east. West of the Halys, the Mede's progress was stopped by -the Lydian Empire, under King Alyattis, whose capital was Sardis, -and whose other border was practically the coast of the Ægean. In -585, or two years after the destruction of Jerusalem, Alyattis and -Kyaxares met in battle on the Halys. But the terrors of an eclipse -took the heart to fight out of both their armies, and, Nebuchadrezzar -intervening, the three monarchs struck a treaty among themselves, -and strengthened it by intermarriage. Western Asia now virtually -consisted of the confederate powers, Babylonia, Media and Lydia.[50] - -Let us realise how far this has brought us. When we stood with Isaiah -in Jerusalem, our western horizon lay across the middle of Asia Minor -in the longitude of Cyprus.[51] It now rests upon the Ægean; we are -almost within sight of Europe. Straight from Babylon to Sardis runs a -road, with a regular service of couriers. The court of Sardis holds -domestic and political intercourse with the courts of Babylon and -Ecbatana; but the court of Sardis also lords it over the Asiatic -Greeks, worships at Greek shrines, will shortly be visited by Solon -and strike an alliance with Sparta. In the time of the Jewish exile -there were without doubt many Greeks in Babylon; men may have spoken -there with Daniel, who had spoken at Sardis with Solon. - -This extended horizon makes clear to us what our prophet has in -his view, when in this forty-first chapter he summons _Isles_ to -the bar of Jehovah: _Be silent before me, O Isles, and let Peoples -renew their strength_,--a vision and appeal which frequently recur -in our prophecy. _Listen, O Isles, and hearken, O Peoples from afar_ -(xlix. 1); _Isles shall wait for His law_ (xlii. 4); _Let them give -glory to Jehovah, and publish His praise in the Isles_ (xlii. 12); -_Unto me Isles shall hope_ (li. 5); _Surely Isles shall wait for -me, ships of Tarshish first_.[52] The name is generally taken by -scholars--according to the derivation in the note below--to have -originally meant _habitable land_, and so _land_ as opposed to water. -In some passages of the Old Testament it is undoubtedly used to -describe a land either washed, or surrounded, by the sea.[53] - -But by our prophet's use of the word it is not necessarily -_maritime provinces_ that are meant. He makes _isles_ parallel -to the well-known terms _nations_, _peoples_, _Gentiles_, and in -one passage he opposes it, as dry soil, to water.[54] Hence many -translators take it in its original sense of _countries_ or _lands_. -This bare rendering, however, does not do justice to the sense of -_remoteness_, which the prophet generally attaches to the word, -nor to his occasional association of it with visions of the sea. -Indeed, as one reads most of his uses of it, one is quite sure that -the island-meaning of the word lingers on in his imagination; and -that the feeling possesses him, which has haunted the poetry of all -ages, to describe as _coasts_ or _isles_ any land or lighting-place -of thought which is far and dim and vague; which floats across the -horizon, or emerges from the distance, as strips and promontories -of land rise from the sea to him who has reached some new point of -view. I have therefore decided to keep the rendering familiar to the -English reader, _isles_, though, perhaps, _coasts_ would be better. -If, as is probable, our prophet's thoughts are always towards the new -lands of the west as he uses the word, it is doubly suitable; those -countries were both maritime and remote; they rose both from the -distance and from the sea. - - "The sprinkled isles, - Lily on lily, that o'erlace the sea - And laugh their pride, where the light wave lisps, 'Greece.'" - -But if Babylonia lay thus open to Lydia, and through Lydia to -the _isles_ and _coasts_ of Greece, it was different with her -northern frontier. What strikes us here is the immense series of -fortifications, which Nebuchadrezzar, in spite of his alliance with -Astyages, cast up between his country and Media. Where the Tigris and -Euphrates most nearly approach one another, about seventy miles to -the north of Babylon, Nebuchadrezzar connected their waters by four -canals, above which he built a strong bulwark, called by the Greeks -the Median wall. This may have been over sixty miles long; Xenophon -tells us it was twenty feet broad by one hundred high.[55] At Sippara -this line of defence was completed by the creation of a great bason -of water to flood the rivers and canals on the approach of an enemy, -and of a large fortress to protect the bason. Alas for the vanity of -human purposes! It is said to have been this very bason which caused -the easy fall of Babylon. By turning the Euphrates into it, the enemy -entered the capital through the emptied river-bed. - -The triple alliance--Lydia, Media, Babylonia--stood firm after its -founders passed away. In 555, Croesus and Astyages, who had succeeded -their fathers at Sardis and Ecbatana respectively, and Nabunahid, who -had usurped the throne at Babylon, were still at peace, and contented -with the partition of 585. But outside them and to the east, in a -narrow nook of land at the head of the Persian Gulf, the man was -already crowned, who was destined to bring Western Asia again under -one sceptre. This was Kurush or Cyrus II. of Anzan, but known to -history as Cyrus the Great or Cyrus the Persian. Cyrus was a prince -of the Akhæmenian house of Persia, and therefore, like the Mede, an -Aryan, but independent of his Persian cousins, and ruling in his own -right the little kingdom of Anzan or Anshan, which, with its capital -of Susan, lay on the rivers Choaspes and Eulæus, between the head of -the Persian Gulf and the Zagros Mountains.[56] - -Cyrus the Great is one of those mortals whom the muse of history, -as if despairing to do justice to him by herself, has called in her -sisters to aid her in describing to posterity. Early legend and later -and more elaborate romance; the schoolmaster, the historian, the -tragedian and the prophet, all vie in presenting to us this hero "le -plus sympathique de l'antiquité"[57]--this king on whom we see so -deeply stamped the double signature of God, character and success. We -shall afterwards have a better opportunity to speak of his character. -Here we are only concerned to trace his rapid path of conquest. - -He sprang, then, from Anshan, the immediate neighbour of Babylonia to -the east. This is the direction indicated in the second verse of this -forty-first chapter: _Who hath raised up one from the east?_ But the -twenty-fifth verse veers round with him to the north: _I have raised -up one from the north, and he is come._ This was actually the curve, -from east to north, which his career almost immediately took. - -For in 549 Astyages, king of Media, attacked Cyrus,[58] king of -Anshan; which means that Cyrus was already a considerable and an -aggressive prince. Probably he had united by this time the two -domains of his house, Persia and Anshan, under his own sceptre, and -secured as his lieutenant Hystaspes, his cousin, the lineal king of -Persia. The Mede, looking south and east from Ecbatana, saw a solid -front opposed to him, and resolved to crush it before it grew more -formidable. But the Aryans among the Medes, dissatisfied with so -indolent a leader as Astyages, revolted to Cyrus, and so the latter, -with characteristic good fortune, easily became lord of Media. A -lenient lord he made. He spared Astyages, and ranked the Aryan Medes -second only to the Persians. But it took him till 546 to complete his -conquest. When he had done so he stood master of Asia from the Halys -to perhaps as far east as the Indus. He replaced the Medes in the -threefold power of Western Asia, and thus looked down on Babylon, as -v. 25 says, _from the north_ (xli. 25). - -In 545, Cyrus advanced upon Babylonia, and struck at the northern -line of fortifications at Sippara. He was opposed by an army under -Belshazzar, Bel-shar-uzzur, the son of Nabunahid, and probably by -his mother's side grandson of Nebuchadrezzar. Army or fortifications -seem to have been too much for Cyrus, and there is no further mention -of his name in the Babylonian annals till the year 538. It has been -suggested that Cyrus was aware of the discontent of the people with -their ruler Nabunahid, and, with that genius which distinguished -his whole career for availing himself of the internal politics of -his foes, he may have been content to wait till the Babylonian -dissatisfaction had grown riper, perhaps in the meantime fostering it -by his own emissaries. - -In any case, the attention of Cyrus was now urgently demanded on the -western boundary of his empire, where Lydia was preparing to invade -him. Croesus, king of Lydia, fresh from the subjection of the Ionian -Greeks, and possessing an army and a treasure second to none in -the world, had lately asked of Solon, whether he was not the most -fortunate of men; and Solon had answered, to count no man happy till -his death. The applicability of this advice to himself Croesus must -have felt with a start, when, almost immediately after it, the news -came that his brother-in-law Astyages had fallen before an unknown -power, which was moving up rapidly from the east, and already touched -the Lydian frontier at the Halys. Croesus was thrown into alarm. He -eagerly desired to know Heaven's will about this Persian and himself, -who now stood face to face. But, in that heathen world, with its -thousand shrines to different gods, who knew the will of Heaven? In -a fashion only possible to the richest man in the world, Croesus -resolved to discover, by sending a test-question, on a matter of fact -within his own knowledge, to every oracle of repute: to the oracles -of the Greeks at Miletus, Delphi, Abæ; to that of Trophonius; to the -sanctuary of Amphiaraus at Thebes; to Dodona; and even to the far-off -temple of Ammon in Libya. The oracles of Delphi and Amphiaraus alone -sent an answer, which in the least suggested the truth. "To the -gods of Delphi and Amphiaraus, Croesus, therefore, offered great -sacrifices,--three thousand victims of every kind; and on a great -pile of wood he burned couches plated with gold and silver, golden -goblets, purple robes and garments, in the hope that he would thereby -gain the favour of the god yet more.... And as the sacrifice left -behind an enormous mass of molten gold, Croesus caused bricks to be -made, six palms in length, three in breadth and one in depth; in -all there were 117 bricks.... In addition there was a golden lion -which weighed ten talents. When these were finished, Croesus sent -them to Delphi; and he added two very large mixing bowls, one of -gold, weighing eight talents and a half and twelve minæ, and one of -silver (the work of Theodorus of Samos, as the Delphians say, and -I believe it, for it is the work of no ordinary artificer), four -silver jars, and two vessels for holy water, one of gold, the other -of silver, circular casts of silver, a golden statue of a woman three -cubits high, and the necklace and girdles of his queen."[59] We can -understand, that for all this Croesus got the best advice consistent -with the ignorance and caution of the priests whom he consulted. The -oracles told him that if he went against Cyrus he would destroy a -great empire; but he forgot to ask, whether it was his own or his -rival's. When he inquired a second time, if his reign should be long, -they replied: "When a mule became king of the Medes," then he might -fly from his throne; but again he forgot to consider that there might -be mules among men as among beasts.[60] At the same time, the oracles -tempered their ambiguous prophecies with some advice of undoubted -sense, for when he asked them who were the most powerful among the -Greeks, they replied the Spartans, and to Sparta he sent messengers -with presents to conclude an alliance. "The Lacedæmonians were filled -with joy; they knew the oracle which had been given Croesus, and -made him a friend and ally, as they had previously received many -kindnesses at his hands."[61] - -This glimpse into the preparations of Croesus, whose embassies -compassed the whole civilised world, and whose wealth got him -all that politics or religion could, enables us to realise the -political and religious excitement into which Cyrus' advent threw -that generation. The oracles in doubt and ambiguous; the priests, the -idol-manufacturers, and the crowd of artisans, who worked in every city -at the furniture of the temple, in a state of unexampled activity, -with bustle perhaps most like the bustle of our government dockyards -on the eve of war; hammering new idols together, preparing costly -oblations, overhauling the whole religious "ordnance," that the gods -might be propitiated and the stars secured to fight in their courses -against the Persian; rival politicians practising conciliation, and -bolstering up one another with costly presents to stand against this -strange and fatal force, which indifferently threatened them all. -What a commentary Herodotus' story furnishes upon the verses of this -chapter, in which Jehovah contrasts the idols with Himself. It may -actually have been Croesus and the Greeks whom the prophet had in his -mind when he wrote vv. 5-7: _The isles have seen, and they fear; the -ends of the earth tremble: they draw near and they come. They help -every man his neighbour, and to his brother each sayeth, Be strong. So -carver encourageth smelter, smoother with hammer, smiter on anvil; one -saith of the soldering, It is good: and he fasteneth it with nails lest -it totter._ The irony is severe, but true to the facts as Herodotus -relates them. The statesmen hoped to keep back Cyrus by sending sobbing -messages to one another, Be of good courage; the priests "by making a -particularly good and strong set of gods."[62] - -While the imbecility of the idolatries was thus manifest, and the -great religious centres of heathendom were reduced to utter doubt -that veiled itself in ambiguity and waited to see how things would -issue, there was one religion in the world, whose oracles gave no -uncertain sound, whose God stepped boldly forth to claim Cyrus for -His own. In the dust of Babylonia lay the scattered members of a -nation captive and exiled, a people civilly dead and religiously -degraded; yet it was the faith of this worm of a people, which -welcomed and understood Cyrus, it was the God of this people who -claimed to be his author. The forty-first chapter looks dreary and -ancient to the uninstructed eye, but let our imagination realise all -these things: the ambiguous priests, oracles that would not speak -out, religions that had no articulate counsel nor comfort in face -of the conqueror who was crushing up the world before him, but only -sobs, solder and nails; and our heart will leap as we hear how God -forces them all into judgement before Him, and makes His plea as loud -and clear as mortal ear may hear. Clatter of idols, and murmur of -muffled oracles, filling all the world; and then, hark how the voice -of JEHOVAH crashes His oracle across it all! - -_Keep silence towards Me, O Isles, and let the peoples renew their -strength: let them approach; then let them speak: to the Law let us -come._ - -_Who hath stirred up from the sunrise Righteousness, calleth it to -his foot? He giveth to his face peoples, and kings He makes him to -trample; giveth_ them _as dust to his sword, as driven stubble to -his bow. He pursues them, and passes to peace a road that he comes -not with his feet. Who has wrought_ it _and done_ it? _Summoner of -generations from the source,_[63] _I Jehovah the First, and with the -Last; I am He._ - -Croesus would have got a clear answer here, but it is probable that -he had never heard of the Hebrews or of their God. - -After this follows the satiric picture of the heathen world, which has -already been quoted. And then, after an interval during which Jehovah -turns to His own people (vv. 8-20),--for whatever be His business or -His controversy, the Lord is mindful of His own,--He directs His speech -specially against the third class of the leaders of heathendom. He has -laughed the foolish statesmen and imagemakers out of court (vv. 5-7); -He now challenges, in ver. 21, the oracles and their priests. - -We have seen what these were, which this vast heathen world--heathen -but human, convinced as we are that at the back of the world's life -there is a secret, a counsel and a governor, and anxious as we are -to find them--had to resort to. Timid waiters upon time, whom not -even the lavish wealth of a Croesus could tempt from their ambiguity; -prophets speechless in face of history; oracles of meaning as dark -and shifty as their steamy caves at Delphi, of tune as variable -as the whispering oak of Dodona; wily-tongued Greeks, masters of -ambiguous phrase, at Miletus, Abæ, and Thebes; Egyptian mystics in -the far off temple of "Lybic Hammon,"--these are what the prophet -sees standing at the bar of history, where God is Challenger. - -_Bring here your case, saith Jehovah; apply your strong grounds, saith -the King of Jacob. Let them bring out and declare unto us what things -are going to happen; the first things_[64] _announce what they are, -that we may set our heart on them, and know the issue of them; or the -things that are coming, let us hear them. Announce the things that are -to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods. Yea, do good or -do evil, that we may stare and see it together. Lo! ye are nothing, and -your work is of nought; an abomination is he who chooseth you._ - -Which great challenge just means, Come and be tested by facts. Here -is history needing an explanation, and running no one knows whither. -Prove your divinity by interpreting or guiding it. Cease your -ambiguities, and give us something we can set our minds to work upon. -Or do something, effect something in history, be it good or be it -evil,--only let it be patent to our senses. For the test of godhead -is not ingenuity or mysteriousness, but plain deeds, which the senses -can perceive, and plain words, which the reason and conscience can -judge. The insistance upon the senses and mental faculties of man -is remarkable: _Make us hear them, that we may know, stare, see all -together, set our mind to them._ - -But as we have learned from Herodotus, there was nobody in the world -to answer such a challenge. Therefore Jehovah Himself answers it. He -gives His explanation of history, and claims its events for His doing. - -_I have stirred up from the north, and he hath come; from the rising -of the sun one who calleth upon My Name: and he shall trample satraps -like mortar, and as the potter treadeth out clay._ - -_Who hath announced on-ahead_[65] _that we may know, and beforehand -that we may say, "Right!" Yea, there is none that announced, yea, -there is none that published, yea, there is none that heareth your -words._ But _a prediction_--or _predicter_, literally a _thing_ or -_man on-ahead_ (r'ishôn corresponding to the me-r'osh of ver. 26)--_a -prediction to Zion, "Behold, behold them," and to Jerusalem a herald -of good news--I am giving_. The language here comes forth in jerks, -and is very difficult to render. _But I look and there is no man even -among these, and no counsellor, that I might ask them and they return -word. Lo, all of them vanity! and nothingness their works; wind and -waste their molten images._ - - * * * * * - -Let us look a little more closely at the power of PREDICTION, on which -Jehovah maintains His unique and sovereign Deity against the idols. - -Jehovah challenges the idols to face present events, and to give -a clear, unambiguous forecast of their issue. It is a debatable -question, whether He does not also ask them to produce previous -predictions of events happening at the time at which He speaks. -This latter demand is one that He makes in subsequent chapters; it -is part of His prophet's argument in chs. xlv.-xlvi., that Jehovah -intimated the advent of Cyrus by His servants in Israel long before -the present time. Whether He makes this same demand for previous -predictions in ch. xli. depends on how we render a clause of ver. 22, -_declare ye the former things_. Some scholars take _former things_ -in the sense, in which it is used later on in this prophecy, of -_previous predictions_. This is very doubtful. I have explained in -a note, why I think them wrong; but even if they are right, and -Jehovah be really asking the idols to produce former predictions of -Cyrus' career, the demand is so cursory, it proves so small an item -in His plea, and we shall afterwards find so many clearer statements -of it, that we do better to ignore it now and confine ourselves to -emphasizing the other challenge, about which there is no doubt,--the -challenge to take present events and predict their issue.[66] Croesus -had asked the oracles for a forecast of the future. This is exactly -what Jehovah demands in ver. 22, _declare unto us what things are -going to happen_; in ver. 23, _declare the things that are to come -hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods_; in ver. 26 (spoken -from the standpoint of the subsequent fulfilment of the prediction), -_who declared it on-ahead that we may know, and beforehand that we -may now say, "Right!" Yea, there is none that declared, yea, there -is none that published, yea, there is none that heareth your words_. -But _a prediction unto Zion, "Behold, behold them," and to Jerusalem -a herald of good news--I give. I give_ is emphatically placed at the -end,--"I Jehovah alone, through my prophets in Israel, give such a -prediction and publisher of good news." - -We scarcely require to remind ourselves, that this great challenge and -plea are not mere rhetoric or idle boasting. Every word in them we -have seen to be true to fact. The heathen religions were, as they are -here represented, helpless before Cyrus, and dumb about the issue of -the great movements which the Persian had started. On the other hand, -Jehovah had uttered to His people all the meaning of the new stir and -turmoil in history. We have heard Him do so in ch. xl. There He _gives -a herald of good news to Jerusalem_,--tells them of their approaching -deliverance, explains His redemptive purposes, proclaims a gospel. In -addition, He has in this chapter accepted Cyrus for His own creation -and as part of His purpose, and has promised him victory. - -The God of Israel, then, is God, because He alone by His prophets -claims facts as they stand for His own deeds, and announces what -shall become of them. - -Do not let us, however, fall into the easy but vulgar error of -supposing, that Jehovah claims to be God simply because He can -predict. It is indeed prediction, which He demands from the heathen; -for prediction is a minimum of godhead, and in asking it He -condescends to the heathen's own ideas of what a god should be able -to do. When Croesus, the heathen who of all that time spent most -upon religion, sought to decide which of the gods was worthiest to -be consulted about the future and propitiated in face of Cyrus, what -test did he apply to them? As we have seen, he tested them by their -ability to predict a matter of fact: the god who told him what he, -Croesus, should be doing on a certain day was to be his god. It is -evident, that, to Croesus, divinity meant to be able to divine. But -the God, who reveals Himself to Israel, is infinitely greater than -this. He is not merely a Being with a far sight into the future; -He is not only Omniscience. In the chapter preceding this one His -power of prediction is not once expressed; it is lost in the two -glories by which alone the prophet seeks to commend His Godhead to -Israel,--the glory of His power and the glory of His faithfulness. -Jehovah is Omnipotence, Creator of heaven and earth; He leads forth -the stars _by the greatness of His might_; Supreme Director of -history, it is He _who bringeth princes to nothing_. But Jehovah is -also unfailing character: _the word of the Lord standeth for ever_; -it is foolishness to say of Him that He has forgotten His people, -or that _their right has passed_ from Him; He disappoints none who -wait upon Him. Such is the God, who steps down from ch. xl. into the -controversy with the heathen in ch. xli. If in the latter He chiefly -makes His claim to godhead to rest upon specimens of prediction, -it is simply, as we have said, that He may meet the gods of the -heathen before a bar and upon a principle, which their worshippers -recognise as practical and decisive. What were single predictions, -here and there, upon the infinite volume of His working, who by -His power could gather all things to serve His own purpose, and in -His faithfulness remained true to that purpose from everlasting to -everlasting! The unity of history under One Will--this is a far more -adequate idea of godhead than the mere power to foretell single -events of history. And it is even to this truth that Jehovah seeks -to raise the unaccustomed thoughts of the heathen. Past the rude -wonder, which is all that fulfilled predictions of fact can excite, -He lifts their religious sense to Himself and His purpose, as the one -secret and motive of all history. He not only claims Cyrus and Cyrus' -career as His own work, but He speaks of Himself as _summoner of the -generations from aforehand; I Jehovah, the First, and with the Last; -I am He_. It is a consummate expression of godhead, which lifts us -far above the thought of Him as a mere divining power. - -Now, it is well for us--were it only for the great historic interest -of the thing, though it will also further our argument--to take -record here that, although this conception of the unity of life under -One Purpose and Will was still utterly foreign, and perhaps even -unintelligible, to the heathen world, which the prophecy has in view, -the first serious attempt in that world to reach such a conception -was contemporary with the forty-first chapter of Isaiah. It is as -miners feel, when, tunnelling from opposite sides of a mountain, they -begin to hear the noise of each other's picks through the dwindling -rock. We, who have come down the history of Israel towards the great -consummation of religion in Christianity, may here cease for a moment -our labours, to listen to the faint sound from the other side of the -wall, still separating Israel from Greece, of a witness to God and an -argument against idolatry similar to those with which we have been -working. Who is not moved by learning, that, in the very years when -Jewish prophecy reached its most perfect statement of monotheism, -pouring its scorn upon the idols and their worshippers, and in the -very _Isles_ on which its hopes and influence were set, the first -Greek should be already singing, who used his song to satirize -the mythologies of his people, and to celebrate the unity of God? -Among the Ionians, whom Cyrus' invasion of Lydia and of the Ægean -coast in 544 drove across the seas, was Xenophanes of Colophon.[67] -After some wanderings he settled at Elea in South Italy, and became -the founder of the Eleatic school, the first philosophic attempt -of the Greek mind to grasp the unity of Being. How far Xenophanes -himself succeeded in this attempt is a matter of controversy. The -few fragments of his poetry which are extant do not reveal him as a -philosophical monotheist, so much as a prophet of "One greatest God." -His language (like that of the earlier Hebrew prophets in praising -Jehovah) apparently implies the real existence of lesser divinities:-- - - "One God, 'mongst both gods and men He is greatest, - Neither in shape is He like unto mortals, nor thought."[68] - -Xenophanes scorns the anthropomorphism of his countrymen, and the -lawless deeds which their poets had attributed to the gods:-- - -"Mortals think the gods can be born, have their feelings, voice and -form; but, could horses or oxen draw like men, they too would make -their gods after their own image."[69] - - "All things did Homer and Hesiod lay on the gods, - Such as with mortals are full of blame and disgrace, - To steal and debauch and outwit one another."[70] - -Our prophet, to whose eyes Gentile religiousness was wholly of the -gross Croesus kind, little suspected that he had an ally, with such -kindred tempers of faith and scorn, among the very peoples to whom he -yearns to convey his truth. But ages after, when Israel and Greece -had both issued into Christianity, the service of Xenophanes to the -common truth was recounted by two Church writers--by Clement of -Alexandria in his _Stromata_, and by Eusebius the historian in his -_Præparatio Evangelica_. - -We find, then, that monotheism had reached its most absolute expression -in Israel in the same decade, in which the first efforts towards -the conception of the unity of Being were just starting in Greece. -But there is something more to be stated. In spite of the splendid -progress, which it pursued from such beginnings, Greek philosophy -never reached the height on which, with Second Isaiah, Hebrew prophecy -already rests; and the reason has to do with two points on which we -are now engaged,--the omnipotence and the righteousness of God. - -Professor Pfleiderer remarks: "Even in the idealistic philosophy of -the Greeks ... matter remains, however sublimated, an irrational -something, with which the Divine power can never come to terms. -It was only in the consciousness, which the prophets of Israel -had of God, that the thought of the Divine omnipotence fully -prevailed."[71] We cannot overvalue such high and impartial testimony -to the uniqueness of the Hebrew doctrine of God, but it needs to be -supplemented. To the prophets' sense of the Divine omnipotence, we -must add their unrivalled consciousness of the Divine character. To -them Jehovah is not only the _Holy_, the incomparable God, almighty -and sublime; He is also the true, consistent God. He has a great -purpose, which He has revealed of old to His people, and to which -He remains for ever faithful. To express this the Hebrews had one -word,--the word we translate _righteous_. We should often miss our -prophet's meaning, if by _righteousness_ we understood some of -the qualities to which the term is often applied by us: if, for -instance, we used it in the general sense of morality, or if we gave -it the technical meaning, which it bears in Christian theology, of -justification from guilt. We shall afterwards devote a chapter to -the exposition of its meaning in Second Isaiah, but let us here look -at its use in ch. xli. In ver. 26, it is applied to the person whose -prediction turns out to be correct: men are to say of him "_right_" -or "_righteous_." Here it is evident that the Hebrew--ssaddîq--is -used in its simplest meaning, like the Latin rectus, and our "right," -of what has been shown to be in accordance with truth or fact. In -ver. 2, again, though the syntax is obscure, it seems to have the -general sense of _good faith with the ability to ensure success_. -Righteousness is here associated with Cyrus, because he has not been -called for nothing, but in good faith for a purpose which will be -carried through. Jehovah's righteousness, then, will be His trueness, -His good faith, His consistency; and indeed this is the sense which -it must evidently bear in ver. 10. Take it with the context: _But -thou, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, seed of Abraham -who loved Me, whom I took hold of from the ends of the earth and -its corners, I called thee and said unto thee, Thou art My servant. -I have chosen thee, and will not cast thee away. Fear not, for I -am with thee. Look not round in despair, for I am thy God. I will -strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with -the right hand of My righteousness_. Here _righteousness_ evidently -means that Jehovah will act _in good faith_ to the people He has -called, that He will act _consistently_ with His anciently revealed -purpose towards them. Hitherto Israel has had nothing but the memory -that God called them, and the conscience that He chose them. Now -Jehovah will vindicate this conscience in outward fact. He will carry -through His calling of His people, and perform His promise. How He -will do this, He proceeds to relate. Israel's enemies shall become as -nothing (vv. 11, 12). Israel himself, though a poor worm of a people, -shall be changed to the utmost conceivable opposite of a worm--even -_a sharp threshing instrument having teeth_--a people who shall leave -their mark on the world. They shall overcome all difficulties and -_rejoice in Jehovah_. Their redemption shall be accomplished in a -series of evident facts. _The poor and the needy are seeking water, -and there is none, their tongue faileth for thirst; I, Jehovah, will -answer them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them._ And this -shall be done on such a scale, that all the world will wonder and -be convinced, vv. 18-19: _I will open on the bare heights rivers, -and in the midst of the plains fountains. I will make the desert a -pool of water, and the dry ground water-springs. I will plant in the -wilderness cedars and acacias and myrtles and oil-trees; I will plant -in the desert pines, planes and sherbins together._ Do not let us -spoil the meaning of this passage by taking these verses literally, -or even as illustrative of the kind of restoration which Israel was -to enjoy. This vast figure of a well-watered and planted desert the -prophet uses rather to illustrate the scale on which the Restoration -will take place: its evident extent and splendour. _That they may -see and know and consider and understand together, that Jehovah hath -done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it._ The whole -passage, then, tells us what God means by His righteousness. It is -His fidelity to His calling of Israel, and to His purpose with His -people. It is the quality by which He cannot forsake His own, but -carries through and completes His promises to them; by which He -vindicates and justifies, in facts so large that they are evident to -all mankind, His ancient word by His prophets.[72] - -This lengthened exposition will not have been in vain, if it has made -clear to us, that Hebrew monotheism owed its unique quality to the -emphasis, which the prophets laid upon the two truths of the Power -and the Character of God. There was One Supreme Being, infinite -in might, and with one purpose running down the ages, which He had -plainly revealed, and to which He remained constant. The people, -who knew this, did not need to wait for the fulfilment of certain -test-predictions before trusting Him as the One God. Test-predictions -and their fulfilment might be needful for the heathen, from whose -minds the idea of One Supreme Being with such a character had -vanished; the heathen might need to be convinced by instances of -Jehovah's omniscience, for omniscience was the most Divine attribute -of which they had conceived. But Israel's faith rested upon glories -in the Divine nature of which omniscience was the mere consequence. -Israel knew God was Almighty and All-true, and that was enough. - - - NOTE UPON JEHOVAH'S CLAIM TO CYRUS. - - In ver. 25 a phrase is used of Cyrus which is very obscure, and - to which, considering its vagueness even upon the most definite - construction, far too much importance has been attached. The - meaning of the words, the tenses, the syntax--perhaps even the - original text itself--of this verse are uncertain. The English - revisers give, _I have raised up one from the north, and he - is come; from the rising of the sun one that calleth upon My - Name_. This is probably the true syntax.[73] But in what tense - is the verb _to call_, and what does _calling upon My name_ - mean? In the Old Testament the phrase is used in two senses,--to - _invoke or adore_, and to _proclaim_ or _celebrate the name_ - of a person.[74] As long as scholars understood that Cyrus was - a monotheist, there was a temptation to choose the former of - these meanings, and to find in the verse Jehovah's claim upon - the Persian, as a worshipper of Himself, the One True God. But - this interpretation received a shock from the discovery of a - proclamation of Cyrus after his entry into Babylon, in which - he invokes the names of Babylonian deities, and calls himself - their "servant."[75] Of course his doing so in the year 538 does - not necessarily discredit a description of him as a monotheist - eight years before. Between 548 and 546--the probable date of - ch. xli.--a prophet might in all good faith have hailed as a - worshipper of Jehovah a Persian who still stood in the _rising - of the sun_,--who had not yet issued from the east and its - radiant repute of a religion purer than the Babylonian; although - eight years afterwards, from motives of policy, the same king - acknowledged the gods of his new subjects. This may be; but - there is a more natural way out of the difficulty. Is it fair - to lay upon the expression, _calleth on My name_, so precise a - meaning as that of a strict monotheism? Some have turned to the - other use of the verb, and, taking it in the future tense, have - translated, _who shall proclaim_ or _celebrate My name_,--which - Cyrus surely did, when, in the name of Jehovah, he drew up - the edict for the return of the Jews to Palestine.[76] But do - we need to put even this amount of meaning upon the phrase? - In itself it is vague, but it also stands parallel to another - vague phrase: _I have raised up one from the north, and he is - come; from the sunrising one who calleth on My name._ Taken - in apposition to the phrase _he is come, calleth on My name_ - may mean no more than that, answering to the instigation of - Jehovah, and owning His impulse, Cyrus by his career proclaimed - or celebrated Jehovah's name. In any case, we have said enough - to show that, in our comparative ignorance of what Cyrus' faith - was, and in face of the elastic use of the phrase _to call on - the name of_, it is quite unwarrantable to maintain that the - prophet must have meant a strict monotheist, and therefore - absurd to draw the inference that the prophet was incorrect. - A way has been attempted out of the difficulty by slightly - altering the text, and so obtaining the version, _I have raised - up one from the north, and he is come; from the sunrise I call - him by name_.[77] This is a change which is in harmony with ch. - xlv. 3, 4, but has otherwise no evidence in its favour. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[49] Media simply means "the country." It is supposed, that of the -six Median tribes only one was Aryan, holding the rest, which were -Turanian, under its influence. - -[50] There were, besides, a few small independent powers in Asia -Minor, such as Cilicia, whose prince also intervened at the Battle of -the Eclipse; and the Ionian cities in the west. But all these, with -perhaps the exception of Lycia, were brought into subjection to Lydia -by Croesus, son of Alyattis. - -[51] Vol. i., p. 92. - -[52] Other passages are: xli. 5, _Isles saw and feared, the ends of -the earth trembled_; xlii. 10, _The sea and its fulness, Isles and -their dwellers_; lix. 18, _He will repay, fury to His adversaries, -recompence to His enemies: to the Isles He will repay recompence_; -lxvi. 19, _The nations, Tarshish, Pul, Lud, drawers of the bow, -Tubal, Javan, the Isles afar off that have not heard my fame_. The -Hebrew is [Hebrew: **] 'î, and is supposed to be from a root [Hebrew: -vh] awah, _to inhabit_, which sense, however, never attaches to the -verb in Hebrew, but is borrowed from the cognate Arabic word. - -[53] Of the Philistine coast, Isa. xx. 6; of the Tyrian coast, Isa. -xxiii. 2, 6; of Greece, Ezek. xxvii. 7; of Crete, Jer. xlvii. 4; of -the islands of the sea, Isa. xi. 11 and Esther x. 1. - -[54] xlii. 15: Eng. version, _I will turn rivers into islands_. - -[55] _Anabasis_ 2, 4. - -[56] There were two branches of the Persian royal family after -Teispes, the son of Akhæmenes, the founder. Teispes annexed Anshan -on the level land between the north-east corner of the Persian Gulf -and the mountains of Persia. Teispes' eldest son, Cyrus I., became -king of Anshan; his other, Ariaramnes, king of Persia. These were -succeeded by their sons, Kambyses I. and Arsames. Kambyses I. was the -father of Cyrus II., the great Cyrus, who rejoined Persia to Anshan, -to the exclusion of his second cousin, Hystaspes. Cyrus the Great was -succeeded by his son, Kambyses II., with whom the Anshan line closed, -and the power was transferred to Darius, son of Hystaspes. _Cf._ -Ragozin's _Media_, in the "Story of the Nations" series. - -[57] Halévy, "Cyrus et le Retour de l'Exil," _Études Juives_, I. - -[58] Inscription of Nabunahid. - -[59] Herodotus, Book I. - -[60] Herodotus explains this by his legend of Cyrus' birth, according -to which Cyrus was a hybrid--half Persian, half Mede. - -[61] Herodotus, Book I. - -[62] Sir Edward Strachey. - -[63] Lit. _from the head_, "da capo." I am not sure, however, that it -does not rather mean _beforehand_, like our on ahead. - -[64] See p. 121. - -[65] This seems to me to be more likely to be the meaning of the -prophet, than the absolute _from the beginning_. It suits its -parallel _beforehand_, and it is more in line with the general demand -of the chapter for anticipation of events. It is literally from the -head, "da capo," _cf._ p. 117. - -[66] [Hebrew: rshnvt] r'ishonôth is a relative term, meaning _head -things_, _things ahead_, _first things_, _prior things_, whether -in rank or time. Here of course the time meaning is undoubted. But -_ahead of_ what? _prior_ to what?--this is the difficulty. Ewald, -Hitzig, A. B. Davidson, Driver, etc., take it as prior to the -standpoint of the speaker; things that happened or were uttered -previous to him,--a sense in which the word is used in subsequent -chapters. But Delitzsch, Hahn, Cheyne, etc., take it to be things -prior to other things that will happen in the later future, early -events, as opposed to [Hebrew: hvvt] of the next clause, which they -take to mean subsequent things, _things that are to come_ afterwards. -I think Dr. Davidson's reasons (see _Expositor_, second series, vol. -vii., p. 256) are quite conclusive against this view of Delitzsch, -that in this clause the idols are being asked to predict events in -the near future. It is difficult, as he says, to see why the idols -should be given a choice between the earlier and the later future: -nor does the [Hebrew: hvvt] of the contrasted clause at all suggest -a later future; it simply means _things coming_, a term which is -as applicable to the near as to the far future. Nevertheless, I am -not persuaded that Dr. Davidson's own view of _r'ishonôth_ is the -correct one. The rest of the context (see above) is occupied with -predictions of the future only. And _r'ishonôth_ does not necessarily -mean previous predictions, although used in this sense in the -subsequent chapters. It simply means, as we have seen, _head things_, -_things ahead_, _things beforehand_, or _fountain-things_, _origins_, -_causes_. That we are to understand it here in some such general and -absolute sense is suggested, I think, by the word [Hebrew: chrtn] -which follows it, _their result_ or _issue_, and is confirmed by -[Hebrew: rshvn], r'ishôn (masc. singular) of ver. 27, which is -undoubtedly used in a general sense, meaning _something_ or _somebody -on ahead_, an anticipator, predicter, _forerunner_ (as Cheyne -gives it), or as I have rendered it above, neuter, a _prediction_. -If _r'ishôn_ in ver. 27 means a thing or a man given beforehand, -then r'ishonôth in ver. 22 may also mean things given beforehand, -predictions made now, or at least things selected and announced as -causes now, whose issue, [Hebrew: chrtn], may be recognised in the -future. In a word, r'ishonôth would mean things not necessarily -_previous_ to the speech in which they were allowed, but simply -things _previous_ to certain results, or anticipating certain events, -either as their prediction or as their cause. - -[67] Ueberweg, _History of Philosophy_, English translation, i., 51. - -[68] Quoted by Clement of Alexandria, _Stromata_, Bk. V., ch. iv., -and by Eusebius, _Præp. Evang._ xiii., 13. - -[69] Ibid. - -[70] Quoted by Ueberweg, as above. - -[71] Pfleiderer, _Philosophy of Religion: Contents of the Religious -Consciousness_, ch. i. (Eng. trans., vol. iii., p. 291). - -[72] See further on the subject the chapter on the Righteousness of -Israel and of God, Chapter XIV. of this volume. - -[73] And that which runs: _... he is come, from the rising of the sun -he calleth upon My name_ (Bredenkamp) is wrong. - -[74] The former of these in ch. lxiv. 7; the latter in xliv. 5. - -[75] Translation of the Cyrus-cylinder in "Cyrus et le Retour de -l'Exil," by Halévy, _Revue des Études Juives_, No. 1, 1880. - -[76] Ezra i. 2; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 22, 23. - -[77] [Hebrew: vshmv kr] for [Hebrew: vshm kor]. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - _THE PASSION OF GOD._ - - ISAIAH xlii. 13-17. - - -At the beginning of ch. xlii. we reach one of those distinct stages, -the frequent appearance of which in our prophecy assures us, that, -for all its mingling and recurrent style, the prophecy is a unity -with a distinct, if somewhat involved, progress of thought. For -while chs. xl. and xli. establish the sovereignty and declare the -character of the One True God before His people and the heathen, ch. -xlii. takes what is naturally the next step, of publishing to both -these classes His Divine will. This purpose of God is set forth in -the first seven verses of the chapter. It is identified with a human -Figure, who is to be God's agent upon earth, and who is styled _the -Servant of Jehovah_. Next to Jehovah Himself, the Servant of Jehovah -is by far the most important personage within our prophet's gaze. -He is named, described, commissioned and encouraged over and over -again throughout the prophecy; his character and indispensable work -are hung upon with a frequency and a fondness almost equal to the -steadfast faith, which the prophet reposes in Jehovah Himself. Were -we following our prophecy chapter by chapter, now would be the time -to put the question, Who is this Servant, who is suddenly introduced -to us? and to look ahead for the various and even conflicting -answers, which rise from the subsequent chapters. But we agreed, for -clearness' sake,[78] to take all the passages about the Servant, -which are easily detached from the rest of the prophecy, and treat -by themselves, and to continue in the meantime our prophet's main -theme of the Power and Righteousness of God as shown forth in the -deliverance of His people from Babylon. Accordingly, at present we -pass over xlii. 1-9, keeping this firmly in mind, however, that -God has appointed for His work upon earth, including, as it does, -the ingathering of His people and the conversion of the Gentiles, -a Servant,--a human figure of lofty character and unfailing -perseverance, who makes God's work of redemption his own, puts his -heart into it, and is upheld by God's hand. God, let us understand, -has committed His cause upon earth to a human agent. - -God's commission of His Servant is hailed by a hymn. Earth answers -the proclamation of the _new things_ which the Almighty has declared -(ver. 9) by _a new song_ (vv. 10-13). But this song does not sing of -the Servant; its subject is Jehovah Himself. - - _Sing to Jehovah a new song,_ - _His praise from the end of the earth;_ - _Ye that go down to the sea, and its fulness,_ - _Isles, and their dwellers!_ - _Let be loud,--the wilderness and its townships,_ - _Villages that Kedar inhabits!_ - _Let them ring out,--the dwellers of Sela!_ - _From the top of the hills let them shout! - Let them give to Jehovah the glory,_ - _And publish His praise in the Isles!_ - _Jehovah as hero goes forth,_ - _As a man of war stirs up zeal,_ - _Shouts the alarm and battle cry,_ - _Against his foes proves Himself hero._ - -The terms of the last four lines are military. Most of them will be -found in the historical books, in descriptions of the onset of Israel's -battles with the heathen. But it is no human warrior to whom they are -here applied. They who sing have forgotten the Servant. Their hearts -are warm only with this, that Jehovah Himself will come down to earth -to give the alarm, and to bear the brunt of the battle. And to such a -hope He now responds, speaking also of Himself and not of the Servant. -His words are very intense, and glow and strain with inward travail. - - _I have long time kept my peace,_ - _Am dumb and hold myself in:_ - _Like a woman in travail I gasp,_ - _Pant and palpitate together._ - -Remember it is God who speaks these words of Himself, and then think -what they mean of unshareable thought and pain, of solitary yearning -and effort. But from the pain comes forth at last the power. - - _I waste mountains and hills,_ - _And all their herb I parch;_ - _And I have set rivers for islands,_ - _And marshes I parch._ - -Yet it is not the passion of a mere physical effort that is in God; -not mere excitement of war that thrills Him. But the suffering of men -is upon Him, and He has taken their redemption to heart. He had said -to His Servant (vv. 6, 7): _I give thee ... to open the blind eyes, -to bring out from prison the bound, from the house of bondage the -dwellers in darkness._ But here He Himself puts on the sympathy and -strain of that work. - - _And I will make the blind to walk in a way they know not, - By paths they know not I will guide them; - Turn darkness before them to light, - And serrated land to level. - These are the things that I do, and do not remit them. - They fall backwards, with shame are they shamed, - That put trust in a Carving, - That do say to a Cast, Ye are our Gods._[79] - -Now this pair of passages, in one of which God lays the work of -redemption upon His human agent, and in another Himself puts on its -passion and travail, are only one instance of a duality that runs -through the whole of the Old Testament. As we repeatedly saw in the -prophecies of Isaiah himself,[80] there is a double promise of the -future through the Old Testament:--_first_, that God will achieve -the salvation of Israel by an extraordinary human personality, who -is figured now as a King, now as a Prophet and now as a Priest; but, -_second_ also, that God Himself, in undeputed, unshared power, will -come visibly to deliver His people and to reign over them. These two -lines of prophecy run parallel, and even entangled, through the Old -Testament, but within its bounds no attempt is made to reconcile -them. They pass from it still separate, to find their synthesis, as -we all know, in One of whom each is the incomplete prophecy. While -considering the Messianic prophecies of Isaiah, which run upon the -first of these two lines, we pointed out, that, though standing in -historical connection with Christ, they were not prophecies of His -divinity. Lofty and expansive as were the titles they attributed to -the Messiah, these titles did not imply more than an earthly ruler of -extraordinary power and dignity. But we added that in the other and -concurrent line of prophecy, and especially in those well-developed -stages of it which appear in Isa. xl.-lxvi., we should find the true -Old Testament promise of the Deity in human form and tabernacling -among men. We urged that, if the divinity of Christ was to be seen -in the Old Testament, we should more naturally find it in the line -of promise, which speaks of God Himself descending to battle and to -suffer by the side of men, than in the line that lifts a human ruler -almost to the right hand of God. We have now come to a passage, which -gives us the opportunity of testing this connection, which we have -alleged between the so-called anthropomorphism of the Old Testament, -and the Incarnation, which is the glory of the New. - -When God presents Himself in the Old Testament as His people's -Saviour, it is not always as Isaiah mostly saw Him, in awful power -and majesty--a _King high and lifted up_, or _as coming from far, -burning and thick-rising smoke, and overflowing streams; causing the -peal of His voice to be heard, and the lighting down of His arm to be -seen, in the fury of anger and devouring fire--bursting and torrent -and hailstones_.[81] But in a large number of passages, of which -the one before us and the famous first six verses of ch. lxiii. -are perhaps the most forcible, the Almighty is clothed with human -passion and agony. He is described as loving, hating, showing zeal -or jealousy, fear, repentance and scorn. He bides His time, suddenly -awakes to effort, and makes that effort in weakness, pain and -struggle, so extreme that He likens Himself not only to a solitary -man in the ardour of battle, but to a woman in her unshareable -hour of travail. To use a technical word, the prophets in their -descriptions of God do not hesitate to be anthropopathic--imparting -to Deity the passions of men. - -In order to appreciate the full effect of this habit of the Jewish -religion, we must contrast it with some principles of that religion, -with which at first it seems impossible to reconcile it. - -No religion more necessarily implies the spirituality of God than -does the Jewish. It is true that in the pages of the Old Testament, -you will nowhere find this formally expressed. No Jewish prophet -ever said in so many words what Jesus said to the woman of Samaria, -_God is spirit_. In our own prophecy, _spirit_ is frequently used, -not to define the nature of God, but to express His power and -the effectiveness of His will. But the Jewish Scriptures insist -throughout upon the sublimity of God, or, to use their own term, His -holiness. He is the Most High, Creator, Lord,--the Force and Wisdom -that are behind nature and history. It is a sin to make any image of -Him; it is an error to liken Him to man. _I am God and not man, the -Holy One._[82] We have seen how absolutely the Divine omnipotence and -sublimity are expressed by our own prophet, and we shall find Him -again speaking thus: _My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are -your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than -the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than -your thoughts._[83] But perhaps the doctrine of our prophet which -most effectively sets forth God's loftiness and spirituality is his -doctrine of God's word. God has but to speak and a thing is created -or a deed done. He calls and the agent He needs is there; He sets -His word upon him and the work is as good as finished. _My word that -goeth forth out of My mouth, it shall not return unto Me void, but -it shall accomplish that which I please, and shall prosper in the -thing whereto I sent it._[84] Omnipotence could not farther go. It -would seem that all man needed from God was a word,--the giving of a -command, that a thing must be. - -Yet it is precisely in our prophecy, that we find the most extreme -ascriptions to the Deity of personal effort, weakness and pain. The -same chapters which celebrate God's sublimity and holiness, which -reveal the eternal counsels of God working to their inevitable ends -in time, which also insist, as this very chapter does, that for the -performance of works of mercy and morality God brings to bear the -slow creative forces that are in nature, or which again (as in other -chapters) attribute all to the power of His simple word,--these same -Scriptures suddenly change their style and, after the most human -manner, clothe the Deity in the travail and passion of flesh. Why -is it, that instead of aspiring still higher from those sublime -conceptions of God to some consummate expression of His unity, as -for instance in Islam, or of His spirituality, as in certain modern -philosophies, prophecy dashes thus thunderously down upon our hearts -with the message, scattered in countless, broken words, that all this -omnipotence and all this sublimity are expended and realised for men -only in passion and in pain? - -It is no answer, which is given by many in our day, that after all the -prophets were but frail men, unable to stay upon the high flight to -which they sometimes soared, and obliged to sacrifice their logic to -the fondness of their hearts and the general habit of man to make his -god after his own image. No easy sneer like that can solve so profound -a moral paradox. We must seek the solution otherwise, and earnest minds -will probably find it along one or other of the two following paths. - -1. The highest moral ideal is not, and never can be, the -righteousness that is regnant, but that which is militant and -agonizing. It is the deficiency of many religions, that while -representing God as the Judge and almighty executor of righteousness, -they have not revealed Him as its advocate and champion as well. -Christ gave us a very plain lesson upon this. As He clearly -showed, when He refused the offer of all the kingdoms of the -world, the highest perfection is not to be omnipotence upon the -side of virtue, but to be there as patience, sympathy and love. -To will righteousness, and to rule life from above in favour of -righteousness, is indeed Divine; but if these were the highest -attributes of divinity, and if they exhausted the Divine interest in -our race, then man himself, with his conscience to sacrifice himself -on behalf of justice or of truth,--man himself, with his instinct to -make the sins of others his burden, and their purity his agonizing -endeavour, would indeed be higher than his God. Had Jehovah been -nothing but the righteous Judge of all the earth, then His witnesses -and martyrs, and His prophets who took to themselves the conscience -and reproach of their people's sins, would have been as much more -admirable than Himself, as the soldier who serves his country on the -battle-field or lays down his life for his people is more deserving -of their gratitude and more certain of their devotion, than the king -who equips him, sends him forth--and himself stays at home. - -The God of the Old Testament is not such a God. In the moral warfare -to which He has predestined His creatures, He Himself descends to -participate. He is not abstract--that is, withdrawn--Holiness, nor -mere sovereign Justice enthroned in heaven. He is One who _arises and -comes down_ for the salvation of men, who makes virtue His Cause and -righteousness His Passion. He is no whit behind the chiefest of His -servants. No seraph burns as God burns with ardour for justice; no -angel of the presence flies more swiftly than Himself to the front -rank of the failing battle. The human Servant, who is pictured in our -prophecy, is more absolutely identified with suffering and agonizing -men than any angel could be; but even he does not stand more closely -by their side, nor suffer more on their behalf, than the God who sends -him forth. _For the Lord stirreth up jealousy like a man of war; in all -His people's affliction He is afflicted; against His enemies He beareth -Himself as a hero._ So much from the side of righteousness. - -2. But take the equally Divine attribute of love. When a religion -affirms that God is love, it gives immense hostages. What is love -without pity and compassion and sympathy? and what are these but -self-imposed weakness and pain? Christ has told us of the greatest -love. _Greater love than this hath no man, that a man lay down his -life for his friends_; and the cost and sacrifice in which He thus -outmatched man is one that the prophets before He came did not -hesitate to impute to God. As far as human language is adequate for -such a task, they picture God's love for men as costing Him so much. -He painfully pleads for His people's loyalty; He travails in pain -for their new birth and growth in holiness; in all their affliction -He is afflicted; and He meets their stubbornness, not with the swift -sentence of outraged holiness, but with longsuffering and patience, if -so in the end He may win them. But the pain, that is thus essentially -inseparable from love, reaches its acme, when the beloved are not only -in danger but in sin, when not only the future of their holiness is -uncertain, but their guilty past bars the way to any future at all. -We saw how Jeremiah's love thus took upon itself the conscience and -reproach of Israel's sin; how much distress and anguish, how much -sympathy and self-sacrificing labour, and at last how much hopeless -endurance of the common calamity, that sin cost the noble prophet, -though he might so easily have escaped it all. Now even thus does God -deal with His people's sins; not only setting them in the light of His -awful countenance, but taking them upon His heart; making them not only -the object of His hate, but the anguish and the effort of His love. -Jeremiah was a weak mortal, and God is the Omnipotent. Therefore, the -issue of His agony shall be what His servant's never could effect, -the redemption of Israel from sin; but in sympathy and in travail the -Deity, though omnipotent, is no whit behind the man. - - * * * * * - -We have said enough to prove our case, that the true Old Testament -prophecy of the nature and work of Jesus Christ is found not so much -in the long promise of the exalted human ruler, for whom Israel's -eyes looked, as in the assurance of God's own descent to battle with -His people's foes and to bear their sins. In this God, omnipotent, -yet in His zeal and love capable of passion, who before the -Incarnation was afflicted in all His people's affliction, and before -the Cross made their sin His burden and their salvation His agony, we -see the love that was in Jesus Christ. For Jesus, too, is absolute -holiness, yet not far off. He, too, is righteousness militant at -our side, militant and victorious. He, too, has made our greatest -suffering and shame His own problem and endeavour. He is anxious for -us just where conscience bids us be most anxious about ourselves. He -helps us, because He feels when we feel our helplessness the most. -Never before or since in humanity has righteousness been perfectly -victorious as in Him. Never before or since, in the whole range of -being, has any one felt as He did all the sin of man with all the -conscience of God. He claims to forgive, as God forgives; to be -able to save, as we know only God can save. And the proof of these -claims, apart from the experience of their fulfilment in our own -lives, is that the same infinite love was in Him, the same agony and -willingness to sacrifice Himself for men, which we have seen made -evident in the Passion of God. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[78] See Introduction. - -[79] So the grammar of the original. - -[80] Vol. i., pp. 144, 334. - -[81] Isa. xxxi. - -[82] Hosea xi. 9. - -[83] Ch. lv. 8, 9. - -[84] _Ibid._ ver. 11. - - - - - CHAPTER IX. - - _FOUR POINTS OF A TRUE RELIGION._ - - ISAIAH xliii.-xlviii. - - -We have now surveyed the governing truths of Isa. xl.-xlviii.: the -One God, omnipotent and righteous; the One People, His servants and -witnesses to the world; the nothingness of all other gods and idols -before Him; the vanity and ignorance of their diviners, compared with -His power, who, because He has a purpose working through all history, -and is both faithful to it and almighty to bring it to pass, can -inspire His prophets to declare beforehand the facts that shall be. -He has brought His people into captivity for a set time, the end of -which is now near. Cyrus the Persian, already upon the horizon, and -threatening Babylon, is to be their deliverer. But whomever He raises -up on Israel's behalf, God is always Himself their foremost champion. -Not only is His word upon them, but His heart is among them. He bears -the brunt of their battle, and their deliverance, political and -spiritual, is His own travail and agony. Whomever else He summons on -the stage, He remains the true hero of the drama. - -Now, chs. xliii.-xlviii. are simply the elaboration and more urgent -offer of all these truths, under the sense of the rapid approach of -Cyrus upon Babylon. They declare again God's unity, omnipotence -and righteousness, they confirm His forgiveness of His people, they -repeat the laughter at the idols, they give us nearer views of Cyrus, -they answer the doubts that many orthodox Israelites felt about this -Gentile Messiah; chs. xlvi. and xlvii. describe Babylon as if on -the eve of her fall, and ch. xlviii., after Jehovah more urgently -than ever presses upon reluctant Israel to show the results of her -discipline in Babylon, closes with a call to leave the accursed city, -as if the way were at last open. This call has been taken as the mark -of a definite division of our prophecy. But too much must not be put -upon it. It is indeed the first call to depart from Babylon; but it -is not the last. And although ch. xlix., and the chapters following, -speak more of Zion's Restoration and less of the Captivity, yet ch. -xlix. is closely connected with ch. xlviii., and we do not finally -leave Babylon behind till ch. lii. 12. Nevertheless, in the meantime -ch. xlviii. will form a convenient point on which to keep our eyes. - -Cyrus, when we last saw him, was upon the banks of the Halys, 546 B.C., -startling Croesus and the Lydian Empire into extraordinary efforts, -both of a religious and political kind, to avert his attack. He had -just come from an unsuccessful attempt upon the northern frontier of -Babylon, and at first it appeared as if he were to find no better -fortune on the western border of Lydia. In spite of his superior -numbers, the Lydian army kept the ground on which he met them in -battle. But Croesus, thinking that the war was over for the season, -fell back soon afterwards on Sardis, and Cyrus, following him up by -forced marches, surprised him under the walls of the city, routed the -famous Lydian cavalry by the novel terror of his camels, and after a -siege of fourteen days sent a few soldiers to scale a side of the -citadel too steep to be guarded by the defenders; and so Sardis, its -king and its empire, lay at his feet. This Lydian campaign of Cyrus, -which is related by Herodotus, is worth noting here for the light it -throws on the character of the man, whom according to our prophecy, -God chose to be His chief instrument in that generation. If his -turning back from Babylonia, eight years before he was granted an easy -entrance to her capital, shows how patiently Cyrus could wait upon -fortune, his quick march upon Sardis is the brilliant evidence that -when fortune showed the way, she found this Persian an obedient and -punctual follower. The Lydian campaign forms as good an illustration -as we shall find of these texts of our prophet: _He pursueth them, he -passeth in safety; by a way he_ almost _treads not with his feet. He -cometh upon satraps as on mortar, and as the potter treadeth upon clay_ -(xli. 3, 25). _I have holden his right hand to bring down before him -nations, and the loins of kings will I loosen_,--poor ungirt Croesus, -for instance, relaxing so foolishly after his victory!--_to open before -him doors, and gates shall not be shut_,--so was Sardis unready for -him,--_I go before thee, and will level the ridges; doors of brass I -will shiver, and bolts of iron cut in sunder. And I will give to thee -treasures of darkness, hidden riches of secret places_ (xlv. 1-3). Some -have found in this an allusion to the immense hoards of Croesus, which -fell to Cyrus with Sardis. - -With Lydia, the rest of Asia Minor, including the cities of the Greeks, -who held the coast of the Ægean, was bound to come into the Persian's -hands. But the process of subjection turned out to be a long one. The -Greeks got no help from Greece. Sparta sent to Cyrus an embassy with a -threat, but the Persian laughed at it and it came to nothing. Indeed, -Sparta's message was only a temptation to this irresistible warrior to -carry his fortunate arms into Europe. His own presence, however, was -required in the East, and his lieutenants found the thorough subjection -of Asia Minor a task requiring several years. It cannot have well been -concluded before 540, and while it was in progress we understand why -Cyrus did not again attack Babylonia. Meantime, he was occupied with -lesser tribes to the north of Media. - -Cyrus' second campaign against Babylonia opened in 539. This time -he avoided the northern wall from which he had been repulsed in -546. Attacking Babylonia from the east, he crossed the Tigris, beat -the Babylonian king into Borsippa, laid siege to that fortress and -marched on Babylon, which was held by the king's son, Belshazzar, -Bil-sar-ussur. All the world knows the supreme generalship by which -Cyrus is said to have captured Babylon without assaulting the walls -from whose impregnable height their defenders showered ridicule upon -him; how he made himself master of Nebuchadrezzar's great bason at -Sepharvaim, and turned the Euphrates into it; and how, before the -Babylonians had time to notice the dwindling of the waters in their -midst, his soldiers waded down the river bed, and by the river gates -surprised the careless citizens upon a night of festival. But recent -research makes it more probable that her inhabitants themselves -surrendered Babylon to Cyrus. - -Now it was during the course of the events just sketched, but before -their culmination in the fall of Babylon, that chs. xliii.-xlviii. -were composed. That, at least, is what they themselves suggest. In -three passages, which deal with Cyrus or with Babylon, some of the -verbs are in the past, some in the future. Those in the past tense -describe the calling and full career of Cyrus or the beginning of -preparations against Babylon. Those in the future tense promise -Babylon's fall or Cyrus' completion of the liberation of the Jews. -Thus, in ch. xliii. 14 it is written: _For your sakes I have sent -to Babylon, and I will bring down as fugitives all of them, and -the Chaldeans in the ships of their rejoicing_. Surely these words -announce that Babylon's fate was already on the way to her, but not -yet arrived. Again, in the verses which deal with Cyrus himself, xlv. -1-6, which we have partly quoted, the Persian is already _grasped -by his right hand by God, and called_; but his career is not over, -for God promises to do various things for him. The third passage is -ver. 13 of the same chapter, where Jehovah says, _I have stirred him -up in righteousness, and_, changing to the future tense, _all his -ways will I level; he shall build My city, and My captivity shall he -send away_. What could be more precise than the tenor of all these -passages? If people would only take our prophet at his word; if with -all their belief in the inspiration of the text of Scripture, they -would only pay attention to its grammar, which surely, on their own -theory, is also thoroughly sacred, then there would be to-day no -question about the date of Isa. xl.-xlviii. As plainly as grammar -can enable it to do, this prophecy speaks of Cyrus' campaign against -Babylon as already begun, but of its completion as still future. Ch. -xlviii., it is true, assumes events as still farther developed, but -we will come to it afterwards. - -During Cyrus' preparations, then, for invading Babylonia, and in -prospect of her certain fall, chs. xliii.-xlviii. repeat with greater -detail and impetuosity the truths, which we have already gathered -from chs. xl.-xlii. - -1. And first of these comes naturally the omnipotence, righteousness -and personal urgency of Jehovah Himself. Everything is again assured -by His power and purpose; everything starts from His initiative. -To illustrate this we could quote from almost every verse in the -chapters under consideration. _I, I Jehovah, and there is none beside -Me a Saviour. I am God_--El. _Also from to-day on I am He._[85] -_I will work, and who shall let it? I am Jehovah. I, I am He that -blotteth out thy transgressions. I First, and I Last; and beside Me -there is no God_--Elohim. _Is there a God,_ Eloah, _beside Me? yea, -there is no Rock; I know not any. I Jehovah, Maker of all things. -I am Jehovah, and there is none else; beside Me there is no God. I -am Jehovah, and there is none else. Former of light and Creator of -darkness, Maker of peace and Creator of evil, I am Jehovah, Maker -of all these. I am Jehovah, and there is none else, God,_ Elohim, -_beside Me, God-Righteous,_ El Ssaddîq, _and a Saviour: there is none -except Me. Face Me, and be saved all ends of the earth; for I am -God,_ El, _and there is none else. Only in Jehovah--of Me shall they -say--are righteousnesses and strength. I am God,_ El, _and there is -none else; God,_ Elohim, _and there is none like Me. I am He; I am -First, yea, I am Last. I, I have spoken. I have declared it._ - -It is of advantage to gather together so many passages--and they -might have been increased--from chs. xliii.-xlviii. They let us -see at a glance what a part the first personal pronoun plays in -the Divine revelation. Beneath every religious truth is the unity -of God. Behind every great movement is the personal initiative -and urgency of God. And revelation is, in its essence, not the -mere publication of truths about God, but the personal presence -and communication to men of God Himself. Three words are used for -Deity--El, Eloah, Elohim--exhausting the Divine terminology. But -besides these, there is a formula which puts the point even more -sharply: _I am He_. It was the habit of the Hebrew nation, and indeed -of all Semitic peoples, who shared their reverent unwillingness -to name the Deity, to speak of Him simply by the third personal -pronoun. The Book of Job is full of instances of the habit, and it -also appears in many proper names, as Eli-hu, "My God-is-He," Abi-hu, -"My-Father-is-He." Renan adduces the practice as evidence that the -Semites were "naturally monotheistic,"[86]--as evidence for what was -never the case! But if there was no original Semitic monotheism for -this practice to prove, we may yet take the practice as evidence -for the personality of the Hebrew God. The God of the prophets is -not the _it_, which Mr. Matthew Arnold so strangely thought he had -identified in their writings, and which, in philosophic language, -that unsophisticated Orientals would never have understood, he -so cumbrously named "a tendency not ourselves that makes for -righteousness." Not anything like this is the God, who here urges -His self-consciousness upon men. He says, _I am He_,--the unseen -Power, who was too awful and too dark to be named, but about whom, -when in their terror and ignorance His worshippers sought to describe -Him, they assumed that He was a Person, and called Him, as they would -have called one of themselves, by a personal pronoun. By the mouth -of His prophet this vague and awful _He_ declares Himself as _I, I, -I_,--no mere tendency, but a living Heart and urgent Will, personal -character and force of initiative, from which all tendencies move and -take their direction and strength. _I am He._ - -History is strewn with the errors of those, who have sought from -God something else than Himself. All the degradation, even of the -highest religions, has sprung from this, that their votaries forgot -that religion was a communion with God Himself, a life in the power -of His character and will, and employed it as the mere communication -either of material benefits or of intellectual ideas. It has been -the mistake of millions to see in revelation nothing but the telling -of fortunes, the recovery of lost things, decision in quarrels, -direction in war, or the bestowal of some personal favour. Such are -like the person, of whom St. Luke tells us, who saw nothing in Christ -but the recoverer of a bad debt: _Master, speak unto my brother that -he divide the inheritance with me_; and their superstition is as far -from true faith as the prodigal's old heart, when he said, _Give -me the portion of goods that falleth unto me_, was from the other -heart, when, in his poverty and woe, he cast himself utterly upon his -Father: _I will arise and go to my Father_. But no less a mistake do -those make, who seek from God not Himself, but only intellectual -information. The first Reformers did well, who brought the common -soul to the personal grace of God; but many of their successors, in a -controversy, whose dust obscured the sun and allowed them to see but -the length of their own weapons, used Scripture chiefly as a store -of proofs for separate doctrines of the faith, and forgot that God -Himself was there at all. And though in these days we seek from the -Bible many desirable things, such as history, philosophy, morals, -formulas of assurance of salvation, the forgiveness of sins, maxims -for conduct, yet all these will avail us little, until we have found -behind them the living Character, the Will, the Grace, the Urgency, -the Almighty Power, by trust in whom and communion with whom alone -they are added unto us. - -Now the deity, who claims in these chapters to be the One, Sovereign -God, was the deity of a little tribe. _I am Jehovah, I Jehovah am -God, I Jehovah am He._ We cannot too much impress ourselves with the -historical wonder of this. In a world, which contained Babylon and -Egypt with their large empires, Lydia with all her wealth, and the -Medes with all their force; which was already feeling the possibilities -of the great Greek life, and had the Persians, the masters of the -future, upon its threshold,--it was the god of none of these, but -of the obscurest tribe of their bondsmen, who claimed the Divine -Sovereignty for Himself; it was the pride of none of these, but the -faith of the most despised and, at its heart, most mournful religion of -the time, which offered an explanation of history, claimed the future -and was assured that the biggest forces of the world were working for -its ends. _Thus saith Jehovah, King of Israel, and his Redeemer Jehovah -of Hosts, I First, and I Last; and beside Me there is no God. Is there -a God beside Me? yea, there is no Rock; I know not any._ - -By itself this were a cheap claim, and might have been made by any -idol among them, were it not for the additional proofs by which it -is supported. We may summarise these additional proofs as threefold: -Laughter, Gospel and Control of History,--three marvels in the -experience of exiles. People, mournfullest and most despised, their -mouths were to be filled with the laughter of Truth's scorn upon the -idols of their conquerors. Men, most tormented by conscience and filled -with the sense of sin, they were to hear the gospel of forgiveness. -Nation, against whom all fact seemed to be working, their God told -them, alone of all nations of the world, that He controlled for their -sake the facts of to-day and the issues of to-morrow. - -2. A burst of laughter comes very weirdly out of the Exile. But -we have already seen the intellectual right to scorn which these -crushed captives had. They were monotheists and their enemies were -image worshippers. Monotheism, even in its rudest forms, raises men -intellectually,--it is difficult to say by how many degrees. Indeed, -degrees do not measure the mental difference between an idolater -and him who serves with his mind, as well as with all his heart and -soul, One God, Maker of heaven and earth: it is a difference that is -absolute. Israel in captivity was conscious of this, and therefore, -although the souls of those sad men were filled beyond any in the world -with the heaviness of sorrow and the humility of guilt, their proud -faces carried a scorn they had every right to wear, as the servants of -the One God. See how this scorn breaks forth in the following passage. -Its text is corrupt, and its rhythm, at this distance from the voices -that utter it, is hardly perceptible; but thoroughly evident is its -tone of intellectual superiority, and the scorn of it gushes forth in -impetuous, unequal verse, the force of which the smoothness and dignity -of our Authorised Version has unfortunately disguised. - - 1. - - _Formers of an idol are all of them waste,_ - _And their darlings are utterly worthless!_ - _And their confessors_[87]--_they! they see not and know not_ - Enough _to feel shame._ - _Who has fashioned a god, or an image has cast?_ - _'Tis to be utterly worthless._ - _Lo! all that depend on't are shamed,_ - _And the gravers are less than men:_ - _Let all of them gather_ and _stand._ - _They quake and are shamed in the lump._ - - 2. - - _Iron-graver_--he takes[88] _a chisel,_ - _And works with hot coals,_ - _And with hammers he moulds;_ - _And has done it with the arm of his strength._ - _--Anon hungers, and strength goes;_ - _Drinks no water, and wearies!_ - - 3. - - _Wood-graver--he draws a line,_ - _Marks it with pencil,_ - _Makes it with planes,_ - _And with compasses marks it._ - _So has made it the build of a man,_ - _To a grace that is human--_ - _To inhabit a house, cutting it cedars._[89] - - 4. - - _Or one takes an ilex or oak,_ - _And picks for himself from the trees of the wood;_ - _One has planted a pine, and the rain makes it big,_ - _And 'tis there for a man to burn._ - _And one has taken of it, and been warmed;_ - _Yea, kindles and bakes bread,--_ - _Yea, works out a god, and has worshipped it!_ - _Has made it an idol, and bows down before it!_ - _Part of it burns he with fire,_ - _Upon part eats flesh,_ - _Roasts roast and is full;_ - _Yea, warms him and saith,_ - _"Aha, I am warm, have seen fire!"_ - _And the rest of it--to a god he has made--to his image!_ - _He bows to it, worships it, prays to it,_ - _And says, "Save me, for my god art thou!"_ - - 5. - - _They know not and deem not!_ - _For He hath bedaubed, past seeing, their eyes,_ - _Past thinking, their hearts._ - _And none takes to heart, - Neither has knowledge nor sense to say,_ - _"Part of it burned I in fire--_ - _Yea, have baked bread on its coals,_ - _Do roast flesh that I eat,--_ - _And the rest o't, to a Disgust should I make it?_ - _The trunk of a tree should I worship?"_ - _Herder of ashes,_[90] _a duped heart has sent him astray,_ - _That he cannot deliver his soul, neither say,_ - _"Is there not a lie in my right hand?"_ - -Is not the prevailing note in these verses surprise at the mental -condition of an idol-worshipper? _They see not and know not_ enough -_to feel shame. None takes it to heart, neither has knowledge nor -sense to say, Part of it I have burned in fire ... and the rest, -should I make it a god?_ This intellectual confidence, breaking out -into scorn, is the second great token of truth, which distinguishes -the religion of this poor slave of a people. - -3. The third token is its moral character. The intellectual truth of -a religion would go for little, had the religion nothing to say to -man's moral sense--did it not concern itself with his sins, had it -no redemption for his guilt. Now, the chapters before us are full -of judgement and mercy. If they have scorn for the idols, they have -doom for sin, and grace for the sinner. They are no mere political -manifesto for the occasion, declaring how Israel shall be liberated -from Babylon. They are a gospel for sinners in all time. By this they -farther accredit themselves as a universal religion. - -God is omnipotent, yet He can do nothing for Israel till Israel put -away their sins. Those sins, and not the people's captivity, are the -Deity's chief concern. Sin has been at the bottom of their whole -adversity. This is brought out with all the versatility of conscience -itself. Israel and their God have been at variance; their sin has -been, what conscience feels the most, a sin against love. _Yet not -upon Me hast thou called, O Jacob; how hast thou been wearied with -Me, O Israel.... I have not made thee to slave with offerings, nor -wearied thee with incense ... but thou hast made Me to slave with thy -sins, thou hast wearied Me with thine iniquities_ (xliii. 22-24). So -God sets their sins, where men most see the blackness of their guilt, -in the face of His love. And now He challenges conscience. _Put Me -in remembrance; let us come to judgement together; indict, that thou -mayest be justified_ (ver. 26). But it had been agelong and original -sin. _Thy father, the first had sinned; yea, thy representative -men_--literally _interpreters, mediators--had transgressed against -Me. Therefore did I profane consecrated princes, and gave Jacob to -the ban, and Israel to reviling_ (vv. 27, 28). The Exile itself was -but an episode in a tragedy, which began far back with Israel's -history. And so ch. xlviii. repeats: _I knew that thou dost deal very -treacherously, and Transgressor-from-the-womb do they call thee_ -(ver. 8). And then there comes the sad note of what might have been. -_O that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments! then had thy peace -been as the river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea_ -(ver. 18). As broad Euphrates thou shouldst have lavishly rolled, and -flashed to the sun like a summer sea. But now, hear what is left. -_There is no peace, saith Jehovah, to the wicked_ (ver. 22). - -Ah, it is no dusty stretch of ancient history, no long-extinct -volcano upon the far waste of Asian politics, to which we are led by -the writings of the Exile. But they treat of man's perennial trouble; -and conscience, that never dies, speaks through their old-fashioned -letters and figures with words we feel like swords. And therefore, -still, whether they be psalms or prophecies, they stand like some -ancient minster in the modern world,--where, on each new soiled day, -till time ends, the heavy heart of man may be helped to read itself, -and lift up its guilt for mercy. - -They are the confessional of the world, but they are also its gospel, -and the altar where forgiveness is sealed. _I_, even _I, am He that -blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not -remember thy sins. O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of Me. I -have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud -thy sins; turn unto Me, for I have redeemed thee. Israel shall be -saved by Jehovah with an everlasting salvation; ye shall not be -ashamed nor confounded world without end._[91] Now, when we remember -who the God is, who thus speaks,--not merely One who flings the word -of pardon from the sublime height of His holiness, but, as we saw, -speaks it from the midst of all His own passion and struggle under -His people's sins,--then with what assurance does His word come home -to the heart. What honour and obligation to righteousness does the -pardon of such a God put upon our hearts. One understands why Ambrose -sent Augustine, after his conversion, first to these prophecies. - -4. The fourth token, which these chapters offer for the religion -of Jehovah, is the claim they make for it to interpret and to -control history. There are two verbs, which are frequently repeated -throughout the chapters, and which are given together in ch. xliii. -12: _I have published and I have saved._ These are the two acts by -which Jehovah proves His solitary divinity over against the idols. - -The _publishing_, of course, is the same prediction, of which ch. xli. -spoke. It is _publishing_ in former times things happening now; it -is _publishing_ now things that are still to happen. _And who, like -Me, calls out and publishes it, and sets it in order for Me, since I -appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and that -shall come, let them publish. Tremble not, nor fear: did I not long ago -cause thee to hear? and I published, and ye are My witnesses. Is there -a God beside Me? nay, there is no Rock; I know none_ (xliv. 7, 8). - -The two go together, the doing of wonderful and saving acts for His -people and the publishing of them before they come to pass. Israel's -past is full of such acts. Ch. xliii. instances the delivery from -Egypt (vv. 16, 17), but immediately proceeds (vv. 18, 19): _Remember -ye not the former things_--here our old friend ri'shonôth occurs -again, but this time means simply _previous events_--_neither -consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; even -now it springs forth. Shall ye not know it? Yea, I will set in the -wilderness a way, in the desert rivers._ And of this new event of the -Return, and of others which will follow from it, like the building -of Jerusalem, the chapters insist over and over again, that they are -the work of Jehovah, who is therefore a Saviour God. But what better -proof can be given, that these saving facts are indeed His own and -part of His counsel, than that He foretold them by His messengers -and prophets to Israel,--of which previous _publication_ His people -are the witnesses. _Who among the peoples can publish thus, and let -us hear predictions?_--again ri'shonôth, _things ahead_--_let them -bring their witnesses, that they may be justified, and let them hear -and say, Truth. Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah_, to Israel -(xliii. 9, 10). _I have published, and I have saved, and I have -shewed, and there was no strange god among you; therefore_--because -Jehovah was notoriously the only God who had to do with them during -all this prediction and fulfilment of prediction--_ye are witnesses -for Me, saith Jehovah, that I am God_ (_id._ ver. 12). The meaning -of all this is plain. Jehovah is God alone, because He is directly -effective in history for the salvation of His people, and because -He has published beforehand what He will do. The great instance of -this, which the prophecy adduces, is the present movement towards -the liberation of the people, of which movement Cyrus is the most -conspicuous factor. Of this xlv. 19 ff. says: _Not in secret have -I spoken, in a place of the land of darkness. I have not said to -the seed of Jacob, In vanity seek ye Me. I Jehovah am a speaker of -righteousness,_[92] _a publisher of things that are straight. Be -gathered and come in; draw together, ye survivors of the nations: -they have no knowledge that carry about the log of their image, and -are suppliants to a god that cannot save. Publish, and bring it here; -nay, let them advise together; who made this to be heard_,--that is, -_who published this_,--_of ancient time?_ Who _published this of old? -I Jehovah, and there is none God beside Me: a God righteous_,--that -is, consistent, true to His published word,--_and a Saviour, there is -none beside Me_. Here we have joined together the same ideas as in -xliii. 12. There _I have declared and saved_ is equivalent to _a God -righteous and a Saviour_ here. _Only in Jehovah are righteousnesses_, -that is, fidelity to His anciently published purposes; _and -strength_, that is, capacity to carry these purposes out in history. -God is righteous because, according to another verse in the same -prophecy (xliv. 26), _He confirmeth the word of His servant, and the -advice of His messengers He fulfilleth._ - -Now the question has been asked, To what predictions does the -prophecy allude as being fulfilled in those days when Cyrus was so -evidently advancing to the overthrow of Babylon? Before answering -this question it is well to note, that, for the most part, the -prophet speaks in general terms. He gives no hint to justify that -unfounded belief, to which so many think it necessary to cling, that -Cyrus was actually named by a prophet of Jehovah years before he -appeared. Had such a prediction existed, we can have no doubt that -our prophet would now have appealed to it. No: he evidently refers -only to those numerous and notorious predictions by Isaiah, and by -Jeremiah, of the return of Israel from exile after a certain and -fixed period. Those were now coming to pass. - -But from this new day Jehovah also predicts for the days to come, -and He does this very particularly, xliv. 26, _Who is saying of -Jerusalem, She shall be inhabited; and of the cities of Judah, They -shall be built; and of her waste places, I will raise them up. Who -saith to the deep, Be dry, and thy rivers I will dry up. Who saith of -Koresh, My Shepherd, and all My pleasure he shall fulfil: even saying -of Jerusalem, She shall be built, and the Temple shall be founded._ - -Thus, backward and forward, yesterday, to-day and for ever, Jehovah's -hand is upon history. He controls it: it is the fulfilment of His -ancient purpose. By predictions made long ago and fulfilled to-day, -by the readiness to predict to-day what will happen to-morrow, He is -surely God and God alone. Singular fact, that in that day of great -empires, confident in their resources, and with the future so near -their grasp, it should be the God of a little people, cut off from -their history, servile and seemingly spent, who should take the big -things of earth--Egypt, Ethiopia, Seba--and speak of them as counters -to be given in exchange for His people; who should speak of such a -people as the chief heirs of the future, the indispensable ministers -of mankind. The claim has two Divine features. It is unique, and -history has vindicated it. It is unique: no other religion, in that -or in any other time, has so rationally explained past history or -laid out the ages to come upon the lines of a purpose so definite, -so rational, so beneficent--a purpose so worthy of the One God and -Creator of all. And it has been vindicated: Israel returned to their -own land, resumed the development of their calling, and, after the -centuries came and went, fulfilled the promise that they should be -the religious teachers of mankind. The long delay of this fulfilment -surely but testifies the more to the Divine foresight of the promise; -to the patience, which nature, as well as history, reveals to be, as -much as omnipotence, a mark of Deity. - - * * * * * - -These, then, are the four points, upon which the religion of Israel -offers itself. _First_, it is the force of the character and grace -of a personal God; _second_, it speaks with a high intellectual -confidence, whereof its scorn is here the chief mark; _third_, it is -intensely moral, making man's sin its chief concern; and _fourth_, it -claims the control of history, and history has justified the claim. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[85] _From to-day on_, Ez. xlviii. 35; but others take it _Also -to-day I am He_. - -[86] Renan's theory of the "natural monotheism" of the Semites was -first published in his _Histoire des Langues Semitiques_ some forty -years ago. Nearly every Semitic scholar of repute found some occasion -or other to refute it. But with Renan's charming genius for neglecting -all facts that disturb an artistic arrangement of his subject, the -overwhelming evidence against the natural monotheism of the Semite -has been ignored by him, and he repeats his theory unmodified in his -_Histoire du Peuple d'Israel_, i., 31, published 1888. - -[87] Literally _witnesses_--_i.e._, of the idols. - -[88] This word is wanting in the text, which is corrupt here. Some -supply the word sharpeneth, imagining that [Hebrew: chdd] has fallen -away from the beginning of the verse, through confusion with the -[Hebrew: chd] which ends the previous verse; or they bring [Hebrew: -chd] itself, changing it to [Hebrew: chdd]. But evidently [Hebrew: -vrzl chrosh] begins the verse; _cf._ the parallel [Hebrew: 'tzm -chrosh] which begins ver. 13. - -[89] Here, again, the text is uncertain. With some critics I have -borrowed for this verse the first three words of the following verse. - -[90] Perhaps _feeder on ashes_. - -[91] Chs. xliii. 25; xliv. 21, 22; xlv. 17. - -[92] See ch. xiv. of this volume. - - - - - CHAPTER X. - - _CYRUS._ - - ISAIAH xli. 2, 25; xliv. 28-xlv. 13; xlvi. 11; xlviii. 14, 15. - - -Cyrus, the Persian, is the only man outside the covenant and people -of Israel, who is yet entitled the LORD'S Shepherd, and the LORD'S -Messiah or Christ. He is, besides, the only great personality, of -whom both the Bible and Greek literature treat at length and with -sympathy. Did we know nothing more of him than this, the heathen who -received the most sacred titles of Revelation, the one man in history -who was the cynosure of both Greece and Judah, could not fail to be -of the greatest interest to us. But apart from the way, in which he -impressed the Greek imagination and was interpreted by the Hebrew -conscience, we have an amount of historical evidence about Cyrus, -which, if it dissipates the beautiful legends told of his origin -and his end, confirms most of what is written of his character by -Herodotus and Xenophon, and all of what is described as his career -by the prophet whom we are studying. Whether of his own virtue, or -as being the leader of a new race of men at the fortunate moment of -their call, Cyrus lifted himself, from the lowest of royal stations, -to a conquest and an empire achieved by only two or three others in -the history of the world. Originally but the prince of Anshan, or -Anzan,[93]--a territory of uncertain size at the head of the Persian -Gulf,--he brought under his sway, by policy or war, the large and -vigorous nations of the Medes and Persians; he overthrew the Lydian -kingdom, and subjugated Asia Minor; he so impressed the beginnings -of Greek life, that, with all their own great men, the Greeks never -ceased to regard this Persian as the ideal king; he captured Babylon, -the throne of the ancient East, and thus effected the transfer of -empire from the Semitic to the Aryan stock. He also satisfied the -peoples, whom he had beaten, with his rule, and organised his realms -with a thoroughness unequalled over so vast an extent till the rise -of the Roman Empire. - -We have scarcely any contemporary or nearly contemporary evidence -about his personality. But his achievements testify to extraordinary -genius, and his character was the admiration of all antiquity. To -Greek literature Cyrus was the Prince pre-eminent,--set forth as -the model for education in childhood, self-restraint in youth, just -and powerful government in manhood. Most of what we read of him in -Xenophon's _Cyropædia_ is, of course, romance; but the very fact, -that, like our own King Arthur, Cyrus was used as a mirror to flash -great ideals down the ages, proves that there was with him native -brilliance and width of surface as well as fortunate eminence of -position. He owed much to the virtue of his race. Rotten as the -later Persians have become, the nation in those days impressed its -enemies with its truthfulness, purity and vigour. But the man, who -not only led such a nation, and was their darling, but combined -under his sceptre, in equal discipline and contentment, so many -other and diverse peoples, so many powerful and ambitious rulers, -cannot have been merely the best specimen of his own nation's -virtue, but must have added to this, at least much of the original -qualities--humanity, breadth of mind, sweetness, patience and genius -for managing men--which his sympathetic biographer imputes to him in -so heroic a degree. It is evident that the _Cyropædia_ is ignorant of -many facts about Cyrus, and must have taken conscious liberties with -many more, but nobody--who, on the one hand, is aware of what Cyrus -effected upon the world, and who, on the other, can appreciate that -it was possible for a foreigner (who, nevertheless, had travelled -through most of the scenes of Cyrus' career) to form this rich -conception of him more than a century after his death--can doubt that -the Persian's character (due allowance being made for hero-worship) -must have been in the main as Xenophon describes it. - -Yet it is very remarkable, that our Scripture states not one -moral or religious virtue as the qualification of this Gentile to -the title of _Jehovah's Messiah_. We search here in vain for any -gleam of appreciation of that character, which drew the admiring -eyes of Greece. In the whole range of our prophecy there is not a -single adjective, expressing a moral virtue, applied to Cyrus. The -_righteousness_, which so many passages associate with his name, is -attributed, not to him, but to God's calling of him, and does not -imply justice or any similar quality, but is, as we shall afterwards -see when we examine the remarkable use of this word in Second Isaiah, -a mixture of good faith and thoroughness,--all-rightness.[94] The -one passage of our prophet, in which it has been supposed by some -that Jehovah makes a religious claim to Cyrus, as if the Persian were -a monotheist--_he calleth on My name_--is, as we have seen,[95] too -uncertain, both in text and rendering, to have anything built upon -it. Indeed, no Hebrew could have justly praised this Persian's faith, -who called himself the "servant of Merodach," and in his public -proclamations to Babylonia ascribed to the Babylonian gods his power -to enter their city.[96] Cyrus was very probably the pious ruler, -described by Xenophon, but he was no monotheist. And our prophet -denies all religious sympathy between him and Jehovah, in words too -strong to be misunderstood: _I woo thee, though thou hast not known -Me.... I gird thee, though thou hast not known Me_ (ch. xlv. 4, 5). - -On what, then, is the Divine election of CYRUS grounded by our -prophet, if not upon his character and his faith? Simply and barely -upon God's sovereignty and will. That is the impressive lesson of -the passage: _I am Jehovah, Maker of everything; that stretch forth -the heavens alone, and spread the earth by Myself ... that say of -Koresh, My shepherd, and all My pleasure he shall accomplish_ (xliv. -24, 28). Cyrus is Jehovah's, because all things are Jehovah's; of -whatsoever character or faith they be, they are His and for His uses. -_I am Jehovah, and there is none else: Former of light and Creator -of darkness, Maker of peace and Creator of evil; I, Jehovah, Maker -of all these._ God's sovereignty could not be more broadly stated. -All things, irrespective of their character, are from Him and for -His ends. But what end is dearer to the Almighty, what has He more -plainly declared, than that His people[97] shall be settled again in -their own land? For this He will use the fittest force. The return of -Israel to Palestine is a political event, requiring political power; -and the greatest political power of the day is Cyrus. Therefore, -by His prophet, the Almighty declares Cyrus to be His people's -deliverer, His own anointed. _Thus saith Jehovah to His Messiah, to -Koresh: ... That thou mayest know that I am Jehovah, Caller of thee -by thy name, God of Israel, for the sake of My servant Jacob and -Israel My chosen. And I have called thee by thy name. I have wooed -thee, though thou hast not known Me_ (xlv. 1, 3, 4). - -Now to this designation of Cyrus, as the Messiah, great objections -rose from Israel. We can understand them. People, who have fallen -from a glorious past, cling passionately to its precedents. All -the ancient promises of a deliverer for Israel represented him as -springing from the house of David. The deliverance, too, was to have -come by miracle, or by the impression of the people's own holiness -upon their oppressors. The LORD Himself was to have made bare His arm -and Israel to go forth in the pride of His favour, as in the days of -Egypt and the Red Sea. But this deliverer, who was announced, was -alien to the commonwealth of Israel; and not by some miracle was the -people's exodus promised, but as the effect of his imperial word--a -minor incident in his policy! The precedents and the pride of Israel -called out against such a scheme of salvation, and the murmurs of the -people rose against the word of God. - -Sternly replies the Almighty: _Woe to him that striveth with his -Moulder, a potsherd among the potsherds of the ground! Saith clay to -its moulder, What doest thou? or thy work_ of thee, _No hands hath he? -Woe to him that saith to a father, What begettest thou? or to a woman, -With what travailest thou? Thus saith Jehovah, Holy of Israel and his -Moulder: The things that are coming ask of Me; concerning My sons, and -concerning the work of My hands, command ye Me! I have made Earth,_[98] -_and created man upon her: I, My hands, have stretched Heaven, and all -its host have I ordered._ In that universal providence, this Cyrus is -but an incident. _I have stirred him up in righteousness, and all his -ways shall I make level. He_--emphatic--_shall build My City, and My -Captivity he shall send off--not for price and not for reward, saith -Jehovah of Hosts_ (xlv. 9-13). - -To this bare fiat, the passages referring to Cyrus in ch. xlvi. and ch. -xlviii. add scarcely anything. _I am God, and there is none like Me.... -Who say, My counsel shall stand, and all My pleasure will I perform. -Who call from the sunrise a Bird-of-prey, from a land far-off the Man -of My counsel. Yea, I have spoken, yea, I will bring it to pass. I have -formed, yea, will do it_ (xlvi. 9, 10, 11). _Bird-of-prey_ here has -been thought to have reference to the eagle, which was the standard of -Cyrus. But it refers to Cyrus himself. What God sees in this man to -fulfil His purpose is swift, resistless force. Not his character, but -his swoop is useful for the Almighty's end. Again: _Be gathered, all of -you, and hearken; who among them hath published these things? Jehovah -hath loved him: he will do His pleasure on Babel, and his arm_ shall -be on _the Chaldeans. I, I have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have -brought him, and will cause his way to prosper,_ or, _I will pioneer -his way_ (xlviii. 14, 15). This verb _to cause to prosper_ is one often -used by our prophet, but nowhere more appropriately to its original -meaning, than here, where it is used of _a way_. The word signifies _to -cut through_; then _to ford a river_--there is no word for bridge in -Hebrew; then _to go on well, prosper_.[99] - -In all these passages, then, there is no word about character. Cyrus -is neither chosen for his character nor said to be endowed with one. -But that he is there, and that he does so much, is due simply to -this, that God has chosen him. And what he is endowed with is force, -push, swiftness, irresistibleness. He is, in short, not a character, -but a tool; and God makes no apology for using him but this, that he -has the qualities of a tool. - -Now we cannot help being struck with the contrast of all this, the -Hebrew view of Cyrus, with the well-known Greek views of him. To the -Greeks he is first and foremost a character. Xenophon, and Herodotus -almost as much as Xenophon, are less concerned with what Cyrus did -than with what he was. He is the King, the ideal ruler. It is his -simplicity, his purity, his health, his wisdom, his generosity, his -moral influence upon men, that attract the Greeks, and they conceive -that he cannot be too brightly painted in his virtues, if so he may -serve for an example to following generations. But bring Cyrus out -of the light of the eyes of this hero-worshipping people, that light -that has so gilded his native virtues, into the shadow of the austere -Hebrew faith, and the brilliance is quenched. He still moves forcibly, -but his character is neutral. Scripture emphasizes only his strength, -his serviceableness, his success: _Whose right hand I have holden, to -subdue nations before him, and I will loosen the loins of kings; to -open doors before him, and gates shall not be shut. I will go before -thee, and make the rugged places plain. I will shiver doors of brass, -and bars of iron will I sunder_ (xlv. 1, 2). That Cyrus is doing a work -in God's hand and for God's end, and therefore forcibly, and sure of -success--that is all the interest Scripture takes in Cyrus. - -Observe the difference. It is characteristic of the two nations. The -Greek views Cyrus as an example; therefore cannot too abundantly -multiply his morality. The Hebrew views him as a tool; but with -a tool you are not anxious about its moral character, you only -desire to be convinced of its force and its fitness. The Greek mind -is careful to unfold the noble humanity of the man,--a humanity -universally and eternally noble. By the side of that imperishable -picture of him, how meagre to Greek eyes would have seemed the -temporary occasion, for which the Hebrew claimed that Cyrus had been -raised up--to lead the petty Jewish tribe back to their own obscure -corner of the earth. Herodotus and Xenophon, had you told them that -this was the chief commission of Cyrus from God, to restore the Jews -to Palestine, would have laughed. "Identify him, forsooth, with those -provincial interests!" they would have said. "He was meant, we lift -him up, for mankind!" - -What judgement are we to pass on these two characteristic pictures of -Cyrus? What lessons are we to draw from their contrast? - -They do not contradict, but in many particulars they corroborate -one another. Cyrus would not have been the efficient weapon in -the Almighty's hand, which our prophet panegyrises, but for that -thoughtfulness in preparation and swift readiness to seize the -occasion, which Xenophon extols. And nothing is more striking to one -familiar with our Scriptures, when reading the _Cyropædia_, than -the frequency with which the writer insists on the success that -followed the Persian. If to the Hebrew Cyrus was the called of God, -upheld in righteousness, to the Greek he was equally conspicuous as -the favourite of fortune. "I have always," Xenophon makes the dying -king say, "seemed to feel my strength increase with the advance of -time, so that I have not found myself weaker in my old age than in -my youth, nor do I know that I have attempted or desired anything in -which I have not been successful."[100] And this was said piously, -for Xenophon's Cyrus was a devout servant of the gods. - -The two views, then, are not hostile, nor are we compelled to choose -between them. Still, they make a very suggestive contrast, if we put -these two questions about them: Which is the more true to historical -fact? Which is the more inspiring example? - -Which is the more true to historical fact? There is no difficulty -in answering this: undoubtedly, the Hebrew. It has been of far -more importance to the world that Cyrus freed the Jews than that -he inspired the _Cyropædia_. That single enactment of his, perhaps -only one of a hundred consequences of his capture of Babylon, has -had infinitely greater results than his character, or than its -magnificent exaggeration by Greek hero-worship. No one who has read -the _Cyropædia_--out of his school-days--would desire to place it -in any contrast, in which its peculiar charm would be shadowed, -or its own modest and strictly-limited claims would not receive -justice. The charm, the truth of the _Cyropædia_, are eternal; but -the significance they borrow from Cyrus--though they are as much -due, perhaps, to Xenophon's own pure soul as to Cyrus--is not to be -compared for one instant to the significance of that single deed -of his, into which the Bible absorbs the meaning of his whole -career,--the liberation of the Jews. The _Cyropædia_ has been the -instruction and delight of many,--of as many in modern times, -perhaps, as in ancient. But the liberation of the Jews meant the -assurance of the world's religious education. Cyrus sent this people -back to their land solely as a spiritual people. He did not allow -them to set up again the house of David, but by his decree the Temple -was rebuilt. Israel entered upon their purely religious career, set -in order their vast stores of spiritual experience, wrote their -histories of grace and providence, developed their worship, handed -down their law, and kept themselves holy unto the Lord. Till, in -the fulness of the times, from this petty and exclusive tribe, and -by the fire, which they kept burning on the altar that Cyrus had -empowered them to raise, there was kindled the glory of an universal -religion. To change the figure, Christianity sprang from Judaism as -the flower from the seed; but it was the hand of Cyrus, which planted -the seed in the only soil, in which it could have fructified. Of -such an universal destiny for the Faith, Cyrus was not conscious, -but the Jews themselves were. Our prophet represents him, indeed, as -acting for _Jacob My servant's sake, and Israel's My chosen_, but the -chapter does not close without proclamation to _the ends of the earth -to look unto Jehovah and be saved_, and the promise of a time _when -every knee shall bow and every tongue swear unto the God of Israel_. - -Now put all these results, which the Jews, regardless of the -character of Cyrus, saw flowing from his policy, as the servant of -God on their behalf, side by side with the influence which the Greeks -borrowed from Cyrus, and say whether Greek or Jew had the more true -and historical conscience of this great power,--whether Greek or Jew -had his hand on the pulse of the world's main artery. Surely we see -that the main artery of human life runs down the Bible, that here we -have a sense of the control of history, which is higher than even the -highest hero-worship. Some may say, "True, but what a very unequal -contest, into which to thrust the poor _Cyropædia_!" Precisely; it -is from the inequality of the contrast, that we learn the uniqueness -of Israel's inspiration. Let us do all justice to the Greek and his -appreciation of Cyrus. In that, he seems the perfection of humanity; -but with the Jew we rise to the Divine, touching the right hand of -the providence of God. - -There is a moral lesson for ourselves in these two views about Cyrus. -The Greeks regard him as a hero, the Jews as an instrument. The Greeks -are interested in him that he is so attractive a figure, so effective -an example to rouse men and restrain them. But the Jews stand in wonder -of his subjection to the will of God; their Scriptures extol, not his -virtues, but his predestination to certain Divine ends. - -Now let us say no word against hero-worship. We have need of all -the heroes, which the Greek, and every other, literature can raise -up for us. We need the communion of the saints. To make us humble -in our pride, to make us hopeful in our despair, we need our big -brothers, the heroes of humanity. We need them in history, we need -them in fiction; we cannot do without them for shame, for courage, -for fellowship, for truth. But let us remember that still more -indispensable--for strength, as well as for peace, of mind--is the -other temper. Neither self nor the world is conquered by admiration -of men, but only by the fear and obligation of God. I speak now -of applying this temper to ourselves. We shall live fruitful and -consistent lives only in so far as we hear God saying to us, _I gird -thee_, and give ourselves into His guidance. Admire heroes if thou -wilt, but only admire them and thou remainest a slave. Learn their -secret, to commit themselves to God and to obey Him, and thou shalt -become a hero too. - -God's anointing of Cyrus, the heathen, has yet another lesson to -teach us, which religious people especially need to learn. - -This passage about Cyrus lifts us to a very absolute and awful faith. -_I am Jehovah, and none else: Former of light and Creator of darkness, -Maker of peace and Creator of mischief; I Jehovah, Maker of all these -things._ The objection at once rises, "Is it possible to believe this? -Are we to lay upon providence everything that happens? Surely we -Westerns, with our native scepticism and strong conscience, cannot be -expected to hold a faith so Oriental and fatalistic as that." - -But notice to whom the passage is addressed. To religious people, who -professedly accept God's sovereignty, but wish to make an exception -in the one case against which they have a prejudice--that a Gentile -should be the deliverer of the holy people. Such narrow and imperfect -believers are reminded that they must not substitute for faith in God -their own ideas of how God ought to work; that they must not limit -His operations to their own conception of His past revelations; that -God does not always work even by His own precedents; and that many -other forces than conventional and religious ones--yea, even forces as -destitute of moral or religious character as Cyrus himself seemed to -be--are also in God's hands, and may be used by Him as means of grace. -There is frequent charge made in our day against what are called the -more advanced schools of theology, of scepticism and irreverence. But -this passage reminds us that the most sceptical and irreverent are -those old-fashioned believers, who, clinging to precedent and their own -stereotyped notions of things, deny that God's hands are in a movement, -because it is novel and not orthodox. _Woe unto him that striveth with -his Moulder; shall the clay say to its moulder, What makest thou?_ God -did not cease _moulding_ when He gave us the canon and our creeds, when -He founded the Church and the Sacraments. His hand is still among the -clay, and upon time, that great "potter's wheel," which still moves -obedient to His impulse. All the large forward movements, the big -things of to-day--commerce, science, criticism--however neutral, like -Cyrus, their character may be, are, like Cyrus, grasped and anointed -by God. Therefore let us show reverence and courage before the great -things of to-day. Do not let us scoff at their novelty or grow fearful -because they show no orthodox, or even no religious, character. God -reigns, and He will use them, for what has been the dearest purpose -of His heart, the emancipation of true religion, the confirmation of -the faithful, the victory of righteousness. When Cyrus rose and the -prophet named him as Israel's deliverer, and the severely orthodox in -Israel objected, did God attempt to soothe them by pointing out how -admirable a character he was, and how near in religion to the Jews -themselves? God did no such thing, but spoke only of the military and -political fitness of this great engine, by which He was to batter -Babylon. That Cyrus was a quick marcher, a far shooter, an inspirer of -fear, a follower up of victory, one who swooped like a _bird-of-prey_, -one whose weight of war burst through every obstruction,--this is what -the astonished pedants are told about the Gentile, to whose Gentileness -they had objected. No soft words to calm their bristling orthodoxy, -but heavy facts,--an appeal to their common-sense, if they had any, -that this was the most practical means for the practical end God had -in view. For again we learn the old lesson the prophets are ever so -anxious to teach us, _God is wise_. He is concerned, not to be orthodox -or true to His own precedent, but to be practical, and effective for -salvation. - -And so, too, in our own day, though we may not see any religious -character whatsoever about certain successful movements--say in -science, for instance--which are sure to affect the future of the -Church and of Faith, do not let us despair, neither deny that they, -too, are in the counsels of God. Let us only be sure that they -are permitted for some end--some practical end; and watch, with -meekness but with vigilance, to see what that end shall be. Perhaps -the endowment of the Church with new weapons of truth; perhaps her -emancipation from associations which, however ancient, are unhealthy; -perhaps her opportunity to go forth upon new heights of vision, new -fields of conquest. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[93] Identified by Delitzsch as East, Halévy as West, and Winckler -as North, Elam. Cyrus, though reigning here, was a pure Persian, an -Akhæmenid or son of the royal house of Persia. - -[94] The parallel which Professor Sayce (_Fresh Light from the -Ancient Monuments_, p. 147) draws between the statement of the -Cyrus-cylinder, that Cyrus "governed in justice and righteousness, -and was righteous in hand and heart," and Isa. xlv. 13, "Jehovah -raised him up in righteousness," is therefore utterly unreal. It -is very difficult to see how the Deputy-Professor of Comparative -Philology at Oxford could have been reminded of the one passage by -the other, for in Isa. xlv. 13 _righteousness_ neither is used of -Cyrus, nor signifies the moral virtue which it does on the cylinder. - -[95] See note to ch. vii. - -[96] The following are extracts from the Cylinder of Cyrus -(see Sayce's _Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments_, pp. -138-140):--"Cyrus, king of Elam, he (Merodach) proclaimed by name for -the sovereignty.... Whom he had conquered with his hand, he governed -in justice and righteousness. Merodach, the great lord, the restorer -of his people, beheld with joy the deeds of his vicegerent, who was -righteous in hand and heart. To Babylon he summoned his march, and -he bade him take the road to Babylon; like a friend and a comrade he -went at his side. Without fighting or battle he caused him to enter -into Babylon, his city of Babylon feared. The god ... has in goodness -drawn nigh to him, has made strong his name. I Cyrus ... I entered -Babylon in peace.... Merodach the great lord (cheered) the heart -of his servant.... My vast armies he marshalled peacefully in the -midst of Babylon; throughout Sumer and Accad I had no revilers.... -Accad, Marad, etc., I restored the gods who dwelt within them to -their places ... all their peoples I assembled and I restored their -lands. And the gods of Sumer and Accad whom Nabonidos, to the anger -of the lord of gods (Merodach), had brought into Babylon, I settled -in peace in their sanctuaries by command of Merodach, the great lord. -In the goodness of their hearts may all the gods whom I have brought -into their strong places daily intercede before Bel and Nebo, that -they should grant me length of days; may they bless my projects with -prosperity, and may they say to Merodach my lord, that Cyrus the -king, thy worshipper, and Kambyses his son (deserve his favour)." - -[97] Why so sovereign a God should be in such peculiar relations with -one people, we will try to see in ch. xv. of this volume. - -[98] Earth here without the article, but plainly _the earth_, and not -_the land_ of Judah. - -[99] _Cf._ with this Hebrew word [Hebrew: tzlch] the Greek [Greek: -prokoptein], to beat or cut a way through like pioneers; then to -forward a work, advance, prosper (Luke ii. 52; Gal. i. 14; 2 Tim. ii. -16). - -[100] _Cyropædia_, Book VIII., ch. vii., 6. - - - - - CHAPTER XI. - - _BEARING OR BORNE._ - - ISAIAH xlvi. - - -Chapter xlvi. is a definite prophecy, complete in itself. It repeats -many of the truths which we have found in previous chapters, and we -have already seen what it says about Cyrus. But it also strikes out a -new truth, very relevant then, when men made idols and worshipped the -works of their hands, and relevant still, when so many, with equal -stupidity, are more concerned about keeping up the forms of their -religion than allowing God to sustain themselves. - -The great contrast, which previous chapters have been elaborating, is -the contrast between the idols and the living God. On the one side -we have had pictures of the busy idol-factories, cast into agitation -by the advent of Cyrus, turning out with much toil and noise their -tawdry, unstable images. Foolish men, instead of letting God undertake -for them, go to and try what their own hands and hammers can effect. -Over against them, and their cunning and toil, the prophet sees the -God of Israel rise alone, taking all responsibility of salvation to -Himself--_I, I am He: look unto Me, all the ends of the earth, and be -ye saved_. This contrast comes to a head in ch. xlvi. - -It is still the eve of the capture of Babylon; but the prophet -pictures to himself what will happen on the morrow of the capture. -He sees the conqueror following the old fashion of triumph--rifling -the temples of his enemies and carrying away the defeated and -discredited gods as trophies to his own. The haughty idols are -torn from their pedestals and brought head foremost through the -temple doors. _Bel crouches_--as men have crouched to Bel; _Nebo -cowers_--a stronger verb than _crouches_, but assonant to it, like -_cower_ to _crouch_.[101] _Their idols have fallen to the beast and -to the cattle._ _Beast_, "that is, tamed beast, perhaps elephants -in contrast to _cattle_, or domestic animals."[102] The _things -with which ye burdened yourselves_, carrying them shoulder high in -religious processions, _are things laden_, mere baggage-bales, _a -burden for a hack_, or _jade_. The nouns are mostly feminine--the -Hebrew neuter--in order to heighten the dead-weight impression of the -idols. So many baggage-bales for beasts' backs--such are your gods, -O Babylonians! _They cower, they crouch together_ (fall limp is the -idea, like corpses); _neither are they able to recover the burden_, -and _themselves_!--literally _their soul_, any real soul of deity -that ever was in them--_into captivity are they gone_. - -This never happened. Cyrus entered Babylon not in spite of the native -gods, but under their patronage, and was careful to do homage to them. -Nabunahid, the king of Babylon, whom he supplanted, had vexed the -priests of Bel or Merodach; and these priests had been among the many -conspirators in favour of the Persian. So far, then, from banishing -the idols, upon his entry into the city, Cyrus had himself proclaimed -as "the servant of Merodach," restored to their own cities the idols -that Nabunahid had brought to Babylon, and prayed, "In the goodness of -their hearts may all the gods whom I have brought into their strong -places daily intercede before Bel and Nebo, that they should grant me -length of days. May they bless my projects with prosperity, and may -they say to Merodach, my lord, that Cyrus the king, thy worshipper, and -Kambyses, his son (deserve thy favour)."[103] - -Are we, then, because the idols were not taken into captivity, as -our prophet pictures, to begin to believe in him less? We shall be -guilty of that error, only when we cease to disallow to a prophet -of God what we do allow to any other writer, and praise him when he -employs it to bring home a moral truth--the use of his imagination. -What if these idols never were packed off by Cyrus, as our prophet -here paints for us? It still remains true that, standing where they -did, or carried away, as they may have been later on, by conquerors, -who were monotheists indeed, they were still mere ballast, so much -dead-weight for weary beasts. - -Now, over against this kind of religion, which may be reduced to so -many pounds avoirdupois, the prophet sees in contrast the God of -Israel. And it is but natural, when contrasted with the dead-weight -of the idols, that God should reveal Himself as a living and a -lifting God: a strong, unfailing God, who carries and who saves. -_Hearken unto Me, O House of Jacob, and all the remnant of the House -of Israel; burdens from the womb, things carried from the belly. -Burdens, things carried_, are the exact words used of the idols in -ver. 1. _Even unto old age I am He, and unto grey hairs I will -bear_--a grievous word, used only of great burdens. _I have made, and -I will carry; yea, I will bear, and will recover._ Then follow some -verses in the familiar style. _To whom will ye liken Me, and match -Me, and compare Me, that we may be like? They who pour gold from a -bag, and silver they measure off with an ellwand_--gorgeous, vulgar -Babylonians!--_they hire a smelter, and he maketh it a god_--out of -so many ells of silver!--_they bow down to it, yea, they worship -it! They carry him upon the shoulder, they bear him,_--again the -grievous word,--_to bring him to his station; and he stands; from -his place he never moves. Yea, one cries unto him, and he answers -not; from his trouble he doth not save him. Remember this, and show -yourselves men_--the playing with these gilded toys is so unmanly -to the monotheist (it will be remembered what we said in ch. iii. -about the exiles feeling that to worship idols was to be less than -a man[104])--_lay it again to heart, ye transgressors. Remember the -former things of old: for I am God_, El, _and there is none else; -God_, Elohim, _and there is none like Me. Publishing from the origin -the issue, and from ancient times things not yet done; saying, My -counsel shall stand, and all My pleasure shall I perform; calling -out of the sunrise a Bird-of-prey, from the land that is far off the -Man of My counsel. Yea, I have spoken; yea, I will bring it in. I -have purposed; yea, I will do it. Hearken unto Me, ye obdurate of -heart_--that is, _brave, strong, sound_, but too sound to adapt their -preconceived notions to God's new revelation;--_ye that are far from -righteousness_, in spite of your _sound_ opinions as to how it ought -to come. _I have brought near My righteousness_, in distinction to -yours. _It shall not be far off_, like your impossible ideas, _and -My salvation shall not tarry, and I will set in Zion salvation, for -Israel My glory_. It is evident that from the idolaters Jehovah has -turned again, in these last verses, to the pedants in Israel, who -were opposed to Cyrus because he was a Gentile, and who cherished -their own obdurate notions of how salvation and righteousness should -come. Ah, their kind of righteousness would never come, they would -always be far from it! Let them rather trust to Jehovah's, which He -was rapidly bringing near in His own way. - -Such is the prophecy. It starts a truth, which bursts free from local -and temporal associations, and rushes in strength upon our own day -and our own customs. The truth is this: it makes all the difference -to a man how he conceives his religion--whether as something that he -has to carry, or as something that will carry him. We have too many -idolatries and idol manufactories among us to linger longer on those -ancient ones. This cleavage is permanent in humanity--between the -men that are trying to carry their religion, and the men that are -allowing God to carry them. - -Now let us see how God does carry. God's carriage of man is no mystery. -It may be explained without using one theological term; the Bible gives -us the best expression of it. But it may be explained without a word -from the Bible. It is broad and varied as man's moral experience. - -1. The first requisite for stable and buoyant life is ground, and -the faithfulness of law. What sends us about with erect bodies and -quick, firm step is the sense that the surface of the earth is sure, -that gravitation will not fail, that our eyes and the touch of our -feet and our judgement of distance do not deceive us. Now, what the -body needs for its world, the soul needs for hers. For her carriage -and bearing in life the soul requires the assurance, that the moral -laws of the universe are as conscience has interpreted them to her, -and will continue to be as in experience she has found them. To -this requisite of the soul--this indispensable condition of moral -behaviour--God gives His assurance. _I have made_, He says, _and I -will bear_.[105] These words were in answer to an instinct, that -must have often sprung up in our hearts when we have been struggling -for at least moral hope--the instinct which will be all that is -sometimes left to a man's soul when unbelief lowers, and under its -blackness a flood of temptations rushes in, and character and conduct -feel impossible to his strength--the instinct that springs from -the thought, "Well, here I am, not responsible for being here, but -so set by some One else, and the responsibility of the life, which -is too great for me, is His." Some such simple faith, which a man -can hardly separate from his existence, has been the first rally -and turning-point in many a life. In the moral drift and sweep he -finds bottom there, and steadies on it, and gets his face round, and -gathers strength. And God's Word comes to him to tell him that his -instinct is sure. _Yea, I have made, and I will bear._ - -2. The most terrible anguish of the heart, however, is that it -carries something, which can shake a man off even that ground. The -firmest rock is of no use to the paralytic, or to a man with a broken -leg. And the most steadfast moral universe, and most righteous moral -governor, is no comfort--but rather the reverse--to the man with a -bad conscience, whether that conscience be due to the guilt, or to -the habit, of sin. Conscience whispers, "God indeed made thee, but -what if thou hast unmade thyself? God reigns; the laws of life are -righteousness; creation is guided to peace. But thou art outlaw of -this universe, fallen from God of thine own will. Thou must bear -thine own guilt, endure thy voluntarily contracted habits. How canst -thou believe that God, in this fair world, would bear thee up, so -useless, soiled, and infected a thing?" Yet here, according to His -blessed Word, God does come down to bear up men. Because man's -sunkenness and helplessness are so apparent beneath no other burden -or billows, God insists that just here He is most anxious, and just -here it is His glory, to lift men and bear them upward. Some may -wonder what guilt is or the conviction of sin, because they are -selfishly or dishonestly tracing the bitterness and unrest of their -lives to some other source than their own wicked wills; but the -thing is man's realest burden, and man's realest burden is what God -stoops lowest to bear. The grievous word for _bear_, "sabal," which -we emphasized in the above passage, is elsewhere in the writings of -the Exile used of the bearing of sins, or of the result of sins. _Our -fathers have sinned, and are not, and we bear their iniquities_,[106] -says one of the Lamentations. And in the fifty-third of Isaiah it is -used twice of the Servant, _that He bore our sorrows_, and _that He -bare their iniquities_.[107] Here its application to God--to such a -God as we have seen bearing the passion of His people's woes--cannot -fail to carry with it the associations of these passages. When it is -said, God _bears_, and this grievous verb is used, we remember at -once that He is a God, who does not only set His people's sins in the -awful light of His countenance, but takes them upon His heart. Let us -learn, then, that God has made this sin and guilt of ours His special -care and anguish. We cannot feel it more than He does. It is enough: -we may not be able to understand what the sacrifice of Christ meant -to the Divine justice, but who can help comprehending from it that in -some Divine way the Divine love has made our sin its own business and -burden, so that that might be done which we could not do, and that -lifted which we could not bear? - -3. But this gospel of God's love bearing our sins is of no use to a -man unless it goes with another--that God bears him up for victory -over temptation and for attainment in holiness. It is said to be a -thoroughly Mohammedan fashion, that when a believer is tempted past -the common he gives way, and slides into sin with the cry, "God is -merciful;" meaning that the Almighty will not be too hard on this -poor creature, who has held out so long. If this be Mohammedanism, -there is a great deal of Mohammedanism in modern Christianity. It is -a most perfidious distortion of God's will. _For this is the will -of God, even our sanctification_; and God never gives a man pardon -but to set him free for effort, and to constrain him for duty. And -here we come to what is the most essential part of God's bearing of -man. God, as we have seen, bears us by giving us ground to walk on. -He bears us by lifting those burdens from our hearts that make the -firmest ground slippery and impossible to our feet. But He bears us -best and longest by being the spirit and the soul and the life of our -life. Every metaphor here falls short of the reality. By inspired -men the bearing of God has been likened to a father carrying his -child, to an eagle taking her young upon her wings, to the shepherd -with the lamb in his bosom. But no shepherd, nor mother-bird, nor -human father ever bore as the Lord bears. For He bears from within, -as the soul lifts and bears the body. The Lord and His own are one. -_To me_, says he who knew it best, _To me to live is Christ_. It is, -indeed, difficult to describe to others what this inward sustainment -really is, seating itself at the centre of a man's life, and thence -affecting vitally every organ of his nature. The strongest human -illustration is not sufficient for it. If in the thick of the battle -a leader is able to infuse himself into his followers, so is Christ. -If one man's word has lifted thousands of defeated soldiers to an -assault and to a victory, even so have Christ's lifted millions: -lifted them above the habit and depression of sin, above the weakness -of the flesh, above the fear of man, above danger and death and -temptation more dangerous and fatal still. And yet it is not the -sight of a visible leader, though the Gospels have made that sight -imperishable; it is not the sound of Another's Voice, though that -Voice shall peal to the end of time, that Christians only feel. -It is something within themselves; another self--purer, happier, -victorious. Not as a voice or example, futile enough to the dying, -but as a new soul, is Christ in men; and whether their exhaustion -needs creative forces, or their vices require conquering forces, He -gives both, for He is the fountain of life. - -4. But God does not carry dead men. His carrying is not mechanical, but -natural; not from below, but from within. You dare not be passive in -God's carriage; for as in the natural, so in the moral world, whatever -dies is thrown aside by the upward pressure of life, to rot and -perish. Christ showed this over and over again in His ministry. Those -who make no effort--or, if effort be past, feel no pain--God will not -stoop to bear. But all in whom there is still a lift and a spring after -life: the quick conscience, the pain of their poverty, the hunger and -thirst after righteousness, the sacredness of those in their charge, -the obligation and honour of their daily duty, some desire for eternal -life--these, however weak, He carries forward to perfection. - -Again, in His bearing God bears, and does not overbear, using a man, -not as a man uses a stick, but as a soul uses a body,--informing, -inspiring, recreating his natural faculties. So many distrust -religion, as if it were to be an overbearing of their originality, -as if it were bound to destroy the individual's peculiar freshness -and joy. But God is not by grace going to undo His work by nature. -_I have made, and I will bear--will bear_ what I have made. Religion -intensifies the natural man. - -And now, if that be God's bearing--the gift of the ground, and the -lifting of the fallen, and the being a soul and an inspiration of -every organ--how wrong those are who, instead of asking God to carry -them, are more anxious about how He and His religion are to be -sustained by their consistency or efforts! - -To young men, who have not got a religion, and are brought face to -face with the conventional religion of the day, the question often -presents itself in this way: "Is this a thing I can carry?" or -"How much of it can I afford to carry? How much of the tradition -of the elders can I take upon myself, and feel that it is not mere -dead weight?" That is an entirely false attitude. Here you are, -weak, by no means master of yourself; with a heart wonderfully full -of suggestions to evil; a world before you, hardest where it is -clearest, seeming most impossible where duty most loudly calls; yet -mainly dark and silent, needing from us patience oftener than effort, -and trust as much as the exercise of our own cleverness; with death -at last ahead. Look at life whole, and the question you will ask will -not be, Can I carry this faith? but, Can this faith carry me? Not, -Can I afford to take up such and such and such opinions? but, Can I -afford to travel at all without such a God? It is not a creed, but a -living and a lifting God, who awaits your decision. - -At the opposite end of life, there is another class of men, who are -really doing what young men too often suppose that they must do if -they take up a religion,--carrying it, instead of allowing it to carry -them; men who are in danger of losing their faith in God, through -over-anxiety about traditional doctrines concerning Him. A great deal -is being said just now in our country of upholding the great articles -of the faith. Certainly let us uphold them. But do not let us have -in our churches that saddest of all sights, a mere ecclesiastical -procession,--men flourishing doctrines, but themselves with their -manhood remaining unseen. We know the pity of a show, sometimes seen -in countries on the Continent, where they have not given over carrying -images about. Idols and banners and texts will fill a street with their -tawdry, tottering progress, and you will see nothing human below, but -now and then jostling shoulders and a sweaty face. Even so are many -of the loud parades of doctrines in our day by men, who, in the words -of this chapter, show themselves _stout of heart_ by holding up their -religion, but give us no signs in their character or conduct that their -religion is holding up them. Let us prize our faith, not by holding it -high, but by showing how high it can hold us. - -Which is the more inspiring sight,--a banner carried by hands, that -must sooner or later weary; or the soldier's face, mantling with the -inexhaustible strength of the God who lives at his heart and bears -him up? - -FOOTNOTES: - -[101] _Crouches_, Kara`; _cowers_, Kores. - -[102] Bredenkamp. - -[103] Sayce, _Fresh Light_, etc., p. 140. - -[104] See p. 39 f. - -[105] There is a play on the words 'anî `asîthî, wa'anî, 'essa'--_I -have made, and I will aid_. - -[106] Lam. v. 7. - -[107] Ver. 4, second clause, and vii. - - - - - CHAPTER XII. - - _BABYLON._ - - ISAIAH xlvii. - - -Throughout the extent of Bible history, from Genesis to Revelation, -One City remains, which in fact and symbol is execrated as the enemy -of God and the stronghold of evil. In Genesis we are called to see -its foundation, as of the first city that wandering men established, -and the quick ruin, which fell upon its impious builders. By the -prophets we hear it cursed as the oppressor of God's people, the -temptress of the nations, full of cruelty and wantonness. And in the -Book of Revelation its character and curse are transferred to Rome, -and the New Babylon stands over against the New Jerusalem. - -The tradition and infection, which have made the name of Babylon -as abhorred in Scripture as Satan's own, are represented as the -tradition and infection of pride,--the pride, which, in the audacity -of youth, proposes to attempt to be equal with God: _Go to, let us -build us a city and a tower, whose top_ may touch _heaven, and let -us make us a name_; the pride, which, amid the success and wealth -of later years, forgets that there is a God at all: _Thou sayest -in thine heart, I am, and there is none beside me_. Babylon is the -Atheist of the Old Testament, as she is the Antichrist of the New. - -That a city should have been originally conceived by Israel as the -arch-enemy of God is due to historical causes, as intelligible -as those which led, in later days, to the reverse conception of -a city as God's stronghold, and the refuge of the weak and the -wandering. God's earliest people were shepherds, plain men dwelling -in tents,--desert nomads, who were never tempted to rear permanent -structures of their own except as altars and shrines, but marched -and rested, waked and slept, between God's bare earth and God's high -heaven; whose spirits were chastened and refined by the hunger and -clear air of the desert, and who walked their wide world without -jostling or stunting one another. With the dear habits of those early -times, the truths of the Bible are therefore, even after Israel has -settled in towns, spelt to the end in the images of shepherd life. -The Lord is the Shepherd, and men are the sheep of His pasture. He -is a Rock and a Strong Tower, such as rise here and there in the -desert's wildness for guidance or defence.[108] He is rivers of water -in a dry place, and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. And -man's peace is to lie beside still waters, and his glory is, not -to have built cities, but to have all these things put under his -feet--sheep and oxen and the beasts of the field, the fowls of the -air and the fish of the sea. - -Over against that lowly shepherd life, the first cities rose, as we -can imagine, high, terrible and impious. They were the production of -an alien race,[109] a people with no true religion, as it must have -appeared to the Semites, arrogant and coarse. But Babylon had a special -curse. Babylon was not the earliest city,--Akkad and Erekh were famous -long before,--but it is Babylon that the Book of Genesis represents -as overthrown and scattered by the judgement of God. What a contrast -this picture in Genesis,--and let it be remembered that the only other -cities to which that book leads us are Sodom and Gomorrah,--what a -contrast it forms to the passages in which classic poets celebrate the -beginnings of their great cities! There, the favourable omens, the -patronage of the gods, the prophecies of the glories of civil life; the -tracing of the temple and the forum; visions of the city as the school -of industry, the treasury of wealth, the home of freedom. Here, but a -few rapid notes of scorn and doom: man's miserable manufacture, without -Divine impulse or omen; his attempt to rise to heaven upon that alone, -his motive only to make a name for himself; and the result--not, as in -Greek legend, the foundation of a polity, the rise of commerce, the -growth of a great language, by which through the lips of one man the -whole city may be swayed together to high purposes, but only scattering -and confusion of speech. To history, a great city is a multitude of men -within reach of one man's voice. Athens is Demosthenes; Rome is Cicero -persuading the Senate; Florence is Savonarola putting by his word one -conscience within a thousand hearts. But Babylon, from the beginning, -gave its name to Babel, confusion of speech, incapacity for union and -for progress. And all this came, because the builders of the city, the -men who set the temper of its civilisation, did not begin with God, -but in their pride deemed everything possible to unaided and unblessed -human ambition, and had only the desire to make a name upon earth. - -The sin and the curse never left the generations, who in turn -succeeded those impious builders. Pride and godlessness infested the -city, and prepared it for doom, as soon as it again gathered strength -to rise to heaven. The early nomads had watched Babylon's fall from -afar; but when their descendants were carried as captives within her -in the time of her second glory,[110] they found that the besetting -sin, which had once reared its head so fatally high, infected the city -to her very heart. We need not again go over the extent and glory of -Nebuchadrezzar's architecture, or the greatness of the traffic, from -the Levant to India, which his policy had concentrated upon his own -wharves and markets.[111] It was stupendous. But neither walls nor -wealth make a city, and no observant man, with the Hebrew's faith -and conscience, could have lived those fifty years in the centre -of Babylon, and especially after Nebuchadrezzar had passed away, -without perceiving, that her life was destitute of every principle -which ensured union or promised progress. Babylon was but a medley -of peoples, without common traditions or a public conscience, and -incapable of acting together. Many of her inhabitants had been brought -to her, like the Jews, against their own will, and were ever turning -from those glorious battlements they were forced to build in their -disgust, to scan the horizon for the advent of a deliverer. And many -others, who moved in freedom through her busy streets, and shared her -riches and her joys, were also foreigners, and bound to her only so -long as she ministered to their pleasure or their profit. Her king -was an usurper, who had insulted her native gods; her priesthood was -against him. And although his army, sheltered by the fortifications of -Nebuchadrezzar, had repulsed Cyrus upon the Persian's first invasion -from the north, conspiracies were now so rife among his oppressed and -insulted subjects, that, on Cyrus' second invasion, Babylon opened -her impregnable gates and suffered herself to be taken without a -blow. Nor, even if the city's religion had been better served by -the king, could it in the long run have availed for her salvation. -For, in spite of the science with which it was connected,--and this -"wisdom of the Chaldeans" was contemptible in neither its methods nor -its results,--the Babylonian religion was not one to inspire either -the common people with those moral principles, which form the true -stability of states, or their rulers with a reasonable and consistent -policy. Babylon's religion was broken up into a multitude of wearisome -and distracting details, whose absurd solemnities, especially when -administered by a priesthood hostile to the executive, must have -hampered every adventure of war, and rendered futile many opportunities -of victory. In fact, Babylon, for all her glory, could not but be -short-lived. There was no moral reason why she should endure. The -masses, who contributed to her building, were slaves who hated her; -the crowds, who fed her business, would stay with her only so long -as she was profitable to themselves; her rulers and her priests had -quarrelled; her religion was a burden, not an inspiration. Yet she sat -proud, and felt herself secure. - -It is just these features, which our prophet describes in ch. xlvii., -in verses more notable for their moral insight and indignation, than -for their beauty as a work of literature. He is certain of Babylon's -immediate fall from power and luxury into slavery and dishonour (vv. -1-3). He speaks of her cruelty to her captives (ver. 6), of her -haughtiness and her secure pride (vv. 7, 8). He touches twice upon her -atheistic self-sufficiency, her "autotheism,"--"_I am, and there is -none beside me_," words which only God can truly use, but words which -man's ignorant, proud self is ever ready to repeat (vv. 8-10). He -speaks of the wearisomeness and futility of her religious magic (vv. -10-14). And he closes with a vivid touch, that dissolves the reality of -that merely commercial grandeur on which she prides herself. Like every -association that arises only from the pecuniary profit of its members, -Babylon shall surely break up, and none of those, who sought her for -their selfish ends, shall wait to help her one moment after she has -ceased to be profitable to them. - -Here now are his own words, rendered literally except in the case of -one or two conjunctions and articles,--rendered, too, in the original -order of the words, and, as far as it can be determined, in the -rhythm of the original. The rhythm is largely uncertain, but some -verses--1, 5, 14, 15--are complete in that measure which we found in -the Taunt-song against the king of Babylon in ch. xiii.,[112] and -nearly every line or clause has the same metrical swing upon it. - - _Down! and sit in the dust, O virgin,_ - _Daughter of Babel!_ - _Sit on the ground, with no throne,_ - _Daughter of Khasdîm! - For not again shall they call thee_ - _Tender and Dainty._ - _Take to thee millstones, and grind out the meal,_ - _Put back thy veil, strip off the garment,_ - _Make bare the leg, wade through the rivers;_ - _Bare be thy nakedness, yea, be beholden thy shame!_ - _Vengeance I take, and strike treaty with none._ - - _Our Redeemer! Jehovah of Hosts is His Name,_ - _Holy of Israel!_ - - _Sit thou dumb, and get into darkness,_ - _Daughter of Khasdîm!_ - _For not again shall they call thee_ - _Mistress of Kingdoms._ - _I was wroth with My people, profaned Mine inheritance,_ - _Gave them to thy hand:_ - _Thou didst show them no mercy, on old men thou madest_ - _Thy yoke very sore._ - _And thou saidst, For ever I shall be mistress,_ - _Till thou hast set not these things to thy heart,_ - _Nor thought of their issue._ - - _Therefore now hear this, Voluptuous,_ - _Sitting self-confident:_ - _Thou, who saith in her heart, "I am: there is none else._ - _I shall not sit a widow, nor know want of children."_ - _Surely shall come to thee both of these, sudden, the same - day,_ - _Childlessness, widowhood! - To their full come upon thee, spite of the mass of thy - spells,_ - _Spite of the wealth of thy charms--to the full!_ - - _And thou wast bold in thine evil; thou saidst,_ - _"None doth see me."_ - _Thy wisdom and knowledge--they have led thee astray,_ - _Till thou hast said in thine heart, "I am: there is none - else."_ - _Yet there shall come on thee Evil,_ - _Thou know'st not to charm it._ - _And there shall fall on thee Havoc,_ - _Thou canst not avert it._ - _And there shall come on thee suddenly,_ - _Unawares, Ruin._ - _Stand forth, I pray, with thy charms, with the wealth of thy - spells--_ - _With which thou hast wearied thyself from thy youth up--_ - _If so thou be able to profit,_ - _If so to strike terror!_ - _Thou art sick with the mass of thy counsels:_ - _Let them stand up and save thee--_ - _Mappers of heaven, Planet-observers, Tellers at new moons--_ - _From what must befall thee!_ - - _Behold, they are grown like the straw!_ - _Fire hath consumed them;_ - _Nay, they save not their life_ - _From the hand of the flame!_ - _--'Tis no fuel for warmth,_ - _Fire to sit down at!--_ - _Thus are they grown to thee, they who did weary thee,_ - _Traders of thine from thy youth up;_ - _Each as he could pass have they fled;_ - _None is thy saviour!_ - -We, who remember Isaiah's elegies on Egypt and Tyre,[113] shall be -most struck here by the absence of all appreciation of greatness or -of beauty about Babylon. Even while prophesying for Tyre as certain a -judgement as our prophet here predicts for Babylon, Isaiah spoke as -if the ruin of so much enterprise and wealth were a desecration, and -he promised that the native strength of Tyre, humbled and purified, -would rise again to become the handmaid of religion. But our prophet -sees no saving virtue whatever in Babylon, and gives her not the -slightest promise of a future. There is pity through his scorn: the -way in which he speaks of the futility of the mass of Babylonian -science; the way in which he speaks of her ignorance, though served -by hosts of counsellors; the way in which, after recalling her -countless partners in traffic, he describes their headlong flight, -and closes with the words, _None is thy saviour_,--all this is most -pathetic. But upon none of his lines is there one touch of awe or -admiration or regret for the fall of what is great. To him Babylon is -wholly false, vain, destitute--as Tyre was not destitute--of native -vigour and saving virtue. Babylon is sheer pretence and futility. -Therefore his scorn and condemnation are thorough; and mocking -laughter breaks from him, now with an almost savage coarseness, as -he pictures the dishonour of the virgin who was no virgin--_Bare thy -nakedness, yea, be beholden thy shame_; and now in roguish glee, -as he interjects about the fire which shall destroy the mass of -Babylon's magicians, astrologers and haruspices: _No coal this to -warm oneself at, fire to sit down before._ But withal we are not -allowed to forget, that it is one of the Tyrant's poor captives, who -thus judges and scorns her. How vividly from the midst of his satire -does the prisoner's sigh break forth to God:-- - - "_Our Redeemer! Jehovah of Hosts is His Name,_ - _Holy of Israel!_" - -Not the least interesting feature of this taunt-song is the expression -which it gives to the characteristic Hebrew sense of the wearisomeness -and immorality of that system of divination, which formed the mass of -the Babylonian and many other Gentile religions. The worship of Jehovah -had very much in common with the rest of the Semitic cults. Its ritual, -its temple-furniture, the division of its sacred year, its terminology, -and even many of its titles for the Deity and His relations to men, may -be matched in the worship of Phoenician, Syrian and Babylonian gods, -or in the ruder Arabian cults. But in one thing the "law of Jehovah" -stands by itself, and that is in its intolerance of all augury and -divination. It owed this distinction to the unique moral and practical -sense which inspired it. Augury and divination, such as the Chaldeans -were most proficient in, exerted two most evil influences. They -hampered, sometimes paralysed, the industry and politics of a nation, -and they more or less confounded the moral sense of a people. They -were, therefore, utterly out of harmony with the practical sanity and -Divine morality of the Jewish law, which strenuously forbade them; -while the prophets, who were practical men as well as preachers of -righteousness, constantly exposed the fatigue they laid upon public -life, and the way they distracted attention from the simple moral -issues of conduct. Augury and divination wearied a people's intellect, -stunted their enterprise, distorted their conscience. _Thy spells,--the -mass of thy charms, with which thou hast wearied thyself from thy -youth. Thou art sick with the mass of thy counsels. Thy wisdom and thy -knowledge! they have led thee astray._ When "the Chaldean astrology" -found its way to the New Babylon, Juvenal's strong conscience expressed -the same sense of its wearisomeness and waste of time.[114] - -Ashes and ruins, a servile and squalid life, a desolate site -abandoned by commerce,--what the prophet predicted, that did imperial -Babylon become. Not, indeed, at the hand of Cyrus, or of any other -single invader; but gradually by the rivalry of healthier peoples, by -the inevitable working of the poison at her heart, Babylon, though -situated in the most fertile and central part of God's earth, fell -into irredeemable decay. Do not let us, however, choke our interest -in this prophecy, as so many students of prophecy do, in the ruins -and dust, which were its primary fulfilment. The shell of Babylon, -the gorgeous city which rose by Euphrates, has indeed sunk into -heaps; but Babylon herself is not dead. Babylon never dies. To the -conscience of Christ's seer, this _mother of harlots_, though dead -and desert in the East, came to life again in the West. To the city -of Rome, in his day, John transferred word by word the phrases of -our prophet and of the prophet who wrote the fifty-first chapter -of the Book of Jeremiah. Rome was Babylon, in so far as Romans were -filled with cruelty, with arrogance, with trust in riches, with -credulity in divination, with that waste of mental and moral power -which Juvenal exposed in her. _I sit a queen_, John heard Rome say -in her heart, _and am no widow, and shall in no wise see mourning. -Therefore in one day shall her plagues come, death and mourning and -famine, and she shall be utterly burned with fire, for strong is -the Lord God which judged her._[115] But we are not to leave the -matter even here: we are to use that freedom with John, which John -uses with our prophet. We are to pass by the particular fulfilment -of his words, in which he and his day were interested, because it -can only have a historical and secondary interest to us in face of -other Babylons in our own day, with which our consciences, if they -are quick, ought to be busy. Why do some honest people continue to -confine the reference of those chapters in the Book of Revelation -to the city and church of Rome? It is quite true, that John meant -the Rome of his day; it is quite true, that many features of his -Babylon may be traced upon the successor of the Roman Empire, the -Roman Church. But what is that to us, with incarnations of the -Babylonian spirit so much nearer ourselves for infection and danger, -than the Church of Rome can ever be. John's description, based upon -our prophet's, suits better a commercial, than an ecclesiastical -state,--though self-worship has been as rife in ecclesiasticism, -Roman or Reformed, as among the votaries of Mammon. For every phrase -of John's, that may be true of the Church of Rome in certain ages, -there are six apt descriptions of the centres of our own British -civilisation, and of the selfish, atheistic tempers that prevail in -them. Let us ask what are the Babylonian tempers and let us touch our -own consciences with them. - -Forgetfulness of God, cruelty, vanity of knowledge (which so easily -breeds credulity) and vanity of wealth,--but the parent of them -all is idolatry of self. Isaiah told us about this in the Assyrian -with his war; we see it here in Babylon with her commerce and her -science; it was exposed even in the orthodox Jews,[116] for they -put their own prejudices before their God's revelation; and it is -perhaps as evident in the Christian Church as anywhere else. For -selfishness follows a man like his shadow; and religion, like the -sun, the stronger it shines, only makes the shadow more apparent. But -to worship your shadow is to turn your back on the sun; selfishness -is atheism, says our prophet. Man's self takes God's word about -Himself and says, _I am, and there is none beside me_. And he, who -forgets God, is sure also to forget his brother; thus self-worship -leads to cruelty. A heavy part of the charge against Babylon is her -treatment of the Lord's own people. These were God's convicts, and -she, for the time, God's minister of justice. But she unnecessarily -and cruelly oppressed them. _On the aged thou hast very heavily laid -thy yoke._ God's people were given to her to be reformed, but she -sought to crush the life out of them. God's purpose was upon them, -but she used them for her aggrandisement. She did not feel that she -was responsible to God for her treatment even of the most guilty and -contemptible of her subjects. - -In all this Babylon acted in accordance with what was the prevailing -spirit of antiquity; and here we may safely affirm that our Christian -civilisation has at least a superior conscience. The modern world -does recognise, in some measure, its responsibility to God for the -care even of its vilest and most forfeit lives. No Christian state -at the present day would, for instance, allow its felons to be -tortured or outraged against their will in the interests either of -science or of public amusement. We do not vivisect our murderers nor -kill them off by gladiatorial combats. Our statutes do not get rid -of worthless or forfeit lives by condemning them to be used up in -dangerous labours of public necessity. On the contrary, in prisons we -treat our criminals with decency and even with comfort, and outside -prisons we protect and cherish even the most tainted and guilty -lives. In all our discharge of God's justice, we take care that the -inevitable errors of our human fallibility may fall on mercy's side. -Now it is true that in the practice of all this we often fail, and -are inconsistent. The point at present is that we have at least a -conscience about the matter. We do not say, like Babylon, "_I am, and -there is none beside me_. There is no law higher than my own will -and desire. I can, therefore, use whatever through its crime or its -uselessness falls into my power, for the increase of my wealth or -the satisfaction of my passions." We remember God, and that even the -criminal and the useless are His. In wielding the power which His Law -and Providence put into our hands towards many of His creatures, we -remember that we are administering His justice, and not satisfying -our own revenge, or feeding our own desire for sensation, or -experimenting for the sake of our science. They are His convicts, not -our spoil. In our treatment of them we are subject to His laws,--one -of which, that fences even His justice, is the law against cruelty; -and another, for which His justice leaves room, is that to every man -there be granted, with his due penalty, the opportunity of penitence -and reform. There are among us Positivists, who deny that these -opinions and practices of modern civilisation are correct. Carrying -out the essential atheism of their school--_I am_ man, _and there -is none else_: that in the discharge of justice and the discharge -of charity men are responsible only to themselves--they dare to -recommend that the victims of justice should be made the experiments, -however painful, of science, and that charity should be refused to -the corrupt and the useless. But all this is simply reversion to the -Babylonian type, and the Babylonian type is doomed to decay. For -history has writ no surer law upon itself than this--that cruelty is -the infallible precursor of ruin. - -But while speaking of the state, we should remember individual -responsibilities as well. Success, even where it is the righteous -success of character, is a most subtle breeder of cruelty. The best of -us need most strongly to guard ourselves against censoriousness. If -God does put the characters of sinful men and women into our keeping, -let us remember that our right of judging them, our right of punishing -them, our right even of talking about them, is strictly limited. -Religious people too easily forget this, and their cruel censoriousness -or selfish gossip warns us that to be a member of the Church of Christ -does not always mean that a man's citizenship is in heaven; he may well -be a Babylonian and carry the freedom of that city upon his face. To -"be hard on those who are down" is Babylonian; to make material out of -our neighbours' faults, for our pride, or for love of gossip, or for -prurience, is Babylonian. There is one very good practical rule to -keep us safe. We may allow ourselves to speak about our erring brothers -to men, just as much as we pray for them to God. But if we pray much -for a man, he will surely become too sacred to be made the amusement of -society or the food of our curiosity or of our pride. - -The last curse on Babylon reminds us of the fatal looseness of a -society that is built only upon the interests of trade; of the -loneliness and uselessness that await, in the end, all lives, which -keep themselves alive simply by trafficking with men. If we feed life -only by the news of the markets, by the interest of traffic, by the -excitement of competition, by the fever of speculation, by the passions -of cupidity and pride, we may feel healthy and powerful for a time. But -such a life, which is merely a being kept brisk by the sense of gaining -something or overreaching some one, is the mere semblance of living; -and when the inevitable end comes, when they that have trafficked with -us from our youth depart, then each particle of strength with which -they fed us shall be withdrawn, and we shall fall into decay. There -never was a truer picture of the quick ruin of a merely commercial -community, or of the ultimate loneliness of a mercenary and selfish -life, than the headlong rush of traders, _each as he could find -passage_, from the city that never had other attractions even for her -own citizens than those of gain or of pleasure. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[108] _Cf._ Doughty, _Arabia Deserta_. - -[109] The Turanians, who occupied Mesopotamia before the Semitic -invasion, were the first builders of cities. - -[110] Babylon, as far as we can learn, first rose to power about the -time of that Amraphel who fought in the Mesopotamian league against -the neighbours and friends of Abraham. Amraphel is supposed to have -been the father of Hammurabis, who first made Babylon the capital -of Chaldea. It scarcely ever again ceased to be such; but it was -not till the fall of Assyria, about 625 B.C., and the rebuilding -of Babylon by Nebuchadrezzar (604-561), that the city's second and -greatest glory began. - -[111] See ch. iv., pp. 53-56. - -[112] Vol. i., pp. 409-315. - -[113] Vol. i., pp. 275, 286, 294. - -[114] See especially _Satires III._ and _VI._, and _cf._ Bagehot's -_Physics and Politics_. - -[115] Rev. xvii., xviii. - -[116] Ch. xlv. - - - - - CHAPTER XIII. - - _THE CALL TO GO FORTH._ - - ISAIAH xlviii. - - -On the substance of ch. xlviii. we have already encroached, and now it -is necessary only to summarise its argument, and to give some attention -to the call to go forth from Babylon, with which it concludes. - -Chapter xlviii. is addressed, as its first verse declares, to the -exiles from Judah[117]: _Hear this, Oh House of Jacob, that call -yourselves by the name of Israel, and from the waters of Judah have -come forth_: that is, you so-called Israelites, who spring from -Judah. But their worship of Jehovah is only nominal and unreal: _They -who swear by the name of Jehovah, and celebrate the God of Israel, -not in truth and not in righteousness; although by the Holy City they -name themselves, and upon the God of Israel they lean--Jehovah of -Hosts is His Name!_ - -_The former things I published long ago;_[118] _from My mouth they -went forth, and I let them be heard--suddenly I did them, and they -came to pass. Because I knew how hard thou wert, and a sinew of -iron thy neck, and thy brow brass. And I published to thee long -ago; before it came to pass I let thee hear it, lest thou shouldest -say: Mine idol hath wrought them, and my Image and my Casting hath -commanded them. Thou didst hear it: look at it whole_,--now that it -is fulfilled,--_and you! should ye not publish it?_ All the past lies -as a unity, prediction and fulfilment together complete; all of it -the doing of Jehovah, and surely enough of it to provide the text of -confession of Him by His people. But now,-- - -_I let thee hear new things_--in contrast with the former things--_from -now, and hidden things, and thou knewest them not. Now are they -created, and not long ago; and before to-day thou hadst not heard them, -lest thou shouldest say, Behold I knew them. Verily,_[119] _thou hadst -not heard, verily, thou hadst not known, verily, long since thine ear -was not open; because I knew thou art thoroughly treacherous, and -Transgressor-from-the-womb do they call thee._ - -The meaning of all this is sufficiently clear. It is a reproach -addressed to the formal Israelites. It divides into two parts, -each containing an explanation _Because I knew that_, etc.: vv. -3-6_a_, and vv. 6_b_-9. In the first part Jehovah treats of history -already finished, both in its prediction and fulfilment. Many of -the wonderful things of old Jehovah predicted long before they -happened, and so left His stubborn people no excuse for an idolatry -to which otherwise they would have given themselves (ver. 5). Now -that they see that wonderful past complete, and all the predictions -fulfilled, they may well publish Jehovah's renown to the world. In -the first part of His reproach, then, Jehovah is dealing with stages -of Israel's history that were closed before the Exile. The _former -things_ are wonderful events, foretold and come to pass before the -present generation. But in the second part of His reproach (vv. -6_b_-9) Jehovah mentions _new things_. These new things are being -created while His prophet speaks, and they have not been foretold (in -contradistinction to the former things of ver. 3). What events fulfil -these two conditions? Well, Cyrus was on his way, the destruction of -Babylon was imminent, Israel's new destiny was beginning to shape -itself under God's hands: these are evidently the things that are -in process of creation while the prophet speaks. But could it also -be said of them, that they had not been foretold? This could be -said, at least, of Cyrus, the Gentile Messiah. A Gentile Messiah was -something so new to Israel, that many, clinging to the letter of the -old prophecies, denied, as we have seen, that Cyrus could possibly -be God's instrument for the redemption of Israel. Cyrus, then, as a -Gentile, and at the same time the Anointed of Jehovah, is the new -thing which is being created while the prophet speaks, and which has -not been announced beforehand. - -How is it possible, some may now ask, that Cyrus should be one of -the unpredicted _new things_ that are happening while the prophet -speaks, when the prophet has already pointed to Cyrus and his -advance on Babylon as a fulfilment of ancient predictions? The answer -to this question is very simple. There were ancient predictions of -a deliverance and a deliverer from Babylon. To name no more, there -were Jeremiah's[120] and Habakkuk's; and Cyrus, in so far as he -accomplished the deliverance, was the fulfilment of these ancient -r'ishonôth. But in so far as Cyrus sprang from a quarter of the -world, not hinted at in former prophecies of Jehovah--in so far as -he was a Gentile and yet the Anointed of the Lord, a combination -not provided for by any tradition in Israel--Cyrus and his career -were the _new things not predicted beforehand, the new things_ which -caused such offence to certain tradition-bound parties in Israel. - -We cannot overestimate the importance of this passage. It supplies -us with the solution of the problem, how the presently-happening -deliverance of Israel from Babylon could be both a thing foretold -from long ago, and yet so new as to surprise those Israelites who -were most devoted to the ancient prophecies. And at the same time -such of us as are content to follow our prophet's own evidence, and -to place him in the Exile, have an answer put into our mouths, to -render to those, who say that we destroy a proof of the Divinity of -prophecy by denying to Isaiah or to any other prophet, so long before -Cyrus was born, the mention of Cyrus by name. Let such objectors, who -imagine that they are more careful of the honour of God and of the -Divinity of Scripture, because they maintain that Cyrus was named two -hundred years before he was born, look at verse 7. There God Himself -says, that there are some things, which, for a very good reason, -He does not foretell before they come to pass. We believe, and have -shown strong grounds for believing, that the selection of Cyrus, the -mention of his name, and the furtherance of his arms against Babylon, -were among those _new things_, which God says He purposely did not -reveal till the day of their happening, and which, by their novel and -unpredicted character, offended so many of the traditional and stupid -party in Israel. Must there always be among God's people, to-day as -in the day of our prophet, some who cannot conceive a thing to be -Divine unless it has been predicted long before? - -In vv. 3-8, then, God claims to have changed His treatment of His -people, in order to meet and to prevent the various faults of their -character. Some things He told to them, long before, so that they -might not attribute the occurrence of these to their idols. But other -things He sprang upon them, without predictions, and in an altogether -novel shape, so that they might not say of these things, in their -familiarity with them, We knew of them ourselves. A people who were -at one time so stubborn, and at another so slippery, were evidently -a people who deserved nothing at God's hand. Yet He goes on to say, -vv. 9-11, that He will treat them with forbearance, if not for their -sake, yet for His own: _For the sake of My Name I defer Mine anger, -and for My praise_--or _renown_, or _reputation_, as we would say -of a man--_I will refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. Behold -I have smelted thee, but not as silver: I have tested thee in the -furnace of affliction. For Mine own sake, for Mine own sake, I am -working;--for how was My Name being profaned!_[121]--_and My glory to -another I will not give._ - -Then he gathers up the sum of what He has been saying in a final -appeal. - -_Hearken unto Me, O Jacob, and Israel My Called: I am He; I am First, -yea, I am Last. Yea, My hand hath founded Earth,_[122] _and My right -hand hath spread Heaven; when I call unto them they stand together._ - -_Be gathered, all of you, and hearken, Who among them_--that is, -the Gentiles--_hath published these things_?--that is, such things -as the following, the prophecy given in the next clause of the -verse: _Whom Jehovah loveth shall perform His pleasure on Babylon, -and his arm_ shall be on _the Chaldeans_. This was the sum of -what Jehovah promised long ago;[123] not Cyrus' name, not that a -Gentile, a Persian, should deliver God's people, for these are among -the new things which were not published beforehand, at which the -traditional Israelites were offended,--but this general fiat of God's -sovereignty, _that whomever Jehovah loves_, or _likes, he shall -perform His pleasure on Babylon. I, even I, have spoken_--this, in -ver. 14_b_, was My speaking. _Yea, I have called him; I have brought -him, and he will make his way to prosper._ Again emphasize the change -of tense. Cyrus is already called, but, while the prophet speaks, he -has not yet reached his goal in the capture of Babylon. - -Some ambassador from the Lord, whether the prophet or the Servant of -Jehovah, now takes up the parable, and, after presenting himself, -addresses a final exhortation to Israel, summing up the moral meaning -of the Exile. _Draw near to me, hear this; not from aforetime in -secret have I spoken; from the time that it was, there am I: and now -my Lord, Jehovah, hath sent me with His Spirit._[124] - -_Thus saith Jehovah, thy Redeemer, Holy of Israel, I am Jehovah thy -God, thy Teacher to profit, thy Guide in the way thou shouldest go: -Would that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments, then were like -the River thy peace, and thy righteousness like the waves of the sea! -Then were like the sand thy seed, and the offspring of thy bowels -like its grains!_[125] _He shall not be cut off, nor shall perish his -name from before Me._ - -And now at last it is time to be up. Our salvation is nearer than -when first we believed. Day has dawned, the gates are opening, the -Word has been sufficiently spoken. - - _Go forth from Babel, fly from the Chaldeans; - With a ringing voice publish and let this be heard, - Send ye it out to the end of the earth, - Say, Redeemed hath Jehovah His Servant Jacob. - And they thirsted not in the deserts He caused them to walk; - Waters from a rock He let drop for them, - Clave a rock and there flowed forth waters! - No peace, saith Jehovah, for the wicked._ - -We have arrived at the most distinct stage of which our prophecy -gives trace. Not that a new start is made with the next passage. -Ch. xlix. is the answer of the Servant himself to the appeal made -to him in xlviii. 20; and ch. xlix. does not introduce the Servant -for the first time, but simply carries further the substance of the -opening verses of ch. xlii. Nor is this urgent appeal to _Go forth -from Babylon_, which has come to Israel, the only one, or the last, -of its kind. It is renewed in ch. lii. 11-12. So that we cannot -think that our prophet has even yet got the Fall of Babylon behind -him. Nevertheless, the end of ch. xlviii. is the end of the first -and chief stage of the prophecy. The fundamental truths about God -and salvation have been laid down; the idols have been thoroughly -exposed; Cyrus has been explained; Babylon is practically done with. -Neither Babylon, nor Cyrus, nor, except for a moment, the idols, are -mentioned in the rest of the prophecy. The Deliverance of Israel is -certain. And what now interests the prophet is first, how the Holy -Nation will accomplish the destiny for which it has been set free, -and next, how the Holy City shall be prepared for the Nation to -inhabit. These are the two themes of chs. xlix. to lxvi. The latter -of them, the Restoration of Jerusalem, has scarcely been touched by -our prophet as yet. But he has already spoken much of the Nation's -Destiny as the Servant of the Lord; and now that we have exhausted -the subject of the deliverance from Babylon, we will take up his -prophecies on the Servant, both those which we have passed over in -chs. xl.-xlviii. and those which still lie ahead of us. - -Before we do this, however, let us devote a chapter to a study of our -prophet's use of the word righteousness, for which this seems to be -as convenient a place as any other. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[117] Bredenkamp will have it, that the prophet here mentions first -Northern Israel and then Judah: _O House of Jacob_, the general term, -both _those that are called by the name of Israel, and that have -come forth from the waters of Judah_. But this is entirely opposed -to the syntax, and I note the opinion simply to show how precarious -the arguments are for the existence of pre-exilic elements in Isa. -xl.-xlviii. The point, which Bredenkamp makes by his rendering of -this verse, is that it could only be a pre-exilic prophet, who would -distinguish between Judah and Northern Israel; and that, therefore, -it might be Isaiah himself who wrote the verse! - -[118] _Former things_ (ri'shonôth). It is impossible to determine -whether these mean _predictions_ which Jehovah published long ago, -and which have already come to pass, or _former events_ which He -foretold long ago, and which have happened as He said they would. The -distinction, however, is immaterial. - -[119] Literally, _also_. But [Hebrew: nm], a cumulative conjunction, -when it is introduced to repeat the same thought as preceded it, -means _yea, truly_, profecto, imo. - -[120] Ch. xxv., which is undoubtedly an authentic prophecy of Jeremiah. - -[121] The Hebrew has not the words _My Name_. The LXX. has them. - -[122] A second time without article though applied to the whole world. - -[123] Giesebrecht takes this as an actual quotation from some former -prophet: a specimen of the ancient prophecies which Jehovah sent to -Israel, and which were now being fulfilled. At least it is the sum of -what Jehovah's prophets had often predicted. - -[124] This very difficult verse has been attributed either to -Jehovah in the first three clauses and to the Servant in the fourth -(Delitzsch); or in the same proportion to Jehovah and the prophet -(Cheyne and Bredenkamp); or to the Servant all through (Orelli); or -to the prophet all through (Hitzig, Knobel, Giesebrecht. See the -latter's _Beiträge zur Kritik Jesaia's_, p. 136). It is a subtle -matter. The present expositor thinks it clear that all four clauses -must be understood as the voice of one speaker, but sees nothing -in them to decide finally whether that speaker is the Servant, the -people Israel, in which case _I am there_ would have reference to -Israel's consciousness of every deed done by God since the beginning -of their history (_cf._ ver. 6_a_); or whether the speaker is the -prophet, in which case _I am there_ would mean that he had watched -the rise of Cyrus from the first. But _cf._ Zech. ii. 10-11, Eng. -Ver., and iv. 9. - -[125] Or _like its bowels_, referring to the sea. - - - - - CHAPTER XIV. - - _THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF ISRAEL AND THE - RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD._ - - ISAIAH xl.-lxvi. - - -In the chapters which we have been studying we have found some -difficulty with one of our prophet's keynotes--_right_ or -_righteousness_. In the chapters to come we shall find this difficulty -increase, unless we take some trouble now to define how much the word -denotes in Isa. xl.-lxvi. There is no part of Scripture, in which -the term _righteousness_ suffers so many developments of meaning. To -leave these vague, as readers usually do, or to fasten upon one and -all the technical meaning of righteousness in Christian theology, is -not only to obscure the historical reference and moral force of single -passages,--it is to miss one of the main arguments of the prophecy. We -have read enough to see that _righteousness_ was the great question -of the Exile. But what was brought into question was not only the -righteousness of the people, but the righteousness of their God. -In Isa. xl.-lxvi. righteousness is more often claimed as a Divine -attribute, than enforced as a human duty or ideal.[126] - - - I. RIGHTEOUSNESS. - -Ssedheq, the Hebrew root for righteousness, had, like the Latin -"rectus," in its earliest and now almost forgotten uses, a physical -meaning. This may have been either _straightness_, or more probably -_soundness_,--the state in which a thing is _all right_.[127] _Paths -of righteousness_, in Psalm xxiii., ver. 4, are not necessarily -straight paths, but rather sure, genuine, safe paths.[128] Like all -physical metaphors, like our own words "straight" and "right," the -applicability of the term to moral conduct was exceedingly elastic. -It has been attempted to gather most of its meaning under the -definition of _conformity to norm_;[129] and so many are the instances -in which the word has a forensic force,[130] as of _vindication_ or -_justification_, that some have claimed this for its original, or, -at least, its governing sense. But it is improbable that either of -these definitions conveys the simplest or most general sense of the -word. Even if _conformity_ or _justification_ were ever the prevailing -sense of ssedheq, there are a number of instances in which its -meaning far overflows the limits of such definitions. Every one can -see how a word, which may generally be used to express an abstract -idea, like _conformity_, or a formal relation towards a law or person, -like _justification_, might come to be applied to the actual virtues, -which realise that idea or lift a character into that relation. Thus -righteousness might mean justice, or truth, or almsgiving, or religious -obedience,--to each of which, in fact, the Hebrew word was at various -times specially applied. Or righteousness might mean virtue in general, -virtue apart from all consideration of law or duty whatsoever. In the -prophet Amos, for instance, _righteousness_ is applied to a goodness so -natural and spontaneous that no one could think of it for a moment as -conformity to norm or fulfilment of law.[131] - -In short, it is impossible to give a definition of the Hebrew -word, which our version renders as _righteousness_, less wide than -our English word _right_. _Righteousness_ is _right_ in all its -senses,--natural, legal, personal, religious. It is to be all right, -to be right-hearted, to be consistent, to be thorough; but also to be -in the right, to be justified, to be vindicated; and, in particular, -it may mean to be humane (as with Amos), to be just (as with Isaiah), -to be correct or true to fact (as sometimes with our own prophet), to -fulfil the ordinances of religion, and especially the command about -almsgiving (as with the later Jews). - -Let us now keep in mind that righteousness could express a relation, -or a general quality of character, or some particular virtue. For we -shall find traces of all these meanings in our prophet's application -of the term to Israel and to God. - - - II. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF ISRAEL. - -One of the simplest forms of the use of _righteousness_ in the Old -Testament is when it is employed in the case of ordinary quarrels -between two persons; in which for one of them _to be righteous_ means -_to be right_ or _in the right_.[132] Now to the Hebrew all life and -religion was based upon covenants between two,--between man and man -and between man and God. Righteousness meant fidelity to the terms -of those covenants. The positive contents of the word in any single -instance of its use would, therefore, depend on the faithfulness and -delicacy of conscience by which those terms were interpreted. In -early Israel this conscience was not so keen as it afterwards came -to be, and accordingly Israel's sense of their righteousness towards -God was, to begin with, a comparatively shallow one. When a Psalmist -asseverates his righteousness and pleads it as the ground for God -rewarding him, it is plain that he is able with sincerity to make a -claim, so repellent to a Christian's feeling, just because he has not -anything like a Christian's conscience of what God demands from man. -As Calvin says on Psalm xviii., ver. 20, "David here represents God -as the President of an athletic contest, who had chosen him as one of -His champions, and David knows that so long as he keeps to the rules -of the contest, so long will God defend him." It is evident that in -such an assertion righteousness cannot mean perfect innocence, but -simply the good conscience of a man, who, with simple ideas of what -is demanded from him, feels that on the whole "he has" (slightly to -paraphrase Calvin) "played fair." - -Two things, almost simultaneously, shook Israel out of this primitive -and naïve self-righteousness. History went against them, and the -prophets quickened their conscience.[133] The effect of the former of -these two causes will be clear to us, if we recollect the judicial -element in the Hebrew righteousness,--that it often meant not so -much to be right, as to be vindicated or declared right. History, to -Israel, was God's supreme tribunal. It was the faith of the people, -expressed over and over again in the Old Testament, that the godly -man is vindicated or justified by his prosperity: _the way of the -ungodly shall perish_. And Israel felt themselves to be in the -right, just as David, in Psalm xviii., felt himself, because God -had accredited them with success and victory. But when the decision -of history went against the nation, when they were threatened with -expulsion from their land and with extinction as a people, that just -meant that the Supreme Judge of men was giving His sentence against -them. Israel had broken the terms of the Covenant. They had lost -their right; they were no longer _righteous_. The keener conscience, -developed by prophecy, swiftly explained this sentence of history. -This declaration, that the people were unrighteous, was due, the -prophet said, to the people's sins. Isaiah not only exclaimed, _Your -country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire_; he added, in -equal indictment, _How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was -full of justice, righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers: thy -princes are rebellious, they judge not the fatherless, neither doth -the cause of the widow come before them_. To Isaiah and the earlier -prophets Israel was unrighteous because it was so immoral. With their -strong social conscience, righteousness meant to these prophets the -practice of civic virtues,--truth-telling, honesty between citizens, -tenderness to the poor, inflexible justice in high places. - -Here then we have two possible meanings for Israel's righteousness -in the prophetic writings, allied and necessary to one another, -yet logically distinct,--the one a becoming righteous through the -exercise of virtue, the other a being shown to be righteous by the -voice of history. In the one case righteousness is the practical -result of the working of the Spirit of God; in the other it is -vindication, or justification, by the Providence of God. Isaiah and -the earlier prophets, while the sentence of history was still not -executed and might through the mercy of God be revoked, incline to -employ righteousness predominantly in the former sense. But it will -be understood how, after the Exile, it was the latter, which became -the prevailing determination of the word. By that great disaster God -finally uttered the clear sentence, of which previous history had -been but the foreboding. Israel in exile was fully declared to be in -the wrong--to be unrighteous. As a church, she lay under the ban; as -a nation, she was discredited before the nations of the world. And -her one longing, hope and effort during the weary years of Captivity -was to have her right vindicated again, was to be restored to right -relations to God and to the world, under the Covenant. - -This is the predominant meaning of the term, as applied to Israel, in -Isa. xl.-lxvi. Israel's unrighteousness is her state of discredit and -disgrace under the hands of God; her righteousness, which she hopes -for, is her restoral to her station and destiny as the elect people. -To our Christian habit of thinking, it is very natural to read the -frequent and splendid phrases, in which _righteousness_ is attributed -or promised to the people of God in this evangelical prophecy, as -if righteousness were that inward assurance and justification from -an evil conscience, which, as we are taught by the New Testament, -is provided for us through the death of Christ, and inwardly sealed -to us by the Holy Ghost, irrespective of the course of our outward -fortune. But if we read that meaning into _righteousness_ in Isa. -xl.-lxvi., we shall simply not understand some of the grandest -passages of the prophecy. We must clearly keep in view, that while -the prophet ceaselessly emphasizes the pardon of God _spoken home -to the heart_ of the people, as the first step towards their -restoral, he does not apply the term righteousness to this inward -justification,[134] but to the outward vindication and accrediting -of Israel by God before the whole world, in their redemption from -Captivity, and their reinstatement as His people. This is very clear -from the way in which _righteousness_ is coupled with _salvation_ by -the prophet, as (lxii. 1): _I will not rest till her righteousness -go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burneth_. -Or again from the way in which righteousness and glory are put in -parallel (lxii. 2): _And the nations shall see thy righteousness, -and all kings thy glory_. Or again in the way that _righteousness_ -and _renown_ are identified (lxi. 11): _The Lord Jehovah will cause -righteousness and renown to spring forth before all the nations_. -In each of these promises the idea of an external and manifest -splendour is evident; not the inward peace of justification felt -only by the conscience to which it has been granted, but the outward -historical victory appreciable by the gross sense of the heathen. -Of course the outward implies the inward,--this historical triumph -is the crown of a religious process, the result of forgiveness and -a long purification,--but while in the New Testament it is these -which would be most readily called a people's righteousness, it is -the former (what the New Testament would rather call _the crown of -life_), which has appropriated the name in Isa. xl.-lxvi. The same is -manifest from another text (xlviii. 18): _O that thou hadst hearkened -to My commandments; then had thy peace been as the River, and thy -righteousness like the waves of the sea_. Here _righteousness_ is not -only not applied to inward morality, but set over against this as its -external reward,--the health and splendour which a good conscience -produces. It is in the same external sense that the prophet talks of -the _robe of righteousness_ with its bridal splendour, and compares -it to the appearance of _Spring_ (lxi. 10-11). - -For this kind of righteousness, this vindication by God before the -world, Israel waited throughout the Exile. God addresses them as -_they that pursue righteousness, that seek Jehovah_ (li. 1). And -it is a closely allied meaning, though perhaps with a more inward -application, when the people are represented as praying God to give -them _ordinances of righteousness_ (lviii. 2),--that is, to prescribe -such a ritual as will expiate their guilt and bring them into a right -relation with Him. They sought in vain. The great lesson of the Exile -was that not by works and performances, but through simply waiting -upon the Lord, their righteousness should shine forth. Even this -outward kind of justification was to be by faith. - -The other meaning of righteousness, however,--the sense of social -and civic morality, which was its usual sense with the earlier -prophets,--is not altogether excluded from the use of the word in -Isa. xl.-lxvi. Here are some commands and reproaches which seem to -imply it. _Keep judgement, and do righteousness_,--where, from what -follows, righteousness evidently means observing the Sabbath and -doing no evil (lvi. 1 ff). _And justice is fallen away backward, and -righteousness standeth afar off, for truth is fallen in the street, -and steadfastness cannot enter_ (lix. 14). These must be terms for -human virtues, for shortly afterwards it is said: _Jehovah was -displeased because there was no justice_. Again, _They seek Me as -a nation that did righteousness_ (lviii. 2); _Hearken unto Me, ye -that know righteousness, a people--My law is in their hearts_ (li. -7); _Thou meetest him that worketh righteousness_ (lxiv. 5); _No -one sues in righteousness, and none goeth to law in truth_ (lix. -4). In all these passages _righteousness_ means something that man -can know and do, his conscience and his duty, and is rightly to -be distinguished from those others, in which _righteousness_ is -equivalent to the salvation, the glory, the peace, which only God's -power can bring. If the passages, that employ _righteousness_ in the -sense of moral or religious observance, really date from the Exile, -then the interesting fact is assured to us that the Jews enjoyed -some degree of social independence and responsibility during their -Captivity. But it is a very striking fact that these passages all -belong to chapters, the exilic origin of which is questioned even by -critics, who assign the rest of Isa. xl.-lxvi. to the Exile. Yet, -even if these passages have all to be assigned to the Exile, how -few they are in number! How they contrast with the frequency, with -which, in the earlier part of this book,--in the orations addressed -by Isaiah to his own times, when Israel was still an independent -state,--_righteousness_ is reiterated as the daily, practical duty -of men, as justice, truthfulness and charity between man and man! -The extreme rarity of such inculcations in Isa. xl.-lxvi. warns us -that we must not expect to find here the same practical and political -interest, which formed so much of the charm and the force of Isa. -i.-xxxix. The nation has now no politics, almost no social morals. -Israel are not citizens working out their own salvation in the -market, the camp and the senate; but captives waiting a deliverance -in God's time, which no act of theirs can hasten. It is not in the -street that the interest of Second Isaiah lies: it is on the horizon. -Hence the vague feeling of a distant splendour, which, as the reader -passes from ch. xxxix. to ch. xl., replaces in his mind the stir of -living in a busy crowd, the close and throbbing sense of the civic -conscience, the voice of statesmen, the clash of the weapons of war. -There is no opportunity for individuals to reveal themselves. It is -a nation waiting, indistinguishable in shadow, whose outlines only -we see. It is no longer the thrilling practical cry, which sends -men into the arenas of social life with every sinew in them strung: -_Learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the -fatherless, plead for the widow_. It is rather the cry of one who -still waits for his working day to dawn: _I will lift up mine eyes to -the hills, from whence cometh my help?_ Righteousness is not the near -and daily duty, it is the far-off peace and splendour of skies, that -have scarce begun to redden to the day. - - - III. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD. - -But there was another Person, whose righteousness was in question -during the Exile, and who Himself argues for it throughout our -prophecy. Perhaps the most peculiar feature of the theology of Isa. -xl.-lxvi. is its argument for _the righteousness of Jehovah_. - -Some critics maintain that righteousness, when applied to Jehovah, -bears always a technical reference to His covenant with Israel. -This is scarcely correct. Jehovah's dealings with Israel were no -doubt the chief of His dealings, and it is these, which He mainly -quotes to illustrate His righteousness; but we have already studied -passages, which prove to us that Jehovah's righteousness was an -absolute quality of His Godhead, shown to others besides Israel, and -in loyalty to obligations different from the terms of His covenant -with Israel. In ch. xli. Jehovah calls upon the heathen to match -their righteousness with His; righteousness was therefore a quality -that might have been attributed to them as well as to Himself. Again, -in xlv. 19,--_I, Jehovah, speak righteousness, I declare things that -are right_,--righteousness evidently bears a general sense, and not -one of exclusive application to God's dealing with Israel. It is the -same in the passage about Cyrus (xlv. 13): _I have raised him up in -righteousness, I will make straight all his ways_. Though Cyrus was -called in connection with God's purpose towards Israel, it is not -that purpose which makes his calling righteous, but the fact that God -means to carry him through, or, as the parallel verse says, _to make -straight all his ways_. These instances are sufficient to prove that -the righteousness, which God attributes to His words, to His actions -and to Himself, is a general quality not confined to His dealings -with Israel under the covenant,--though, of course, most clearly -illustrated by these. - -If now we enquire, what this absolute quality of Jehovah's Deity -really means, we may conveniently begin with His application of -it to His Word. In ch. xli. He summons the other religions to -exhibit predictions that are true to fact. _Who hath declared it -on-ahead that we may know, or from aforetime that we may say, He is -ssaddîq._[135] Here ssaddîq simply means _right_, _correct_, true -to fact. It is much the same meaning in xliii. 9, where the verb is -used of heathen predicters, _that they may be shown to be right_, or -_correct_ (English version, _justified_). But when, in ch. xlvi., -the word is applied by Jehovah to His own speech, it has a meaning, -of far richer contents, than mere correctness, and proves to us that -after all the Hebrew ssedheq was almost as versatile as the English -"right." The following passage shows us that the righteousness of -Jehovah's speech is its clearness, straightforwardness and practical -effectiveness: _Not in secret have I spoken, in a place of the -land of darkness_,--this has been supposed to refer to the remote -or subterranean localities in which heathen oracles mysteriously -entrenched themselves,--_I have not said to the seed of Jacob, In -Chaos seek Me. I am Jehovah, a Speaker of righteousness, a Publisher -of straight things. Be gathered and come, draw near together, O -remnants of the nations. They know not that carry the log of their -image, and pray to a god who does not save. Publish and bring near, -yea, let them take counsel together. Who caused this to be heard of -old? long since hath published it? Is it not I, Jehovah, and there -is none else God beside Me; a God righteous and a Saviour, there is -none except Me. Turn unto Me and be saved, all ends of Earth,_[136] -_for I am God, and there is none else. By Myself have I sworn, gone -forth from My mouth hath righteousness: a word and it shall not turn; -for to Me shall bow every knee, shall swear every tongue. Truly in -Jehovah, shall they say of Me, are righteousnesses and strength. To -Him shall it come,_[137] _and shamed shall be all that are incensed -against Him. In Jehovah shall be righteous and renowned all the seed -of Israel_ (xlv. 19-25). - -In this very suggestive passage _righteousness_ means far more -than simple correctness of prediction. Indeed, it is difficult to -distinguish how much it means, so quickly do its varying echoes -throng upon our ear, from the new associations in which it is -spoken. A word such as _righteousness_ is like the sensitive tones -of the human voice. Spoken in a desert, the voice is itself and -nothing more; but utter it where the landscape is crowded with novel -obstacles, and the original note is almost lost amid the echoes -it startles. So with the _righteousness of Jehovah_; among the -new associations in which the prophet affirms it, it starts novel -repetitions of itself. Against the ambiguity of the oracles, it is -echoed back as _clearness_, _straightforwardness_, _good faith_ (ver. -19); against their opportunism and want of foresight, it is described -as equivalent to the capacity for arranging things beforehand and -predicting what must come to pass, therefore as _purposefulness_; -while against their futility, it is plainly _effectiveness and power -to prevail_ (ver. 23). It is the quality in God, which divides His -Godhead with His power, something intellectual as well as moral, the -possession of a reasonable purpose as well as fidelity towards it. - -This intellectual sense of righteousness, as reasonableness or -purposefulness, is clearly illustrated by the way in which the -prophet appeals, in order to enforce it, to Jehovah's creation of -the world. _Thus saith Jehovah, Creator of the heavens--He is the -God--Former of the Earth and her Maker, He founded her; not Chaos did -He create her, to be dwelt in did He form her_ (xlv. 18). The word -_Chaos_ here is the same as is used in opposition to _righteousness_ -in the following verse. The sentence plainly illustrates the truth, -that whatever God does, He does not so as to issue in confusion, -but with a reasonable purpose and for a practical end. We have here -the repetition of that deep, strong note, which Isaiah himself so -often sounded to the comfort of men in perplexity or despair, that -God is at least reasonable, not working for nothing, nor beginning -only to leave off, nor creating in order to destroy. The same God, -says our prophet, who formed the earth in order to see it inhabited, -must surely be believed to be consistent enough to carry to the -end also His spiritual work among men. Our prophet's idea of God's -righteousness, therefore, includes the idea of reasonableness; -implies rational as well as moral consistency, practical sense as -well as good faith; the conscience of a reasonable plan, and, perhaps -also, the power to carry it through. - -To know that this great and varied meaning belongs to _righteousness_ -gives us new insight into those passages, which find in it all the -motive and efficiency of the Divine action: _It pleased Jehovah for His -righteousness' sake_ (xlii. 21); _His righteousness, it upheld Him; and -He put on righteousness as a breastplate_ (lix. 16, 17). - -With such a righteousness did Jehovah deal with Israel. To her -despair that He has forgotten her He recounts the historical events -by which He has made her His own, and affirms that He will carry -them on; and you feel the expression both of fidelity and of the -consciousness of ability to fulfil, in the words, _I will uphold thee -with the right hand of My righteousness. Right hand_--there is more -than the touch of fidelity in this; there is the grasp of power. -Again, to the Israel who was conscious of being His Servant, God -says, _I, Jehovah, have called thee in righteousness_; and, taken -with the context, the word plainly means good faith and intention to -sustain and carry to success. - -It was easy to transfer the name _righteousness_ from the character of -God's action to its results, but always, of course, in the vindication -of His purpose and word. Therefore, just as the salvation of Israel, -which was the chief result of the Divine purpose, is called Israel's -righteousness, so it is also called _Jehovah's righteousness_. -Thus, in xlvi. 13, _I bring near My righteousness_; and in li. 5, -_My righteousness is near, My salvation is gone forth_; ver. 6, -_My salvation shall be for ever, and My righteousness shall not be -abolished._ It seems to be in the same sense, of finished and visible -results, that the skies are called upon _to pour down righteousness, -and the earth to open that they may be fruitful in salvation, and let -her cause righteousness to spring up together_ (xlv. 8; _cf._ lxi. 10, -_My Lord Jehovah will cause righteousness to spring forth_). - -One passage is of great interest, because in it _righteousness_ is -used to play upon itself, in its two meanings of human duty and -Divine effect--lvi. 1, _Observe judgement_--probably religious -ordinances--_and do righteousness; for My salvation is near to come, -and My righteousness to be revealed_. - - * * * * * - -To complete our study of _righteousness_ it is necessary to touch -still upon one point. In Isa. xl.-lxvi. both the masculine and -feminine forms of the Hebrew word for righteousness are used, and it -has been averred that they are used with a difference. This opinion -is entirely dispelled by a collation of the passages. I give the -particulars in a note, from which it will be seen that both forms are -indifferently employed for each of the many shades of meaning which -_righteousness_ bears in our prophecies.[138] - -That the masculine and feminine forms sometimes occur, with the same -or with different meanings, in the same verse, or in the next verse -to one another, proves that the selection of them respectively cannot -be due to any difference in the authorship of our prophecy. So that -we are reduced to say that nothing accounts for their use, except, it -might be, the exigencies of the metre. But who is able to prove this? - -FOOTNOTES: - -[126] It is only by confining his review of the word to its -applications to God, and overlooking the passages which attribute it to -the people, that Krüger, _Essai sur la Théologie d'Isaïe xl.-lxvi._, -can affirm that the prophet holds throughout to a single idea of -righteousness (p. 36). On this, as on many other points, it is Calvin's -treatment, that is most sympathetic to the variations of the original. - -[127] In Arabic the cognate word is applied to a lance, but this -may mean a sound or fit lance as well as a straight one. "Originem -Schult. de defect. hodiernis § 214-224 ponit in _rigore_, _duritia_, -coll. [Arabic: **] lancea dura, al. aequabilis" (Gesenii _Thesaurus_, -art. [Hebrew: tzdk]). - -[128] It is not certain whether righteousness is here used in a -physical sense; and in all other cases in which the root is applied -in the Old Testament to material objects, it is plainly employed in -some reflection of its moral sense, _e.g._, _just_ weights, _just_ -balance, Lev. xix. 36. - -[129] "Der Zustand welcher der Norm entspricht." Schultz, _Alt. Test. -Theologie_, 4th ed., p. 540, n. 1. - -[130] _Cf._ Robertson Smith, _Prophets of Israel_, p. 388, and -Kautzsch's paper, which is there quoted. - -[131] "Die Begriffe [Hebrew: tzdkh] und [Hebrew: tzdk] ... bedeuten -nun wirklich bei Amos mehr als die juristische Gerechtigkeit. -Indirect gehen die Forderungen des Amos über die blos rechtliche -Sphäre hinaus" (Duhm, _Theologie der Propheten_, p. 115). - -[132] Gen. xxxviii. 26. _Cf._ 2 Sam. xv. 4. - -[133] The first chapter of Isaiah is a perfect summary of these two. - -[134] But the verb to _make righteous_ or _justify_ is used in a -sense akin to the New Testament sense in liii. 11. See our chapter on -that prophecy. - -[135] At first sight this is remarkably like the cognate Arabic root, -which is continually used for truthful. But the Hebrew word never meant -truthful in the moral sense of truth, and here is _right_ or _correct_. - -[136] _Earth_ again without article, though obviously referring to -the world. - -[137] Sense doubtful here. Bredenkamp translates by a slight change -of reading: _Only speaking by Jehovah: Fulness of righteousness and -might come to Him, and ashamed, etc._ - -[138] [Hebrew: tzdk], the masculine, is used sixteen times; [Hebrew: -tzdkh], twenty-four. Both are used of Jehovah: xlii. 21 [Hebrew: -tzdkv], and lix. 16 [Hebrew: tzdktv]. Both of His speech: masc. -in xlv. 19, fem. in xlv. 23 and lxiii. 1. Perhaps the passage in -which their identity is most plain is li. 5, 6, where they are both -parallel to salvation: ver. 5, My righteousness (m.) is near; ver. 6, -My righteousness (f.) shall not be abolished. Both are used of the -people's duty: lix. 4, None sueth in righteousness (m.); xlviii. 1, But -not in truth nor in righteousness (f.); lvi. 1, Keep justice and do -righteousness (f.) And both are used of the people's saved and glorious -condition: lviii. 8, Thy righteousness (m.) shall go before thee; -lxii. 1, Until her righteousness (m.) go forth as brightness; xlviii. -18, Thy righteousness (f.) as the waves of the sea; liv. 17, Their -righteousness (f.) which is of Me. Both are used with prepositions -(_cf._ xlii. 6 with xlviii. 1), and both with possessive pronouns. In -fact, there is absolutely no difference made between the two. - - - - - BOOK III. - - _THE SERVANT OF THE LORD._ - - - - - - - BOOK III. - - -Having completed our survey of the fundamental truths of our prophecy, -and studied the subject which forms its immediate and most urgent -interest, the deliverance of Israel from Babylon, we are now at liberty -to turn to consider the great duty and destiny which lie before the -delivered people--the Service of Jehovah. The passages of our prophecy -which describe this are scattered both among those chapters we have -already studied and among those which lie before us. But, as was -explained in the Introduction, they are all easily detached from their -surroundings; and the continuity and progress, of which their series, -though so much interrupted, gives evidence, demand that they should be -treated by us together. They will, therefore, form the Third of the -Books, into which this volume is divided. - -The passages on the Servant of Jehovah, or, as the English reader is -more accustomed to hear him called, the Servant of the Lord, are as -follows: xli. 8 ff; xlii. 1-7, 18-25; xliii. _passim_, especially 8-10; -xliv. 1, 21; xlviii. 20; xlix. 1-9; l. 4-11; lii. 13-liii. The main -passages are those in xli., xlii., xliii., xlix., l., and lii.-liii. -The others are incidental allusions to Israel as the Servant of the -Lord, and do not develop the character of the Servant or the Service. - -Upon the questions relevant to the structure of these prophecies--why -they have been so scattered, and whether they were originally -from the main author of Isa. xl.-lxvi., or from any other single -writer,--questions on which critics have either preserved a discreet -silence, or have spoken to convince nobody but themselves,--I have no -final opinions to offer. It may be that these passages formed a poem -by themselves before their incorporation with our prophecy; but the -evidence, which has been offered for this, is very far from adequate. -It may be that one or more of them are insertions from other authors, -to which our prophet consciously works up with ideas of his own about -the Servant; but neither for this is there any evidence worth serious -consideration. I think that all we can do is to remember that they -occur in a dramatic work, which may, partly at least, account for the -interruptions which separate them; that the subject of which they treat -is woven through and through other portions of Isa. xl.-liii., and -that even those of them which, like ch. xlix., look as if they could -stand by themselves, are led up to by the verses before them; and that, -finally, the series of them exhibits a continuity and furnishes a -distinct development of their subject. See pp. 313, 314, and 336 ff. - -It is this development which the following exposition seeks to -trace. As the prophet starts from the idea of the Servant as being -the whole, historical nation Israel, it will be necessary to devote, -first of all, a chapter to Israel's peculiar relation to God. This -will be ch. xv., "One God, One People." In ch. xvi. we shall trace -the development of the idea through the whole series of the passages; -and in ch. xvii. we shall give the New Testament interpretation and -fulfilment of the Servant. Then will follow an exposition of the -contents of the Service and of the ideal it presents to ourselves, -_first_, as it is given in Isa. xlii. 1-9, as the service of God and -man, ch. xviii. of this volume; then as it is realised and owned by -the Servant himself, as prophet and martyr, Isa. xlix.-l., ch. xix. -of this volume; and finally as it culminates in Isa. lii. 13-liii., -ch. xx. of this volume. - - - - - CHAPTER XV. - - _ONE GOD, ONE PEOPLE._ - - ISAIAH xli. 8-20, xlii.-xliii. - - -We have been listening to the proclamation of a Monotheism so -absolute, that, as we have seen, modern critical philosophy, in -surveying the history of religion, can find for it no rival among the -faiths of the world. God has been exalted before us, in character so -perfect, in dominion so universal, that neither the conscience nor -the imagination of man can add to the general scope of the vision. -Jesus and His Cross shall lead the world's heart farther into the -secrets of God's love; God's Spirit in science shall more richly -instruct us in the secrets of His laws. But these shall thereby only -increase the contents and illustrate the details of this revelation -of our prophet. They shall in no way enlarge its sweep and outline, -for it is already as lofty an idea of the unity and sovereignty of -God, as the thoughts of man can follow. - -Across this pure light of God, however, a phenomenon thrusts itself, -which seems for the moment to affect the absoluteness of the -vision and to detract from its sublimity. This is the prominence -given before God to a single people, Israel. In these chapters the -uniqueness of Israel is as much urged upon us as the unity of God. -Is He the One God in heaven? they are His only people on earth, -_His elect, His own, His witnesses to the end of the earth_. His -guidance of them is matched with His guidance of the stars, as if, -like the stars shining against the night, their tribes alone moved to -His hand through an otherwise dark and empty space. His revelation -to humanity is given through their little language; the restoration -of their petty capital, that hill fort in the barren land of Judah, -is exhibited as the end of His processes, which sweep down through -history and affect the surface of the whole inhabited world. And His -very righteousness turns out to be for the most part His faithfulness -to His covenant with Israel. - -Now to many in our day it has been a great offence to have "the -curved nose of the Jew" thus thrust in between their eyes and the -pure light of God. They ask, Can the Judge of all the earth have been -thus partial to one people? Did God confine His revelation to men to -the literature of a small, unpolished tribe? Even most uncritical -souls have trouble to understand why _salvation is of the Jews_. - -The chief point to know is that the election of Israel was an election, -not to salvation, but to service. To understand this is to get rid of -by far the greater part of the difficulty that attaches to the subject. -Israel was a means, and not an end; God chose in him a minister, not -a favourite. No prophet in Israel failed to say this; but our prophet -makes it the burden of his message to the exiles. _Ye are My witnesses, -My Servant whom I have chosen. Ye are My witnesses, and I am God. I -will also give thee for a light to the nations, to be My salvation to -the end of the earth_ (xliii. 10). Numbers of other verses might be -quoted to the same effect, that "there is no God but God, and Israel -is His prophet."[139] But if the election of Israel is thus an election -to service, it is surely in harmony with God's usual method, whether -in nature or history. So far from such a specialisation as Israel's -being derogatory to the Divine unity, it is but part of that order and -division of labour which the Divine unity demands as its consequence -throughout the whole range of Being. The universe is diverse. _To -every man his own work_ is the proper corollary of _God over all_, and -Israel's prerogative was but the specialisation of Israel's function -for God in the world. In choosing Israel to be His mediator with -mankind, God did but do for religion what in the exercise of the same -practical discipline He did for philosophy, when He dowered Greece with -her gifts of subtle thought and speech, or with Rome when He trained -her people to become the legislators of mankind. And how else should -work succeed but by specialisation,--the secret as it is of fidelity -and expertness? Of fidelity--for the constraint of my duty surely lies -in this, that it is due from me and no other; of expertness--for he -drives best and deepest who drives along one line. In lighting a fire -you begin with a kindled faggot; and in lighting a world it was in -harmony with all His law, physical and moral, for God to begin with a -particular portion of mankind. - -The next question is, Why should this particular portion of mankind -be a nation, and not a single prophet, or a school of philosophers, -or a church universal? The answer is found in the condition of -the ancient world. Amid its diversities of language and of racial -feeling, a missionary prophet travelling like Paul from people to -people is inconceivable; and almost as inconceivable is the kind -of Church which Paul founded among various nations, in no other -bonds than the consciousness of a common faith. Of all possible -combinations of men the nation was the only form, which in the -ancient world stood a chance of surviving in the struggle for -existence. The nation furnished the necessary shelter and fellowship -for personal religion; it gave to the spiritual a habitation upon -earth, enlisted in its behalf the force of heredity, and secured -the continuity of its traditions. But the service of the nation to -religion was not only conservative, it was missionary as well. It -was only through a people that a God became visible and accredited -to the world. Their history supplied the drama in which He played -the hero's part. At a time when it was impossible to spread a -religion, by means of literature, or by the example of personal -holiness, the achievements of a considerable nation, their progress -and prestige, furnished a universally understood language, through -which the God could publish to mankind His power and will; and in -choosing, therefore, a single nation to reveal Himself by, God was -but employing the means best adapted for His purpose. The nation was -the unit of religious progress in the ancient world. In the nation -God chose as His witness, not only the most solid and permanent, but -the most widely intelligible and impressive.[140] - -The next question is, Why Israel should have been this singular and -indispensable nation? When God selected Israel to serve His purpose, -He did so, we are told, of His sovereign grace. But this strong -thought, which forms the foundation of our prophet's assurance about -his people, does not prevent him from dwelling also on Israel's -natural capacity for religious service. This, too, was of God. Over -and over again Israel hears Jehovah say: _I have created thee, I -have formed thee, I have prepared thee_. One passage describes -the nation's equipment for the office of a prophet; another their -discipline for the life of a saint; and every now and then our -prophet shows how far back he feels this preparation to have begun, -even when the nation, as he puts it, was _still in the womb_. How -easily these well-worn phrases slip over our lips! Yet they are not -mere formulas. Modern research has put a new meaning into them, -and taught us that Israel's _creation_, _forming_, _election_, -_polishing_, _carriage_, and _defence_ were processes as real and -measurable as any in natural or political history. For instance, when -our prophet says that Israel's preparation began _from the womb,--I -am thy moulder, saith Jehovah, from the womb_,--history takes us -back to the pre-natal circumstance of the nation, and there exhibits -it to us as already being tempered to a religious disposition and -propensity. The Hebrews were of the Semitic stock. The _womb_ from -which Israel sprang was a race of wandering shepherds, upon the -hungry deserts of Arabia, where man's home is the flitting tent, -hunger is his discipline for many months of the year, his only arts -are those of speech and war, and in the long irremediable starvation -there is nothing to do but to be patient and dream. Born in these -deserts, the youth of the Semitic race, like the probation of their -greatest prophets, was spent in a long fast, which lent their spirit -a wonderful ease of detachment from the world and of religious -imagination, and tempered their will to long suffering--though it -touched their blood, too, with a rancorous heat that breaks out -through the prevailing calm of every Semitic literature.[141] They -were trained also in the desert's august style of eloquence. _He hath -made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of His hand hath -He hid me._[142] A "natural prophecy," as it has been called, is -found in all the branches of the Semitic stock. No wonder that from -this race there came forth the three great universal religions of -mankind--that Moses and the prophets, John, Jesus Himself and Paul, -and Mohammed were all of the seed of Shem. - -This racial disposition the Hebrew carried with him into his calling -as a nation. The ancestor, who gave the people the double name by -which they are addressed throughout our prophecy, _Jacob-Israel_, -inherited with all his defects the two great marks of the religious -temper. Jacob could dream and he could wait. Remember him by the side -of the brother, who could so little think of the future, that he was -willing to sell its promise for a mess of pottage; who, though God -was as near to him as to Jacob, never saw visions or wrestled with -angels; who seemed to have no power of growth about him, but carrying -the same character, unchanged through the discipline of life, finally -transmitted it in stereotype to his posterity;--remember Jacob by the -side of such a brother, and you have a great part of the secret of the -emergence of his descendants from the life of wandering cattle-breeders -to be God's chief ministers of religion in the world. Their habits, -like their father's, might be bad, but they had the tough and malleable -constitution, which it was possible to mould to something better. -Like their father, they were false, unchivalrous, selfish, "with the -herdsman's grossness in their blood," and much of the rancour and -cruelty of their ancestors, the desert-warriors, but with it all they -had the two most potential of habits--they could dream and they could -wait. In his love and hope for promised Rachel, that were not quenched -or soured by the substitution, after seven years' service for her, of -her ill-favoured sister, but began another seven years' effort for -herself, Jacob was a type of his strange, tenacious people, who, when -they were brought face to face with some Leah of a fulfilment of their -fondest ideals, as they frequently were in their history, took up again -with undiminished ardour the pursuit of their first unforgettable -love. It is the wonder of history, how this people passed through the -countless disappointments of the prophecies to which they had given -their hearts, yet with only a strengthening expectation of the arrival -of the promised King and His kingdom. If other peoples have felt a gain -in character from such miscarriages of belief, it has generally been at -the expense of their faith. But Israel's experience did not take faith -away or even impair faith's elasticity. We see their appreciation of -God's promises growing only more spiritual with each postponement, -and patience performing her perfect work upon their character; yet -this never happens at the cost of the original buoyancy and ardour. -The glory of it we ascribe, as is most due, to the power of the Word -of God; but the people who could stand the strain of the discipline -of such a word, its alternate glow and frost, must have been a people -of extraordinary fibre and frame. When we think of how they wore for -those two thousand years of postponed promise, and how they wear -still, after two thousand years more of disillusion and suffering, we -cease to wonder why God chose this small tribe to be His instrument on -earth. Where we see their bad habits, their Creator knew their sound -constitution, and the constitution of Israel is a thing unique among -mankind. - -From the racial temper of the elect nation we pass to their history, -on the singularity of which our prophet dwells with emphasis. -Israel's political origin had no other reason than a call to God's -service. Other peoples grew, as it were, from the soil; they were the -product of a fatherland, a climate, certain physical environments: -root them out of these, and, as nations, they ceased to be. But -Israel had not been so nursed into nationality on the lap of nature. -The captive children of Jacob had sprung into unity and independence -as a nation at the special call of God, and to serve His will in -the world,--His will that so lay athwart the natural tendencies of -the peoples. All down their history it is wonderful to see how it -was the conscience of this service, which in periods of progress -was the real national genius in Israel, and in times of decay or of -political dissolution upheld the assurance of the nation's survival. -Whenever a ruler like Ahaz forgot that Israel's imperishableness -was bound up with their faithfulness to God's service, and sought to -preserve his throne by alliances with the world-powers, then it was -that Israel were most in danger of absorption into the world. And, -conversely, when disaster came down, and there was no hope in the -sky, it was upon the inward sense of their election to the service -of God that the prophets rallied the people's faith and assured them -of their survival as a nation. They brought to Israel that sovereign -message, which renders all who hear it immortal: "God has a service -for you to serve upon earth." In the Exile especially, the wonderful -survival of the nation, with the subservience of all history to that -end, is made to turn on this,--that Israel has a unique purpose to -serve. When Jeremiah and Ezekiel seek to assure the captives of their -return to the land and of the restoration of the people, they commend -so unlikely a promise by reminding them that the nation is the -Servant of God. This name, applied by them for the first time to the -nation as a whole, they bind up with the national existence. _Fear -thou not, O My Servant Jacob, saith Jehovah; neither be dismayed, -O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from -the land of their captivity._[143] These words plainly say, that -Israel as a nation cannot die, for God has a use for them to serve. -The singularity of Israel's redemption from Babylon is due to the -singularity of the service that God has for the nation to perform. -Our prophet speaks in the same strain: _Thou, Israel, My Servant, -Jacob whom I have chosen, seed of Abraham My lover, whom I took hold -of from the ends of the earth and its corners_. _I have called thee -and said unto thee, My Servant art thou, I have chosen thee and have -not cast thee away_ (ch. xli. 8 ff). No one can miss the force of -these words. They are the assurance of Israel's miraculous survival, -not because he is God's favourite, but because he is God's servant, -with a unique work in the world. Many other verses repeat the same -truth.[144] They call _Israel the Servant_, and _Jacob the chosen_, -of God, in order to persuade the people that they are not forgotten -of Him, and that their seed shall live and be blessed. Israel -survives because he serves--_Servus servatur._ - -Now for this service,--which had been the purpose of the nation's -election at first, the mainstay of its unique preservation since, and -the reason of all its singular pre-eminence before God,--Israel was -equipped by two great experiences. These were Redemption and Revelation. - -On the former redemptions of Israel from the power of other nations -our prophet does not dwell much. You feel, that they are present -to his mind, for he sometimes describes the coming redemption -from Babylon in terms of them. And once, in an appeal to the _Arm -of Jehovah_, he calls out: _Awake like the days of old, ancient -generations! Art thou not it that hewed Rahab in pieces, that pierced -the Dragon? Art thou not it which dried up the sea, the waters of -the great deep; that made the depths of the sea a way of passage for -the redeemed?_[145] There is, too, that beautiful passage in ch. -lxiii., which _makes mention of the lovingkindnesses of Jehovah, -according to all that He hath bestowed upon us_; which describes the -_carriage of the people all the days of old_, how _He brought them -out of the sea, caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of -Moses, divided the water before them, led them through the deeps as a -horse on the meadow, that they stumbled not_. But, on the whole, our -prophet is too much engrossed with the immediate prospect of release -from Babylon, to remember that past, of which it has been truly said, -_He hath not dealt so with any people_. It is the new glory that is -upon him. He counts the deliverance from Babylon as already come; to -his rapt eye it is its marvellous power and costliness, which already -clothes the people in their unique brilliance and honour. _Thus saith -Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake have -I sent to Babylon, and I will bring down their nobles, all of them, -and the Chaldeans, in the ships of their exulting._[146] But it is -more than Babylon that is balanced against them. _I am Jehovah, thy -God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour. I am giving as thy ransom, -Egypt, Cush and Seba in exchange for thee, because thou art precious -in mine eyes, and hast made thyself valuable_ (lit., _of weight_); -_and I have loved thee, therefore do I give mankind for thee, and -peoples for thy life._[147] _Mankind for thee, and peoples for thy -life_,--all the world for this little people? It is intelligible -only because this little people are to be for all the world. _Ye are -My witnesses that I am God. I will also give thee for a light to -nations, to be My salvation to the end of the earth._ - -But more than on the Redemption, which Israel experienced, our -prophet dwells on the Revelation, that has equipped them for their -destiny. In a passage, in ch. xliii., to which we shall return, -the present stupid and unready character of the mass of the people -is contrasted with the _instruction_ which God has lavished upon -them. _Thou hast seen many things, and wilt not observe; there is -opening of the ears, but he heareth not. Jehovah was pleased for -His righteousness' sake to magnify the Instruction and make it -glorious_,--_but that_--the result and the precipitate of it all--_is -a people robbed and spoiled_. The word _Instruction_ or _Revelation_ -is that same technical term, which we have met with before, for -Jehovah's special training and illumination of Israel. How special -these were, how distinct from the highest doctrine and practice -of any other nation in that world to which Israel belonged, is an -historical fact that the results of recent research enable us to -state in a few sentences. - -Recent exploration in the East, and the progress of Semitic philology, -have proved that the system of religion, which prevailed among the -Hebrews, had a very great deal in common with the systems of the -neighbouring and related heathen nations. This common element included -not only such things as ritual and temple-furniture, or the details of -priestly organization, but even the titles and many of the attributes -of God, and especially the forms of the covenant in which He drew near -to men. But the discovery of this common element has only thrown into -more striking relief the presence at work in the Hebrew religion of an -independent and original principle. In the Hebrew religion historians -observe a principle of selection operating upon the common Semitic -materials for worship,--ignoring some of them, giving prominence to -others, and with others again changing the reference and application. -Grossly immoral practices are forbidden; forbidden, too, are those -superstitions, which, like augury and divination, draw men away -from single-minded attention to the moral issues of life; and even -religious customs are omitted, such as the employment of women in -the sanctuary, which, however innocent in themselves, might lead men -into temptations, not desirable in connection with the professional -pursuit of religion.[148] In short, a stern and inexorable conscience -was at work in the Hebrew religion, which was not at work in any of -the religions most akin to it. In our previous volume we saw the same -conscience inspiring the prophets. Prophecy was not confined to the -Hebrews; it was a general Semitic institution; but no one doubts the -absolutely distinct character of the prophecy, which was conscious of -having the Spirit of Jehovah. Its religious ideas were original, and -in it we have, as all admit, a moral phenomenon unique in history. -When we turn to ask the secret of this distinction, we find the answer -in the character of the God, whom Israel served. The God explains the -people; Israel is the response to Jehovah. Each of the laws of the -nation is enforced by the reason, _For I am holy_. Each of the prophets -brings his message from a God, _exalted in righteousness_. In short, -look where you will in the Old Testament,--come to it as a critic or -as a worshipper,--you discover the revealed character of Jehovah to be -the effective principle at work. It is this Divine character, which -draws Israel from among the nations to their destiny, which selects and -builds the law to be a wall around them, and which by each revelation -of itself discovers to the people both the measure of their delinquency -and the new ideals of their service to humanity. Like the pillar of -cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, we see it in front of -Israel at every stage of their marvellous progress down the ages. - -So that when Jehovah says that _He has magnified the Revelation and -made it glorious_, He speaks of a magnitude of a real, historical -kind, that can be tested by exact methods of observation. Israel's -_election_ by Jehovah, their _formation_, their unique _preparation_ -for service, are not the mere boasts of an overweening patriotism, -but sober names for historical processes as real and evident as any -that history contains. - -To sum up, then. If Jehovah's sovereignty be absolute, so also is the -uniqueness of Israel's calling and equipment for His Service. For, to -begin with, Israel had the essential religious temper; they enjoyed a -unique moral instruction and discipline; and by the side of this they -were conscious of a series of miraculous deliverances from servitude -and from dissolution. So singular an experience and career were not, -as we have seen, bestowed from any arbitrary motive, which exhausted -itself upon Israel, but in accordance with God's universal method -of specialisation of function, were granted to fit the nation as an -instrument for a practical end. The sovereign unity of God does not -mean equality in His creation. The universe is diverse. There is one -glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of -the stars; and even so in the moral kingdom of Him, who is Lord of -the Hosts of both earth and heaven, each nation has its own destiny -and function. Israel's was religion; Israel was God's specialist in -religion. - -For confirmation of this we turn to the supreme witness. Jesus was -born a Jew, He confined His ministry to Judæa, and He has told -us why. By various passing allusions, as well as by deliberate -statements, He revealed His sense of a great religious difference -between Jew and Gentile. _Use not vain repetitions as the Gentiles -do.... For after all these things do the nations of the world seek; -but your Father knoweth that you have need of these things._ He -refused to work except upon Jewish hearts: _I am not sent but to the -lost sheep of the house of Israel. And He charged His disciples, -saying, Go not into any way of the Gentiles, and enter not into any -city of the Samaritans; but go rather to the lost sheep of the House -of Israel._ And again He said to the woman of Samaria: _Ye worship ye -know not what; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews_. - -These sayings of our Lord have created as much question as the -pre-eminence given in the Old Testament to a single people by a God, -who is described as the one God of Heaven and earth. Was He narrower of -heart than Paul, His servant, who was debtor to Greek and Barbarian? -Or was He ignorant of the universal character of His mission till it -was forced upon His reluctant sympathies by the importunity of such -heathen as the Syrophenician woman? A little common-sense dispels -the perplexity, and leaves the problem, over which volumes have been -written, no problem at all. Our Lord limited Himself to Israel, -not because He was narrow, but because He was practical; not from -ignorance, but from wisdom. He came from heaven to sow the seed of -Divine truth; and where in all humanity should He find the soil so -ready as within the long-chosen people? He knew of that discipline of -the centuries. In the words of His own parable, the Son when He came -to earth directed His attention not to a piece of desert, but to _the -vineyard_ which His Father's servants had so long cultivated, and where -the soil was open. Jesus came to Israel because He expected _faith in -Israel_. That this practical end was the deliberate intention of His -will, is proved by the fact that when He found faith elsewhere, either -in Syrian or Greek or Roman hearts, He did not hesitate to let His love -and power go forth to them. - -In short, we shall have no difficulty about these Divine methods -with a single, elect people, if we only remember that to be Divine -is to be practical. _Yet God also is wise_, said Isaiah to the Jews -when they preferred their own clever policies to Jehovah's guidance. -And we need to be told the same, who murmur that to confine Himself -to a single nation was not the ideal thing for the One God to do; -or who imagine that it was left to one of our Lord's own creatures -to suggest to Him the policy of His mission upon earth. We are -shortsighted: and the Almighty is past finding out. But this at least -it is possible for us to see, that, in choosing one nation to be His -agent among men, God chose the type of instrument best fitted at the -time for the work for which He designed it, and that in choosing -Israel to be that nation, He chose a people of temper singularly -suitable to His end. - -Israel's election as a nation, therefore, was to Service. To be a -nation and to be God's Servant was pretty much one and the same thing -for Israel. Israel were to survive the Exile, because they were to -serve the world. Let us carry this over to the study of our next -chapter--The Servant of Jehovah. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[139] Wellhausen. - -[140] "Revelation is never revolutionary.... As a rule, revelation -accepts the fragments of truth and adopts the methods of religion -already existing, uniting the former into a whole, and purifying -the latter for its own purposes."... For instance, "in the East -each people had its particular god. The god and the people were -correlative ideas, that which gave the individuals of a nation unity -and made them a people was the unity of its god; as, on the other -hand, that which gave a god prestige was the strength and victorious -career of his people. The self-consciousness of the nation and its -religion re-acted on one another, and rose and fell simultaneously. -This conception was not repudiated, but adopted by revelation; and, -as occasion demanded, purified from its natural abuses."--Professor -A. B. Davidson, _Expositor_, Second Series, vol. viii., pp. 257-8. - -[141] Mr. Doughty, in his most interesting account of the nomads of -Central Arabia, the unsophisticated Semites on their native soil, -furnishes ample material for accounting for the strange mixture of -passion and resignation in these prophet-peoples of the world. - -[142] Ch. xlix. 2. - -[143] Jer. xxx. 10, cf. xlvi. 27; also Ezek. xxxvii. 25: _And they -shall dwell in the land that I have given My servant Jacob_. Cf. -xxviii. 25. - -[144] xliv. 1, 21; xlviii. 20, etc. - -[145] Ch. li. 9, 10. - -[146] Ch. xliii. 14. - -[147] _Ib._ 3, 4. - -[148] Robertson Smith, Burnett Lectures in Aberdeen, 1889-90. - - - - - CHAPTER XVI. - - _THE SERVANT OF THE LORD._ - - ISAIAH xli. 8-20; xlii. 1-7, 18 ff; xliii. 5-10; xlix. 1-9; l. 4-10; - lii. 13-liii. - - -With chapter xlii. we reach a distinct stage in our prophecy. The -preceding chapters have been occupied with the declaration of the -great, basal truth, that Jehovah is the One Sovereign God. This has -been declared to two classes of hearers in succession--to God's own -people, Israel, in ch. xl., and to the heathen in ch. xli. Having -established His sovereignty, God now publishes His will, again -addressing these two classes according to the purpose which He has for -each. Has He vindicated Himself to Israel, the Almighty and Righteous -God, Who will give His people freedom and strength: He will now define -to them the mission for which that strength and freedom are required. -Has He proved to the Gentiles that He is the one true God: He will -declare to them now what truth He has for them to learn. In short, to -use modern terms, the apologetic of chs. xl.-xli. is succeeded by the -missionary programme of ch. xlii. And although, from the necessities -of the case, we are frequently brought back, in the course of the -prophecy, to its fundamental claims for the Godhead of Jehovah, we are -nevertheless sensible that with ver. 1 of ch. xlii. we make a distinct -advance. It is one of those logical steps which, along with a certain -chronological progress that we have already felt, assures us that -Isaiah, whether originally by one or more authors, is in its present -form a unity, with a distinct order and principle of development. - -The Purpose of God is identified with a Minister or Servant, whom He -commissions to carry it out in the world. This Servant is brought -before us with all the urgency with which Jehovah has presented -Himself, and next to Jehovah he turns out to be the most important -figure of the prophecy. Does the prophet insist that God is the only -source and sufficiency of His people's salvation: it is with equal -emphasis that He introduces the Servant as God's indispensable agent -in the work. Cyrus is also acknowledged as an elect instrument. But -neither in closeness to God, nor in effect upon the world, is Cyrus -to be compared for an instant to the Servant. Cyrus is subservient -and incidental: with the overthrow of Babylon, for which he was -raised up, he will disappear from the stage of our prophecy. But -God's purpose, which uses the gates opened by Cyrus, only to pass -through them with the redeemed people to the regeneration of the -whole world, is to be carried to this Divine consummation by the -Servant: its universal and glorious progress is identified with his -career. Cyrus flashes through these pages a well-polished sword: it -is only his swift and brilliant usefulness that is allowed to catch -our eye. But the Servant is a Character, to delineate whose immortal -beauty and example the prophet devotes as much space as he does -to Jehovah Himself. As he turns again and again to speak of God's -omnipotence and faithfulness and agonising love for His own, so -with equal frequency and fondness does he linger on every feature of -the Servant's conduct and aspect: His gentleness, His patience, His -courage, His purity, His meekness; His daily wakefulness to God's -voice, the swiftness and brilliance of His speech for others, His -silence under His own torments; His resorts--among the bruised, the -prisoners, the forwandered of Israel, the weary, and them that sit -in darkness, the far-off heathen; His warfare with the world, His -face set like a flint; His unworldly beauty, which men call ugliness; -His unnoticed presence in His own generation, yet the effect of His -face upon kings; His habit of woe, a man of sorrows and acquainted -with sickness; His sore stripes and bruises, His judicial murder, -His felon's grave; His exaltation and eternal glory--till we may -reverently say that these pictures, by their vividness and charm, -have drawn our eyes away from our prophet's visions of God, and have -caused the chapters in which they occur to be oftener read among -us, and learned by heart, than the chapters in which God Himself is -lifted up and adored. Jehovah and Jehovah's Servant--these are the -two heroes of the drama. - -Now we might naturally expect that so indispensable and fondly -imagined a figure would also be defined past all ambiguity, whether -as to His time or person or name. But the opposite is the case. -About Scripture there are few more intricate questions than those -on the Servant of the Lord. Is He a Person or Personification? If -the latter, is He a Personification of all Israel? Or of a part of -Israel? Or of the ideal Israel? Or of the Order of the Prophets? Or -if a Person--is he the prophet himself? Or a martyr who has already -lived and suffered, like Jeremiah? Or One still to come, like the -promised Messiah? Each of these suggestions has not only been made -about the Servant, but derives considerable support from one or -another of our prophet's dissolving views of his person and work. -A final answer to them can be given only after a comparative study -of all the relevant passages; but as these are scattered over the -prophecy, and our detailed exposition of them must necessarily be -interrupted, it will be of advantage to take here a prospect of them -all, and see to what they combine to develop this sublime character -and mission. And after we have seen what the prophecies themselves -teach concerning the Servant, we shall inquire how they were -understood and fulfilled by the New Testament; and that will show us -how to expound and apply them with regard to ourselves. - - - I. - -The Hebrew word for _Servant_ means a person at the disposal of -another--to carry out his will, do his work, represent his interests. -It was thus applied to the representatives of a king or the -worshippers of a god.[149] All Israelites were thus in a sense the -_servants of Jehovah_; though in the singular the title was reserved -for persons of extraordinary character or usefulness. - -But we have seen, as clearly as possible, that God set apart for -His chief service upon earth, not an individual nor a group of -individuals, but a whole nation in its national capacity. We have -seen Israel's political origin and preservation bound up with that -service; we have heard the whole nation plainly called, by Jeremiah -and Ezekiel, the Servant of Jehovah.[150] Nothing could be more clear -than this, that in the earlier years of the Exile the Servant of -Jehovah was Israel as a whole, Israel as a body politic. - -It is also in this sense that our prophet first uses the title in a -passage we have already quoted (xli. 8); _Thou Israel, My Servant, -Jacob whom I have chosen, seed of Abraham My lover, whom I took -hold of from the ends of the earth and its corners! I called thee -and said unto thee, My Servant art thou. I have chosen thee, and -not cast thee away._ Here the _Servant_ is plainly the historical -nation, descended from Abraham, and the subject of those national -experiences which are traced in the previous chapter. It is the -same in the following verses:--xliv. 1 ff: _Yet now hear, O Jacob -My servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen: thus saith Jehovah thy -Maker, and thy Moulder from the womb, He will help thee. Fear not, My -servant Jacob; and Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.... I will pour My -spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring._ xliv. -21: _Remember these things, O Jacob; and Israel, for My servant art -thou: I have formed thee; a servant for Myself art thou; O Israel, -thou shalt not be forgotten of Me._ xlviii. 20: _Go ye forth from -Babylon; say ye, Jehovah hath redeemed His servant Jacob._ In all -these verses, which bind up the nation's restoration from exile with -the fact that God called it to be His Servant, the title _Servant_ -is plainly equivalent to the national name _Israel_ or _Jacob_. But -_Israel_ or _Jacob_ is not a label for the mere national idea, or the -bare political framework, without regard to the living individuals -included in it. To the eye and heart of Him, _Who counts the number -of the stars_, Israel means no mere outline, but all the individuals -of the living generation of the people--_thy seed_, that is, every -born Israelite, however fallen or forwandered. This is made clear -in a very beautiful passage in ch. xliii. (vv. 1-7): _Thus saith -Jehovah, thy Creator, O Jacob; thy Moulder, O Israel.... Fear not, -for I am with thee; from the sunrise I will bring thy seed, and from -the sunset will I gather thee; ... My sons from far, and My daughters -from the end of the earth; every one who is called by My name, and -whom for My glory I have created, formed, yea, I have made him._ To -this Israel--Israel as a whole, yet no mere abstraction or outline -of the nation, but the people in mass and bulk--every individual of -whom is dear to Jehovah, and in some sense shares His calling and -equipment--to this Israel the title _Servant of Jehovah_ is at first -applied by our prophet. - -2. We say "at first," for very soon the prophet has to make a -distinction, and to sketch the Servant as something less than the -actual nation. The distinction is obscure; it has given rise to a -very great deal of controversy. But it is so natural, where a nation -is the subject, and of such frequent occurrence in other literatures, -that we may almost state it as a general law. - -In all the passages quoted above, Israel has been spoken of in the -passive mood, as the object of some affection or action on the part -of God: _loved_, _formed_, _chosen_, _called_, and _about to be -redeemed by Him_. Now, so long as a people thus lie passive, their -prophet will naturally think of them as a whole. In their shadow -his eye can see them only in the outline of their mass; in their -common suffering and servitude his heart will go out to all their -individuals, as equally dear and equally in need of redemption. But -when the hour comes for the people to work out their own salvation, -and they emerge into action, it must needs be different. When they -are no more the object of their prophet's affection only, but pass -under the test of his experience and judgement, then distinctions -naturally appear upon them. Lifted to the light of their destiny, -their inequality becomes apparent; tried by its strain, part of them -break away. And so, though the prophet continues still to call on -the nation by its name to fulfil its calling, what he means by that -name is no longer the bulk and the body of the citizenship. A certain -ideal of the people fills his mind's eye--an ideal, however, which is -no mere spectre floating above his own generation, but is realised in -their noble and aspiring portion--although his ignorance as to the -exact size of this portion, must always leave his image of them more -or less ideal to his eyes. It will be their quality rather than their -quantity that is clear to him. In modern history we have two familiar -illustrations of this process of winnowing and idealising a people in -the light of their destiny, which may prepare us for the more obscure -instance of it in our prophecy. - -In a well-known passage in the _Areopagitica_, Milton exclaims, -"Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself -and shaking her invincible locks; methinks I see her as an eagle mewing -her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday -beam, ... while the whole noise of timorous and flocking birds, with -those also that love the twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she -means." In this passage the "nation" is no longer what Milton meant by -the term in the earlier part of his treatise, where "England" stands -simply for the outline of the whole English people; but the "nation" -is the true genius of England realised in her enlightened and aspiring -sons, and breaking away from the hindering and debasing members of the -body politic--"the timorous and flocking birds with those also that -love the twilight"--who are indeed Englishmen after the flesh, but form -no part of the nation's better self. - -Or, recall Mazzini's bitter experience. To no man was his Italy more -really one than to this ardent son of hers, who loved every born -Italian because he was an Italian, and counted none of the fragments -of his unhappy country too petty or too corrupt to be included in -the hope of her restoration. To Mazzini's earliest imagination, -it was the whole Italian seed, who were ready for redemption, and -would rise to achieve it at his summons. But when his summons came, -how few responded, and after the first struggles how fewer still -remained,--Mazzini himself has told us with breaking heart. The -real Italy was but a handful of born Italians; at times it seemed -to shrink to the prophet alone. From such a core the conscience -indeed spread again, till the entire people was delivered from -tyranny and from schism, and now every peasant and burgher from the -Alps to Sicily understands what Italy means, and is proud to be an -Italian. But for a time Mazzini and his few comrades stood alone. -Others of their blood and speech were Piedmontese, Pope's men, -Neapolitans,--merchants, lawyers, scholars,--or merely selfish and -sensual. They alone were Italians; they alone were Italy. - -It is a similar winnowing process, through which we see our prophet's -thoughts pass with regard to Israel. Him, too, experience teaches -that _the many are called, but the few chosen_. So long as his people -lie in the shadow of captivity, so long as he has to speak of them -in the passive mood, the object of God's call and preparation, it -is _their seed_, the born people in bulk and mass, whom he names -Israel, and entitles _the Servant of Jehovah_. But the moment that he -lifts them to their mission in the world, and to the light of their -destiny, a difference becomes apparent upon them, and the Servant of -Jehovah, though still called Israel, shrinks to something less than -the living generation, draws off to something finer than the mass -of the people. How, indeed, could it be otherwise with this strange -people, than which no nation on earth had a loftier ideal identified -with its history, or more frequently turned upon its better self, -with a sword in its hand. Israel, though created a nation by God -for His service, was always what Paul found it, divided into an -_Israel after the flesh_, and an _Israel after the spirit_. But it -was in the Exile that this distinction gaped most broad. With the -fall of Jerusalem, the political framework, which kept the different -elements of the nation together, was shattered, and these were left -loose to the action of moral forces. The baser elements were quickly -absorbed by heathendom; the nobler, that remained loyal to the divine -call, were free to assume a new and ideal form. Every year spent in -Babylonia made it more apparent that the true and effective Israel -of the future would not coincide with all the _seed of Jacob_, who -went into exile. Numbers of the latter were as contented with -their Babylonian circumstance as numbers of Mazzini's "Italians" -were satisfied to live on as Austrian and Papal subjects. Many, as -we have seen, became idolaters; many more settled down into the -prosperous habits of Babylonian commerce, while a large multitude -besides were scattered far out of sight across the world. It required -little insight to perceive that the true, effective Israel--the -real _Servant of Jehovah_--must needs be a much smaller body than -the sum of all these: a loyal kernel within Israel, who were still -conscious of the national calling, and capable of carrying it out; -who stood sensible of their duty to the whole world, but whose first -conscience was for their lapsed and lost countrymen. This Israel -within Israel was the real _Servant of the Lord_; to personify it in -that character--however vague might be the actual proportion it would -assume in his own or in any other generation--would be as natural to -our dramatic prophet as to personify the nation as a whole. - -All this very natural process--this passing from the historical -Israel, the nation originally designed by God to be His Servant, to -the conscious and effective Israel, that uncertain quantity within -the present and every future generation--takes place in the chapters -before us; and it will be sufficiently easy for us to follow if we -only remember that our prophet is not a dogmatic theologian, careful -to make clear each logical distinction, but a dramatic poet, who -delivers his ideas in groups, tableaux, dialogues, interrupted by -choruses; and who writes in a language incapable of expressing such -delicate differences, except by dramatic contrasts, and by the one -other figure of which he is so fond--paradox. - -Perhaps the first traces of distinction between the real Servant -and the whole nation are to be found in the Programme of his Mission -in ch. xlii. 1-7. There it is said that the Servant is to be for a -_covenant of the people_ (ver. 6). I have explained below why we are -to understand _people_ as here meaning Israel.[151] And in ver. 7 it -is said of the Servant that he is _to open blind eyes_, _bring forth -from prison the captive_, _from the house of bondage dwellers in -darkness_: phrases that are descriptive, of course, of the captive -Israel. Already, then, in ch. xlii. the Servant is something distinct -from the whole nation, whose Covenant and Redeemer he is to be. - -The next references to the Servant are a couple of paradoxes, which -are evidently the prophet's attempt to show _why_ it was necessary -to draw in the Servant of Jehovah from the whole to a part of the -people. The first of these paradoxes is in ch. xlii. ver. 18. - - _Ye deaf, hearken! and ye blind, look ye to see! - Who is blind but My Servant, and deaf as My Messenger_ whom _I send? - Who is blind as Meshullam, and blind as the Servant of Jehovah? - Vision of many things--and thou dost not observe, - Opening of ears and he hears not!_ - -The context shows that the Servant here--or Meshullam, as he is -called, the _devoted_ or _submissive one_, from the same root, and of -much the same form as the Arabic Muslim[152]--is the whole people; -but they are entitled _Servant_ only in order to show how unfit -they are for the task to which they have been designated, and what -a paradox their title is beside their real character. God had given -them every opportunity by _making great His instruction_ (ver. 21, -cf. p. 247), and, when that failed, by His sore discipline in exile -(vers. 24, 25). _For who gave Jacob for spoil and Israel to the -robbers? Did not Jehovah? He against whom we sinned, and they would -not walk in His ways, neither were obedient to His instruction. So -He poured upon him the fury of His anger and the force of war._ But -even this did not awake the dull nation. _Though it set him on fire -round about, yet he knew not; and it kindled upon him, yet he laid -it not to heart._ The nation as a whole had been favoured with God's -revelation; as a whole they had been brought into His purifying -furnace of the Exile. But as they have benefited by neither the one -nor the other, the natural conclusion is that as a whole they are no -more fit to be God's Servant. Such is the hint which this paradox is -intended to give us. - -But a little further on there is an obverse paradox, which plainly -says, that although the people are blind and deaf as a whole, still -the capacity for service is found among them alone (xliii. 8, 10). - - _Bring forth the blind people--yet eyes are there! - And the deaf, yet ears have they!... - Ye are My witnesses, saith Jehovah, and My Servant whom I have chosen._ - -The preceding verses (vv. 1-7) show us that it is again the whole -people, in their bulk and scattered fragments, who are referred to. -Blind though they be, _yet are there eyes_ among them; deaf though -they be, yet _they have ears_. And so Jehovah addresses them all, in -contradistinction to the heathen peoples (ver. 9), as His Servant. - -These two complementary paradoxes together show this: that while -Israel as a whole is unfit to be the Servant, it is nevertheless -within Israel, alone of all the world's nations, that the true -capacities for service are found--_eyes are there, ears have they_. -They prepare us for the Servant's testimony about himself, in which, -while he owns himself to be distinct from Israel as a whole, he is -nevertheless still called Israel. This is given in ch. xlix. _And He -said unto me, My Servant art thou; Israel, in whom I will glorify -Myself. And now saith Jehovah, my moulder from the womb to be a -Servant unto Him, to turn again Jacob to Him, and that Israel might -not be destroyed; and I am of value in the eyes of Jehovah, and my -God is my strength. And He said, It is too light for thy being My -Servant,_ merely _to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the -preserved of Israel; I will also set thee for a light of nations, -to be My salvation to the end of the earth_ (xlix. 3-6). Here the -Servant, though still called Israel, is clearly distinct from the -nation as a whole, for part of his work is to raise the nation up -again. And, moreover, he tells us this as his own testimony about -himself. He is no longer spoken of in the third person, he speaks -for himself in the first. This is significant. It is more than a -mere artistic figure, the effect of our prophet's dramatic style--as -if the Servant now stood opposite him, so vivid and near that he -heard him speak, and quoted him in the direct form of speech. It is -more probably the result of moral sympathy: the prophet speaks out -of the heart of the Servant, in the name of that better portion of -Israel which was already conscious of the Divine call, and of its -distinction in this respect from the mass of the people. - -It is futile to inquire what this better portion of Israel actually -was, for whom the prophet speaks in the first person. Some have -argued, from the stress which the speaker lays upon his gifts of -speech and office of preaching, that what is now signified by the -Servant is the order of the prophets; but such forget that in these -chapters the proclamation of the Kingdom of God is the ideal, not -of prophets only, but of the whole people. Zion as a whole is to be -_heraldess of good news_ (xl. 9). It is, therefore, not the official -function of the prophet-order which the Servant here owns, but the -ideal of the prophet-nation. Others have argued from the direct form -of speech, that the prophet puts himself forward as the Servant. But -no individual would call himself Israel. And as Professor Cheyne -remarks, the passage is altogether too self-assertive to be spoken -by any man of himself as an individual; although, of course, our -prophet could not have spoken of the true Israel with such sympathy, -unless he had himself been part of it. The writer of these verses may -have been, for the time, as virtually the real Israel as Mazzini was -the real Italy. But still he does not speak as an individual. The -passage is manifestly a piece of personification. The Servant is -_Israel_--not now the nation as a whole, not the body and bulk of the -Israelites, for they are to be the object of his first efforts, but -the loyal, conscious and effective Israel, realised in some of her -members, and here personified by our prophet, who himself speaks for -her out of his heart, in the first person. - -By ch. xlix., then, the Servant of Jehovah is a personification of -the true, effective Israel as distinguished from the mass of the -nation--a Personification, but not yet a Person. Something within -Israel has wakened up to find itself conscious of being the Servant -of Jehovah, and distinct from the mass of the nation--something that -is not yet a Person. And this definition of the Servant may stand -(with some modifications) for his next appearance in ch. l. 4-9. -In this passage the Servant, still speaking in the first person, -continues to illustrate his experience as a prophet, and carries -it to its consequence in martyrdom. But let us notice that he now -no longer calls himself _Israel_, and that if it were not for the -previous passages it would be natural to suppose that an individual -was speaking. This supposition is confirmed by a verse that follows -the Servant's speech, and is spoken, as chorus, by the Prophet -himself. _Who among you is a fearer of Jehovah, obedient to the voice -of His Servant, who walketh in darkness, and hath no light. Let him -trust in the name of Jehovah, and stay himself upon his God._ In -this too much neglected verse, which forms a real transition to ch. -lii. 13-liii., the prophet is addressing any individual Israelite, -on behalf of a personal God. It is very difficult to refrain from -concluding that therefore the Servant also is a Person. Let us, -however, not go beyond what we have evidence for; and note only that -in ch. l. the Servant is no more called Israel, and is represented -not as if he were one part of the nation, over against the mass of -it, but as if he were one individual over against other individuals; -that in fine the Personification of ch. xlix. has become much more -difficult to distinguish from an actual Person. - -3. This brings us to the culminating passage--ch. lii. 13-liii. Is -the Servant still a Personification here, or at last and unmistakably -a Person? - -It may relieve the air of that electricity, which is apt to charge -it at the discussion of so classic a passage as this, and secure us -calm weather in which to examine exegetical details, if we at once -assert, what none but prejudiced Jews have ever denied, that this -great prophecy, known as the fifty-third of Isaiah, was fulfilled in -One Person, Jesus of Nazareth, and achieved in all its details by -Him alone. But, on the other hand, it requires also to be pointed -out that Christ's personal fulfilment of it does not necessarily -imply that our prophet wrote it of a Person. The present expositor -hopes, indeed, to be able to give strong reasons for the theory -usual among us, that the Personification of previous passages is at -last in ch. liii. presented as a Person. But he fails to understand, -why critics should be regarded as unorthodox or at variance with -New Testament teaching on the subject, who, while they acknowledge -that only Christ fulfilled ch. liii., are yet unable to believe -that the prophet looked upon the Servant as an individual, and who -regard ch. liii. as simply a sublimer form of the prophet's previous -pictures of the ideal people of God. Surely Christ could and did -fulfil prophecies other than personal ones. The types of Him, which -the New Testament quotes from the Old Testament, are not exclusively -individuals. Christ is sometimes represented as realising in His -Person and work statements, which, as they were first spoken, could -only refer to Israel, the nation. Matthew, for instance, applies to -Jesus a text which Hosea wrote primarily of the whole Jewish people: -_Out of Egypt have I called My Son_.[153] Or, to take an instance -from our own prophet--who but Jesus fulfilled ch. xlix., in which, -as we have seen, it is not an individual, but the ideal of the -prophet people, that is figured? So that, even if it were proved -past all doubt--proved from grammar, context, and every prophetic -analogy--that in writing ch. liii. our prophet had still in view that -aspect of the nation which he has personified in ch. xlix., such a -conclusion would not weaken the connection between the prophecy and -its unquestioned fulfilment by Jesus Christ, nor render the two less -evidently part of one Divine design. - -But we are by no means compelled to adopt the impersonal view of -ch. liii. On the contrary, while the question is one, to which all -experts know the difficulty of finding an absolutely conclusive -answer one way or the other, it seems to me that reasons prevail, -which make for the personal interpretation. . Let us see what exactly -are the objections to taking ch. lii. 13-liii. in a personal sense. -First, it is very important to observe, that they do not rise out -of the grammar or language of the passage. The reference of both of -these is consistently individual. Throughout, the Servant is spoken -of in the singular.[154] The name Israel is not once applied to him: -nothing--except that the nation has also suffered--suggests that he -is playing a national _rôle_; there is no reflection in his fate -of the features of the Exile. The antithesis, which was evident in -previous passages, between a better Israel and the mass of the people -has disappeared. The Servant is contrasted, not with the nation as a -whole, but with His people as individuals. _All we like sheep have -gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord -hath laid on him the iniquity of us all._ As far as grammar can, -this surely distinguishes a single person. It is true, that one or -two phrases suggest so colossal a figure--_he shall startle many -nations, and kings shall shut their mouths at him_--that for a moment -we think of the spectacle of a people rather than of a solitary -human presence. But even such descriptions are not incompatible with -a single person.[155] On the other hand, there are phrases which -we can scarcely think are used of any but a historical individual; -such as that he was taken from _oppression and judgement_, that is -from a process of law which was tyranny, from a judicial murder, and -that he belonged to a particular generation--_As for his generation, -who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living_. -Surely a historical individual is the natural meaning of these words. -And, in fact, critics like Ewald and Wellhausen, who interpret the -passage, in its present context, of the ideal Israel, find themselves -forced to argue, that it has been borrowed for this use from the -older story of some actual martyr--so individual do its references -seem to them throughout. - -If, then, the grammar and language of the passage thus conspire to -convey the impression of an individual, what are the objections to -supposing that an individual is meant? Critics have felt, in the -main, three objections to the discovery of a historical individual in -Isa. lii. 13-liii. - -The _first_ of these that we take is chronological, and arises from the -late date to which we have found it necessary to assign the prophecy. -Our prophet, it is averred, associates the work of the Servant with -the restoration of the people; but he sees that restoration too close -to him to be able to think of the appearance, ministry and martyrdom -of a real historic life happening before it. (Our prophet, it will be -remembered, wrote about 546, and the Restoration came in 538.) "There -is no room for a history like that of the suffering Servant between the -prophet's place and the Restoration."[156] - -Now, this objection might be turned, even if it were true that the -prophet identified the suffering Servant's career with so immediate -and so short a process as the political deliverance from Babylon. -For, in that case, the prophet would not be leaving less room for the -Servant, than, in ch. ix., Isaiah himself leaves for the birth, the -growth to manhood, and the victories of the Prince-of-the-Four-Names, -before that immediate relief from the Assyrian, which he expects -the Prince to effect. But does our prophet identify the suffering -Servant's career with the redemption from Babylon and the Return? -It is plain that he does not--at least in those portraits of the -Servant, which are most personal. Our prophet has really two -prospects for Israel--one, the actual deliverance from Babylon; -the other, a spiritual redemption and restoration. If, like his -fellow prophets, he sometimes runs these two together, and talks -of the latter in the terms of the former, he keeps them on the -whole distinct, and assigns them to different agents. The burden -of the first he lays on Cyrus, though he also connects it with -the Servant, while the Servant is still to him an aspect of the -nation (see xlix. 8_a_, 9_b_). It is temporary, and soon passes -from his thoughts, Cyrus being dropped with it. But the other, the -spiritual redemption, is confined to no limits of time; and it is -with its process--indefinite in date and in length of period--that -he associates the most personal portraits of the Servant (ch. l. and -lii. 13-liii.). In these the Servant, now spoken of as an individual, -has nothing to do with that temporary work of freeing the people -from Babylon, which was over in a year or two, and which seems to be -now behind the prophet's standpoint. His is the enduring office of -prophecy, sympathy, and expiation--an office in which there is all -possible "room" for such a historical career as is sketched for him. -His relation to Cyrus, before whose departure from connection with -Israel's fate the Servant does not appear as a person, is thus most -interesting. Perhaps we may best convey it in a homely figure. On the -ship of Israel's fortunes--as on every ship and on every voyage--the -prophet sees two personages. One is the Pilot through the shallows, -Cyrus, who is dropped as soon as the shallows are past; and the -other is the Captain of the ship, who remains always identified with -it--the Servant. The Captain does not come to the front till the -Pilot has gone; but, both alongside the Pilot, and after the Pilot -has been dropped, there is every room for his office. - -The _second_ main objection to identifying an individual in ch. lii. -13-liii. is, that an individual with such features has no analogy in -Hebrew prophecy. It is said that, neither in his humiliation, nor -in the kind of exaltation, which is ascribed to him, is there his -like in any other individual in the Old Testament, and certainly not -in the Messiah. Elsewhere in Scripture (it is averred) the Messiah -reigns, and is glorious; it is the people who suffer, and come -through suffering to power. Nor is the Messiah's royal splendour at -all the same as the very vague influence, evidently of a spiritual -kind, which is attributed to the Servant in the end of ch. liii. -The Messiah is endowed with the military and political virtues. He -is a warrior, a king, a judge. He _sits on the throne of David, He -establishes David's kingdom. He smites the land with the rod of His -mouth, and with the breath of His lips He slays the wicked._ But very -different phrases are used of the Servant. He is not called king, -though kings shut their mouths at him,--he is a prophet and a martyr, -and an expiation; and the phrases, _I will divide him a portion with -the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong_, are simply -metaphors of the immense spiritual success and influence with which -His self-sacrifice shall be rewarded; as a spiritual power He shall -take His place among the dominions and forces of the world. This is -a true prophecy of what Israel, that _worm of a people_, should be -lifted to; but it is quite different from the political throne, from -which Isaiah had promised that the Messiah should sway the destinies -of Israel and mankind. - -But, in answer to this objection to finding the Messiah, or any other -influential individual, in ch. liii., we may remember that there -were already traces in Hebrew prophecy of a suffering Messiah: -we come across them in ch. vii. There Isaiah presents Immanuel, -whom we identified with the Prince-of-the-Four-Names in ch. ix., -as at first nothing but a sufferer--a sufferer from the sins of -His predecessors.[157] And, even though we are wrong in taking the -suffering Immanuel for the Messiah, and though Isaiah meant him only -as a personification of Israel suffering for the error of Ahaz, had -not the two hundred years, which elapsed between Isaiah's prophecy of -Israel's glorious Deliverer, been full of room enough, and, what is -more, of experience enough, for the ideal champion of the people to -be changed to something more spiritual in character and in work? Had -the nation been baptized, for most of those two centuries, in vain, -in the meaning of suffering, and in vain had they seen exemplified in -their noblest spirits the fruits and glory of self-sacrifice?[158] -The type of Hero had changed in Israel since Isaiah wrote of his -Prince-of-the-Four-Names. The king had been replaced by the prophet; -the conqueror by the martyr; the judge who smote the land by the rod -of his mouth, and slew the wicked by the breath of his lips,--by -the patriot who took his country's sins upon his own conscience. -The monarchy had perished; men knew that, even if Israel were set -upon their own land again, it would not be under an independent king -of their own; nor was a Jewish champion of the martial kind, such -as Isaiah had promised for deliverance from the Assyrian, any more -required. Cyrus, the Gentile, should do all the campaigning required -against Israel's enemies, and Israel's native Saviour be relieved for -gentler methods and more spiritual aims. It is all this experience, -of nearly two centuries, which explains the omission of the features -of warrior and judge from ch. liii., and their replacement by those -of a suffering patriot, prophet and priest. The reason of the change -is, not because the prophet who wrote the chapter had not, as much -as Isaiah, an individual in his view, but because, in the historical -circumstance of the Exile, such an individual as Isaiah had promised, -seemed no longer probable or required. - -So far, then, from the difference between ch. liii. and previous -prophecies of the Messiah affording evidence that in ch. liii. it -is not the Messiah who is presented, this very change, that has -taken place, explicable as it is from the history of the intervening -centuries, goes powerfully to prove that it is the Messiah, and -therefore an individual, whom the prophet so vividly describes. - -The _third_ main objection to our recognising an individual in -ch. liii. is concerned only with our prophet himself. Is it not -impossible, say some--or at least improbably inconsistent--for the -same prophet first to have identified the Servant with the nation, -and then to present him to us as an individual? We can understand the -transference by the same writer of the name from the whole people to -a part of the people; it is a natural transference, and the prophet -sufficiently explains it. But how does he get from a part of the -nation to a single individual? If in ch. xlix. he personifies, under -the name Servant, some aspect of the nation, we are surely bound -to understand the same personification when the Servant is again -introduced--unless we have an explanation to the contrary. But we -have none. The prophet gives no hint, except by dropping the name -Israel, that the focus of his vision is altered,--no more paradoxes -such as marked his passage from the people as a whole to a portion of -them,---no consciousness that any explanation whatever is required. -Therefore, however much finer the personification is drawn in ch. -liii. than in ch. xlix., it is surely a personification still. - -To which objection an obvious answer is, that our prophet is not a -systematic theologian, but a dramatic poet, who allows his characters -to disclose themselves and their relation without himself intervening -to define or relate them. And any one who is familiar with the -literature of Israel knows, that no less than the habit of drawing -in from the whole people upon a portion of them, was the habit of -drawing in from a portion of the people upon one individual. The -royal Messiah Himself is a case in point. The original promise to -David was of a seed; but soon prophecy concentrated the seed in -one glorious Prince. The promise of Israel had always culminated -in an individual. Then, again, in the nation's awful sufferings, -it had been one man--the prophet Jeremiah--who had stood forth -singly and alone, at once the incarnation of Jehovah's word, and the -illustration in his own person of all the penalty that Jehovah laid -upon the sinful people. With this tendency of his school to focus -Israel's hope on a single individual, and especially with the example -of Jeremiah before him, it is almost inconceivable that our prophet -could have thought of any but an individual when he drew his portrait -of the suffering Servant. No doubt the national sufferings were in -his heart as he wrote; it was probably a personal share in them -that taught him to write so sympathetically about the Man of pains, -who was familiar with ailing. But to gather and concentrate all -these sufferings upon one noble figure, to describe this figure as -thoroughly conscious of their moral meaning, and capable of turning -them to his people's salvation, was a process absolutely in harmony -with the genius of Israel's prophecy, as well as with the trend of -their recent experience; and there is, besides, no word in that -great chapter, in which the process culminates, but is in thorough -accordance with it. So far, therefore, from its being an impossible -or an unlikely thing for our prophet to have at last reached his -conception of an individual, it is almost impossible to conceive of -him executing so personal a portrait as ch. lii. 13-liii., without -thinking of a definite historical personage, such as Hebrew prophecy -had ever associated with the redemption of his people. - -4. We have now exhausted the passages in Isa. xl.-lxvi. which -deal with the Servant of the Lord. We have found that our prophet -identifies him at first with the whole nation, and then with some -indefinite portion of the nation--indefinite in quantity, but most -marked in character; that this personification grows more and -more difficult to distinguish from a person; and that in ch. lii. -13-liii. there are very strong reasons, both in the text itself and -in the analogy of other prophecy, to suppose that the portrait of an -individual is intended. To complete our study of this development of -the substance of the Servant, it is necessary to notice that it runs -almost stage for stage with a development of his office. Up to ch. -xlix., that is to say, while he is still some aspect of the people, -the Servant is a prophet. In ch. l., where he is no longer called -Israel, and approaches more nearly to an individual, his prophecy -passes into martyrdom. And in ch. liii., where at last we recognise -him as intended for an actual personage, his martyrdom becomes an -expiation for the sins of the people. Is there a natural connection -between these two developments? We have seen that it was by a very -common process that our prophet transferred the national calling from -the mass of the nation to a select few of the people. Is it by any -equally natural tendency that he shrinks from the many to the few, as -he passes from prophecy to martyrdom, or from the few to the one, as -he passes from martyrdom to expiation? It is a possibility for all -God's people to be prophets: few are needed as martyrs. Is it by any -moral law equally clear, that only one man should die for the people? -These are questions worth thinking about. In Israel's history we have -already found the following facts with which to answer them. The -whole living generation of Israel felt themselves to be sinbearers: -_Our fathers have sinned, and we bear their iniquities_. This -conscience and penalty were more painfully felt by the righteous in -Israel. But the keenest and heaviest sense of them was conspicuously -that experienced by one man--the prophet Jeremiah.[159] And yet all -these cases from the past of Israel's history do not furnish more -than an approximation to the figure presented to us in ch. liii. Let -us turn, therefore, to the future to see if we can find in it motive -or fulfilment for this marvellous prophecy. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[149] A king's courtiers, soldiers, or subjects are called _his -servants_. In this sense Israel was often styled the _servants of -Jehovah_, as in Deut. xxxii. 36; Neh. i. 10, where the phrase is -parallel to _His people_. But _Jehovah's servants_ is a phrase also -parallel to His worshippers (Psalm cxxxiv. 1, etc.); to those who trust -Him (Psalm xxxiv. 22); and to those who love His name (Psalm lxix. 36). -The term is also applied in the plural to the prophets (Amos iii. 7); -and in the singular, to eminent individuals--such as Abraham, Joshua, -David and Job; also by Jeremiah to the alien Nebuchadrezzar, while -engaged on his mission from God against Jerusalem. - -[150] See p. 244. - -[151] The definite article is not used here with the word people, and -hence the phrase has been taken by some in the vaguer sense of _a -people's covenant_, as a general expression, along with its parallel -clause, of the kind of influence the Servant was to exert, not on -Israel, but on _any_ people in the world; he was to be _a people's -covenant_, and _a light for nations_. So practically Schultz, _A. T. -Theologie_, 4th ed., p. 284. But the Hebrew word for people [Hebrew: -'m] is often used without the article to express _the_ people Israel, -just as the Hebrew word for land [Hebrew: rtz] is often used without -the article to express _the_ land of Judah. ([Hebrew: hrtz] with the -article, is in Isa. xl.-lxvi. _the Earth_.) And in ch. xlix. the -phrase a _covenant of the people_ again occurs, and in a context in -which it can only mean _a covenant_ of _the_ people, Israel. Some -render [Hebrew: 'm vrt] a _covenant people_. But in xlix. 8 this is -plainly an impossible rendering. - -[152] Meshullam is found as a proper name in the historical books of -the Old Testament, especially Nehemiah, _e.g._, iii. 4, 6, 30. - -[153] Hosea xi. 1; Matt. ii. 15 - -[154] Of all the expressions used of him the only one which shows -a real tendency to a plural reference is _in his deaths_ (ver. 9), -and even it (if it is the correct reading) is quite capable of -application to an individual who suffered such manifold martyrdom as -is set forth in the passage. - -[155] Not one word in them betrays any sense of a body of men or an -ideal people standing behind them, which sense surely some expression -would have betrayed, if it had been in the prophet's mind. - -[156] A. B. D., in a review of the last edition of Delitzsch's -_Isaiah_, in the _Theol. Review_, iv., p. 276. - -[157] _Isaiah I._ i.-xxxix., pp. 134, 135. - -[158] See p. 42. - -[159] See ch. ii. of this volume. - - - - - CHAPTER XVII. - - _THE SERVANT OF THE LORD IN THE NEW - TESTAMENT._ - - -In last chapter we confined our study of the Servant of Jehovah to -the text of Isa. xl.-lxvi., and to the previous and contemporary -history of Israel. Into our interpretation of the remarkable Figure, -whom our prophet has drawn for us, we have put nothing which cannot -be gathered from those fields and by the light of the prophet's own -day. But now we must travel further, and from days far future to -our prophet borrow a fuller light to throw back upon his mysterious -projections. We take this journey into the future for reasons he -himself has taught us. We have learned that his pictures of the -Servant are not the creation of his own mind; a work of art complete -"through fancy's or through logic's aid." They are the scattered -reflections and suggestions of experience. The prophet's eyes have -been opened to read them out of the still growing and incomplete -history of his people. With that history they are indissolubly bound -up. Their plainest forms are but a transcript of its clearest facts; -their paradoxes are its paradoxes (reflections now of the confused -and changing consciousness of this strange people, or again of the -contrast between God's design for them and their real character): -their ideals are the suggestion and promise which its course reveals -to an inspired eye. Thus, in picturing the Servant, our prophet -sometimes confines himself to history that has already happened to -Israel; but sometimes, also, upon the purpose and promise of this, -he outruns what has happened, and plainly lifts his voice from the -future. Now we must remember that he does so, not merely because -the history itself has native possibilities of fulfilment in it, -but because he believes that it is in the hands of an Almighty and -Eternal God, who shall surely guide it to the end of His purpose -revealed in it. It is an article of our prophet's creed, that the God -who speaks through him controls all history, and by His prophets _can -publish beforehand_ what course it will take; so that, when we find -in our prophet anything we do not see fully justified or illustrated -by the time he wrote, it is only in observance of the conditions he -has laid down, that we seek for its explanation in the future. - -Let us, then, take our prophet upon his own terms, and follow the -history, with which he has so closely bound up the prophecy of the -Servant, both in suggestion and fulfilment, in order that we may -see whether it will yield to us the secret of what, if we have read -his language aright, his eyes perceived in it--the promise of an -Individual Servant. And let us do so in his faith, that history is -one progressive and harmonious movement under the hand of the God in -whose name he speaks. Our exploration will be rewarded, and our faith -confirmed. We shall find the nation, as promised, restored to its -own land, and pursuing through the centuries its own life. We shall -find within the nation what the prophet looked for,--an elect and -effective portion, with the conscience of a national service to the -world, but looking for the achievement of this to such an Individual -Servant, as the prophet seemed ultimately to foreshadow. The world -itself we shall find growing more and more open to this service. -And at last, from Israel's national conscience of the service we -shall see emerge One with the sense that He alone is responsible and -able for it. And this One Israelite will not only in His own person -exhibit a character and achieve a work, that illustrate and far excel -our prophet's highest imaginations, but will also become, to a new -Israel infinitely more numerous than the old, the conscience and -inspiration of their collective fulfilment of the ideal. - - * * * * * - -1. In the Old Testament we cannot be sure of any further appearance -of our prophet's Servant of the Lord. It might be thought, that in a -post-exilic promise, Zech. iii. 8, _I will bring forth My Servant_ -the _Branch_, we had an identification of the hero of the first part -of the Book of Isaiah, _the Branch out of Jesse's roots_ (xi. 1), -with the hero of the second part; but _servant_ here may so easily -be meant in the more general sense in which it occurs in the Old -Testament, that we are not justified in finding any more particular -connection. In Judaism beyond the Old Testament the national and -personal interpretations of the Servant were both current. The Targum -of Jonathan, and both the Talmud of Jerusalem and the Talmud of -Babylon, recognise the personal Messiah in ch. liii.; the Targum also -identifies him as early as in ch. xlii. This personal interpretation -the Jews abandoned only after they had entered on their controversy -with Christian theologians; and in the cruel persecutions, which -Christians inflicted upon them throughout the middle ages, they were -supplied with only too many reasons for insisting that ch. liii. was -prophetic of suffering Israel--the martyr-people--as a whole.[160] -It is a strange history--the history of our race, where the first -through their pride and error so frequently become the last, and the -last through their sufferings are set in God's regard with the first. -But of all its strange reversals none surely was ever more complete -than when the followers of Him, who is set forth in this passage, the -unresisting and crucified Saviour of men, behaved in His Name with -so great a cruelty as to be righteously taken by His enemies for the -very tyrants and persecutors whom the passage condemns. - -2. But it is in the New Testament that we see the most perfect -reflection of the Servant of the Lord, both as People and Person. - -In the generation, from which Jesus sprang, there was, amid national -circumstances closely resembling those in which the Second Isaiah -was written, a counterpart of that Israel within Israel, which our -prophet has personified in ch. xlix. The holy nation lay again in -bondage to the heathen, partly in its own land, partly scattered -across the world; and Israel's righteousness, redemption and -ingathering were once more the questions of the day. The thoughts -of the masses, as of old in Babylonian days, did not rise beyond -a political restoration; and although their popular leaders -insisted upon national righteousness as necessary to this, it was -a righteousness mainly of a ceremonial kind--hard, legal, and often -more unlovely in its want of enthusiasm and hope than even the -political fanaticism of the vulgar. But around the temple, and in -quiet recesses of the land, a number of pious and ardent Israelites -lived on the true milk of the word, and cherished for the nation -hopes of a far more spiritual character. If the Pharisees laid their -emphasis on the law, this chosen Israel drew their inspiration rather -from prophecy; and of all prophecy it was the Book of Isaiah, and -chiefly the latter part of it, on which they lived. - -As we enter the Gospel history from the Old Testament, we feel at once -that Isaiah is in the air. In this fair opening of the new year of the -Lord, the harbinger notes of the book awaken about us on all sides -like the voices of birds come back with the spring. In Mary's song, -the phrase _He hath holpen His Servant Israel_; in the description -of Simeon, that he waited for the _consolation of Israel_, a phrase -taken from the _Comfort ye, comfort ye My people_ in Isa. xl. 1; such -frequent phrases, too, as _the redemption of Jerusalem_, _a light -of the Gentiles and the glory of Israel_, _light to them that sit -in darkness_, and other echoed promises of light and peace and the -remission of sins, are all repeated from our evangelical prophecy. -In the fragments of the Baptist's preaching, which are extant, it is -remarkable that almost every metaphor and motive may be referred to -the Book of Isaiah, and mostly to its exilic half: _the generation -of vipers_,[161] the _trees and axe laid to the root_,[162] _the -threshing floor and fan_,[163] _the fire_,[164] _the bread and clothes -to the poor_,[165] and especially the proclamation of Jesus, _Behold -the Lamb of God that beareth the sin of the world_.[166] To John -himself were applied the words of Isa. xl.: _The voice of one crying -in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way of the Lord, make His paths -straight_; and when Christ sought to rouse again the Baptist's failing -faith it was of Isa. lxi. that He reminded him. - -Our Lord, then, sprang from a generation of Israel, which had a -strong conscience of the national aspect of the Service of God,--a -generation with Isa. xl.-lxvi. at its heart. We have seen how He -Himself insisted upon the uniqueness of Israel's place among the -nations--_salvation is of the Jews_--and how closely He identified -Himself with His people--_I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the -house of Israel_. But all Christ's strong expression of Israel's -distinction from the rest of mankind, is weak and dim compared with -His expression of His own distinction from the rest of Israel. If -they were the one people with whom God worked in the world, He -was the one Man, whom God sent to work upon them, and to use them -to work upon others. We cannot tell how early the sense of this -distinction came to the Son of Mary. Luke reveals it in Him, before -He had taken His place as a citizen and was still within the family: -_Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?_ At His -first public appearance He had it fully, and others acknowledged -it. In the opening year of His ministry it threatened to be only a -Distinction of the First--_they took Him by force, and would have -made Him King_. But as time went on it grew evident that it was to -be, not the Distinction of the First, but the Distinction of the -Only. The enthusiastic crowds melted away: the small band, whom He -had most imbued with His spirit, proved that they could follow Him -but a certain length in His consciousness of His Mission. Recognising -in Him the supreme prophet--_Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast -the words of eternal life_--they immediately failed to understand, -that suffering also must be endured by Him for the people: _Be it -far from Thee, Lord_. This suffering was His conscience and His -burden alone. Now, we cannot overlook the fact, that the point at -which Christ's way became so solitary was the same point at which -we felt our prophet's language cease to oblige us to understand -by it a portion of the people, and begin to be applicable to a -single individual,--the point, namely, where prophecy passes into -martyrdom. But whether our prophet's pictures of the suffering and -atoning Servant of the Lord are meant for some aspect of the national -experience, or as the portrait of a real individual, it is certain -that in His martyrdom and service of ransom Jesus felt Himself to be -absolutely alone. He who had begun His Service of God with all the -people on His side, consummated the same with the leaders and the -masses of the nation against Him, and without a single partner from -among His own friends, either in the fate which overtook Him, or in -the conscience with which He bore it. - -Now all this parallel between Jesus of Nazareth and the Servant of -the Lord is unmistakable enough, even in this mere outline; but the -details of the Gospel narrative and the language of the Evangelists -still more emphasize it. Christ's herald hailed Him with words which -gather up the essence of Isa. liii.: _Behold the Lamb of God_. He read -His own commission from ch. lxi.: _The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me_. -To describe His first labours among the people, His disciples again -used words from ch. liii.: _Himself bare our sicknesses_. To paint His -manner of working in face of opposition they quoted the whole passage -from ch. xlii.: _Behold My Servant ... He shall not strive._ The name -Servant was often upon His own lips in presenting Himself: _Behold, -I am among you as one that serveth_. When His office of prophecy -passed into martyrdom, He predicted for Himself the treatment which -is detailed in ch. l.,--the _smiting_, _plucking_ and _spitting_: and -in time, by Jew and Gentile, this treatment was inflicted on Him to -the very letter.[167] As to His consciousness in fulfilling something -more than a martyrdom, and alone among the martyrs of Israel offering -by His death an expiation for His people's sins, His own words are -frequent and clear enough to form a counterpart to ch. liii. With them -before us, we cannot doubt that He felt Himself to be the One of whom -the people in that chapter speak, as standing over against them all, -sinless, and yet bearing their sins. But on the night on which He was -betrayed, while just upon the threshold of this extreme and unique -form of service, into which it has been given to no soul of man, that -ever lived, to be conscious of following Him--as if anxious that His -disciples should not be so overwhelmed by the awful part in which -they could not imitate Him as to forget the countless other ways in -which they were called to fulfil His serving spirit--_He took a towel -and girded Himself, and when He had washed their feet, He said unto -them, If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you -also ought to wash one another's feet_--thereby illustrating what is -so plainly set forth in our prophecy, that short of the expiation, of -which only One in His sinlessness has felt the obligation, and short -of the martyrdom, which it has been given to but few of His people to -share with Him, there are a thousand humble forms rising out of the -needs of everyday life, in which men are called to employ towards one -another the gentle and self-forgetful methods of the true Servant of -God. - -With the four Gospels in existence, no one doubts or can doubt that -Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled the cry, _Behold My Servant_. With Him -it ceased to be a mere ideal, and took its place as the greatest -achievement in history. - -3. In the earliest discourses of the Apostles, therefore, it is not -wonderful that Jesus should be expressly designated by them as the -Servant of God,--the Greek word used being that by which the Septuagint -specially translates the Hebrew term in Isa. xl.-lxvi.[168]: _God hath -glorified His Servant Jesus. Unto you first, God, having raised up His -Servant, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from -your iniquities.... In this city against Thy holy Servant Jesus, whom -Thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and -the peoples of Israel, were gathered together to do whatsoever Thy hand -and Thy counsel foreordained to pass. Grant that signs and wonders may -be done through the name of Thy Holy Servant Jesus._[169] It must also -be noticed, that in one of the same addresses, and again by Stephen -in his argument before the Sanhedrim, Jesus is called _The Righteous -One_,[170] doubtless an allusion to the same title for the Servant -in Isa. liii. 11. Need we recall the interpretation of Isa. liii. by -Philip?[171] - -It is known to all how Peter develops this parallel in his First -Epistle, borrowing the figures but oftener the very words of Isa. -liii. to apply to Christ. Like the Servant of the Lord, Jesus -is _as a lamb_: He is a patient sufferer in silence; He _is the -Righteous_--again the classic title--_for the unrighteous_; in exact -quotation from the Greek of Isa. liii.: _He did no sin, neither -was found guile in His mouth, ye were as sheep gone astray, but He -Himself hath borne our sins, with whose stripes ye are healed_.[172] - -Paul applies two quotations from Isa. lii. 13-liii. to Christ: _I -have striven to preach the Gospel not where Christ was named; as it -is written, To whom He was not spoken of they shall see: and they -that have not heard shall understand_; and _He hath made Him to be -sin for us who knew no sin._[173] And none will doubt that when he so -often disputed that the _Messiah must suffer_, or wrote _Messiah died -for our sins according to the Scriptures_, he had Isa. liii. in mind, -exactly as we have seen it applied to the Messiah by Jewish scholars -a hundred years later than Paul. - -4. Paul, however, by no means confines the prophecy of the Servant -of the Lord to Jesus the Messiah. In a way which has been too much -overlooked by students of the subject, Paul revives and reinforces -the collective interpretation of the Servant. He claims the Servant's -duties and experience for himself, his fellow-labourers in the -gospel, and all believers. - -In Antioch of Pisidia, Paul and Barnabas said of themselves to the -Jews: _For so hath the Lord_ commanded us saying, _I have set thee to -be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation to the -ends of the earth._[174] Again, in the eighth of Romans, Paul takes the -Servant's confident words, and speaks them of all God's true people. -_He is near that justifieth me, who is he that condemneth me?_ cried -the Servant in our prophecy, and Paul echoes for all believers: _It is -God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth?_[175] And again, in his -second letter to Timothy, he says, speaking of that pastor's work, _For -the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle towards all_; -words which were borrowed from, or suggested by, Isa. xlii. 1-3.[176] -In these instances, as well as in his constant use of the terms -_slave_, _servant_, _minister_, with their cognates, Paul fulfils the -intention of Jesus, who so continually, by example, parable, and direct -commission, enforced the life of His people as a Service to the Lord. - -5. Such, then, is the New Testament reflection of the Prophecy of the -Servant of the Lord, both as People and Person. Like all physical -reflections, this moral one may be said, on the whole, to stand -reverse to its original. In Isa. xl.-lxvi. the Servant is People -first, Person second. But in the New Testament--except for a faint -and scarcely articulate application to Israel in the beginning of -the gospels--the Servant is Person first and People afterwards. The -Divine Ideal which our prophet saw narrowing down from the Nation -to an Individual, was owned and realised by Christ. But in Him it -was not exhausted. With added warmth and light, with a new power of -expansion, it passed through Him to fire the hearts and enlist the -wills of an infinitely greater people than the Israel for whom it -was originally designed. With this witness, then, of history to the -prophecies of the Servant, our way in expounding and applying them is -clear. Jesus Christ is their perfect fulfilment and illustration. But -we who are His Church are to find in them our ideal and duty,--our -duty to God and to the world. In this, as in so many other matters, -the unfulfilled prophecy of Israel is the conscience of Christianity. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[160] _Cf._ _The Jewish Interpreters on Isa. liii._, Driver and -Neubauer, Oxford, 1877. Abravanel, who himself takes ch. liii. in a -national sense, admits, after giving the Christian interpretation, -that "in fact Jonathan ben Uziel, 'the Targumist,' applied it to the -Messiah, who was still to come, and this is likewise the opinion of -the wise in many of their Midrashim." And R. Moscheh al Shech, of -the sixteenth century, says: "See, our masters have with one voice -held as established and handed down, that here it is King Messiah -who is spoken of." (Both these passages quoted by Bredenkamp in his -commentary, p. 307.) - -[161] Isa. lix. 5. - -[162] _Id._ vi. 13; ix. 18; x. 17, 34; xlvii. 14. - -[163] _Id._ xxi. 10; xxviii. 27; xl. 24; xli. 15 ff. - -[164] _Id._ i. 31; xlvii. 14. - -[165] Isa. lviii. 7. - -[166] Undoubtedly taken from Isa. liii. - -[167] _Cf._ with the Greek version of Isa. l. 4-7, Luke xviii. 31, -32; Matt. xxvi. 67. - -[168] In Isa. xl.-lxvi. the Septuagint translates the Hebrew for -Servant by one or other of two words--[Greek: pais] and [Greek: -doulos]. [Greek: Pais] is used in xli. 8; xlii. 1; xliv. 1 ff.; xliv. -21; xlv. 4; xlix. 6; l. 10; lii. 13. But [Greek: doulos] is used in -xlviii. 20; xlix. 3 and 5. In the Acts it is [Greek: pais] that is -used of Christ: "An apostle is never called [Greek: pais] (but only -[Greek: doulos]) [Greek: Theou]" (Meyer). But David is called [Greek: -pais] (Acts iv. 25). - -[169] Acts iii. 13, 26; iv. 27-30. - -[170] Acts iii. 14; vii. 52. - -[171] Acts viii. 30 ff. - -[172] 1 Peter i. 19; ii. 22, 23; iii. 18. - -[173] Rom. xv. 20 f.; 2 Cor. v. 21. - -[174] Acts xiii. 47, after Isa. xlix. 6. - -[175] Isa. l. 8, and Rom. viii. 33, 34. - -[176] 2 Tim. ii. 24. We may note, also, how Paul in Eph. vi. takes -the armour with which God is clothed in Isa. lix. 17, breastplate -and helmet, and equips the individual Christian with them; and how, -in the same passage, he takes for the Christian from Isa. xl. the -Messiah's girdle of truth and the _sword of the Spirit,--he shall -smite the land with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his -lips shall he slay the wicked_. - - - - - CHAPTER XVIII. - - _THE SERVICE OF GOD AND MAN._ - - ISAIAH xlii. 1-7. - - -We now understand, whom to regard as the Servant of the Lord. The -Service of God was a commission to witness and prophesy for God upon -earth, made out at first in the name of the entire nation Israel. -When their unfitness as a whole became apparent, it was delegated to -a portion of them. But as there were added to its duties of prophecy, -those of martyrdom and atonement for the sins of the people, our -prophet, it would seem, saw it focussed in the person of an individual. - -In history Jesus Christ has fulfilled this commission both in its -national and in its personal aspects. He realised the ideal of -the prophet-people. He sacrificed Himself and made atonement for -the sins of men. But having illustrated the service of God in the -world, Christ did not exhaust it. He returned it to His people, a -more clamant conscience than ever, and He also gave them grace to -fulfil its demands. Through Christ the original destination of these -prophecies becomes, as Paul saw, their ultimate destination as well. -That Israel refused this Service or failed in it only leaves it more -clearly to us as duty; that Jesus fulfilled it not only confirms that -duty, but adds hope and courage to discharge it. - -Although the terms of this Service were published nearly two thousand -five hundred years ago, in a petty dialect that is now dead, to a -helpless tribe of captives in a world, whose civilisation has long -sunk to ruin, yet these terms are so free of all that is provincial -or antique, they are so adapted to the lasting needs of humanity, -they are so universal in their scope, they are so instinct with -that love which never faileth, though prophecies fail and tongues -cease, that they come home to heart and conscience to-day with as -much tenderness and authority as ever. The first programme of these -terms is given in ch. xlii. 1-7. The authorised English version is -one of unapproachable beauty, but its emphasis and rhythm are not -the emphasis and rhythm of the original, and it has missed one at -least of the striking points of the Hebrew. The following version, -which makes no attempt at elegance, is almost literal, follows the -same order as the original that it may reproduce the same emphasis, -and, as far as English can, repeats the original rhythm. The point, -which it rescues from the neglect of the Authorised Version, is this, -that the verbs used of the Servant in ver. 4, _He shall not fade nor -break_, are the same as are used of the wick and the reed in ver. 3. - - _Lo, My Servant! I hold by him;_ - _My Chosen! Well-pleased is My soul!_ - _I have set My Spirit upon him;_ - _Law to the Nations he brings forth._ - - _He cries not, nor lifts up,_[177] - _Nor lets his voice be heard in the street. - Reed_ that is _broken he breaks not off,_ - _Wick_ that is _fading he does not quench:_ - _Faithfully brings he forth Law._ - _He shall not fade neither break,_ - _Till he have set in the Earth_[178] _Law;_ - _And for his teaching the Isles are waiting._ - - _Thus saith the God, Jehovah,_ - _Creator of the heavens that stretched them forth,_ - _Spreader of Earth and her produce,_ - _Giver of breath to the people upon her,_ - _And of spirit to them that walk therein:_ - _I, Jehovah, have called thee in righteousness,_ - _To grasp thee fast by thy hand, and to keep thee,_ - _And to set thee for a covenant of the People,_ - _For a light of the Nations:_ - _To open blind eyes,_ - _To bring forth from durance the captive,_ - _From prison the dwellers in darkness._ - - - I. THE CONSCIENCE OF SERVICE. - -As several of these lines indicate, this is a Service to Man, but what -we must first fasten upon is that before being a Service to Man it is -a Service for God. _Behold, My Servant_, says God's commission very -emphatically. And throughout the prophecy the Servant is presented as -chosen of God, inspired of God, equipped of God, God's creature, God's -instrument; useful only because he is used, influential because he is -influenced, victorious because he is obedient; learning the methods -of his work by daily wakefulness to God's voice, a good speaker only -because he is first a good listener; with no strength or courage but -what God lends, and achieving all for God's glory. Notice how strongly -it is said that God _holds by him, grasps him by the hand_. We shall -see that his Service is as sympathetic and comprehensive a purpose -for humanity as was ever dreamed in any thought or dared in any life. -Whether we consider its tenderness for individuals, or the universalism -of its hope for the world, or its gentle appreciation of all human -effort and aspiration, or its conscience of mankind's chief evil, -or the utterness of its self-sacrifice in order to redeem men,--we -shall own it to be a programme of human duty, and a prophecy of human -destiny, to which the growing experience of our race has been able to -add nothing that is essential. But the Service becomes all that to man, -because it first takes all that from God. Not only is the Servant's -sense of duty to all humanity just the conscience of God's universal -sovereignty,--for it is a remarkable and never-to-be-forgotten fact, -that Israel recognised their God's right to the whole world, before -they felt their own duty to mankind,--but the Servant's character -and methods are the reflection of the Divine. Feature by feature -the Servant corresponds to His Lord. His patience is but sympathy -with Jehovah's righteousness,--_I will uphold thee with the right -hand of My righteousness_. His gentleness with the unprofitable and -the unlovely--_He breaks not off the broken reed nor quenches the -flickering wick_--is but the temper of _the everlasting God, who giveth -power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth -strength_. His labour and passion and agony, even they have been -anticipated in the Divine nature, for _the LORD stirreth up seal like -a man of war; He saith, I will cry out like a travailing woman_. In no -detail is the Servant above his Master. His character is not original, -but is the impress of his God's: _I have put My spirit upon him_. - -There are many in our day, who deny this indebtedness of the human -character to the Divine, and in the Service of Man would have us turn -our backs upon God. Positivists, while admitting that the earliest -enthusiasm of the individual for his race did originate in the love -of a Divine Being, assert nevertheless that we have grown away from -this illusory motive; and that in the example of humanity itself we -may find all the requisite impulse to serve it. The philosophy of -history, which the extreme Socialists have put forward, is even more -explicit. According to them, mankind was disturbed in a primitive, -tribal socialism--or service of each other--by the rise of spiritual -religion, which drew the individual away from his kind and absorbed -him in selfish relations to God. Such a stage, represented by the -Hebrew and Christian faiths, and by the individualist political -economy which has run concurrent with the later developments of -Christianity, was (so these Socialists admit) perhaps necessary for -temporary discipline and culture, like the land of Egypt to starved -Jacob's children; but like Egypt, when it turned out to be the house -of bondage, the individualist economy and religion are now to be -abandoned for the original land of promise,--Socialism once more, but -universal instead of tribal as of old. Out of this analogy, which is -such Socialists' own, Sinai and the Ten Commandments are, of course, -omitted. We are to march back to freedom without a God, and settle -down to love and serve each other by administration. - -But can we turn our backs on God, without hurting man? The natural -history of philanthropy would seem to say that we cannot. This -prophecy is one of its witnesses. Earliest ideal as it is, of a -universal service of mankind, it starts in its obligation from -the universal Sovereignty of God; it starts in every one of its -affections from some affection of the Divine character. And we have -not grown away from the need of its everlasting sources. Cut off -God from the Service of man, and the long habit and inherent beauty -of that Service may perpetuate its customs for a few generations; -but the inevitable call must come to subject conduct to the altered -intellectual conditions, and in the absence of God every man's ideal -shall surely turn from, How can I serve my neighbour? to, How can I -make my neighbour serve me? As our prophet reminds us in his vivid -contrast between Israel, the Servant of the Lord, and Babylon, _who -saith in her heart: I am, and there is none beside me_, there are -ultimately but two alternative lords of the human will, God and -Self. If we revolt from the Authority and Example of the One, we -shall surely become subject, in the long run, to the ignorance, the -short-sightedness, the pedantry, the cruelty of the other. These -words are used advisedly. With no sense of the sacredness of every -human life as created in the image of God, and with no example of an -Infinite Mercy before them, men would leave to perish all that was -weak, or, from the limited point of view of a single community or -generation, unprofitable. Some Positivists and those Socialists, who -do not include God in the society they seek to establish, admit that -they expect something like that to follow from their denial of God. -In certain Positivist proposals for the reform of charity, we are -told that the ideal scheme of social relief would be the one which -limited itself to persons judged to be of use to the community as a -whole; that is, that in their succour of the weak, their bounty to -the poor, and their care of the young, society should be guided, not -by the eternal laws of justice and of mercy, but by the opinions of -the representatives of the public for the time being and by their -standard of utility to the commonwealth. Your atheist-Socialist is -still more frank. In the state, which he sees rising after he has got -rid of Christianity, he would suppress, he tells us, all who preached -such a thing as the fear of the future life, and he would not repeat -the present exceptional legislation for the protection of women and -children, for whom, he whines, far too much has been recently done in -comparison with what has been enacted for the protection of men.[179] -These are, of course, but vain things which the heathen imagine -(and some of us have an ideal of socialism very different from the -godlessness which has usurped the noble name), but they serve to -illustrate what clever men, who have thrown off all belief in God, -will bring themselves to hope for: a society utterly Babylonian, -without pity or patience,--if it were possible for these eternal -graces to die out of any human community,--subject to the opinion of -pedants, whose tender mercies would be far more fatal to the weak and -poor than the present indifference of the rich; seriously fettering -liberty of conscience and destitute of chivalry. It may be that our -Positivist critics are right, and that the interests of humanity -have suffered in Christian times from the prevalence of too selfish -and introspective a religion; but whether our religion has looked -too intensely inward or not, we cannot, it is certain, do without a -religion that looks steadily up, owning the discipline of Divine Law -and the Example of an Infinite Mercy and Longsuffering. - -But, though we had never heard of Positivism or of the Socialism -that denies God, our age, with its popular and public habits, would -still require this example of Service, which our prophecy enforces: -it is an age so charged with the instincts of work, with the ambition -to be useful, with the fashion of altruism; but so empty of the -sense of God, of reverence, discipline and prayer. We do not need -to learn philanthropy,--the thing is in the air; but we do need to -be taught that philanthropy demands a theology both for its purity -and its effectiveness. When philanthropy has become, what it is -so much to-day, the contest of rival politicians, the ambition of -every demagogue, who can get his head above the crowd, the fitful -self-indulgence of weak hearts, the opportunity of vain theorists, -and for all a temptation to work with lawless means for selfish -ends,--it is time to remember that the Service of Man is first of -all a great Service for God. This faith alone can keep us from the -wilfulness, the crotchets and the insubordination, which spoil so -many well-intentioned to their kind, and so wofully break up the -ranks of progress. Humility is the first need of the philanthropist -of to-day: humility, discipline and the sense of proportion; and -these are qualities, which only faith in God and the conscience of -law are known to bestow upon the human heart. It is the fear of God -that will best preserve us from making our philanthropy the mere -flattery of the popular appetite. To keep us utterly patient with -men we need to think of God's patience with ourselves. While to us -all there come calls to sacrifice, which our fellow-men may so -little deserve from us, and against which our self-culture can plead -so many reasons, that unless God's will and example were before us, -the calls would never be obeyed. In short, to be most useful in this -life it is necessary to feel that we are used. Look at Christ. To Him -philanthropy was no mere habit and spontaneous affection; even for -that great heart the love of man had to be enforced by the compulsion -of the will of God. The busy days of healing and teaching had between -them long nights of lonely prayer; and the Son of God did not pass to -His supreme self-sacrifice for men till after the struggle with, and -the submission to, His Father's will in Gethsemane. - - - II. THE SUBSTANCE OF SERVICE. - -The substance of the Servant's work is stated in one word, uttered -thrice in emphatic positions. _Judgement for the nations shall he bring -forth.... According to truth shall he bring forth judgement.... He -shall not flag nor break, till he set in the earth_[180] _judgement._ - -The English word _judgement_ is a natural but misleading translation -of the original, and we must dismiss at once the idea of judicial -sentence, which it suggests. The Hebrew is "mishpat," which means, -among other things, either a single statute, or the complete body of -law which God gave Israel by Moses, at once their creed and their -code; or, perhaps, also the abstract quality of justice or right. -We rendered it as the latter in Isa. i.-xxxix. But, as will be seen -from the note below,[181] when used in Isa. xl.-lxvi. without the -article, as here, it is the "mishpat" of Jehovah,--not so much -the actual body of statutes given to Israel, as the principles -of _right_ or _justice_ which they enforce. In one passage it is -given in parallel to the civic virtues _righteousness_, _truth_, -_uprightness_, but--as its etymology compared with theirs shows -us--it is these viewed not in their character as virtues, but in -their obligation as ordained by God. Hence, _duty_ to Jehovah as -inseparable from His religion (Ewald), _religion_ as the law of -life (Delitzsch), _the law_ (Cheyne, who admirably compares the -Arabic ed-Dîn) are all good renderings. Professor Davidson gives -the fullest exposition. "It can scarcely," he says, "be rendered -'religion' in the modern sense, it is the equity and civil right -which is the result of the true religion of Jehovah; and though -comprehended under religion in the Old Testament sense, is rather, -according to our conceptions, religion applied in civil life. Of -old the religious unit was the state, and the life of the state was -the expression of its religion. Morality was law or custom, and -both reposed upon God. A condition of thought such as now prevails, -where morality is based on independent grounds, whether natural law -or the principles inherent in the mind apart from religion, did not -then exist. What the prophet means by 'bringing forth right' is -explained in another passage, where it is said that Jehovah's 'arms -shall judge the peoples,' and that the 'isles shall wait for His arm' -(ch. li. 5). 'Judgment' is that pervading of life by the principles -of equity and humanity which is the immediate effect of the true -religion of Jehovah."[182] In short, "mishpat" is not only the civic -righteousness and justice, to which it is made parallel in our -prophecy, but it is these with God behind them. On the one hand it is -conterminous with national virtue, on the other it is the ordinance -and will of God. - -This, then, is the burden of the Servant's work, to pervade and -instruct every nation's life on earth with the righteousness and -piety that are ordained of God. _He shall not flag nor break, till he -have set in the earth Law_,--till in every nation justice, humanity -and worship are established as the law of God. We have seen that -the Servant is in this passage still some aspect or shape of the -people,--the people who are not a people, but scattered among the -brickfields of Babylonia, a horde of captives. When we keep that in -mind, two or three things come home to us about this task of theirs. -First, it is no mere effort at proselytism. It is not an ambition -to Judaise the world. The national consciousness and provincial -habits, which cling about so many of the prophecies of Israel's -relation to the world, have dropped from this one, and the nation's -mission is identified with the establishment of law, the diffusion -of light, the relief of suffering. _I will give thee for a light -to the nations: to open blind eyes, to bring out from durance the -bound, from the prison the dwellers in darkness._[183] Again, it is -no mere office of preaching, to which the Servant's commission is -limited, no mere inculcation of articles of belief. But we have here -the same rich, broad idea of religion, identifying it with the whole -national life, which we found so often illustrated by Isaiah, and -which is one of the beneficial results to religion of God's choice -for Himself of a nation as a whole.[184] What such a Service has to -give the world, is not merely testimony to the truth, nor fresh views -of it, nor artistic methods of teaching it; but social life under -its obligation, the public conscience of it, the long tradition and -habit of it, the breed--what the prophets call the _seed_--of it. To -establish true religion as the constitution, national duty, and regular -practice of every people under the sun, in all the details of order, -cleanliness, justice, purity and mercy, in which it had been applied -to themselves,--such was the Service and the Destiny of Israel. And -the marvel of so universal and political an ideal was, that it came -not to a people in the front ranks of civilisation or of empire, -but to a people that at the time had not even a political shape for -themselves,--a mere herd of captives, despised and rejected of men. -When we realise this, we understand that they never would have dared to -think of it, or to speak of it to one another, unless they had believed -it to be the purpose and will of Almighty God for them; unless they had -recognised it, not only as a service desirable and true in itself, and, -needed also by humanity, but withal as His "mishpat," His _judgement_ -or _law_, who by His bare word can bring all things to pass. But before -we see how strongly He impressed them with this, that His creative -force was in their mission, let us turn to the methods by which He -commanded them to achieve it,--methods corresponding to its purely -spiritual and universal character. - - - III. THE TEMPER OF SERVICE. - - 1. _He shall not cry, nor lift up, - Nor make his voice to be heard in the street._ - -There is nothing more characteristic of our prophecy than its belief -in the power of speech, its exultation in the music and spell of -the human voice. It opens with a chorus of high calls: none are so -lovely to it as heralds, or so musical as watchmen when they lift up -the voice; it sets the preaching of glad tidings before the people -as their national ideal; eloquence it describes as a sharp sword -leaping from God's scabbard. The Servant of the Lord is trained in -style of speech; his words are as pointed arrows; he has the mouth of -the learned, a voice to command obedience. The prophet's own tones -are superb: nowhere else does the short sententiousness of Hebrew -roll out into such long, sonorous periods. He uses speech in every -style: for comfort, for bitter controversy, in clear proclamation, -in deep-throated denunciation: _Call with the throat_, _spare not_, -_lift up the voice like a trumpet_. His constant key-notes are, -_speak a word_, _lift up the voice with strength_, _sing_, _publish_, -_declare_. In fact, there is no use to which the human voice has ever -been put in the Service of Man, for comfort's sake, or for justice, -or for liberty, for the diffusion of knowledge or for the scattering -of music, which our prophet does not enlist and urge upon his people. - -When, then, he says of the Servant that _he shall not cry, nor lift -up, nor make his voice to be heard in the street_, he cannot be -referring to the means and art of the Service, but rather to the -tone and character of the Servant. Each of the triplet of verbs he -uses shows us this. The first one, translated _cry_, is not the cry -or call of the herald voice in ch. xl., the high, clear Kara; it -is ssa`ak, a sharper word with a choke in the centre of it meaning -_to scream_, especially under excitement. Then _to lift up_ is the -exact equivalent of our "to be loud." And if we were seeking to -translate into Hebrew our phrase "to advertise oneself," we could -not find a closer expression for it than to _make his voice be -heard in the street_. To be "screamy," to be "loud," to "advertise -oneself,"--these modern expressions for vices that were ancient as -well as modern render the exact force of the verse. Such the Servant -of God will not be nor do. He is at once too strong, too meek and -too practical. That God is with him, _holding him fast_, keeps him -calm and unhysterical; that he is but God's instrument keeps him -humble and quiet; and that his heart is in his work keeps him from -advertising himself at its expense. It is perhaps especially for the -last of these reasons that Matthew (in his twelfth chapter) quotes -this passage of our Lord. Jesus had been disturbed in His labours -of healing by the disputatious Pharisees. He had answered them, -and then withdrawn from their neighbourhood. Many sick were brought -after Him to His privacy, and He healed them all. But _He charged -them that they should not make Him known; that it might be fulfilled -which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Behold, My Servant -... he shall not strive, nor cry aloud, neither shall any one hear -his voice in the streets._ Now this cannot be, what some carelessly -take it for, an example against controversy or debate of all kinds, -for Jesus had Himself just been debating; nor can it be meant as -an absolute forbidding of all publishing of good works, for Christ -has shown us, on other occasions, that such advertisement is good. -The difficulty is explained, by what we have seen to explain other -perplexing actions of our Lord, His intensely practical spirit. -The work to be done determined everything. When it made argument -necessary, as that same day it had done in the synagogue, then our -Lord entered on argument: He did not only heal the man with the -withered hand, but He made him the text of a sermon. But when talking -about His work hindered it, provoked the Pharisees to come near with -their questions, and took up His time and strength in disputes with -them, then for the work's sake He forbade talk about it. We have -no trace of evidence that Christ forbade this advertisement also -for His own sake,--as a temptation to Himself and fraught with evil -effects upon His feelings. We know that it is for this reason we -have to shun it. Even though we are quite guiltless of contributing -to such publication ourselves, and it is the work of generous and -well-meaning friends, it still becomes a very great danger to us. -For it is apt to fever us and exhaust our nervous force, even when -it does not turn our heads with its praise,--to distract us and to -draw us more and more into the enervating habit of paying attention -to popular opinion. Therefore, as a man values his efficiency in the -Service of Man, he will not _make himself to be heard in the street_. -There is an amount of _making to be heard_ which is absolutely -necessary for the work's sake; but there is also an amount which can -be indulged in only at the work's expense. Present-day philanthropy, -even with the best intentions, suffers from this over-publicity, and -its besetting sins are "loudness" and hysteria. - -What, then, shall tell us how far we can go? What shall teach us -how to be eloquent without screaming, clear without being loud, -impressive without wasting our strength in seeking to make an -impression? These questions bring us back to what we started with, as -the indispensable requisite for Service--some guiding and religious -principles behind even the kindliest and steadiest tempers. For many -things in the Service of Man no exact rules will avail; neither -logic nor bye-laws of administration can teach us to observe the -uncertain and constantly varying degree of duty, which they demand. -Tact for that is bestowed only by the influence of lofty principles -working from above. This is a case in point. What rules of logic -or "directions of the superior authority" can, in the Service of -Man, distinguish for us between excitement and earnestness, bluster -and eloquence, energy and mere self-advertisement; on whose subtle -differences the whole success of the service must turn. Only the -discipline of faith, only the sense of God, can help us here. The -practical temper by itself will not help us. To be busy but gives -us too great self-importance; and hard work often serves only to -bring out the combative instincts. To know that we are His Servants -shall keep us meek; that we are held fast by His hand shall keep us -calm; that His great laws are not abrogated shall keep us sane. When -for our lowliest and most commonplace kinds of service we think no -religion is required, let us remember the solemn introduction of the -evangelist to his story of the foot-washing. _Jesus knowing that the -Father had given all things into His hands, and that He came forth -from God and goeth unto God, riseth from supper, and layeth aside His -garments; and He took a towel, and girded Himself; then He poureth -water into the bason, and began to wash His disciples' feet._ - -2. But to meekness and discipline the Servant adds gentleness. - - _Reed that is broken he breaks not off,_ - _Wick that is fading he does not quench;_ - _Faithfully brings he forth law._ - -The force of the last of these three lines is, of course, -qualificative and conditional. It is set as a guard against the abuse -of the first two, and means that though the Servant in dealing with -men is to be solicitous about their weakness, yet the interests of -religion shall in no way suffer. Mercy shall be practised, but so -that truth is not compromised. - -The original application of the verse is thus finely stated by -Professor Davidson: "This is the singularly humane and compassionate -view the Prophet takes of the Gentiles,--they are bruised reeds -and expiring flames.... What the prophet may refer to is the human -virtues, expiring among the nations, but not yet dead; the sense of -God, debased by idolatries, but not extinct; the consciousness in -the individual soul of its own worth and its capacities, and the -glimmering ideal of a true life and a worthy activity almost crushed -out by the grinding tyranny of rulers and the miseries entailed by -their ambitions--this flickering light the Servant shall feed and -blow into a flame.[185]... It is the future relation of the 'people' -Israel to other peoples that he describes. The thought which has now -taken possession of statesmen of the higher class, that the point -of contact between nation and nation need not be the sword, that -the advantage of one people is not the loss of another but the gain -of mankind, that the land where freedom has grown to maturity and -is worshipped in her virgin serenity and loveliness should nurse -the new-born babe in other homes, and that the strange powers of -the mind of man and the subtle activities of his hand should not be -repressed but fostered in every people, in order that the product may -be poured into the general lap of the race--this idea is supposed to -be due to Christianity. And, immediately, it is; but it is older than -Christianity. It is found in this Prophet. And it is not new in him, -for a Prophet, presumably a century and a half his senior, had said: -_The remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples as a dew -from the Lord, as showers upon the grass_ (Micah v. 7)."[186] - -But while this national reference may be the one originally meant, -the splendid vagueness of the metaphor forbids us to be content -with it, or with any solitary application. For the two clauses are -as the eyes of the All-Pitiful Father, that rest wherever on this -broad earth there is any life, though it be so low as to be conscious -only through pain or doubt; they are as the healing palms of Jesus -stretched over the multitudes to bless and gather to Himself the -weary and the poor in spirit. We contrast our miserable ruin of -character, our feeble sparks of desire after holiness, with the -life, which Christ demands and has promised, and in despair we tell -ourselves, this can never become that. But it is precisely this that -Christ has come to lift to that. The first chapter of the Sermon on -the Mount closes with the awful command, _Be ye perfect, as your -Father in Heaven is perfect_; but we work our way back through -the chapter, and we come to this, _Blessed are they that hunger -and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled_; and to -this, _Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom -of heaven._ Such is Christ's treatment of the bruised reed and the -smoking flax. Let us not despair. There is only one kind of men, -for whom it has no gospel,--the dead and they who are steeped in -worldliness, who have forgotten what the pain of a sore conscience -is, and are strangers to humility and aspiration. But for all who -know their life, were it only through their pain or their doubt, were -it only in the despair of what they feel to be a last struggle with -temptation, were it only in contrition for their sin or in shame -for their uselessness, this text has hope. _Reed that is broken he -breaketh not off, wick that is fading he doth not quench._ - -This objective sense of the Servant's temper must always be the first -for us to understand. For more than he was, we are, mortal, ready -ourselves to _break and to fade_. But having experienced the grace, -let us show the same in our service to others. Let us understand -that we are sent forth like the great Servant of God, that man _may -have life, and have it more abundantly_. We need resolutely and -with pious obstinacy to set this temper before us, for it is not -natural to our hearts. Even the best of us, in the excitement of -our work, forget to think of anything except of making our mark, or -of getting the better of what we are at work upon. When work grows -hard, the combative instincts waken within us, till we look upon the -characters God has given us to mould as enemies to be fought. We are -passionate to convince men, to overcome them with an argument, to -wring the confession from them that we are right and they wrong. Now -Christ our Master must have seen in every man He met a very great -deal more to be fought and extirpated than we can possibly see in -one another. Yet He largely left that alone, and addressed Himself -rather to the sparks of nobility He found, and fostered these to a -strong life, which from within overcame the badness of the man,--the -badness which opposition from the outside would but have beaten into -harder obduracy. We must ever remember that we are not warriors but -artists,--artists after the fashion of Jesus Christ, who came not -to condemn life because it was imperfect, but to build life up to -the image of God. So He sends us to be artists; as it is written, -_He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some pastors and -teachers_. For what end? For convincing men, for telling them what -fools they mostly are, for crushing them in the inquisition of their -own conscience, for getting the better of them in argument?--no, not -for these combative purposes at all, but for fostering and artistic -ones: _for the perfecting of the saints, for the building up of the -body of Christ; till we all come unto a full grown man, unto the -measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ_. - -He who, in his Service of Man, practises such a temper towards the -breaking and the fading, shall never himself break or fade, as this -prophecy implies when it uses the same verbs in verses _three_ and -_four_. For he who is loyal to life shall find life generous to him; -he who is careful of weakness shall never want for strength. - - - IV. THE POWER BEHIND SERVICE. - -There only remains now to emphasize the power that is behind Service. -It is, say verses _five_ and _six_, the Creative Power of God. - - _Thus saith The God, Jehovah,_ - _Creator of the heavens, that stretched them forth,_ - _Spreader of the earth and her produce,_ - _Giver of breath to the people upon her,_ - _And of spirit to them that walk thereon,_ - _I Jehovah have called thee in righteousness,_ - _That I may grasp thee by thy hand, and keep thee._ - -Majestic confirmation of the call to Service! based upon the -fundamental granite of this whole prophecy, which here crops out into -a noble peak, firm station for the Servant, and point for prospect -of all the future. It is our easy fault to read these words of the -Creator as the utterance of mere ceremonial commonplace, blast of -trumpets at the going forth of a hero, scenery for his stage, the -pomp of nature summoned to assist at the presentation of God's -elect before the world. Yet not for splendour were they spoken, but -for bare faith's sake. God's Servant has been sent forth, weak and -gentle, with quiet methods and to very slow effects. _He shall not -cry, nor lift up, nor make his voice to be heard in the streets._ -What chance has such, our service, in the ways of the world, where -to be forceful and selfish, to bluster and battle, is to survive -and overcome! So we speak, and the panic ambition rises to fight -the world with its own weapons, and to employ the kinds of debate, -advertisement and competition by which the world goes forward. For -this, the Creator calls to us, and marshals His powers before our -eyes. We thought there were but two things,--our own silence and the -world's noise. There are three, and the world's noise is only an -interruption between the other two. Across it deep calleth unto deep; -the immeasurable processes of creation cry to the feeble convictions -of truth in our hearts, We are one. Creation is the certificate that -no moral effort is a forlorn hope. When God, after repeating His -results in creation, adds, I have called thee in _righteousness_, -He means that there is some consistency between His processes in -creation, rational and immense as they are, and those poor efforts -He calls on our weakness to make, which look so foolish in face of -the world. Behind every moral effort there is, He says, Creative -force. Right and Might are ultimately one. Paul sums up the force of -the passage, when, after speaking of the success of his ministry, he -gives as its reason that the God of Creation and of Grace are the -same. _Therefore seeing we have received this ministry we faint not. -For God, who hath commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath -shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of God in -the face of Jesus Christ._ - -The spiritual Service of Man, then, has creative forces behind it; work -for God upon the hearts and characters of others has creative force -behind it. And nature is the seal and the sacrament of this. Let our -souls, therefore, dilate with her prospects. Let our impatience study -her reasonableness and her laws. Let our weak wills feel the rush of -her tides. For the power that is in her, and the faithful pursuance -of purposes to their ends, are the power and the character that work -behind each witness of our conscience, each effort of our heart for -others. Not less strong than she, not less calm, not less certain of -success, shall prove the moral Service of Man. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[177] The English equivalent is, _nor is loud_. - -[178] This time with the article, so not _the land_ of Judah only, -but _the Earth_. - -[179] Bax, _Religion of Socialism_. - -[180] This time "arets" with the article. So not the _land_ of Judah -only but the world. - -[181] The following are the four main meanings of "mishpat" in Isa. -xl.-lxvi.: 1. In a general sense, a legal process, xli. 1, _let us -come together to the judgement_, or _the law_ (with the article), -_cf._ l. 8, _man of my judgement_, _i.e._, my fellow-at-law, my -adversary; liii. 8, oppression and _judgement_, _i.e._, a judgement -which was oppressive, a legal injustice. 2. A person's _cause_ or -_right_, xl. 27, xlix. 4. 3. _Ordinance_ instituted by Jehovah -for the life and worship of His people, lviii. 2, _ordinances_ of -righteousness, _i.e._, either canonical _laws_, or ordinances by -observing which the people would make themselves righteous. 4. In -general, the sum of the laws given by Jehovah to Israel, _the Law_, -lviii. 2, _Law_ of their God; li. 4, Jehovah says _My Law_ (Rev. Ver. -_judgement_), parallel to "Torah" or Revelation (Rev. Ver. _law_). -Then absolutely, without the article or Jehovah's name attached, -xlii. 1, 3, 4. In lvi. 1 parallel to righteousness; lix. 14 parallel -to righteousness, truth and uprightness. In fact, in this last use, -while represented as equivalent to civic morality, it is this, not as -viewed in its character, _right_, _upright_, but in its obligation as -ordained by God: _morality_ as _His Law_. The absence of the article -may either mean what it means in the case of _people_ and _land_, -_i.e._, the _Law_, too much of a proper name to need the article, or -it may be an attempt to abstract the quality of the Law; and if so -mishpat is equal to _justice_. - -[182] _Expositor_, second series, vol. viii., p. 364. - -[183] This might, of course, only mean what the Servant had to do for -his captive countrymen. But coming as it does after the _light of -nations_, it seems natural to take it in its wider and more spiritual -sense. - -[184] See ch. xv. of this volume. - -[185] _Expositor_, second series, viii., pp. 364, 365, 366. - -[186] _Ibid._, p. 366. - - - - - CHAPTER XIX. - - _PROPHET AND MARTYR._ - - ISAIAH xlix. 1-9; l. 4-11. - - -The second great passage upon the Servant of the Lord is ch. xlix. -1-9, and the third is ch. l. 4-11. In both of these the servant -himself speaks; in both he speaks as prophet; while in the second -he tells us that his prophecy leads him on to martyrdom. The two -passages may, therefore, be taken together. - -Before we examine their contents, let us look for a moment at the -way in which they are woven into the rest of the text. As we have -seen, ch. xlix. begins a new section of the prophecy, in so far -that with it the prophet leaves Babylon and Cyrus behind him, and -ceases to speak of the contrast between God and the idols. But, -still, ch. xlix. is linked to ch. xlviii. In leading up to its -climax,--the summons to Israel to depart from Babylon,--ch. xlviii. -does not forget that Israel is delivered from Babylon in order to be -the Servant of Jehovah: _say ye, Jehovah hath redeemed His Servant -Jacob_. It is this service, which ch. xlix. carries forward from the -opportunity, and the call, to go forth from Babylon, with which ch. -xlviii. closes. That opportunity, though real, does not at all mean -that Israel's redemption is complete. There were many moral reasons -which prevented the whole nation from taking full advantage of the -political freedom offered them by Cyrus. Although the true Israel, -that part of the nation which has the conscience of service, has -shaken itself free from the temptation as well as from the tyranny -of Babel, and now sees the world before it as the theatre of its -operations,--ver. 1, _Hearken, ye isles, unto Me; and listen, ye -peoples, from far_,--it has still, before it can address itself to -that universal mission, to exhort, rouse and extricate the rest of -its nation, _saying to the bounden, Go forth; and to them that are -in darkness, Show yourselves_ (ver. 9). Ch. xlix., therefore, is -the natural development of ch. xlviii. There is certainly a little -interval of time implied between the two--the time during which it -became apparent that the opportunity to leave Babylon would not be -taken advantage of by all Israel, and that the nation's redemption -must be a moral as well as a political one. But ch. xlix. 1-9 comes -out of chs. xl.-xlviii., and it is impossible to believe that in it -we are not still under the influence of the same author. - -A similar coherence is apparent if we look to the other end of ch. -xlix. 1-9. Here it is evident that Jehovah's commission to the Servant -concludes with ver. 9_a_; but then its closing words, _Say to the -bound, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves_, start -fresh thoughts about the redeemed on their way back (vv. 9_b_-13); and -these thoughts naturally lead on to a picture of Jerusalem imagining -herself forsaken, and amazed by the appearance of so many of her -children before her (vv. 14-21). Promises to her and to them follow in -due sequence down to ch. l. 3, when the Servant resumes his soliloquy -about himself, but abruptly, and in no apparent connection with what -immediately precedes. His soliloquy ceases in ver. 9, and another -voice, probably that of God Himself, urges obedience to the Servant -(ver. 10), and judgement to the sinners in Israel (ver. 11); and ch. -li. is an address to the spiritual Israel, and to Jerusalem, with -thoughts much the same as those uttered in xlix. 14-l. 3. - -In face of these facts, and taking into consideration the dramatic -form in which the whole prophecy is cast, we find ourselves unable -to say that there is anything which is incompatible with a single -authorship, or which makes it impossible for the two passages on the -Servant to have originally sprung, each at the place at which it now -stands, from the progress of the prophet's thoughts.[187] - - * * * * * - -Babylon is left behind, and the way of the Lord is prepared in the -desert. Israel have once more the title-deeds to their own land, and -Zion looms in sight. Yet with their face to home, and their heart -upon freedom, the voice of this people, or at least of the better -half of this people, rises first upon the conscience of their duty to -the rest of mankind. - - _Hearken, O Isles, unto Me;_ - _And listen, O Peoples, from far!_ - _From the womb Jehovah hath called me,_ - _From my mother's midst mentioned my name._[188] - _And He set my mouth like a sharp sword,_ - _In the shadow of His hand did He hide me;_ - _Yea, He made me a pointed arrow,_ - _In His quiver He laid me in store,_ - _And said to me, My Servant art thou,_ - _Israel, in whom I shall break into glory. - And I--I said, In vain have I laboured,_ - _For waste and for wind my strength have I spent!_ - _Surely my right's with Jehovah,_ - _And the meed of my work with my God!_ - - _But now, saith Jehovah--_ - _Moulding me from the womb to be His own Servant,_ - _To turn again Jacob towards Him,_ - _And that Israel be not destroyed._[189] - _And I am of honour in the eyes of Jehovah,_ - _And my God is my strength!_ - _And He saith,_ - _'Tis too light for thy being My Servant,_ - _To raise up the tribes of Jacob,_ - _Or gather the survivors of Israel._ - _So I will set thee a light of the Nations,_ - _To be My salvation to the end of the earth._ - - _Thus saith Jehovah,_ - _Israel's Redeemer, his Holy,_ - _To_ this _mockery of a life, abhorrence of a nation, servant - of tyrants,_[190] - _Kings shall behold and shall stand up,_ - _Princes shall also do homage,_ - _For the sake of Jehovah, who shows Himself faithful,_ - _Holy of Israel, and thou art His chosen. - Thus saith Jehovah,_ - _In a favourable time I have given thee answer,_ - _In the day of salvation have helped thee,_ - _To keep thee, to give thee for covenant of the people,_ - _To raise up the land,_ - _To give back the heirs to the desolate heirdoms,_ - _Saying to the bounden, Go forth!_ - _To them that are in darkness, Appear!_ - -"Who is so blind as not to perceive that the consciousness of the -Servant here is only a mirror in which the history of Israel is -reflected--first, in its original call and design that Jehovah -should be glorified in it; second, in the long delay and apparent -failure of the design; and, thirdly, as the design is now in the -present juncture of circumstances and concurrence of events about -to be realized?"[191] Yes: but it is Israel's calling, native -insufficiency, and present duty, as owned by only a part of the -people, which, though named by the national name (ver. 3), feels -itself standing over against the bulk of the nation, whose redemption -it is called to work out (vv. 8 and 9) before it takes up its -world-wide service. We have already sufficiently discussed this -distinction of the Servant from the whole nation, as well as the -distinction of the moral work he has to effect in Israel's redemption -from Babylon, from the political enfranchisement of the nation, which -is the work of Cyrus. Let us, then, at once address ourselves to the -main features of his consciousness of his mission to mankind. We -shall find these features to be three. The Servant owns for his chief -end the glory of God; and he feels that he has to glorify God in two -ways--by Speech, and by Suffering. - - - I. THE SERVANT GLORIFIES GOD. - - _He did say to me, My servant art thou, - Israel, in whom I shall break into glory._ - -The Hebrew verb, which the Authorised Version translates _will be -glorified_, means to _burst forth_, _become visible_, break like the -dawn into splendour. This is the scriptural sense of Glory. Glory -is God become visible. As we put it in Volume I.,[192] glory is the -expression of holiness, as beauty is the expression of health. But, -in order to become visible, the Absolute and Holy God needs mortal -man. We have felt something like a paradox in these prophecies. -Nowhere else is God lifted up so absolute, and so able to effect -all by His mere will and word; yet nowhere else is a human agency -and service so strongly asserted as indispensable to the Divine -purpose. But this is no more a paradox, than the fact that physical -light needs some material in which to become visible. Light is -never revealed of itself, but always when shining from, or burning -in, something else. To be seen, light requires a surface that will -reflect, or a substance that will consume. And so, to _break into -glory_, God requires something outside Himself. A responsive portion -of humanity is indispensable to Him,--a people who will reflect Him -and spend itself for Him. Man is the mirror and the wick of the -Divine. God is glorified in man's character and witness,--these are -His mirror; and in man's sacrifice,--that is His wick. - -And so we meet again the central truth of our prophecy, that in order -to serve men it is necessary first to be used of God. We must place -ourselves at the disposal of the Divine, we must let God shine on -us and kindle us, and break into glory through us, before we can -hope either to comfort mankind or to set them on fire. It is true -that ideas very different from this prevail among the ranks of the -servants of humanity in our day. A large part of our most serious -literature professes for "its main bearing this conclusion, that -the fellowship between man and man, which has been the principle of -development, social and moral, is not dependent upon conceptions of -what is not man, and that the idea of God, so far as it has been -a high spiritual influence, is the ideal of a goodness entirely -human."[193] But such theories are possible only so long as the -still unexhausted influence of religion upon society continues to -supply human nature, directly or indirectly, with a virtue which -may be plausibly claimed for human nature's own original product. -Let religion be entirely withdrawn, and the question, Whence comes -virtue? will be answered by virtue ceasing to come at all. The savage -imagines that it is the burning-glass which sets the bush on fire, -and as long as the sun is shining it may be impossible to convince -him that he is wrong; but a dull day will teach even his mind that -the glass can do nothing without the sun upon it. And so, though men -may talk glibly against God, while society still shines in the light -of His countenance, yet, if they and society resolutely withdraw -themselves from that light, they shall certainly lose every heat and -lustre of the spirit which is indispensable for social service.[194] -On this the ancient Greek was at one with the ancient Hebrew. -_Enthusiasm_ is just _God breaking into glory_ through a human life. -Here lies the secret of the buoyancy and "freshness of the earlier -world," whether pagan or Hebrew, and by this may be understood the -depression and pessimism which infects modern society. They had God -in their blood, and we are anæmic. _But I, I said, I have laboured in -vain; for waste and for wind have I spent my strength._ We must all -say that, if our last word is _our strength_. But let this not be our -last word. Let us remember the sufficient answer: _Surely my right is -with the Lord, and the meed of my work with my God_. We are set, not -in our own strength or for our own advantage, but with the hand of -God upon us, and that the Divine life may _break into glory_ through -our life. Carlyle said, and it was almost his last testimony, "The -older I grow, and I am now on the brink of eternity, the more comes -back to me the first sentence of the catechism, which I learned when -a child, and the fuller does its meaning grow--'What is the chief end -of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him for ever.'" - - * * * * * - -It was said above, that, as light breaks to visibleness either from a -mirror or a wick, so God _breaks to glory_ either from the witness of -men,--that is His mirror,--or from their sacrifice--that is His wick. -Of both of these ways of glorifying God is the Servant conscious. His -service is Speech and Sacrifice, Prophecy and Martyrdom. - - - II. THE SERVANT AS PROPHET. - -Concerning his service of Speech, the Servant speaks in these two -passages--ch. xlix. 2 and l. 4-5: - - _He set my mouth like a sharp sword,_ - _In the shadow of His hand did He hide me,_ - _And made me a pointed arrow;_ - _In His quiver He laid me in store._ - - _My Lord Jehovah hath given me_ - _The tongue of the learners,_ - _To know how to succour the weary with words._ - _He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear_ - _To hear as the learners._ - _My Lord Jehovah hath opened mine ear._ - _I was not rebellious,_ - _Nor turned away backward._ - -At the bidding of our latest prophet we have become suspicious of -the power of speech, and the goddess of eloquence walks, as it -were, under surveillance among us. Carlyle reiterated, "All speech -and rumour is short-lived, foolish, untrue. Genuine work alone is -eternal. The talent of silence is our fundamental one. The dumb -nations are the builders of the world." Under such doctrine some have -grown intolerant of words, and the ideal of to-day tends to become -the practical man rather than the prophet. Yet, as somebody has -said, Carlyle makes us dissatisfied with preaching only by preaching -himself; and you have but to read him with attention to discover that -his disgust with human speech is consistent with an immense reverence -for the voice as an instrument of service to humanity. "The tongue -of man," he says, "is a sacred organ. Man himself is definable in -philosophy as an 'Incarnate Word;' the Word not there, you have no -man there either, but a Phantasm instead." - -Let us examine our own experience upon the merits of this debate -between Silence and Speech in the service of man. Though beginning -low, it will help us quickly to the height of the experience of the -Prophet Nation, who, with nought else for the world but the voice -that was in them, accomplished the greatest service that the world -has ever received from her children. - -One thing is certain,--that Speech has not the monopoly of falsehood -or of any other presumptuous sin. Silence does not only mean -ignorance,--by some supposed to be the heaviest sin of which Silence -can be guilty,--but many things far worse than ignorance, like -unreadiness, and cowardice, and falsehood, and treason, and base -consent to what is evil. No man can look back on his past life, however -lowly or limited his sphere may have been, and fail to see that not -once or twice his supreme duty was a word, and his guilt was not to -have spoken it. We all have known the shame of being straitened in -prayer or praise; the shame of being, through our cowardice to bear -witness, traitors to the truth; the shame of being too timid to say No -to the tempter, and speak out the brave reasons of which the heart was -full; the shame of finding ourselves incapable of uttering the word -that would have kept a soul from taking the wrong turning in life; the -shame, when truth, clearness and authority were required from us, of -being able only to stammer or to mince or to rant. To have been dumb -before the ignorant or the dying, before a questioning child or before -the tempter,--this, the frequent experience of our common life, is -enough to justify Carlyle when he said, "If the Word is not there, you -have no man there either, but a Phantasm instead." - -Now, when we look within ourselves we see the reason of this. We -perceive that the one fact, which amid the mystery and chaos of our -inner life gives certainty and light, is a fact which is a Voice. -Our nature may be wrecked and dissipated, but conscience is always -left; or in ignorance and gloom, but conscience is always audible; or -with all the faculties strong and assertive, yet conscience is still -unquestionably queen,--and conscience is a Voice. It is a still, small -voice, which is the surest thing in man, and the noblest; which makes -all the difference in his life; which lies at the back and beginning -of all his character and conduct. And the most indispensable, and the -grandest service, therefore, which a man can do his fellow-men, is -to get back to this voice, and make himself its mouthpiece and its -prophet. What work is possible till the word be spoken? Did ever order -come to social life before there was first uttered the command, in -which men felt the articulation and enforcement of the ultimate voice -within themselves? Discipline and instruction and energy have not -appeared without speech going before them. Knowledge and faith and hope -do not dawn of themselves; they travel, as light issued forth in the -beginning, upon the pulses of the speaking breath. - -It was the greatness of Israel to be conscious of their call as a -nation to this fundamental service of humanity. Believing in the -Word of God as the original source of all things,--_In the beginning -God said, Let there be light; and there was light_,--they had the -conscience, that, as it had been in the physical world, so must it -always be in the moral. Men were to be served and their lives to be -moulded by the Word. God was to be glorified by letting His Word break -through the life and the lips of men. There was in the Old Testament, -it is true, a triple ideal of manhood: _prophet_, _priest and king_. -But the greatest of these was the prophet, for king and priest had to -be prophets too. Eloquence was a royal virtue,--with persuasion, the -power of command and swift judgement. Among the seven spirits of the -Lord which Isaiah sees descending in the King-to-Come is the spirit -of counsel, and he afterwards adds of the King: _He shall smite the -earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall -he slay the wicked_. Similarly, the priests had originally been the -ministers, not so much of sacrifice, as of the revealed Word of God. -And now the new and high ideal of priesthood, the laying down of one's -life a sacrifice for God and for the people, was not the mere imitation -of the animal victim required by the priestly law, but was the natural -development of the prophetic experience. It was (as we shall presently -see) the prophet, who, in his inevitable sufferings on behalf of the -truth he uttered, developed that consciousness of sacrifice for others, -in which the loftiest priesthood consists. Prophecy, therefore, the -Service of Men by the Word of God, was for Israel the highest and -most essential of all service. It was the individual's and it was -the nation's ideal. As there was no true king and no true priest, so -there was no true man, without the Word. _Would to God_, said Moses, -_that all the Lord's people were prophets_. And in our prophecy Israel -exclaims: _Listen, O Isles, unto me; and hearken, ye peoples from far. -He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of His hand -hath He hid me._ - -At first it seems a forlorn hope thus to challenge the attention of -the world in the dialect of one of its most obscure provinces,--a -dialect, too, that was already ceasing to be spoken even there. But -the fact only serves more forcibly to emphasize the belief of these -prophets, that the word committed to what they must have known to -be a dying language was the Word of God Himself,--bound to render -immortal the tongue in which it was spoken, bound to re-echo to the -ends of the earth, bound to touch the conscience and commend itself -to the reason of universal humanity. We have already seen, and will -again see, how our prophet insists upon the creative and omnipotent -power of God's Word; so we need not dwell longer on this instance -of his faith. Let us look rather at what he expresses as Israel's -preparation for the teaching of it. - -To him the discipline and qualification of the prophet nation--and -that means, of every Servant of God--in the high office of the Word, -are threefold. - -1. First, he lays down the supreme condition of Prophecy, that -behind the Voice there must be the Life. Before he speaks of his -gifts of Speech, the Servant emphasizes his peculiar and consecrated -life. _From the womb Jehovah called me, from my mother's midst -mentioned my name._ Now, as we all know, Israel's message to the -world was largely Israel's life. The Old Testament is not a set of -dogmas, nor a philosophy, nor a vision; but a history, the record -of a providence, the testimony of experience, the utterances called -forth by historical occasions from a life conscious of the purpose -for which God has called it and set it apart through the ages. But -these words, which the prophet nation uses, were first used of an -individual prophet. Like so much else in "Second Isaiah," we find a -suggestion of them in the call of Jeremiah. _Before I formed thee -in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest forth from the -womb I consecrated thee: I have appointed thee a prophet unto the -nations._[195] A prophet is not a voice only. A prophet is a life -behind a voice. He who would speak for God must have lived for God. -According to the profound insight of the Old Testament, speech is -not the expression of a few thoughts of a man, but the utterance of -his whole life. A man blossoms through his lips;[196] and no man is -a prophet, whose word is not the virtue and the flower of a gracious -and a consecrated life. - -2. The second discipline of the prophet is the Art of Speech. _He hath -made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of His hand hath He -hid me: He hath made me a polished shaft, in His quiver hath He laid -me in store._ It is very evident, that in these words the Servant does -not only recount technical qualifications, but a moral discipline as -well. The edge and brilliance of his speech are stated as the effect -of solitude, but of a solitude that was at the same time a nearness -to God. Now solitude is a great school of eloquence. In speaking of -the Semitic race, of which Israel was part, we pointed out that, -prophet-race of the world as it has proved, it sprang from the desert, -and nearly all its branches have inherited the desert's clear and -august style of speech; for, in the leisure and serene air of the -desert, men speak as they speak nowhere else. But Israel speaks of a -solitude, that was the shadow of God's hand, and the fastness of God's -quiver; a seclusion, which, to the desert's art of eloquence, added a -special inspiration by God, and a special concentration upon His main -purpose in the world. The desert sword felt the grasp of God; He laid -the Semitic shaft in store for a unique end.[197] - -3. But in ch. l., vv. 4-5, the Servant unfolds the most beautiful and -true understanding of the Secret of Prophecy, that ever was unfolded -in any literature,--worth quoting again by us, if so we may get it by -heart. - - _My Lord Jehovah hath given me_ - _The tongue of the learners,_ - _To know how to succour the weary with words._ - _He wakeneth, morning by morning He wakeneth mine ear_ - _To hear as the learners._ - _My Lord Jehovah hath opened mine ear,_ - _I was not rebellious,_ - _Nor turned away backward._ - -The prophet, say these beautiful lines, learns his speech, as the -little child does, by listening. Grace is poured upon the lips -through the open ear. It is the lesson of our Lord's Ephphatha. When -He took the deaf man with the impediment in his speech aside from -the multitude privately, He said unto him, not, Be loosed, but, _Be -opened; and_ first _his ears were opened, and_ then the _bond of his -tongue was loosed, and he spake plain_. To speak, then, the prophet -must listen; but mark to what he must listen! The secret of his -eloquence lies not in the hearing of thunder, nor in the knowledge of -mysteries, but in a daily wakefulness to the lessons and experience -of common life. _Morning by morning He openeth mine ear._ This is -very characteristic of Hebrew prophecy and Hebrew wisdom, which -listened for the truth of God in the voices of each day, drew their -parables from things the rising sun lights up to every wakeful eye, -and were, in the bulk of their doctrine, the virtues, needed day -by day, of justice, temperance and mercy, and in the bulk of their -judgements the results of everyday observation and experience. The -strength of the Old Testament lies in this its realism, its daily -vigilance and experience of life. It is its contact with life--the -life, not of the yesterday of its speakers, but of their to-day--that -makes its voice so fresh and helpful to the weary. He whose ear is -daily open to the music of his current life will always find himself -in possession of words that refresh and stimulate. - -But serviceable speech needs more than attentiveness and experience. -Having gained the truth, the prophet must be obedient and loyal to -it. Yet obedience and loyalty to the truth are the beginnings of -martyrdom, of which the Servant now goes on to speak as the natural -and immediate consequence of his prophecy. - - - III. THE SERVANT AS MARTYR. - -The classes of men, who suffer physical ill-usage at the hands of -their fellow-men, may roughly be described as three,--the Military -Enemy, the Criminal, and the Prophet; and of these three we have -only to read history to know that the Prophet fares by far the -worst. However fatal men's treatment of their enemies in war or of -their criminals may be, it is, nevertheless, subject to a certain -order, code of honour or principle of justice. But in all ages -the Prophet has been the target for the most licentious spite and -cruelty; for torture, indecency and filth past belief. Although our -own civilisation has outlived the system of physical punishment -for speech, we even yet see philosophers and statesmen, who have -used no weapons but exposition and persuasion, treated by their -opponents--who would speak of a foreign enemy with respect--with -execration, gross epithets, vile abuse and insults, that the -offenders would not pour upon a criminal. If we have this under -our own eyes, let us think how the Prophet must have fared before -humanity learned to meet speech by speech. Because men attacked it, -not with the sword of the invader or with the knife of the assassin, -but with words, therefore (till not very long ago) society let -loose upon them the foulest indignities and most horrible torments. -Socrates' valour as a soldier did not save him from the malicious -slander, the false witness, the unjust trial and the poison, -with which the Athenians answered his speech against themselves. -Even Hypatia's womanhood did not awe the mob from tearing her to -pieces for her teaching. This unique and invariable experience of -the Prophet is summed up and clenched in the name Martyr. Martyr -originally meant a _witness or witness-bearer_, but now it is the -synonym for every shame and suffering which the cruel ingenuity of -men's black hearts can devise for those they hate. A Book of Battles -is horrible enough, but at least valour and honour have kept down -in it the baser passions. A Newgate Chronicle is ugly enough, but -there at least is discipline and an hospital. You have got to go to -a Book of Martyrs to see to what sourness, wickedness, malignity, -pitilessness and ferocity men's hearts can lend themselves. There is -something in the mere utterance of truth, that rouses the very devil -in the hearts of many men. - -Thus it had always been in Israel, nation not only of prophets, but -of the slayers of prophets. According to Christ, prophet-slaying -was the ineradicable habit of Israel. _Ye are the sons of them that -slew the prophets.... O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killer of prophets -and stoner of them that are sent unto her!_ To them who bare it the -word of Jehovah had always been _a reproach_: cause of estrangement, -indignities, torments, and sometimes of death. Up to the time of our -prophet there had been the following notable sufferers for the Word: -Elijah; Micaiah the son of Imlah; Isaiah, if the story be true that -he was slain by Manasseh; but nearer, more lonely and more heroic -than all, Jeremiah, a _laughing-stock_ and _mockery_, _reviled_, -_smitten_, fettered, and condemned to death. In words which recall -the experience of so many individual Israelites, and most of which -were used by Jeremiah of himself, the Servant of Jehovah describes -his martyrdom in immediate consequence from his prophecy. - - _And I--I was not rebellious,_ - _Nor turned away backward._ - _My back I have given to the smiters,_ - _And my cheek to tormenters;_ - _My face I hid not from insults and spitting._ - -These are not national sufferings. They are no reflection of the hard -usage which the captive Israel suffered from Babylon. They are the -reflection of the reproach and pains, which, for the sake of God's -word, individual Israelites more than once experienced from their own -nation. But if individual experience, and not national, formed the -original of this picture of the Servant as Martyr, then surely we -have in this another strong reason against the objection to recognise -in the Servant at last an individual. It may be, of course, that -for the moment our prophet feels that this frequent experience of -individuals in Israel is to be realised by the faithful Israel, as a -whole, in their treatment by the rest of their cruel and unspiritual -countrymen. But the very fact that individuals have previously -fulfilled this martyrdom in the history of Israel, surely makes it -possible for our prophet to foresee, that the Servant, who is to -fulfil it again, shall also be an individual. - -But, returning from this slight digression on the person of the Servant -to his fate, let us emphasize again, that his sufferings came to him as -the result of his prophesying. The Servant's sufferings are not penal, -they are not yet felt to be vicarious. They are simply the reward with -which obdurate Israel met all her prophets, the inevitable martyrdom -which followed on the uttering of God's Word. And in this the Servant's -experience forms an exact counterpart to that of our Lord. For to -Christ also reproach and agony and death--whatever higher meaning they -evolved--came as the result of His Word. The fact that Jesus suffered -as our great High Priest must not make us forget, that His sufferings -fell upon Him because He was a Prophet. He argued explicitly He must -suffer, because so suffered the prophets before Him. He put Himself -in the line of the martyrs: as they had killed the servants, He said, -so would they kill the Son. Thus it happened. His enemies sought _to -entangle Him in His talk_: it was for His talk they brought Him to -trial. Each torment and indignity which the Prophet-Servant relates, -Jesus suffered to the letter. They put Him to shame and insulted -Him;[198] His helpless hands were bound; they spat in His face and -smote Him with their palms; they mocked and they reviled Him; scourged -Him again; teased and tormented Him; hung Him between thieves; and -to the last the ribald jests went up, not only from the soldiers and -the rabble, but from the learned and the religious authorities as -well, to whom His fault had been that He preached another word than -their own. The literal fulfilments of our prophecy are striking, but -the main fulfilment, of which they are only incidents, is, that like -the Servant, our Lord suffered directly as a Prophet. He enforced and -He submitted to the essential obligation, which lies upon the true -Prophet, of suffering for the Word's sake. Let us remember to carry -this over with us to our final study of the Suffering Servant as the -expiation for sin. - -In the meantime, we have to conclude the Servant's appearance as -Martyr in ch. l. He has accepted his martyrdom; but he feels it is -not the end with him. God will bring him through, and vindicate him -in the eyes of the world. For the world, in their usual way, will say -that because he gives them a new truth he must be wrong, and because -he suffers he is surely guilty and cursed before God. But he will not -let himself be confounded, for God is his help and advocate. - - _But my Lord Jehovah shall help me;_ - _Therefore, I let not myself be rebuffed: - Therefore, I set my face like a flint,_ - _And know that I shall not be shamed._ - _Near is my Justifier; who will dispute with me?_ - _Let us stand up together!_ - _Who is mine adversary?_[199] - _Let him draw near me._ - _Lo! my Lord Jehovah shall help me;_ - _Who is he that condemns me?_ - _Lo! like a garment all of them rot;_ - _The moth doth devour them._ - -These lines, in which the Holy Servant, the Martyr of the Word, -defies the world and asserts that God shall vindicate his innocence, -are taken by Paul and used to assert the justification, which every -believer enjoys through faith in the sufferings of Him, who was -indeed the Holy Servant of God.[200] - -The last two verses of ch. l. are somewhat difficult. The first of them -still speaks of the Servant,[201] and distinguishes him--a distinction -we must note and emphasize--from the God-fearing in Israel. - - _Who is among you that feareth Jehovah,_ - _That hearkens the voice of His Servant,_ - _That walks in dark places,_ - _And light he has none?_ - _Let him trust in the name of Jehovah,_ - _And lean on his God._ - -That is, every pious believer in Israel is to take the Servant for an -example; for the Servant in distress _leans upon his God_. And so -Paul's application of the Servant's words to the individual believer is -a correct one. But if our prophet is able to think of the Servant as an -example to the individual Israelite, that surely is a thought not very -far from the conception of the Servant himself as an individual. - -If ver. 10 is addressed to the pious in Israel, ver. 11 would seem to -turn with a last word--as the last words of the discourses in Second -Isaiah so often turn--to the wicked in Israel. - - _Lo! all you, players with fire,_[202] - _That gird you with firebrands!_ - _Walk in the light of your fire,_ - _In the firebrands ye kindled._ - _This from my hand shall be yours;_ - _Ye shall lie down in sorrow._ - -It is very difficult to know, who are meant by this warning. An old -and almost forgotten interpretation is, that the prophet meant those -exiles who played with the fires of political revolution, instead of -abiding the deliverance of the Lord. But there is now current among -exegetes the more general interpretation that these incendiaries are -the revilers and abusers of the Servant within Israel: for so the -Psalms speak of the slingers of burning words at the righteous. We -must notice, however, that the metaphor stands over against those in -Israel who _walk in dark places and have no light_. In contrast to -that kind of life, this may be the kind that coruscates with vanity, -flashes with pride, or burns and scorches with its evil passions. -We have a similar name for such a life. We call it a display of -fireworks. The prophet tells them, who depend on nothing but their -own false fires, how transient these are, how quickly quenched. - -But is it not weird, that on our prophet's stage, however brilliantly -its centre shines with figures of heroes and deeds of salvation, there -should always be this dark, lurid background of evil and accursed men? - -FOOTNOTES: - -[187] This, of course, goes against Prof. Briggs's theory of the -composition of Isa. xl.-lxvi. out of two poems (see p. 18). - -[188] This line is full of the letter m. - -[189] This is as the text is written; but the Massoretic reading -gives, _that Israel to Him may be gathered_. - -[190] So it seems best to give the sense of this difficult line, but -most translators render _despised of soul_, or _thoroughly despised_, -_abhorred by peoples_, or _by a people_, etc. The word for _despised_ -is used elsewhere only in ch. liii. 3. - -[191] Prof. A. B. Davidson, _Expositor_, Second Series, viii., 441. - -[192] Page 68. - -[193] So George Eliot wrote of her own writings shortly before her -death. See _Life_, iii., 245. - -[194] Lady Ponsonby, to whom George Eliot wrote the letter quoted -above, confessed that, with the disappearance of religious faith from -her soul, there vanished also the power of interest in, and of pity -for, her kind. - -[195] Jer. i. 5. - -[196] See vol. i., p. 70. - -[197] See p. 240 f. - -[198] How all their meanness, how all the sense of shame from which -He suffered, breaks forth in these words: _Are ye come out as against -a robber?_ - -[199] Literally, _lord of my cause_; my adversary or opponent at law. - -[200] Epistle to the Romans, viii., 31 ff. - -[201] Though Cheyne takes _His Servant_ in ver. 10 to be, not the -Servant, but the prophet. - -[202] _Kindlers of fire_ is the literal rendering. But the word is -not the common word to kindle, and is here used of wanton fireraising. - - - - - CHAPTER XX. - - _THE SUFFERING SERVANT._ - - ISAIAH lii. 13-liii. - - -We are now arrived at the last of the passages on the Servant of the -Lord. It is known to Christendom as the Fifty-third of Isaiah, but -its verses have, unfortunately, been divided between two chapters, -lii. 13-15 and liii. Before we attempt the interpretation of this -high and solemn passage of Revelation, let us look at its position in -our prophecy, and examine its structure. - -The peculiarities of the style and of the vocabulary of ch. lii. -13-liii., along with the fact, that, if it be omitted, the prophecies -on either side readily flow together, have led some critics to -suppose it to be an insertion, borrowed from an earlier writer.[203] -The style--broken, sobbing and recurrent--is certainly a change from -the forward, flowing sentences, on which we have been carried up till -now, and there are a number of words that we find quite new to us. -Yet surely both style and words are fully accounted for by the novel -and tragic nature of the subject, to which the prophet has brought -us: regret and remorse, though they speak through the same lips as -hope and the assurance of salvation, must necessarily do so with a -very different accent and set of terms. Criticism surely overreaches -itself, when it suggests that a writer, so versatile and dramatic as -our prophet, could not have written ch. lii. 13-liii. along with, -say, ch. xl. or ch. lii. 1-12 or ch. liv. We might as well be asked -to assign to different authors Hamlet's soliloquy, and the King's -conversation, in the same play, with the ambassadors from Norway. To -aver that if ch. lii. 13-liii. were left out, no one who had not seen -it would miss it, so closely does ch. liv. follow on to ch. lii. 12, -is to aver what means nothing. In any dramatic work you may leave -out the finest passage,--from a Greek tragedy its grandest chorus, -or from a play of Shakespeare's the hero's soliloquy,--without -seeming, to eyes that have not seen what you have done, to have -disturbed the connection of the whole. Observe the juncture in our -prophecy at which this last passage on the Servant appears. It is -one exactly the same as that at which another great passage on the -Servant was inserted (ch. xlix. 1-9), viz., just after a call to -the people to seize the redemption achieved for them and to come -forth from Babylon. It is the kind of climax or pause in their tale, -which dramatic writers of all kinds employ for the solemn utterance -of principles lying at the back, or transcending the scope, of the -events of which they treat. To say the least, it is surely more -probable that our prophet himself employed so natural an opportunity -to give expression to his highest truths about the Servant, than -that some one else took his work, broke up another already extant -work on the Servant and thrust the pieces of the latter into the -former. Moreover, we shall find many of the ideas, as well as of the -phrases, of ch. lii. 13-liii. to be essentially the same as some we -have already encountered in our prophecy.[204] - -There is then no evidence that this singular prophecy ever stood apart -from its present context, or that it was written by another writer than -the prophet, by whom we have hitherto found ourselves conducted. On -the contrary, while it has links with what goes before it, we see good -reasons, why the prophet should choose just this moment for uttering -its unique and transcendent contents, as well as why he should employ -in it a style and a vocabulary, so different from his usual. - -Turning now to the structure of ch. lii. 13-liii., we observe that, -as arranged in the Canon, there are fifteen verses in the prophecy. -These fifteen verses fall into five strophes of three verses each, -as printed by the Revised English Version. When set in their own -original lines, however, the strophes appear, not of equal, but of -increasing length. As will be seen from the version given below, the -first (ch. lii. 13-15) has nine lines, the second (ch. liii. 1-3) has -ten lines, the third (vv. 4-6) has eleven lines, the fourth (vv. 7-9) -thirteen lines, the fifth (vv. 10-12) fourteen lines. This increase -would be absolutely regular, if, in the fourth strophe, we made -either the first two lines one, or the last two one, and if in the -fifth again we ran the first two lines together,--changes which the -metre allows and some translators have adopted. But, in either case, -we perceive a regular increase from strophe to strophe, that is not -only one of the many marks with which this most artistic of poems has -been elaborated, but gives the reader the very solemn impression of -a truth that is ever gathering more of human life into itself, and -sweeping forward with fuller and more resistless volume. - -Each strophe, it is well to notice, begins with one word or two -words which summarise the meaning of the whole strophe and form a -title for it. Thus, after the opening exclamation _Behold_, the -words _My Servant shall prosper_ form, as we shall see, not only a -summary of the first strophe, in which his ultimate exaltation is -described, but the theme of the whole prophecy. Strophe ii. begins -_Who hath believed_, and accordingly in this strophe the unbelief -and thoughtlessness of them who saw the Servant without feeling -the meaning of his suffering is confessed. _Surely our sicknesses_ -fitly entitles strophe iii., in which the people describe how the -Servant in his suffering was their substitute. _Oppressed yet he -humbled himself_ is the headline of strophe iv., and that strophe -deals with the humility and innocence of the Servant in contrast to -the injustice accorded him. While the headline of strophe v., _But -Jehovah had purposed_, brings us back to the main theme of the poem, -that behind men's treatment of the Servant is God's holy will; which -theme is elaborated and brought to its conclusion in strophe v. These -opening and entitling words of each strophe are printed, in the -following translation, in larger type than the rest. - -As in the rest of Hebrew poetry, so here, the measure is neither -regular nor smooth, and does not depend on rhyme. Yet there is an -amount of assonance, which at times approaches to rhyme. Much of the -meaning of the poem depends on the use of the personal pronouns--_we_ -and _he_ stand contrasted to each other--and it is these coming in a -lengthened form at the end of many of the lines that suggest to the -ear something like rhyme. For instance, in liii. 5, 6, the second -and third verses of the third strophe, two of the lines run out on -the bisyllable -ênu, two on înu, and two on the word lanu, while the -third has ênu, not at the end, but in the middle; in each case, the -pronominal suffix of the first person plural. We transcribe these -lines to show the effect of this. - - W^ehu' m^eholal mipp^esha'ênu - M^edhukka' me`awonothênu - Musar sh^elomenu `alaw - Ubhahabhuratho nirpa'-lanu - Kullanu kass-ss'on ta`înu - 'îsh l^edharko panînu - Wa Jahweh hiphgî`a bô 'eth-`awon kullanu. - -This is the strophe in which the assonance comes oftenest to rhyme; -but in strophe i. êhu ends two lines, and in strophe ii. it ends -three. These and other assonants occur also at the beginning and in -the middle of lines. We must remember that in all the cases quoted -it is the personal pronouns, which give the assonance,--the personal -pronouns on which so much of the meaning of the poem turns; and -that, therefore, the parallelism primarily intended by the writer is -one rather of meaning than of sound. The pair of lines, parallel in -meaning, though not in sound, which forms so large a part of Hebrew -poetry, is used throughout this poem; but the use of it is varied -and elaborated to a unique degree. The very same words and phrases -are repeated, and placed on points, from which they seem to call to -each other; as, for instance, the double _many_ in strophe i., the -_of us all_ in strophe iii., and _nor opened he his mouth_ in strophe -iv. The ideas are very few and very simple; the words _he_, _we_, -_his_, _ours_, _see_, _hear_, _know_, _bear_, _sickness_, _strike_, -_stroke_, and _many_ form, with prepositions and particles, the -bulk of the prophecy. It will be evident how singularly suitable -this recurrence is for the expression of reproach, and of sorrowful -recollection. It is the nature of grief and remorse to harp upon the -one dear form, the one most vivid pain. The finest instance of this -repetition is verse 6, with its opening keynote "kullanu"--_of us all -like sheep went astray_, with its close on that keynote _guilt of us -all_, "kullanu." But throughout notes are repeated, and bars recur, -expressive of what was done to the Servant, or what the Servant did -for man, which seem in their recurrence to say, You cannot hear too -much of me: I am the very Gospel. A peculiar sadness is lent to the -music by the letters h and l in "holie" and "hehelie," the word for -sickness or ailing (ailing is the English equivalent in sense and -sound), which happens so often in the poem. The new words, which -have been brought to vary this recurrence of a few simple features, -are mostly of a sombre type. The heavier letters throng the lines: -grievous _bs_ and _ms_ are multiplied, and syllables with long vowels -before _m_ and _w_. But the words sob as well as tramp; and here and -there one has a wrench and one a cry in it. - -Most wonderful and mysterious of all is the spectral fashion in which -the prophecy presents its Hero. He is named only in the first line -and once again: elsewhere He is spoken of as He. We never hear or -see Himself. But all the more solemnly is He there: a shadow upon -countless faces, a grievous memory on the hearts of the speakers. He -so haunts all we see and all we hear, that we feel it is not Art, but -Conscience, that speaks of Him. - -Here is now the prophecy itself, rendered into English quite -literally, except for a conjunction here and there, and, as far as -possible, in the rhythm of the original. A few necessary notes on -difficult words and phrases are given. - - - I. - - lii. 13: _Behold, my Servant shall prosper,_[205] - _Shall rise, be lift up, be exceedingly high._[206] - - _Like as they that were astonied before thee were many,_ - _--So marred from a man's was his visage,_ - _And his form from the children of men!--_ - _So shall the nations he startles_[207] _be many,_ - _Before him shall kings shut their mouths._ - _For that which had never been told them they see,_ - _And what they had heard not, they have to consider._ - - - - II. - - _Who gave believing to that which we heard,_[208] - _And the arm of Jehovah to whom was it bared?_ - _For he sprang like a sapling before Him,_[209] - _As a root from the ground that is parched;_ - _He had no form nor beauty that we should regard him,_ - _Nor aspect that we should desire him._ - _Despised and rejected of men,_ - _Man of pains and familiar with ailing,_ - _And as one we do cover the face from,_ - _Despised, and we did not esteem him._ - - - III. - - _Surely our ailments he bore,_ - _And our pains he did take for his burden._[210] - _But we--we accounted him stricken,_ - _Smitten of God and degraded._[211] - _Yet he--he was pierced for crimes that were ours,_[212] - _He was crushed for guilt that was ours,_[212] - _The chastisement of our peace was upon him,_ - _By his stripes healing is ours._[212] - _Of us all_[213] _like to sheep went astray,_ - _Every man to his way we did turn,_ - _And Jehovah made light upon him_ - _The guilt of us all._ - - - IV. - - _Oppressed, he did humble himself,_ - _Nor opened his mouth--_ - _As a lamb to the slaughter is led,_ - _As a sheep 'fore her shearers is dumb--_ - _Nor opened his mouth._ - _By tyranny and law was he taken;_[214] - _And of his age who reflected,_ - _That he was wrenched_[215] _from the land of the living,_ - _For My people's transgressions the stroke was on him?_ - _So they made with the wicked his grave,_ - _Yea, with the felon_[216] _his tomb._ - _Though never harm had he done,_ - _Neither was guile in his mouth._ - - - V. - - _But Jehovah had purposed to bruise him,_ - _Had laid on him sickness; - So_[217] _if his life should offer guilt offering,_ - _A seed he should see, he should lengthen his days._ - _And the purpose of Jehovah by his hand should prosper,_ - _From the travail of his soul shall he see,_[218] - _By his knowledge be satisfied._ - _My Servant, the Righteous, righteousness wins he for many,_ - _And their guilt he takes for his load._ - _Therefore I set him a share with the great,_[219] - _Yea, with the strong shall he share the spoil:_ - _Because that he poured out his life unto death,_ - _Let himself with transgressors be reckoned;_ - _Yea, he the sin of the many hath borne,_ - _And for the transgressors he interposes._ - -Let us now take up the interpretation strophe by strophe. - -I. Ch. lii. 13-15. When last our eyes were directed to the Servant, -he was in suffering unexplained and unvindicated (ch. l. 4-6). -His sufferings seemed to have fallen upon him as the consequence -of his fidelity to the Word committed to him; the Prophet had -inevitably become the Martyr. Further than this his sufferings were -not explained, and the Servant was left in them, calling upon God -indeed, and sure that God would hear and vindicate him, but as yet -unanswered by word of God or word of man. - -It is these words, words both of God and of man, which are given in -Isaiah ch. lii. 13-liii. The Sufferer is explained and vindicated, -first by God in the first strophe, ch. lii. 13-15, and then by the -Conscience of Men, His own people, in the second and third (liii. -1-6); and then, as it appears, the Divine Voice, or the Prophet -speaking for it, resumes in strophes iv. and v., and concludes in a -strain similar to strophe i. - -God's explanation and vindication of the Sufferer is, then, given in -the first strophe. It is summed up in the first line, and in one very -pregnant word. Jeremiah had said of the Messiah, _He shall reign as -a King and deal wisely_ or _prosper_;[220] and so God says here of -the Servant, _Behold he shall deal wisely_ or _prosper_. The Hebrew -verb does not get full expression in any English one. In rendering -it _shall deal wisely_ or _prudently_ our translators undoubtedly -touch the quick of it. For it is originally a mental process or -quality: _has insight_, _understands_, _is farseeing_. But then it -also includes the effect of this--_understands so as to get on_, -_deals wisely so as to succeed_, _is practical_ both in his way of -working and in being sure of his end. Ewald has found an almost exact -equivalent in German, "hat Geschick;" for Geschick means both _skill_ -or _address_ and _fate_ or _destiny_. The Hebrew verb is the most -practical in the whole language, for this is precisely the point -which the prophecy seeks to bring out about the Servant's sufferings. -They are practical. He is practical in them. He endures them, not for -their own sake, but for some practical end of which he is aware and -to which they must assuredly bring him. His failure to convince men -by his word, the pain and spite which seem to be his only wage, are -not the last of him, but the beginning and the way to what is higher. -So _shall he rise and be lift up and be very high_. The suffering, -which in ch. l. seemed to be the Servant's misfortune, is here seen -as his wisdom which shall issue in his glory. - -But of themselves men do not see this, and they need to be convinced. -Pain, the blessed means of God, is man's abhorrence and perplexity. -All along the history of the world the Sufferer has been the -astonishment and stumbling-block of humanity. The barbarian gets rid -of him; he is the first difficulty with which every young literature -wrestles; to the end he remains the problem of philosophy and the -sore test of faith. It is not native to men to see meaning or profit -in the Sufferer; they are staggered by him, they see no reason or -promise in him. So did men receive this unique Sufferer, this Servant -of Jehovah. _The many were astonied at him; his visage was so marred -more than men, and his form than the children of men._ But his life -is to teach them the opposite of their impressions, and to bring them -out of their perplexity into reverence before the revealed purpose of -God in the Sufferer. _As they that were astonied at thee were many, -so shall the nations he startles be many; kings shall shut their -mouths at him, for that which was not told them they see, and that -which they have heard not they have to consider_,--viz., the triumph -and influence to which the Servant was consciously led through -suffering. There may be some reflection here of the way in which the -Gentiles regarded the Suffering Israel, but the reference is vague, -and perhaps purposely so. - -The first strophe, then, gives us just the general theme. In contrast -to human experience God reveals in His Servant that suffering is -fruitful, that sacrifice is practical. Pain, in God's service, shall -lead to glory. - -II. Ch. liii. 1-3. God never speaks but in man He wakens conscience, -and the second strophe of the prophecy (along with the third) -is the answer of conscience to God. Penitent men, looking back -from the light of the Servant's exaltation to the time when his -humiliation was before their eyes, say, "Yes: what God has said -is true of us. We were the deaf and the indifferent. We heard, -but _who_ of us _believed what we heard, and to whom was the -arm of the Lord_--His purpose, the hand He had in the Servant's -sufferings--_revealed_?"[221] - -Who are these penitent speakers? Some critics have held them to be -the heathen, more have said that they are Israel. But none have -pointed out that the writer gives himself no trouble to define them, -but seems more anxious to impress us with their consciousness of -their moral relation to the Servant. On the whole, it would appear -that it is Israel, whom the prophet has in mind as the speakers of -vv. 1-6. For, besides the fact that the Old Testament knows nothing -of a bearing by Israel of the sins of the Gentiles, it is expressly -said in ver. 8, that the sins for which the Servant was stricken -were the sins of _my people_; which people must be the same as the -speakers, for they own in vv. 4-6 that the Servant bore their sins. -For these and other reasons the mass of Christian critics at the -present day are probably right when they assume that Israel are the -speakers in vv. 1-6;[222] but the reader must beware of allowing -his attention to be lost in questions of that kind. The art of the -poem seems intentionally to leave vague the national relation of the -speakers to the Servant, in order the more impressively to bring out -their moral attitude towards him. There is an utter disappearance of -all lines of separation between Jew and Gentile,--both in the first -strophe, where, although Gentile names are used, Jews may yet be -meant to be included, and in the rest of the poem,--as if the writer -wished us to feel that all men stood over against that solitary -Servant in a common indifference to his suffering and a common -conscience of the guilt he bears. In short, it is no historical -situation, such as some critics seem anxious to fasten him down upon, -that the prophet reflects; but a certain moral situation, ideal in -so far as it was not yet realised,--the state of the quickened human -conscience over against a certain Human Suffering, in which, having -ignored it at the time, that conscience now realises that the purpose -of God was at work. - -In vv. 2 and 3 the penitent speakers give us the reasons of their -disregard of the Servant in the days of his suffering. In these -reasons there is nothing peculiar to Israel, and no special -experience of Jewish history is reflected by the terms in which -they are conveyed. They are the confession, in general language, of -an universal human habit,--the habit of letting the eye cheat the -heart and conscience, of allowing the aspect of suffering to blind -us to its meaning; of forgetting in our sense of the ugliness and -helplessness of pain, that it has a motive, a future and a God. It -took ages to wean mankind from those native feelings of aversion -and resentment, which caused them at first to abandon or destroy -their sick. And, even now, scorn for the weak and incredulity in the -heroism or in the profitableness of suffering are strong in the best -of us. We judge by looks; we are hurried by the physical impression, -which the sufferer makes on us, or by our pride that we are not as -he is, into peremptory and harsh judgements upon him. Every day -we allow the dulness of poverty, the ugliness of disease, the -unprofitableness of misfortune, the ludicrousness of failure, to keep -back conscience from discovering to us our share of responsibility -for them, and to repel our hearts from that sympathy and patience -with them, which along with conscience would assuredly discover to us -their place in God's Providence and their special significance for -ourselves. It is this original sin of man, of which these penitent -speakers own themselves guilty. - -But no one is ever permitted to rest with a physical or intellectual -impression of suffering. The race, the individual, has always been -forced by conscience to the task of finding a moral reason for pain; -and nothing so marks man's progress as the successive solutions he -has attempted to this problem. The speakers, therefore, proceed in -the next part of their confession, strophe iii., to tell us what they -first falsely accounted the moral reason of the Servant's suffering -and what they afterwards found to be the truth. - -III. liii. 4-6. The earliest and most common moral judgement, which -men pass upon pain, is that which is implied in its name--that it is -penal. A man suffers because God is angry with him and has stricken -him. So Job's friends judged him, and so these speakers tell us they -had at first judged the Servant. _We had accounted him stricken, -smitten of God and afflicted_,--_stricken_, that is, with a plague -of sickness, as Job was, for the simile of the sick man is still -kept up; _smitten of God and degraded_ or _humbled_, for it seemed -to them that God's hand was in the Servant's sickness, to punish and -disgrace him for his own sins. But now they know they were wrong. The -hand of God was indeed upon the Servant, and the reason was sin; yet -the sin was not his, but theirs. _Surely our sicknesses he bore, -and our pains he took as his burden. He was pierced for iniquities -that were ours. He was crushed for crimes that were ours._ Strictly -interpreted, these verses mean no more than that the Servant was -involved in the consequences of his people's sins. The verbs _bore_ -and _made his burden_ are indeed taken by some to mean necessarily, -removal or expiation; but in themselves, as is clear from their -application to Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the whole of the generation -of Exile, they mean no more than implication in the reproach and -the punishment of the people's sins.[223] Nevertheless, as we have -explained in a note below, it is really impossible to separate the -suffering of a Servant, who has been announced as practical and -prosperous in his suffering, from the end for which it is endured. We -cannot separate the Servant's bearing of the people's guilt from his -removal of it. And, indeed, this practical end of his passion springs -forth, past all doubt, from the rest of the strophe, which declares -that the Servant's sufferings are not only vicarious but redemptive. -_The discipline of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we -are healed._ Translators agree that _discipline of our peace_ must -mean discipline which procures our peace. The peace, the healing, -is ours, in consequence of the chastisement and the scourging that -was his. The next verse gives us the obverse and complement of the -same thought. The pain was his in consequence of the sin that was -ours. _All we like sheep had gone astray, and the Lord laid on him -the iniquity of us all_,--literally _iniquity_, but inclusive of its -guilt and consequences. Nothing could be plainer than these words. -The speakers confess, that they know that the Servant's suffering was -both vicarious and redemptive.[224] - -But how did they get this knowledge? They do not describe any special -means by which it came to them. They state this high and novel truth -simply as the last step in a process of their consciousness. At first -they were bewildered by the Servant's suffering; then they thought -it contemptible, thus passing upon it an intellectual judgement; -then, forced to seek a moral reason for it, they accounted it as -penal and due to the Servant for his own sins; then they recognised -that its penalty was vicarious, that the Servant was suffering for -them; and finally, they knew that it was redemptive, the means of -their own healing and peace. This is a natural climax, a logical -and moral progress of thought. The last two steps are stated simply -as facts of experience following on other facts. Now our prophet -usually publishes the truths, with which he is charged, as the very -words of God, introducing them with a solemn and authoritative -_Thus saith Jehovah._ But this novel and supreme truth of vicarious -and redemptive suffering, this passion and virtue which crowns the -Servant's office, is introduced to us, not by the mouth of God, but -by the lips of penitent men; not as an oracle, but as a confession; -not as the commission of Divine authority laid beforehand upon the -Servant like his other duties, but as the conviction of the human -conscience after the Servant has been lifted up before it. In short, -by this unusual turn of his art, the prophet seeks to teach us, that -vicarious suffering is not a dogmatic, but an experimental truth. The -substitution of the Servant for the guilty people, and the redemptive -force of that substitution, are no arbitrary doctrine, for which God -requires from man a mere intellectual assent; they are no such formal -institution of religion as mental indolence and superstition delight -to have prepared for their mechanical adherence: but substitutive -suffering is a great living fact of human experience, whose outward -features are not more evident to men's eyes than its inner meaning -is appreciable by their conscience, and of irresistible effect upon -their whole moral nature. - -Is this lesson of our prophet's art not needed? Men have always been -apt to think of vicarious suffering, and of its function in their -salvation, as something above and apart from their moral nature, with a -value known only to God and not calculable in the terms of conscience -or of man's moral experience; nay, rather as something that conflicts -with man's ideas of morality and justice. Whereas both the fact and -the virtue of vicarious suffering come upon us all, as these speakers -describe the vicarious sufferings of the Servant to have come upon -them, as a part of inevitable experience. If it be natural, as we saw, -for men to be bewildered by the first sight of suffering, to scorn it -as futile and to count it the fault of the sufferer himself, it is -equally natural and inevitable that these first and hasty theories -should be dispelled by the longer experience of life and the more -thorough working of conscience. The stricken are not always bearing -their own sin. "Suffering is the minister of justice. This is true in -part, yet it also is inadequate to explain the facts. Of all the sorrow -which befalls humanity, how small a part falls upon the specially -guilty; how much seems rather to seek out the good! We might almost -ask whether it is not weakness rather than wrong that is punished in -this world."[225] In every nation, in every family, the innocent suffer -for the guilty. Vicarious suffering is not arbitrary or accidental; -it comes with our growth; it is of the very nature of things. It is -that part of the Service of Man, to which we are all born, and of the -reality of which we daily grow more aware. - -But even more than its necessity life teaches us its virtue. -Vicarious suffering is not a curse. It is Service--Service for God. -It proves a power where every other moral force has failed. By it men -are redeemed, on whom justice and their proper punishment have been -able to effect nothing. Why this should be is very intelligible. We -are not so capable of measuring the physical or moral results of our -actions upon our own characters or in our own fortunes as we are upon -the lives of others; nor do we so awaken to the guilt and heinousness -of our sin as when it reaches and implicates lives, which were not -partners with us in it. Moreover, while a man's punishment is apt to -give him an excuse for saying, I have expiated my sin myself, and so -to leave him self-satisfied and with nothing for which to be grateful -or obliged to a higher will; or while it may make him reckless or -plunge him into despair; so, on the contrary, when he recognises that -others feel the pain of his sin and have come under its weight, then -shame is quickly born within him, and pity and every other passion -that can melt a hard heart. If, moreover, the others who bear his -sin do so voluntarily and for love's sake, then how quickly on the -back of shame and pity does gratitude rise, and the sense of debt -and of constraint to their will! For all these very intelligible -reasons, vicarious suffering has been a powerful redemptive force in -the experience of the race. Both the fact of its beneficence and the -moral reasons for this are clear enough to lift us above a question, -which sometimes gives trouble regarding it,--the question of its -justice. Such a question is futile about any service for man, which -succeeds as this does where all others have failed, and which proves -itself so much in harmony with man's moral nature. But the last shred -of objection to the justice of vicarious suffering is surely removed -when the sufferer is voluntary as well as vicarious. And, in truth, -human experience feels that it has found its highest and its holiest -fact in the love that, being innocent itself, stoops to bear its -fellows' sins,--not only the anxiety and reproach of them, but even -the cost and the curse of them. _Greater love hath no man than this, -that a man lay down his life for his friends_; and greater Service -can no man do to man, than to serve them in this way. - -Now in this universal human experience of the inevitableness and -the virtue of vicarious suffering, Israel had been deeply baptized. -The nation had been _served_ by suffering in all the ways we have -just described. Beginning with the belief that all righteousness -prospered, Israel had come to see the righteous afflicted in her -midst; the best Israelites had set their minds to the problem, and -learned to believe, at least, that such affliction was of God's -will,--part of His Providence, and not an interruption to it. Israel, -too, knew the moral solidarity of a people: that citizens share each -other's sorrows, and that one generation rolls over its guilt upon -the next. Frequently had the whole nation been spared for a pious -remnant's sake; and in the Exile, while all the people were formally -afflicted by God, it was but a portion of them whose conscience was -quick to the meaning of the chastisement, and of them alone, in their -submissive and intelligent sufferance of the Lord's wrath, could the -opening gospel of the prophecy be spoken, that they _had accomplished -their warfare, and had received of the Lord's hand double for all -their sins_. But still more vivid than these collective substitutes -for the people were the individuals, who, at different points in -Israel's history, had stood forth and taken up as their own the -nation's conscience and stooped to bear the nation's curse. Far away -back, a Moses had offered himself for destruction, if for his sake -God would spare his sinful and thoughtless countrymen. In a psalm of -the Exile it is remembered that, - - _He said, that He would destroy them, - Had not Moses His chosen stood before Him in the breach, - To turn away His wrath, lest He should destroy._[226] - -And Jeremiah, not by a single heroic resolve, but by the slow agony -and martyrdom of a long life, had taken Jerusalem's sin upon his own -heart, had felt himself forsaken of God, and had voluntarily shared -his city's doom, while his generation, unconscious of their guilt and -blind to their fate, despised him and esteemed him not. And Ezekiel, -who is Jeremiah's far-off reflection, who could only do in symbol -what Jeremiah did in reality, was commanded to lie on his side for -days, and so _bear the guilt_ of his people.[227] - -But in Israel's experience it was not only the human Servant who -served the nation by suffering, for God Himself had come down to -_carry_ His distressed and accursed people, and _to load Himself with -them_. Our prophet uses the same two verbs of Jehovah as are used of -the Servant.[228] Like the Servant, too, God _was afflicted in all -their affliction_; and His love towards them was expended in passion -and agony for their sins. Vicarious suffering was not only human, it -was Divine. - -Was it very wonderful that a people with such an experience, and -with such examples, both human and Divine, should at last be led -to the thought of One Sufferer, who would exhibit in Himself all -the meaning, and procure for His people all the virtue, of that -vicarious reproach and sorrow, which a long line of their martyrs -had illustrated, and which God had revealed as the passion of His -own love? If they had had every example that could fit them to -understand the power of such a sufferer, they had also every reason -to feel their need of Him. For the Exile had not healed the nation; -it had been for the most of them an illustration of that evil effect -of punishment to which we alluded above. Penal servitude in Babylon -had but hardened Israel. _God poured on him the fury of anger, and -the strength of battle: it set him on fire round about, yet he knew -not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart._[229] What the -Exile, then, had failed to do, when it brought upon the people their -own sins, the Servant, taking these sins upon himself, would surely -effect. The people, whom the Exile had only hardened, his vicarious -suffering should strike into penitence and lift to peace. - -IV. Ch. liii. 7-9. It is probable that with ver. 6 the penitent -people have ceased speaking, and that the parable is now taken up -by the prophet himself. The voice of God, which uttered the first -strophe, does not seem to resume till ver. 11. - -If strophe iii. confessed that it was for the people's sins the -Servant suffered, strophe iv. declares that he himself was sinless, -and yet silently submitted to all which injustice laid upon him. - -Now Silence under Suffering is a strange thing in the Old -Testament--a thing absolutely new. No other Old Testament personage -could stay dumb under pain, but immediately broke into one of two -voices,--voice of guilt or voice of doubt. In the Old Testament the -sufferer is always either confessing his guilt to God, or, when -he feels no guilt, challenging God in argument. David, Hezekiah, -Jeremiah, Job, and the nameless martyred and moribund of the Psalms, -all strive and are loud under pain. Why was this Servant the unique -and solitary instance of silence under suffering? Because he had a -secret which they had not. It had been said of him: _My Servant shall -deal wisely_ or _intelligently_, shall know what he is about. He had -no guilt of his own, no doubts of his God. But he was conscious of -the end God had in his pain, an end not to be served in any other -way, and with all his heart he had given himself to it. It was not -punishment he was enduring; it was not the throes of the birth -into higher experience, which he was feeling: it was a Service he -was performing,--a service laid on him by God, a service for man's -redemption, a service sure of results and of glory. Therefore _as a -lamb to the slaughter is led, and as a sheep before her shearers is -dumb, he opened not his mouth_. - -The next two verses (8, 9) describe how the Servant's Passion was -fulfilled. The figure of a sick man was changed in ver. 5 to that of -a punished one, and the punishment we now see carried on to death. -The two verses are difficult, the readings and renderings of most of -the words being very various. But the sense is clear. The Servant's -death was accomplished, not on some far hill top by a stroke out of -heaven, but in the forms of human law and by men's hands. It was -a judicial murder. _By tyranny and by judgement_,--that is, by a -forced and tyrannous judgement,--_he was taken_. To this abuse of -law the next verse adds the indifference of public opinion: _and -as for his contemporaries, who of them reflected that he was cut -off from_, or _cut down in, the land of the living_,--that in spite -of the form of law that condemned him he was a murdered man,--that -_for the transgression of my people the stroke was his_? So, having -conceived him to have been lawfully put to death, they consistently -gave him a convict's grave: _they made his grave with the wicked, and -he was with the felon in his death_, though--and on this the strophe -emphatically ends--he was an innocent man, _he had done no harm, -neither was guile in his mouth_. - -Premature sickness and the miscarriage of justice,--these to -Orientals are the two outstanding misfortunes of the individual's -life. Take the Psalter, set aside its complaints of the horrors of -war and of invasion, and you will find almost all the rest of its -sighs rising either from sickness or from the sense of injustice. -These were the classic forms of individual suffering in the age and -civilisation to which our prophet belonged, and it was natural, -therefore, that when he was describing an Ideal or Representative -Sufferer, he should fill in his picture with both of them. If we -remember this,[230] we shall feel no incongruity in the sudden change -of the hero from a sick man to a convict, and back again in ver. 10 -from a convict to a sick man. Nor, if we remember this, shall we feel -disposed to listen to those interpreters, who hold that the basis of -this prophecy was the account of an actual historical martyrdom. Had -such been the case the prophet would surely have held throughout to -one or the other of the two forms of suffering. His sufferer would -have been either a leper or a convict, but hardly both. No doubt the -details in vv. 8 and 9 are so realistic that they might well be the -features of an actual miscarriage of justice; but the like happened -too frequently in the Ancient East for such verses to be necessarily -any one man's portrait. Perverted justice was the curse of the -individual's life,--perverted justice and that stolid, fatalistic -apathy of Oriental public opinion, which would probably regard such -a sufferer as suffering for his sins the just vengeance of heaven, -though the minister of this vengeance was a tyrant and its means were -perjury and murder. _Who of his generation reflected that for the -transgression of my people the stroke was on him!_ - -V. Ch. liii. 10-12. We have heard the awful tragedy. The innocent -Servant was put to a violent and premature death. Public apathy closed -over him and the unmarked earth of a felon's grave. It is so utter a -perversion of justice, so signal a triumph of wrong over right, so -final a disappearance into oblivion of the fairest life that ever -lived, that men might be tempted to say, God has forsaken His own. On -the contrary--so strophe v. begins--God's own will and pleasure have -been in this tragedy: _Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him_. The line -as it thus stands in our English version has a grim, repulsive sound. -But the Hebrew word has no necessary meaning of pleasure or enjoyment. -All it says is, God so willed it. His purpose was in this tragedy. -Deus vult! It is the one message which can render any pain tolerable or -light up with meaning a mystery so cruel as this: _The LORD_ Himself -_had purposed to bruise_ His Servant, _the LORD Himself had laid on him -sickness_ (the figure of disease is resumed). - -God's purpose in putting the Servant to death is explained in the -rest of the verse. It was in order that _through his soul making a -guilt-offering, he might see a seed, prolong his days, and that the -pleasure of the Lord might prosper by his hand_. - -What is a guilt-offering? The term originally meant guilt, and is so -used by a prophet contemporary to our own.[231] In the legislation, -however, both in the Pentateuch and in Ezekiel, it is applied to -legal and sacrificial forms of restitution or reparation for guilt. -It is only named in Ezekiel along with other sacrifices.[232] Both -Numbers and Leviticus define it, but define it differently. In -Numbers (v. 7, 8) it is the payment, which a transgressor has to -make to the human person offended, of the amount to which he has -harmed that person's property: it is what we call damages. But in -Leviticus it is the ram, exacted over and above damages to the -injured party (v. 14-16; vi. 1-7), or in cases where no damages were -asked for (v. 17-19), by the priest, the representative of God, for -satisfaction to His law; and it was required even where the offender -had been an unwitting one. By this guilt-offering _the priest made -atonement_ for the sinner and _he was forgiven_. It was for this -purpose of reparation to the Deity that the plagued Philistines -sent a guilt-offering back with the ark of Jehovah, which they had -stolen.[233] But there is another historical passage, which though -the term _guilt-offering_ is not used in it, admirably illustrates -the idea.[234] A famine in David's time was revealed to be due to -the murder of certain Gibeonites by the house of Saul. David asked -the Gibeonites what reparation he could make. They said it was not -a matter of damages. But both parties felt that before the law of -God could be satisfied and the land relieved of its curse, some -atonement, some guilt-offering, must be made to the Divine Law. It -was a wild kind of satisfaction that was paid. Seven men of Saul's -house were hung up before the Lord in Gibeon. But the instinct, -though satisfied in so murderous a fashion, was a true and a grand -instinct,--the conscience of a law above all human laws and rights, -to which homage must be paid before the sinner could come into true -relations with God, or the Divine curse be lifted off. - -It is in this sense that the word is used of the Servant of Jehovah, -the Ideal, Representative Sufferer. Innocent as he is, he gives his -life as satisfaction to the Divine law for the guilt of his people. -His death was no mere martyrdom or miscarriage of human justice: in -God's intent and purpose, but also by its own voluntary offering, it -was an expiatory sacrifice.[235] By his death the Servant did homage -to the law of God. By dying for it He made men feel that the supreme -end of man was to own that law and be in a right relation to it, and -that the supreme service was to help others to a right relation. As -it is said a little farther down, _My Servant, righteous himself, -wins righteousness for many, and makes their iniquities his load_. - -It surely cannot be difficult for any one, who knows what sin is, and -what a part vicarious suffering plays both in the bearing of the sin -and in the redemption of the sinner, to perceive that at this point the -Servant's service for God and man reaches its crown. Compare his death -and its sad meaning, with the brilliant energies of his earlier career. -It is a heavy and an honourable thing to come from God to men, laden -with God's truth for your charge and responsibility; but it is a far -heavier to stoop and take upon your heart as your business and burden -men's suffering and sin. It is a needful and a lovely thing to assist -the feeble aspirations of men, to put yourself on the side of whatever -in them is upward and living,--to be the shelter, as the Servant was, -of the bruised reed and the fading wick; but it is more indispensable, -and it is infinitely heavier, to seek to lift the deadness of men, to -take their guilt upon your heart, to attempt to rouse them to it, to -attempt to deliver them from it. It is a useful and a glorious thing to -establish order and justice among men, to create a social conscience, -to inspire the exercise of love and the habits of service, and this the -Servant did when _he set Law on the Earth, and the Isles waited for his -teaching_; but after all man's supreme and controlling relation is his -relation to God, and to this their _righteousness_ the Servant restored -guilty men by his death. - -And so it was at this point, according to our prophecy, that the -Servant, though brought so low, was nearest his exaltation; though -in death, yet nearest life, nearest the highest kind of life, _the -seeing of a seed_, the finding of himself in others; though despised, -rejected and forgotten of men, most certain of finding a place among -the great and notable forces of life,--_therefore do I divide him a -share with the great, and the spoil he shall share with the strong_. -Not because as a prophet he was a sharp sword in the hand of the -Lord, or a light flashing to the ends of the earth, but in that--as -the prophecy concludes, and it is the prophet's last and highest word -concerning him--in that _he bare the sin of the many, and interposed -for the transgressors_. - - * * * * * - -We have seen that the most striking thing about this prophecy is the -spectral appearance of the Servant. He haunts, rather than is present -in, the chapter. We hear of him, but he himself does not speak. We -see faces that he startles, lips that the sight of him shuts, lips -that the memory of him, after he has passed in silence, opens to -bitter confession of neglect and misunderstanding; but himself we see -not. His aspect and his bearing, his work for God and his influence -on men, are shown to us, through the recollection and conscience of -the speakers, with a vividness and a truth that draw the consciences -of us who hear into the current of the confession, and take our -hearts captive. But when we ask, Who was he then? What was his name -among men? Where shall we find himself? Has he come, or do you still -look for him?--neither the speakers, whose conscience he so smote, -nor God, whose chief purpose he was, give us here any answer. In some -verses he and his work seem already to have happened upon earth, but -again we are made to feel that he is still future to the prophet, -and that the voices, which the prophet quotes as speaking of having -seen him and found him to be the Saviour, are voices of a day not yet -born, while the prophet writes. - -But about five hundred and fifty years after this prophecy was written, -a Man came forward among the sons of men,--among this very nation from -whom the prophecy had arisen; and in every essential of consciousness -and of experience He was the counterpart, embodiment and fulfilment -of this Suffering Servant and his Service. Jesus Christ answers the -questions, which the prophecy raises and leaves unanswered. In the -prophecy we see one, who is only a spectre, a dream, a conscience -without a voice, without a name, without a place in history. But in -Jesus Christ of Nazareth the dream becomes a reality; He, whom we have -seen in this chapter only as the purpose of God, only through the eyes -and consciences of a generation yet unborn,--He comes forward in flesh -and blood; He speaks, He explains Himself, He accomplishes almost to -the last detail the work, the patience and the death that are here -described as Ideal and Representative. - -The correspondence of details between Christ's life and this -prophecy, published five hundred and fifty years before He came, is -striking; if we encountered it for the first time, it would be more -than striking, it would be staggering. But do not let us do what so -many have done--so fondly exaggerate it as to lose in the details of -external resemblance the moral and spiritual identity. - -For the external correspondence between this prophecy and the life -of Jesus Christ is by no means perfect. Every wound that is set -down in the fifty-third of Isaiah was not reproduced or fulfilled -in the sufferings of Jesus. For instance, Christ was not the sick, -plague-stricken man, whom the Servant is at first represented to be. -The English translators have masked the leprous figure, that stands -out so clearly in the original Hebrew,--for _acquainted with grief, -bearing our griefs, put him to grief_, we should in each case read -_sickness_. Now Christ was no Job. As Matthew points out, the only -way He could be said _to bear our sicknesses and to carry our pains_ -was by healing them, not by sharing them. - -And again, exactly as the judicial murder of the Servant, and the -entire absence from his contemporaries of any idea that he suffered -a vicarious death, suit the case of Christ, the next stage in -the Servant's fate was not true of the Victim of Pilate and the -Pharisees. Christ's grave was not with the wicked. He suffered as -a felon without the walls on the common place of execution, but -friends received the body and gave it an honourable burial in a -friend's grave. Or take the clause, _with the rich in his death_. -It is doubtful whether the word is really _rich_, and ought not -to be a closer synonym of _wicked_ in the previous clause; but if -it be _rich_, it is simply another name for _the wicked_, who in -the East, in cases of miscarried justice, are so often coupled -with the evildoers. It cannot possibly denote such a man as Joseph -of Arimathea; nor, is it to be observed, do the Evangelists in -describing Christ's burial in that rich and pious man's tomb take any -notice of this line about the Suffering Servant. - -But the absence of a complete incidental correspondence only renders -more striking the moral and spiritual correspondence, the essential -likeness between the Service set forth in ch. liii. and the work of -our Lord. - -The speakers of ch. liii. set the Servant over against themselves, -and in solitariness of character and office. They count him alone -sinless where all they have sinned, and him alone the agent of -salvation and healing where their whole duty is to look on and -believe. But this is precisely the relation which Christ assumed -between Himself and the nation. He was on one side, all they on the -other. Against their strong effort to make Him the First among them, -it was, as we have said before, the constant aim of our Lord to -assert and to explain Himself as The Only. - -And this Onlyness was to be realised in suffering. He said, _I must -suffer_; or again, _It behoves the Christ to suffer_. Suffering is -the experience in which men feel their oneness with their kind. -Christ, too, by suffering felt His oneness with men; but largely in -order to assert a singularity beyond. Through suffering He became -like unto men, but only that He might effect through suffering a -lonely and a singular service for them. For though He suffered in all -points as men did, yet He shared none of their universal feelings -about suffering. Pain never drew from Him either of those two voices -of guilt or of doubt. Pain never reminded Christ of His own past, nor -made Him question God. - -Nor did He seek pain for any end in itself. There have been men who -have done so; fanatics who have gloried in pain; superstitious minds -that have fancied it to be meritorious; men whose wounds have been -as mouths to feed their pride, or to publish their fidelity to their -cause. But our Lord shrank from pain; if it had been possible He -would have willed not to bear it: _Father, save Me from this hour; -Father, if it be Thy will, let this cup pass from Me_. And when He -submitted and was under the agony, it was not in the feeling of it, -nor in the impression it made on others, nor in the manner in which -it drew men's hearts to Him, nor in the seal it set on the truth, -but in something beyond it, that He found His end and satisfaction. -Jesus _looked out of the travail of His soul and was satisfied_. - -For, _firstly_, He knew His pain to be God's will for an end -outside Himself,--_I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how -am I straitened till it be accomplished: Father, save Me from this -hour, yet for this cause came I to this hour: Father, Thy will be -done_,--and all opportunities to escape as temptations. - -And, _secondly_, like the Servant, Jesus _dealt prudently, had -insight_. The will of God in His suffering was no mystery to Him. He -understood from the first why He was to suffer.[236] - -The reasons He gave were the same two and in the same order as are -given by our prophet for the sufferings of the Servant,--first, -that fidelity to God's truth could bring with it no other fate in -Israel;[237] then that His death was necessary for the sins of men, and -as men's ransom from sin. In giving the first of these reasons for His -death, Christ likened Himself to the prophets who had gone before Him -in Jerusalem; but in the second He matched Himself with no other, and -no other has ever been known in this to match himself with Jesus. - -When men, then, stand up and tell us that Christ suffered only for -the sake of sympathy with His kind, or only for loyalty to the truth, -we have to tell them that this was not the whole of Christ's own -consciousness, this was not the whole of Christ's own explanation. -Suffering, which leads men into the sense of oneness with their -kind, only made Him, as it grew the nearer and weighed the heavier, -more emphatic upon His difference from other men. If He Himself, by -His pity, by His labours of healing (as Matthew points out), and by -all His intercourse with His people, penetrated more deeply into the -participation of human suffering, the very days which marked with -increasing force His sympathy with men, only laid more bare their -want of sympathy with Him, their incapacity to follow into that -unique conscience and understanding of a Passion, which He bore not -only _with_, but, as He said, _for_ His brethren. _Who believed that -which we heard, and to whom was the arm of the Lord revealed? As to -His generation, who reflected ... that for the transgression of my -people He was stricken?_ Again, while Christ indeed brought truth -to earth from heaven, and was for truth's sake condemned by men to -die, the burden which He found waiting Him on earth, man's sin, was -ever felt by Him to be a heavier burden and responsibility than the -delivery of the truth; and was in fact the thing, which, apart from -the things for which men might put Him to death, remained the reason -of His death in His own sight and in that of His Father. And He told -men why He felt their sin to be so heavy, because it kept them so -far from God, and this was His purpose, He said, in bearing it--that -He might bring us back to God; not primarily that He might relieve -us of the suffering which followed sin, though He did so relieve -some when He pardoned them, but that He might restore us to right -relations with God,--might, like the Servant, _make many righteous_. -Now it was Christ's confidence to be able to do this, which -distinguished Him from all others, upon whom has most heavily fallen -the conscience of their people's sins, and who have most keenly felt -the duty and commission from God of vicarious suffering. If, like -Moses, one sometimes dared for love's sake to offer his life for the -life of his people, none, under the conscience and pain of their -people's sins, ever expressed any consciousness of thereby making -their brethren righteous. On the contrary, even a Jeremiah, whose -experience, as we have seen, comes so wonderfully near the picture -of the Representative Sufferer in ch. liii.,--even a Jeremiah feels, -with the increase of his vicarious pain and conscience of guilt, -only the more perplexed, only the deeper in despair, only the less -able to understand God and the less hopeful to prevail with Him. But -Christ was sure of His power to remove men's sins, and was never more -emphatic about that power than when He most felt those sins' weight. - -And _He has seen His seed_; He _has made many righteous_. We found it -to be uncertain whether the penitent speakers in ch. liii. understood -that the Servant by coming under the physical sufferings, which were -the consequences of their sins, relieved them of these consequences; -other passages in the prophecy would seem to imply, that, while the -Servant's sufferings were alone valid for righteousness, they did -not relieve the rest of the nation from suffering too. And so it -would be going beyond what God has given us to know, if we said that -God counts the sufferings on the Cross, which were endured for our -sins, as an equivalent for, or as sufficient to do away with, the -sufferings which these sins bring upon our minds, our bodies and -our social relations. Substitution of this kind is neither affirmed -by the penitents who speak in the fifty-third of Isaiah, nor is -it an invariable or essential part of the experience of those who -have found forgiveness through Christ. Every day penitents turn to -God through Christ, and are assured of forgiveness, who feel no -abatement in the rigour of the retribution of those laws of God, -which they have offended; like David after his forgiveness, they -have to continue to bear the consequences of their sins. But dark as -this side of experience undoubtedly is, only the more conspicuously -against the darkness does the other side of experience shine. By -_believing what they have heard_, reaching this belief through a -quicker conscience and a closer study of Christ's words about His -death, men, upon whom conscience by itself and sore punishment have -worked in vain, have been struck into penitence, have been assured of -pardon, have been brought into right relations with God, have felt -all the melting and the bracing effects of the knowledge that another -has suffered in their stead. Nay, let us consider this--the physical -consequences of their sins may have been left to be endured by such -men, for no other reason than in order to make their new relation -to God more sensible to them, while they feel those consequences no -longer with the feeling of penalty, but with that of chastisement -and discipline. Surely nothing could serve more strongly than this -to reveal the new conscience towards God that has been worked -within them. This inward _righteousness_ is made more plain by the -continuance of the physical and social consequences of their sins -than it would have been had these consequences been removed. - -Thus Christ, like the Servant, became a force in the world, -inheriting in the course of Providence a _portion with the great_ and -_dividing the spoils_ of history _with the strong_. As has often been -said, His Cross is His Throne, and it is by His death that He has -ruled the ages. Yet we must not understand this as if His Power was -only or mostly shown in binding men, by gratitude for the salvation -He won them, to own Him for their King. His power has been even -more conspicuously proved in making His fashion of service the most -fruitful and the most honoured among men. If men have ceased to turn -from sickness with aversion or from weakness with contempt; if they -have learned to see in all pain some law of God, and in vicarious -suffering God's most holy service; if patience and self-sacrifice -have come in any way to be a habit of human life,--the power in this -change has been Christ. But because these two--to say, _Thy will be -done_, and to sacrifice self--are for us men the hardest and the most -unnatural of things to do, Jesus Christ, in making these a conscience -and a habit upon earth, has indeed shown Himself able to divide the -spoil with the strong, has indeed performed the very highest Service -for Man of which man can conceive. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[203] Thus Ewald supposed ch. lii. 13-liii. to be an elegy upon some -martyr in the persecutions under Manasseh. Professor Briggs, as we -have noticed before, claims to have discovered that all the passages -in the Servant are parts of a trimeter poem, older than the rest of -the prophecy, which he finds to be in hexameters. See p. 315. - -[204] I may quote Dillmann's opinion on this last point: -"Andererseits sind nicht blos die Grundgedanken und auch einzelne -Wendungen wie 52, 13-15. 53, 7. 11. 12 durch 42, 1 ff. 49, 1 ff. -50, 3 ff. so wohl vorbereitet und so sehr in Übereinstimmung damit, -dass an eine fast unveränderte Herübernahme des Abschnitts aus -einer verlornen Schrift (_Ew._) nicht gedacht werden kann, sondern -derselbe doch wesentlich als Werk des Vrf. angesehen werden muss" -(_Commentary_ 4th ed., 1890, p. 453). - -[205] This verb best gives the force of the Hebrew, which means both -_to deal prudently_ and to _prosper_ or succeed. See p. 346. - -[206] Vulgate finely: "extolletur, sublimis erit et valde elatus." - -[207] "The term rendered 'startle' has created unnecessary difficulty -to some writers. The word means to 'cause to spring or leap;' when -applied to fluids, to spirt or sprinkle them. The fluid spirted -is put in the _accusative_, and it is spirted _upon_ the person. -In the present passage the person, 'many nations,' _is_ in the -_accusative_, and it is simply treason against the Hebrew language -to render 'sprinkle.' The interpreter who will so translate will 'do -anything.'"--A. B. Davidson, _Expositor_, 2nd series, viii., 443. The -LXX. has [Greek: thaumasontai ethnê polla]. The Peschitto and Vulgate -render _sprinkle_. - -[208] And not _our report_, or _something we caused to be heard_, as -in the English Version,--[Hebrew: shmv'h] is the passive participle -of [Hebrew: shm'], to hear, and not of [Hebrew: hshm'], to cause to -hear. The speakers are now the penitent people of God who had been -preached to, and not the prophets who had preached. - -[209] _Tender shoot._ Masculine participle, meaning _sucker_, or -_suckling_. Dr. John Hunter (_Christian Treasury_) suggests succulent -plant, such as grow in the desert. But in Job viii. 16; xiv. 7; xv. -30, the feminine form is used of any tender shoot of a tree, and the -feminine plural in Ezek. xvii. 22 of the same. The LXX. read [Greek: -paidion], _infant_. _Before Him_, i.e. Jehovah. Cheyne, following -Ewald, reads _before us_. So Giesebrecht. - -[210] _Took for his burden._ _Loaded_ himself with them. The same -grievous word which God uses of Himself in ch. xlvi. See p. 180. - -[211] There is more than _afflicted_ (Authorised Version) in this word. -There is the sense of being _humbled_, punished for his own sake. - -[212] The possessive pronoun has been put to the end of the lines, -where it stands in the original, producing a greater emphasis and -even a sense of rhyme. - -[213] [Hebrew: chlnv] Kullanu so rendered instead of "all of us," in -order to be assonant with the close of the verse, as the original is, -which closes with kullam. - -[214] That is, by a form of law that was tyranny, a judicial crime. - -[215] Cut off violently, prematurely, unnaturally. - -[216] See p. 368. - -[217] The verbs, hitherto in the perfect in this verse, now change -to the imperfect; a sign that they express the purpose of God. _Cf._ -Dillmann, _in loco_. - -[218] _From the travail of his soul shall he see, and by his -knowledge be satisfied._ Taking [Hebrew: vd'tv] with [Hebrew: shv'] -instead of with [Hebrew: tzdk]. This reading suggested itself to me -some years ago. Since then I have found it only in Prof. Briggs's -translation, _Messianic Prophecy_, p. 359. It is supported by the -frequent parallel in which we find _seeing_ and _knowing_ in Hebrew. - -[219] Some translate _many_, _i.e._, the many to whom he brings -righteousness, as if he were a victor with a great host behind him. - -[220] Jer. xxiii. 5. - -[221] Hitzig (among others) held that it is the prophets who are -the speakers of ver. 1, and that the voices of the penitent people -come in only with ver. 2 or ver. 3. In that case [Hebrew: shmv'tnv] -would mean _what we heard from God_ ([Hebrew: shmv'h] is elsewhere -used for the prophetic message) and delivered to the people. This -interpretation multiplies the dramatis personæ, but does not -materially alter the meaning, of the prophecy. It merely changes part -of the penitent people's self-reproach into a reproach cast on them -by their prophets. But there is no real reason for introducing the -prophets as the speakers of ver. 1. - -[222] For the argument that it is Israel who speaks here, see -Hoffmann (_Schriftbeweis_), who was converted from the other view, -and Dillmann, 4th ed., _in loco_. A very ingenious attempt has been -made by Giesebrecht (_Beiträge zur Jesaia Kritik_, 1890, p. 146 ff.), -in favour of the interpretation that the heathen are the speakers. -His reasons are these: 1. It is the heathen who are spoken of in -lii. 13-15, and a change to Israel would be too sudden. Answer: The -heathen are not exclusively spoken of in lii. 13-15; but if they were -a change in the next verse to Israel would not be more rapid than -some already made by the prophet. 2. The words in liii. 1 suit the -heathen. They have already received the news of the exaltation of the -Servant, which in lii. 15 was promised them. This is the [Hebrew: -shmv'tnv], that is _news we have just heard_. [Hebrew: hmn] is a -pluperfect of the subjunctive mood: _Who could_ or who _would have -believed_ this news of the exaltation _we have_ just _heard, and the -arm of Jehovah to whom was it revealed_! _i.e._, it was revealed to -nobody. Answer: besides the precariousness of taking [Hebrew: hmn] -as a pluperfect subjunctive, this interpretation is opposed to the -general effort of the prophecy, which is to expose unbelief before -the exaltation, not after it. 3. To get rid of the argument--that, -while the speakers own that the Servant bears their sins, it is -said the Servant was stricken for the sins of _my people_, and that -therefore the speakers must be the same as "my people":--Giesebrecht -would utterly alter the reading of ver. 8 from [Hebrew: lmv nn' 'mv -mfsh'], _for the transgression of my people was the stroke to him_ to -[Hebrew: yenunna' mippish'am], _for their stroke was he smitten_. - -[223] [Hebrew: ns] and [Hebrew: svl]. In speaking of his country's -woes, Jeremiah (x. 19) says: _This is sickness_, or _my sickness, and -I must bear it_, [Hebrew: chl zh vsn]. Ezekiel (iv. 4) is commanded to -lie on his side, and in that symbolic position to _bear the iniquity -of His people_, [Hebrew: 'vnm tsh]. One of the Lamentations (v. 7) -complains: _Our fathers have sinned and are not, and we bear_ ([Hebrew: -svl]) _their iniquities._ In these cases the meaning of both [Hebrew: -nsh] and [Hebrew: svl] is simply to feel the weight of, be involved in. -The verbs do not convey the sense of _carrying off_ or _expiating_. -But still it had been said of the Servant that in his suffering he -would be practical and prosper; so that when we now hear that he bears -his people's sins, we are ready to understand that he does not do -this for the mere sake of sharing them, but for a practical purpose, -which, of course, can only be their removal. There is, therefore, no -need to quarrel with the interpretation of ver. 4, that the Servant -_carries away_ the suffering with which he is laden. Matthew makes -this interpretation (viii. 17) in speaking of Christ's healing. But -it is a very interesting fact, and not without light upon the free -and plastic way in which the New Testament quotes from the Old, that -Matthew has ignored the original and literal meaning of the quotation, -which is that the Servant shared the sicknesses of the people: a sense -impossible in the case for which the Evangelist uses the words. - -[224] But they do not tell us, whether they were totally exempted -from suffering by the Servant's pains, or whether they also suffered -with him the consequence of their misdeeds. For that question is not -now present to their minds. Whether they also suffer or not (and -other chapters in the prophecy emphasize the people's bearing of the -consequences of their misdeeds), they know that it was not their own, -but the Servant's suffering, which was alone the factor in their -redemption. - -[225] _Mystery of Pain_, by James Hinton, p. 27. - -[226] Psalm cvi. 23; _cf._ also ver. 32, where the other side of the -solidarity between Moses and the people comes out. _They angered Him -also at the waters of Strife, so that it went ill with Moses for -their sakes ... he spake unadvisedly with his lips._ - -[227] See p. 352. - -[228] Isa. xlvi. 3, 4. See pp. 179, 180 of this volume. - -[229] Ch. xlii. 25. - -[230] If we remember this we shall also feel more reason than ever -against perceiving the Nation, or any aspect of the Nation, in the -Sufferer of ch. liii. For he suffers, as the individual suffers, -sickness and legal wrong. Tyrants do not put whole nations through a -form of law and judgement. Of course, it is open to those, who hold -that the Servant is still an aspect of the Nation, to reply, that -all this is simply evidence of how far the prophet has pushed his -personification. A whole nation has been called "The Sick Man" even -in our prosaic days. But see pp. 268-76. - -[231] Jer. li. 4. - -[232] xl. 39; xlii. 13; xliv. 29; xlvi. 20. - -[233] 1 Sam. vi. 13. - -[234] _Cf._ Wellhausen's _Prolegomena_, ch. ii., 2. - -[235] There is no exegete but agrees to this. There may be -differences of opinion about the syntax,--whether the verse should -run, _though Thou makest his soul guilt_, or _a guilt-offering_; or, -_though his soul make a guilt-offering_; or (reading [Hebrew: shm] -for [Hebrew: tshm]), _while he makes his soul a guilt-offering_,--but -all agree to the fact that by himself or by God the Servant's life is -offered an expiation for sin, a satisfaction to the law of God. - -[236] _Cf._ Baldensperger (_Das Selbstbewusstsein Jesu_, p. 119 ff.) -on the genuineness of Christ's predictions and explanations of His -sufferings. - -[237] _Cf._ p. 330. - - - - - BOOK IV. - - _THE RESTORATION._ - - - - - - - BOOK IV. - - -We have now reached the summit of our prophecy. It has been a long, -steep ascent, and we have had very much to seek out on the way, and -to extricate and solve and load ourselves with. But although a long -extent of the prophecy, if we measure it by chapters, still lies -before us, the end is in sight; every difficulty has been surmounted -which kept us from seeing how we were to get to it, and the rest of -the way may be said to be down-hill. - -To drop the figure--the Servant, his vicarious suffering and -atonement for the sins of the people, form for our prophet the -solution of the spiritual problem of the nation's restoration, and -what he has now to do is but to fill in the details of this. - -We saw that the problem of Israel's deliverance from Exile, their -Return, and their Restoration to their position in their own land -as the Chief Servant of God to humanity, was really a double -problem--political and spiritual. The solution of the political side -of it was Cyrus. As soon as the prophet had been able to make it -certain that Cyrus was moving down upon Babylon, with a commission -from God to take the city, and irresistible in the power with which -Jehovah had invested him, the political difficulties in the way of -Israel's Return were as good as removed; and so the prophet gave, -in the end of ch. xlviii., his great call to his countrymen to -depart. But all through chs. xl.-xlviii., while addressing himself -to the solution of the political problems of Israel's deliverance, -the prophet had given hints that there were moral and spiritual -difficulties as well. In spite of their punishment for more than -half a century, the mass of the people were not worthy of a return. -Many were idolaters; many were worldly; the orthodox had their own -wrong views of how salvation should come (xlv. 9 ff.); the pious -were without either light or faith (l. 10). The nation, in short, -had not that inward _righteousness_, which could alone justify God -in vindicating them before the world, in establishing their outward -righteousness, their salvation and reinstatement in their lofty -place and calling as His people. These moral difficulties come upon -the prophet with greater force after he has, with the close of ch. -xlviii., finished his solution of the political ones. To these moral -difficulties he addresses himself in xlix.-liii., and the Servant and -his Service are his solution of them:--the Servant as a Prophet and a -Covenant of the People in ch. xlix. and in ch. l. 4 ff.; the Servant -as an example to the people, ch. l. ff.; and finally the Servant as a -full expiation for the people's sins in ch. lii. 13-liii. It is the -Servant who is to _raise up the land, and to bring back the heirs to -the desolate heritages_, and rouse the Israel who are not willing -to leave Babylon, _saying to the bound, Go forth; and to them that -sit in darkness, Show yourselves_ (xlix. 8, 9). It is he who is _to -sustain the weary_ and to comfort the pious in Israel, who, though -pious, have no light as they walk on their way back (l. 4, 10). It -is the Servant finally who is to achieve the main problem of all -and _make many righteous_ (liii. 11). The hope of restoration, the -certainty of the people's redemption, the certainty of the rebuilding -of Jerusalem, the certainty of the growth of the people to a great -multitude, are, therefore, all woven by the prophet through and -through with his studies of the Servant's work in xlix., l., and -lii. 13-liii.,--woven so closely and so naturally that, as we have -already seen (pp. 313 f., 336 ff.), we cannot take any part of chs. -xlix.-liii. and say that it is of different authorship from the -rest. Thus in ch. xlix. we have the road to Jerusalem pictured in -vv. 9_b_-13, immediately upon the back of the Servant's call to go -forth in ver. 9_a_. We have then the assurance of Zion being rebuilt -and thronged by her children in vv. 14-23, and another affirmation -of the certainty of redemption in vv. 24-26; In l. 1-3 this is -repeated. In li.-lii. 12 the petty people is assured that it shall -grow innumerable again; new affirmations are made of its ransom and -return, ending with the beautiful prospect of the feet of the heralds -of deliverance on the mountains of Judah (lii. 7_b_) and a renewed -call to leave Babylon (vv. 11, 12). We shall treat all these passages -in our Twenty-First Chapter. - -And as they started naturally from the Servant's work in xlix. 1-9_a_ -and his example in l. 4-11, so upon his final and crowning work in -ch. liii. there follow as naturally ch. liv. (the prospect of _the -seed_ that liii. 10 promised he should see), and ch. lv. (a new call -to come forth). These two, with the little pre-exilic prophecy, ch. -lvi. 1-8, we shall treat in our Twenty-Second Chapter. - -Then come the series of difficult small prophecies with pre-exilic -traces in them, from lvi. 9-lix. They will occupy our Twenty-Third -Chapter. In ch. lx. Zion is at last not only in sight, but radiant -in the rising of her new day of glory. In chs. lxi. and lxii. the -prophet, having reached Zion, "looks back," as Dillmann well remarks, -"upon what has become his task, and in connection with that makes -clear once more the high goal of all his working and striving." In -lxiii. 1-6 the Divine Deliverer is hailed. We shall take lx.-lxiii. 6 -together in our Twenty-Fourth Chapter. - -Ch. lxiii. 7-lxiv. is an Intercessory Prayer for the restoration of -_all_ Israel. It is answered in ch. lxv., and the lesson of this -answer, that Israel must be judged, and that all cannot be saved, is -enforced in ch. lxvi. Chs. lxiii. 7-lxvi. will therefore form our -Twenty-Fifth and closing Chapter. - -Thus our course is clear, and we can overtake it rapidly. It is, to -a large extent, a series of spectacles, interrupted by exhortations -upon duty; things, in fact, to see and to hear, not to argue about. -There are few great doctrinal questions, except what we have already -sufficiently discussed; our study, for instance, of the term -righteousness, we shall find has covered for us a large part of the -ground in advance. And the only difficult literary question is that -of the pre-exilic and post-exilic pieces, which are alleged to form -so large a part of chs. lvi.-lix. and lxiii.-lxvi. - - - - - CHAPTER XXI. - - _DOUBTS IN THE WAY._ - - ISAIAH xlix.-lii. 12. - - -Chapters xlix.-liii. are, as we have seen, a series of more or less -closely joined passages, in which the prophet, having already made -the political redemption of Israel certain through Cyrus, and having -dismissed Cyrus from his thoughts, addresses himself to various -difficulties in the way of restoration, chiefly moral and spiritual, -and rising from Israel's own feelings and character; exhorts the people -in face of them by Jehovah's faithfulness and power; but finds the -chief solution of them in the Servant and his prophetic and expiatory -work. We have already studied such of these passages as present -the Servant to us, and we now take up those others, which meet the -doubts and difficulties in the way of restoration by means of general -considerations drawn from God's character and power. Let it be noticed -that, with one exception (ch. l. 11),[238] these passages are meant for -earnest and pious minds in Israel,--for those Israelites, whose desires -are towards Zion, but chill and heavy with doubts. - -The form and the terms of these passages are in harmony with their -purpose. They are a series of short, high-pitched exhortations, -apostrophes and lyrics. One, ch. lii. 9-12, calls upon the arm -of Jehovah, but all the rest address Zion,--that is, the ideal -people in the person of their mother, with whom they ever so fondly -identified themselves; or _Zion's children_; or _them that follow -righteousness_, or ye _that know righteousness_; or _my people_, _my -nation_; or again Zion herself. This personification of the people -under the name of their city, and under the aspect of a woman, whose -children are the individual members of the people, will be before us -till the end of our prophecy. It is, of course, a personification -of Israel, which is complementary to Israel's other personification -under the name of the Servant. The Servant is Israel active, -comforting, serving his own members and the nations; Zion, the -Mother-City, is Israel passive, to be comforted, to be served by her -own sons and by the kings of the peoples. - -We may divide the passages into two groups. _First_, the songs -of return, which rise out of the picture of the Servant and his -redemption of the people in ch. xlix. 9_b_, with the long promise -and exhortation to Zion and her children, that lasts till the second -picture of the Servant in ch. lii. 4; and _second_, the short pieces -which lie between the second picture of the Servant and the third, or -from the beginning of ch. li. to ch. lii. 12. - - - I. - -In ch. xlix. 9_b_ God's promise of the return of the redeemed -proceeds naturally from that of their ransom by the Servant. It is -hailed by a song in ver. 13, and the rest of the section is the -answer to three doubts, which, like sobs, interrupt the music. But -the prophecy, stooping, as it were, to kiss the trembling lips -through which these doubts break, immediately resumes its high flight -of comfort and promise. Two of these doubts are: ver. 14, _But Zion -hath said, Jehovah hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me_; -and ver. 24, _Shall the prey be taken from the mighty or the captives -of the terrible be delivered_? The third is implied in ch. l. 1. - -The promise of return is as follows: _On roads shall they feed, and -on all bare heights shall be their pasture. They shall not hunger -nor thirst, nor shall the mirage nor the sun smite them: for He that -yearneth over them shall lead them, even by springs of water shall -He guide them. And I will set all My mountains for a way, and My -high ways shall be exalted. Lo, these shall come from far: and, lo, -these from the North and from the West, and these from the land of -Sinim._[239] _Sing forth, O heavens; and be glad, O earth; let the -mountains break forth into singing: for Jehovah hath comforted His -people, and over His afflicted He yearneth._ - -Now, do not let us imagine that this is the promise of a merely -material miracle. It is the greater glory of a purely spiritual one, as -the prophet indicates in describing its cause in the words, _because -He that yearneth over them shall lead them_. The desert is not to -abate its immemorial rigours; in itself the way shall still be as -hard as when the discredited and heart-broken exiles were driven down -it from home to servitude. But their hearts are now changed, and that -shall change the road. The new faith, which has made the difference, -is a very simple one, that God is Power and that God is Love. Notice -the possessive pronouns used by God, and mark what they put into His -possession: two kinds of things,--powerful things, _I will make all My -mountains a way_; and sorrowful things, _Jehovah hath comforted His -people, and will have compassion on His afflicted_.[240] If we will -steadfastly believe that everything in the world which is in pain, and -everything which has power, is God's, and shall be used by Him, the -one for the sake of the other, this shall surely change the way to our -feet, and all the world around to our eyes. - -1. Only it is so impossible to believe it when one looks at real -fact; and however far and swiftly faith and hope may carry us for a -time, we always come to ground again and face to face with fact. The -prophet's imagination speeding along that green and lifted highway of -the Lord lights suddenly upon the end of it,--the still dismantled -and desolate city. Fifty years Zion's altar fires have been cold and -her walls in ruin. Fifty years she has been bereaved of her children -and left alone. The prophet hears the winds blow mournfully through -her fact's chill answer to faith. _But Zion said, Forsaken me hath -Jehovah, and my Lord hath forgotten me!_ Now let us remember, that -our prophet has Zion before him in the figure of a mother, and we -shall feel the force of God's reply. It is to a mother's heart God -appeals. _Doth a woman forget her sucking child so as not to yearn -over the son of her womb? yea, such may forget, but I will not forget -thee_, desolate mother that thou art![241] Thy life is not what thou -art in outward show and feeling, but what thou art in My love and -in My sight. _Lo, upon both palms have I graven thee; thy walls are -before Me continually._ The custom, which to some extent prevails in -all nations, of puncturing or tattooing upon the skin a dear name one -wishes to keep in mind, is followed in the East chiefly for religious -purposes, and men engrave the name of God or some holy text upon the -hand or arm for a memorial or as a mark of consecration. It is this -fashion which God attributes to Himself. Having measured His love -by the love of a mother, He gives this second human pledge for His -memory and devotion. But again He exceeds the human habit; for it is -not only the name of Zion which is engraved on His hands, but her -picture. And it is not her picture, as she lies in her present ruin -and solitariness, but her restored and perfect state: _thy walls are -continually before Me_. For this is faith's answer to all the ruin -and haggard contradiction of outward fact. Reality is not what we -see: reality is what God sees. What a thing is in His sight and to -His purpose, that it really is, and that it shall ultimately appear -to men's eyes. To make us believe this is the greatest service the -Divine can do for the human. It was the service Christ was always -doing, and nothing showed His divinity more. He took us men and He -called us, unworthy as we were, His brethren, the sons of God. He -took such an one as Simon, shifting and unstable, a quicksand of a -man, and He said, _On this rock I will build My Church_. A man's -reality is not what he is in his own feelings, or what he is to the -world's eyes; but what he is to God's love, to God's yearning, and in -God's plan. If he believe that, so in the end shall he feel it, so in -the end shall he show it to the eyes of the world. - -Upon those great thoughts, that God's are all strong things and all -weak things, and that the real and the certain in life is His will, -the prophecy breaks into a vision of multitudes in motion. There is -a great stirring and hastening, crowds gather up through the verses, -the land is lifted and thronged. _Lift up thine eyes round about, -and behold: all of them gather together, they come unto thee. As I -live, saith Jehovah, thou shalt surely clothe thyself with them all -as with an ornament, and gird thyself with them, like a bride. For -as for thy waste places and thy desolate ones and thy devastated -land--yea, thou wilt now be too strait for the inhabitants, and far -off shall be they that devoured thee. Again shall they speak in thine -ears,--the children of thy bereavement_ (that is, those children -who have been born away from Zion during her solitude), _Too strait -for me is the place, make me room that I may dwell. And thou shalt -say in thine heart, Who hath borne me these_,--not begotten, as our -English version renders, because the question with Zion was not who -was the father of the children, but who, in her own barrenness, could -possibly be the mother,--_Who hath borne me these, seeing I was_ -first _bereft of my children, and_ since then have been _barren, an -exile and a castaway! And these, who hath brought them up! Lo, I was -left by myself. These,--whence are they!_ Our English version, which -has blundered in the preceding verses, requires no correction in the -following; and the first great Doubt in the Way being now answered, -for _they that wait on the Lord shall not be ashamed_, we pass to -the second, in ver. 24. - -2. _Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of the -tyrant_[242] _be delivered?_ Even though God be full of love and -thought for Zion, will these tyrants give up her children? _Yea, thus -saith Jehovah, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and -the prey of the tyrant be delivered; and with him that quarreleth -with thee will I quarrel, and thy children will I save. And I will -make thine oppressors to eat their own flesh, and as with new wine -with their blood shall they be drunken, that all flesh may know that -I am Jehovah thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer the Mighty One of Jacob._ - -3. But now a third Doubt in the Way seems to have risen. Unlike the two -others, it is not directly stated, but we may gather its substance from -the reply which Jehovah makes to it (l. 1). _Thus saith Jehovah, What -is this bill of divorce of your mother whom I have sent away, or which -of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you?_ The form, in which -this challenge is put, assumes that the Israelites themselves had been -thinking of Jehovah's dismissal of Israel as an irrevocable divorce and -a bankrupt sale into slavery.[243] - -"What now is this letter of divorce,--this that you are saying I have -given your mother? You say that I have sold you as a bankrupt father -sells his children,--to which then of my creditors is it that I have -sold you?" - -The most characteristic effect of sin is that it is always reminding -men of law. Whether the moral habit of it be upon them or they -are entangled in its material consequences, sin breeds in men the -conscience of inexorable, irrevocable law. Its effect is not only -practical, but intellectual. Sin not only robs a man of the freedom -of his own will, but it takes from him the power to think of freedom -in others, and it does not stop till it paralyses his belief in the -freedom of God. He, who knows himself as the creature of unchangeable -habits or as the victim of pitiless laws, cannot help imputing his -own experience to what is beyond him, till all life seems strictly -lawbound, the idea of a free agent anywhere an impossibility, and God -but a part of the necessity which rules the universe. - -Two kinds of generations of men have most tended to be necessitarian -in their philosophy,--the generations which have given themselves -over to do evil, and the generations whose political experience -or whose science has impressed them with the inevitable physical -results of sin. If belief in a Divine Redeemer, able to deliver man's -nature from the guilt and the curse of sin, is growing weak among -us to-day, this is largely due to the fact that our moral and our -physical sciences have been proving to us what creatures of law we -are, and disclosing, especially in the study of disease and insanity, -how inevitably suffering follows sin. God Himself has been so much -revealed to us as law, that as a generation we find it hard to -believe that He ever acts in any fashion that resembles the reversal -of a law, or ever works any swift, sudden deed of salvation. - -Now the generation of the Exile was a generation, to whom God -had revealed Himself as law. They were a generation of convicts. -They had owned the justice of the sentence which had banished and -enslaved them; they had experienced how inexorably God's processes -of judgement sweep down the ages; for fifty years they had been -feeling the inevitable consequences of sin. The conscience of Law, -which this experience was bound to create in them, grew ever more -strong, till at last it absorbed even the hope of redemption, and -the God, who enforced the Law, Himself seemed to be forced by it. -To express this sense of law these earnest Israelites--for though -in error they were in earnest--went to the only kind of law, with -which they were familiar, and borrowed from it two of its forms, -which were not only suggested to them by the relations in which the -nation and the nation's sons respectively stood to Jehovah, as wife -and as children, but admirably illustrated the ideas they wished to -express. There was, first, the form of divorce, so expressive of the -ideas of absoluteness, deliberateness and finality;--of absoluteness, -for throughout the East power of divorce rests entirely with the -husband; of deliberateness, for in order to prevent hasty divorce -the Hebrew law insisted that the husband must make a bill or writing -of divorce instead of only speaking dismissal; and of finality, for -such a writing, in contrast to the spoken dismissal, set the divorce -beyond recall. The other form, which the doubters borrowed from their -law, was one, which, while it also illustrated the irrevocableness of -the act, emphasized the helplessness of the agent,--the act of the -father, who put his children away, not as the husband put his wife in -his anger, but in his necessity, selling them to pay his debts and -because he was bankrupt. - -On such doubts God turns with their own language. "I have indeed put -your mother away, but _where is the bill_ that makes her divorce -final, beyond recall? You indeed were sold, but was it because I was -bankrupt? _To which_, then, of _My creditors_ (note the scorn of the -plural) _was it that I sold you? Nay, by means of your iniquities -did you sell yourselves, and by means of your transgressions were -you put away._ But I stand here ready as ever to save, I alone. If -there is any difficulty about your restoration it lies in this, that -I am alone, with no response or assistance from men. _Why when I came -was there no man? when I called was there none to answer? Is My hand -shortened at all that it cannot redeem? or is there in it no power -to deliver?_" And so we come back to the truth, which this prophecy -so often presents to us, that behind all things there is a personal -initiative and urgency of infinite power, which moves freely of its -own compassion and force, which is hindered by no laws from its own -ends, and needs no man's co-operation to effect its purposes. The -rest of the Lord's answer to His people's fear, that He is bound -by an inexorable law, is simply an appeal to His wealth of force. -This omnipotence of God is our prophet's constant solution for the -problems which arise, and he expresses it here in his favourite -figures of physical changes and convulsions of nature. _Lo, with -My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make rivers a wilderness: their fish -stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst. I clothe -the heavens with blackness, and sackcloth I set for their covering._ -The argument seems to be: if God can work those sudden revolutions -in the physical world, those apparent interruptions of law in that -sphere, surely you can believe Him capable of creating sudden -revolutions also in the sphere of history, and reversing those laws -and processes, which you feel to be unalterable. It is an argument -from the physical to the moral world, in our prophet's own analogical -style, and like those we found in ch. xl. - - - II. li.-lii. 12. - -Passing over the passage on the Servant, ch. l. 4-11, we reach a -second series of exhortations in face of Doubts in the Way of the -Return. The first of this new series is li. 1-3. - -Their doubts having been answered with regard to God's mindfulness of -them and His power to save them, the loyal Israelites fall back to -doubt themselves. They see with dismay how few are ready to achieve -the freedom that God has assured, and upon how small and insignificant -a group of individuals the future of the nation depends. But their -disappointment is not made by them an excuse to desert the purpose -of Jehovah: their fewness makes them the more faithful, and the -defection of their countrymen drives them the closer to their God. -Therefore, God speaks to them kindly, and answers their last sad doubt. -_Hearken unto Me, ye that follow righteousness, that seek Jehovah._ -_Righteousness_ here might be taken in its inward sense of conformity -to law, personal rightness of character; and so taken it would well -fall in with the rest of the passage. Those addressed would then be -such in Israel, as in face of hopeless prospects applied themselves -to virtue and religion. But _righteousness_ here is more probably -used in the outward sense, which we have found prevalent in "Second -Isaiah," of vindication and victory; the "coming right" of God's people -and God's cause in the world, their justification and triumph in -history.[244] They who are addressed will then be they who, in spite -of their fewness, believe in this triumph, _follow it_, make it their -goal and their aim, and _seek Jehovah_, knowing that He can bring it to -pass. And because, in spite of their doubts, they are still earnest, -and though faint are yet pursuing, God speaks to comfort them about -their fewness. Their present state may be very small and unpromising, -but let them look back upon the much more unpromising character of -their origin: _look unto the rock whence ye were hewn, and the hole -of the pit whence ye were digged_. To-day you may be a mere handful, -ridiculous in the light of the destiny you are called to achieve, but -remember you were once but one man: _look unto Abraham your father, and -to Sarah who bare you: for as one I called him and blessed him, that I -might make of him many_. - -When we are weary and hopeless it is best to sit down and remember. -Is the future dark: let us look back and see the gathering and -impetus of the past! We can follow the luminous track, the -unmistakable increase and progress, but the most inspiring sight of -all is what God makes of the individual heart; how a man's heart -is always His beginning, the fountain of the future, the origin of -nations. Lift up your hearts, ye few and feeble; your father was but -one when I called him, and I made him many! - -Having thus assured His loyal remnant of the restoration of Zion, in -spite of their fewness, Jehovah in the next few verses (4-8) extends -the prospect of His glory to the world: _Revelation shall go forth from -Me, and I will make My Law to light on the nations._ Revelation and Law -between them summarise His will. As He identified them both with the -Servant's work (ch. xl. 11), so here He tells the loyal in Israel, who -were in one aspect His Servant, that they shall surely come to pass; -and in the next little oracle, vv. 7, 8, He exhorts them to do that in -which the Servant has been set forth as an example: _fear ye not the -reproach of men, neither be dismayed at their revilings. For like a -garment the moth shall eat them up, and like wool shall the worm devour -them._ It is a response in almost the same words to the Servant's -profession of confidence in God in ch. l. 7-9. By some it is used as -an argument to show that the Servant and the godly remnant are to our -prophet still virtually one and the same; but we have already seen (ch. -l. 10) the godfearing addressed as distinct from the Servant, and can -only understand here that they are once more exhorted to take him as -their example. But if the likeness of the passage on the Servant to -this passage on the suffering Remnant does not prove that Remnant and -Servant are the same, it is certainly an indication that both passages, -so far from being pieced together out of different poems, are most -probably due to the same author and were produced originally in the -same current of thought. - -When all Doubts in the Way have now been removed, what can remain but -a great impatience to achieve at once the near salvation? To this -impatience the loosened hearts give voice in vv. 9-11: _Awake, awake, -put on strength, Arm of Jehovah; awake as in the days of old, ages far -past!_ Not in vain have Israel been called to look back to the rock -whence they were hewn and the hole of the pit whence they were digged. -Looking back, they see the ancient deliverance manifest: _Art thou not -it that hewed Rahab in pieces, that pierced_ the _Dragon! Art thou -not it that dried up the sea, waters of the great flood; that did set -the hollows of the sea a way for the passage of the redeemed._ Then -there breaks forth the March of the Return, which we heard already -in the end of ch. xxxv.,[245] and to His people's impatience Jehovah -responds in vv. 9-16 in strains similar to those of ch. xl. The last -verse of this reply is notable for the enormous extension which it -gives to the purpose of Jehovah in endowing Israel as His prophet,--an -extension to no less than the renewal of the universe,--_in order to -plant the heavens and found the earth_; though the reply emphatically -concludes with the restoration of Israel, as if this were the cardinal -moment in the universal regeneration,--_and to say to Zion, My people -art thou_. The close conjunction, into which this verse brings words -already applied to Israel as the Servant and words which describe -Israel as Zion, is another of the many proofs we are discovering of the -impossibility of breaking up "Second Isaiah" into poems, the respective -subjects of which are one or other of these two personifications of the -nation.[246] - -But the desire of the prophet speeds on before the returning exiles to -the still prostrate and desolate city. He sees her as she fell, the -day the Lord made her drunken with the cup of His wrath. With urgent -passion he bids her awake, seeking to rouse her now by the horrid tale -of her ruin, and now by his exultation in the vengeance the Lord is -preparing for His enemies (li. 17-23). In a second strophe he addresses -her in conscious contrast to his taunt-song against Babel. Babel was to -sit throneless and stripped of her splendour in the dust; but Zion is -to shake off the dust, rise, sit on her throne and assume her majesty. -For God hath redeemed His people. He could not tolerate longer _the -exulting of their tyrants_, the _blasphemy of His name_ (lii. 1-6). All -through these two strophes the strength of the passion, the intolerance -of further captivity, the fierceness of the exultation of vengeance, -are very remarkable. - -But from the ruin of his city, which has so stirred and made -turbulent his passion, the prophet lifts his hot eyes to the dear -hills that encircle her; and peace takes the music from vengeance. -Often has Jerusalem seen rising across that high margin the spears -and banners of her destroyers. But now the lofty skyline is the -lighting place of hope. Fit threshold for so Divine an arrival, it -lifts against heaven, dilated and beautiful, the herald of the Lord's -peace, the publisher of salvation. - -_How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth -good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of -good, that publisheth salvation! Hark thy watchmen! they lift up the -voice, together they break into singing; yea, eye to eye do they see -when Jehovah returneth to Zion._ - -The last verse is a picture of the thronging of the city of the -prophets by the prophets again--so close, that they shall look each -other in the face. For this is the sense of the Hebrew _to see eye -in eye_, and not that meaning of reconciliation and agreement which -the phrase has come to have in colloquial English. The Exile had -scattered the prophets and driven them into hiding. They had been -only voices to one another, like Jeremiah and Ezekiel with the desert -between the two of them, or like our own prophet, anonymous and -unseen. But upon the old gathering-ground, the narrow but the free -and open platform of Jerusalem's public life, they should see each -other face to face, they should again be named and known. _Break out, -sing together, ye wastes of Jerusalem: for Jehovah has comforted His -people, has redeemed Jerusalem. Bared has Jehovah His holy arm to -the eyes of all the nations, and see shall all ends of the earth the -salvation of our God._ - -Thus the prophet, after finishing his long argument and dispelling -the doubts that still lingered at its close, returns to the first -high notes and the first dear subject with which he opened in ch. xl. -In face of so open a way, so unclouded a prospect, nothing remains -but to repeat, and this time with greater strength than before, the -call to leave Babylon: - - _Draw off, draw off, come forth from there, touch not the unclean; - Come forth from her midst; be ye clean that do bear the vessels of - Jehovah. - Nay, neither with haste shall ye forth, nor in flight shall ye go, - For Jehovah goeth before thee, and Israel's God is thy rearward._ - -FOOTNOTES: - -[238] See p. 334. - -[239] The question whether this is the land of China is still an -open one. The possibility of intercourse between China and Babylon -is more than proved. But that there were Jews in China by this time -(though they seem to have found their way there by the beginning of -the Christian era) is extremely unlikely. Moreover, the possibility -of such a name as Sinim for the inhabitants of China at that date has -not been proved. No other claimants for the name, however, have made -good their case. But we need not enter further into the question. The -whole matter is fully discussed in Canon Cheyne's excursus, and by -him and Terrien de Lacouperie in the _Babylonian and Oriental Record_ -for 1886-87. See especially the number for September 1887. - -[240] His _humbled_, _His poor_ in the exilic sense of the word. See -_Isaiah i.-xxxix._, pp. 432 ff. - -[241] On the "Motherhood of God" cf. _Isaiah i.-xxxix._, p. 245 ff. - -[242] For [Hebrew: tzdk], the _righteous_ or _just_, which is in the -text, the Syr., Vulg., Ewald, and others read [Hebrew: 'rtz], as -in the following verse, _terrible_ or _terribly strong_. Dillmann, -however (5th ed., 1890, p. 438), retains [Hebrew: tzdk] takes the -terms _mighty_ and _just_ as used of God, and reads the question, not -as a question of despair uttered by the people, but as a triumphant -challenge of the prophet or of God Himself. He would then make the -next verse run thus: _Nay, for the captives of the mighty may be -taken, and the prey of the delivered, but with him who strives with -thee I will strive._ - -[243] The English version, _Where is the bill_, is incorrect. The -phrase is the same as in lxvi. ver. 1, _What is this house that ye -build for Me? what is this place for My rest?_ It implies a house -already built; and so in the text above _What is this bill of -divorce_ implies one already thought of by the minds of the persons -addressed by the question. - -[244] _Cf._ p. 221. Dillmann's view that _righteousness_ means here -personal character is contradicted by the whole context, which -makes it plain that it is something external, the realisation of -which those addressed are doubting. What troubles them is not that -they are personally unrighteous, but that they are so few and -insignificant. And what God promises them in answer is something -external, the establishment of Zion. _Cf._ also the external meaning -of _righteousness_ in vv. 5, 6. - -[245] _Isaiah. i.-xxxix._, p. 441. - -[246] _Cf._ p. 315. - - - - - CHAPTER XXII. - - _ON THE EVE OF RETURN._ - - ISAIAH liv.-lvi. 8. - - -One of the difficult problems of our prophecy is the relation and -grouping of chs. liv.-lix. It is among them that the unity of "Second -Isaiah," which up to this point we have seen no reason to doubt, -gives way. Ch. lvi. 9-lvii. is evidently pre-exilic, and so is ch. -lix. But in chs. liv., lv., and lvi. 1-8 we have three addresses, -evidently dating from the Eve of the Return. We shall, therefore, -treat them together. - - - I. THE BRIDE THE CITY (ch. liv.). - -We have already seen why there is no reason for the theory that ch. -liv. may have followed immediately on ch. lii. 12.[247] And from Calvin -to Ewald and Dillmann, critics have all felt a close connection between -ch. lii. 13-liii. and ch. liv. "After having spoken of the death of -Christ," says Calvin, "the prophet passes on with good reason to the -Church: that we may feel more deeply in ourselves what is the value and -efficacy of His death." Similar in substance, if not in language, is -the opinion of the latest critics, who understand that in ch. liv. the -prophet intends to picture that full redemption which the Servant's -work, culminating in ch. liii., could alone effect. Two keywords of -ch. liii. had been _a seed_ and _many_. It is _the seed_ and the -_many_ whom ch. liv. reveals. Again, there may be, in ver. 17 of ch. -liv., a reference to the earlier picture of the Servant in ch. l., -especially ver. 8. But this last is uncertain; and, as a point on the -other side, there are the two different meanings, as well as the two -different agents, of _righteousness_ in ch. liii. 11, _My Servant shall -make many righteous_, and in ch. liv. 17, _their righteousness which -is of Me, saith Jehovah_. In the former, righteousness is the inward -justification; in the latter, it is the external historical vindication. - -In ch. liv. the people of God are represented under the double -figure, with which the Book of Revelation has made us familiar, -of Bride and City. To imagine a Nation or a Land as the spouse of -her God is a habit natural to the religious instinct at all times; -the land deriving her fruitfulness, the nation her standing and -prestige, from her connection with the Deity. But in ancient times -this figure of wedlock was more natural than it is among us, in so -far as the human man and wife did not then occupy that relation -of equality, to which it has been the progress of civilisation to -approximate; but the husband was the lord of his wife,--as much her -Baal as the god was the Baal of the people,--her law-giver, in part -her owner, and with full authority over the origin and subsistence -of the bond between them. Marriage thus conceived was a figure for -religion almost universal among the Semites. But as in the case of so -many other religious ideas common to the Hebrews and their heathen -kin, this one, when adopted by the prophets of Jehovah, underwent a -thorough moral reformation. Indeed, if one were asked to point out -a supreme instance of the operation of that unique conscience of the -religion of Jehovah, which was spoken of before,[248] one would have -little difficulty in selecting its treatment of the idea of religious -marriage. By the neighbours of Israel, the marriage of a god to his -people was conceived with a grossness of feeling and illustrated -by a foulness of ritual, which thoroughly demoralised the people, -affording, as they did, to licentiousness the example and sanction of -religion. So debased had the idea become, and so full of temptation -to the Hebrews were the forms in which it was illustrated among -their neighbours, that the religion of Israel might justly have been -praised for achieving a great moral victory in excluding the figure -altogether from its system. But the prophets of Jehovah dared the -heavier task of retaining the idea of religious marriage, and won the -diviner triumph of purifying and elevating it. It was, indeed, a new -creation. Every physical suggestion was banished, and the relation -was conceived as purely moral. Yet it was never refined to a mere -form or abstraction. The prophets fearlessly expressed it in the -warmest and most familiar terms of the love of man and woman. With a -stern and absolute interpretation before them in the Divine law, of -the relations of a husband to his wife, they borrowed from that only -so far as to do justice to the Almighty's initiative and authority -in His relation with mortals; and they laid far more emphasis on the -instinctive and spontaneous affections, by which Jehovah and Israel -had been drawn together. Thus, among a people naturally averse to -think or to speak of God as _loving_[249] men, this close relation -to Him of marriage was expressed with a warmth, a tenderness and a -delicacy, that exceeded even the two other fond forms in which the -Divine grace was conveyed,--of a father's and of a mother's love. - -In this new creation of the marriage bond between God and His church, -three prophets had a large share,--Hosea, Ezekiel and the author of -"Second Isaiah." To Hosea and Ezekiel it fell to speak chiefly of -unpleasant aspects of the question,--the unfaithfulness of the wife and -her divorce; but even then, the moral strength and purity of the Hebrew -religion, its Divine vehemence and glow, were only the more evident -for the unpromising character of the materials with which it dealt. To -our prophet, on the contrary, it fell to speak of the winning back of -the wife, and he has done so with wonderful delicacy and tenderness. -Our prophet, it is true, has not one, but two, deep feelings about the -love of God: it passes through him as the love of a mother, as well as -the love of a husband. But while he lets us see the former only twice -or thrice, the latter may be felt as the almost continual undercurrent -of his prophecy, and often breaks to hearing, now in a sudden, single -ripple of a phrase, and now in a long tide of marriage music. His -lips open for Jehovah on the language of wooing,--_speak ye to the -heart of Jerusalem_; and though his masculine figure for Israel as -the Servant keeps his affection hidden for a time, this emerges again -when the subject of Service is exhausted, till Israel, where she is -not Jehovah's Servant, is Jehovah's Bride. In the series of passages -on Zion, from ch. xlix. to ch. lii., the City is the Mother of His -children, the Wife who though put away has never been divorced. In ch. -lxii. she is called Hephzi-Bah, _My-delight-is-in-her_, and Beulah, -or _Married,--for Jehovah delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be -married. For as a youth marrieth a maiden, thy sons shall marry thee; -and with the joy of a bridegroom over a bride, thy God shall joy over -thee._[250] But it is in the chapter now before us that the relation -is expressed with greatest tenderness and wealth of affection. _Be not -afraid, for thou shalt not be shamed; and be not confounded, for thou -shalt not be put to the blush: for the shame of thy youth thou shalt -forget, and the reproach of thy widowhood thou shalt not remember -again. For thy Maker is thy Husband, Jehovah of Hosts is His name; -and thy Redeemer the Holy of Israel, God of the whole earth is He -called. For as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit thou art called -of Jehovah, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off, saith thy God. -For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will -I gather thee. In an egre of anger_[251] _I hid My face a moment from -thee, but with grace everlasting will I have mercy upon thee, saith thy -Redeemer Jehovah._ - -In this eighth verse we pass from the figure of the Bride to that of -the City, which emerges clear through flood and storm in ver. 11. -_Afflicted, Storm-beaten, Uncomforted, Lo, I am setting in dark metal_ -(_antimony_, used by women for painting round the eyes, so as to set -forth their brilliance more) _thy stones_,--that they may shine from -this setting like women's eyes,--_and I will found thee in sapphires_: -as heaven's own foundation vault is blue, so shall the ground-stones -be of the New Jerusalem. _And I will set rubies for thy pinnacles, and -thy gates shall be sparkling stones,_[252] _and all thy borders stones -of delight,--stones of joy, jewels._ The rest of the chapter paints the -_righteousness_ of Zion as her external security and splendour. - - - II. A LAST CALL TO THE BUSY (ch. lv.). - -The second address upon the Eve of Return is ch. lv. Its pure gospel -and clear music render detailed exposition, except on a single point, -superfluous. One can but stand and listen to those great calls to -repentance and obedience, which issue from it. What can be added -to them or said about them? Let one take heed rather to let them -speak to one's own heart! A little exploration, however, will be of -advantage among the circumstances from which they shoot. - -The commercial character of the opening figures of ch. lv. arrests the -attention. We saw that Babylon was the centre of the world's trade, -and that it was in Babylon that the Jews first formed those mercantile -habits, which have become, next to religion, or in place of religion, -their national character. Born to be priests, the Jews drew down their -splendid powers of attention, pertinacity and imagination from God upon -the world, till they equally appear to have been born traders. They -laboured and prospered exceedingly, gathering property and settling in -comfort. They drank of the streams of Babylon, no longer made bitter -by their tears, and ceased to think upon Zion. - -But, of all men, exiles can least forget that there is that which -money can never buy. Money and his work can do much for the banished -man,--feed him, clothe him, even make for him a kind of second home, -and in time, by the payment of taxes, a kind of second citizenship; -but they can never bring him to the true climate of his heart, nor -win for him his real life. And of all exiles the Jew, however free -and prosperous in his banishment he might be, was least able to find -his life among the good things--the water, the wine and the milk--of -a strange country. For home to Israel meant not only home, but duty, -righteousness and God.[253] God had created the heart of this people -to hunger for His word, and in His word they could alone find the -_fatness of their soul_. Success and comfort shall never satisfy -the soul which God has created for obedience. The simplicity of the -obedience that is here asked from Israel, the emphasis that is laid -upon mere obedience as ringing in full satisfaction, is impressive: -_hearken diligently, and eat that which is good; incline your ear -and come unto Me, hear and your soul shall live_. It suggests the -number of plausible reasons, which may be offered for every worldly -and material life, and to which there is no answer save the call of -God's own voice to obedience and surrender. To obedience God then -promises influence. In place of being a mere trafficker with the -nations, or, at best, their purveyor and money-lender, the Jew, if -he obeys God, shall be the priest and prophet of the peoples. This -is illustrated in vv. 4_b_-6, the only hard passage in the chapter. -God will make His people like David; whether the historical David or -the ideal David described by Jeremiah and Ezekiel is uncertain.[254] -God will conclude an _everlasting covenant_ with them, equivalent to -the _sure favours_ showered on him. As God set him for a _witness_ -(that is, a prophet) to _the peoples_, a _prince and a leader to -the peoples_, so (in phrases that recall some used by David of -himself in the eighteenth Psalm) shall they as prophets and kings -influence strange nations--_calling a nation thou knowest not, and -nations that have not known thee shall run unto thee_. The effect -of the unconscious influence, which obedience to God, and surrender -to Him as His instrument, are sure to work, could not be more -grandly stated. But we ought not to let another point escape our -attention, for it has its contribution to make to the main question -of the Servant. As explained in the note to a sentence above, it is -uncertain whether _David_ is the historical king of that name, or the -Messiah still to come. In either case, he is an individual, whose -functions and qualities are transferred to the people, and that is -the point demanding attention. If our prophecy can thus so easily -speak of God's purpose of service to the Gentiles passing from the -individual to the nation, why should it not also be able to speak of -the opposite process, the transference of the service from the nation -to the single Servant? When the nation were unworthy and unredeemed, -could not the prophet as easily think of the relegation of their -office to an individual, as he now promises to their obedience that -that office shall be restored to them? - -The next verses urgently repeat calls to repentance. And then comes -a passage which is grandly meant to make us feel the contrast of its -scenery with the toil, the money-getting and the money-spending from -which the chapter started. From all that sordid, barren, human strife -in the markets of Babylon, we are led out to look at the boundless -heavens, and are told that _as they are higher than the earth, so -are God's ways higher than our ways, and God's reckonings than our -reckonings_; we are led out to see the gentle fall of rain and snow -that so easily _maketh the earth to bring forth and bud, and give -seed to the sower and bread to the eater_, and are told that it is -a symbol of God's word, which we were called from our vain labours -to obey; we are led out _to the mountains and to the hills breaking -before you into singing_, and to the free, wild natural trees[255] -tossing their unlopped branches; we are led to see even the desert -change, for _instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and -instead of the nettle shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to -Jehovah for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut -off_. Thus does the prophet, in his own fashion, lead the starved -worldly heart, that has sought in vain its fulness from its toil, -through scenes of Nature, to that free omnipotent Grace, of which -Nature's processes are the splendid sacraments. - - - III. PROSELYTES AND EUNUCHS (ch. lvi. 1-8). - -The opening verse of this small prophecy, _My salvation is near -to come, and My righteousness to be revealed_, attaches it very -closely to the preceding prophecy. If ch. lv. expounds the grace -and faithfulness of God in the Return of His people, and asks from -them only faith as the price of such benefits, ch. lvi. 1-8 adds the -demand that those who are to return shall keep the law, and extends -their blessings to foreigners and others, who though technically -disqualified from the privileges of the born and legitimate -Israelite, had attached themselves to Jehovah and His Law. - -Such a prophecy was very necessary. The dispersion of Israel had -already begun to accomplish its missionary purpose; pious souls in -many lands had felt the spiritual power of this disfigured people, -and had chosen for Jehovah's sake to follow its uncertain fortunes. -It was indispensable that these Gentile converts should be comforted -against the withdrawal of Israel from Babylon, for they said, _Jehovah -will surely separate me from His people_, as well as against the time -when it might become necessary to purge the restored community from -heathen constituents.[256] Again, all the male Jews could hardly -have escaped the disqualification, which the cruel custom of the East -inflicted on some, at least, of every body of captives. It is almost -certain that Daniel and his companions were eunuchs, and if they, then -perhaps many more. But the Book of Deuteronomy had declared mutilation -of this kind to be a bar against entrance to the assembly of the Lord. -It is not one of the least interesting of the spiritual results of the -Exile, that its necessities compelled the abrogation of the letter of -such a law. With a freedom that foreshadows Christ's own expansion of -the ancient strictness, and in words that would not be out of place -in the Sermon on the Mount, this prophecy ensures to pious men, whom -cruelty had deprived of the two things dearest to the heart of an -Israelite,--a present place, and a perpetuation through his posterity, -in the community of God,--that in the new temple a _monument_[257] -_and a name_ should be given, _better_ and more enduring _than sons or -daughters_. This prophecy is further noteworthy as the first instance -of the strong emphasis which "Second Isaiah" lays upon the keeping of -the Sabbath, and as first calling the temple the _House of Prayer_. -Both of these characteristics are due, of course, to the Exile, the -necessities of which prevented almost every religious act save that of -keeping fasts and Sabbaths and serving God in prayer. On our prophet's -teaching about the Sabbath there will be more to say in the next -chapter. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[247] _Cf._ pp. 336 ff. - -[248] See pp. 247 ff. - -[249] "Das eigentliche Wort 'Liebe' kommt im A. T. von Gott fast gar -nicht vor,--und wo es, bei einem späten Schriftsteller, vorkommt, -ist es Bezeichnung seiner besondren Bundes-liebe zu Israel, -deren natürliche Kehrseite der Hass gegen die feindlichen Völker -ist."--Schultz, _A. T. Theologie_, 4th ed., p. 548. - -[250] The reserve of this--the limitation of the relation to one of -feeling--is remarkable in contrast to the more physical use of the -same figure in other religions. - -[251] _Egre_, or sudden rush of the tide, or spate, or freshet. The -original is assonant: B^eshesseph qesseph. - -[252] So literally; LXX. crystals, carbuncles or diamonds. - -[253] Cf. _Isaiah i.-xxxix._, pp. 440 ff. - -[254] The structure of this difficult passage is this. Ver. 3 states -the equation: the everlasting covenant with the people Israel=the -sure, unfailing favours bestowed upon the individual David. Vv. 4 and -5 unfold the contents of the equation. Each side of it is introduced -by a _Lo_. Lo, on the one side, what I have done to David; Lo, on the -other, what I will do to you. As David was a _witness of peoples_, -a _prince_ and _commander of peoples_, so shalt thou call to them -and make them obey thee. This is clear enough. But who is David? The -phrase the _favours_ of _David_ suggests 2 Chron. vi. 42, _remember -the mercies of David thy servant_; and those in ver. 5 recall Psalm -xviii. 43 f.: _Thou hast made me the head of nations; A people I -know not shall serve me; As soon as they hear of me they shall obey -me; Strangers shall submit themselves to me._ Yet both Jeremiah and -Ezekiel call the coming Messiah David. Jer. xxx. 9: _They shall serve -Jehovah their God and David their King._ Ezek. xxxiv. 23: _And I will -set up a shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, and he shall be -their shepherd. And I Jehovah will be their God, and My servant David -prince among them._ After these writers, our prophet could hardly -help using the name David in its Messianic sense, even though he also -quoted (in ver. 5) a few phrases recalling the historical David. But -the question does not matter much. The real point is the transference -of the favours bestowed upon an individual to the whole people. - -[255] English version, _trees of the field_, but the field is the -country beyond the bounds of cultivation; and as beasts of the field -means _wild beasts_, so this means _wild trees_,--unforced, unaided -by man's labour. - -[256] Neh. xiii. - -[257] The original is _a hand_; a term applied (perhaps because -it consisted of tapering stones) to an _index_, or _monument_ of -victory, 1 Sam. xv. 12; or to a sepulchral monument, 2 Sam. xviii. 18. - - - - - CHAPTER XXIII. - - _THE REKINDLING OF THE CIVIC CONSCIENCE._ - - ISAIAH lvi. 9-lix. - - -It was inevitable, as soon as their city was again fairly in sight, -that there should re-awaken in the exiles the civic conscience; -that recollections of those besetting sins of their public life, -for which their city and their independence were destroyed, should -throng back upon them; that in prospect of their again becoming -responsible for the discharge of justice and other political duties, -they should be reminded by the prophet of their national faults in -these respects, and of God's eternal laws concerning them. If we keep -this in mind, we shall understand the presence in "Second Isaiah" of -the group of prophecies at which we have now arrived, ch. lvi. 9-lix. -Hitherto our prophet, in marked contrast to Isaiah himself, has said -almost nothing of the social righteousness of his people. Israel's -righteousness, as we saw in our fourteenth chapter, has had the very -different meaning for our prophet of her pardon and restoration to -her rights. But in ch. lvi. 9-lix. we shall find the blame of civic -wrong, and of other kinds of sin of which Israel could only have been -guilty in her own land; we shall listen to exhortations to social -justice and mercy like those we heard from Isaiah to his generation. -Yet these are mingled with voices, and concluded with promises, -which speak of the Return as imminent. Undoubtedly exilic elements -reveal themselves. And the total impression is that some prophet of -the late Exile, and probably the one, whom we have been following, -collected these reminiscences of his people's sin in the days of -their freedom, in order to remind them, before they went back again -to political responsibility, why it was they were punished and how -apt they were to go astray. Believing this to be the true solution of -a somewhat difficult problem, we have ventured to gather this mixed -group of prophecies under the title of the Rekindling of the Civic -Conscience. They fall into three groups: first, ch. lvi. 9-lvii.; -second, ch. lviii.; third, ch. lix. We shall see that, while there -is no reason to doubt the exilic origin of the whole of the second, -the first and third of these are mainly occupied with the description -of a state of things that prevailed only before the Exile, but they -contain also exilic observations and conclusions. - - - I. A CONSCIENCE BUT NO GOD (ch. lvi. 9-lvii.). - -This is one of the sections which almost decisively place the literary -unity of "Second Isaiah" past possibility of belief. If ch. lvi. 1-8 -flushes with the dawn of restoration, ch. lvi. 9-lvii. is very dark -with the coming of the night, which preceded that dawn. Almost none -dispute, that the greater part of this prophecy must have been composed -before the people left Palestine for exile. The state of Israel, which -it pictures, recalls the descriptions of Hosea, and of the eleventh -chapter of Zechariah. God's flock are still in charge of their own -shepherds (lvi. 9-12),--a description inapplicable to Israel in exile. -The shepherds are sleepy, greedy, sensual, drunkards,--victims to -the curse, against which Amos and Isaiah hurled their strongest woes. -That sots like them should be spared while the righteous die unnoticed -deaths (lvii. 1) can only be explained by the approaching judgement. -_No man considereth that the righteous is taken away from the Evil. The -Evil_ cannot mean, as some have thought, persecution,--for while the -righteous are to escape it and enter into peace, the wicked are spared -for it. It must be a Divine judgement,--the Exile. But _he entereth -peace, they rest in their beds, each one that hath walked straight -before him_,--for the righteous there is the peace of death and the -undisturbed tomb of his fathers. What an enviable fate when emigration, -and dispersion through foreign lands, are the prospect of the nation! -Israel shall find her pious dead when she returns! The verse recalls -that summons in Isa. xxvi., in which we heard the Mother Nation calling -upon the dead she had left in Palestine to rise and increase her -returned numbers. - -Then the prophet indicts the nation for a religious and political -unfaithfulness, which we know was their besetting sin in the days -before they left the Holy Land. The scenery, in whose natural objects -he describes them seeking their worship, is the scenery of Palestine, -not of Mesopotamia,--_terebinths_ and _wâdies_, and _clefts of the -rocks_, and _smooth stones of the wâdies_. The unchaste and bloody -sacrifices with which he charges them bear the appearance more of -Canaanite than of Babylonian idolatry. The humiliating political -suits which they paid--_thou wentest to the king with ointment, and -didst increase thy perfumes, and didst send thine ambassadors afar -off, and didst debase thyself even unto Sheol_ (ver. 9)--could not -be attributed to a captive people, but were the sort of degrading -diplomacy that Israel learned from Ahaz. While the painful pursuit -of strength (ver. 10), the shabby political cowardice (ver. 11), -the fanatic sacrifice of manhood's purity and childhood's life -(ver. 5), and especially the evil conscience which drove their -blind hearts through such pain and passion in a sincere quest for -righteousness (ver. 12), betray the age of idolatrous reaction from -the great Puritan victory of 701,--a generation exaggerating all the -old falsehood and fear, against which Isaiah had inveighed, with -the new conscience of sin which his preaching had created.[258] -The dark streak of blood and lust that runs through the condemned -idolatry, and the stern conscience which only deepens its darkness, -are sufficient reasons for dating the prophecy after 700. The very -phrases of Isaiah, which it contains, have tempted some to attribute -it to himself. But it certainly does not date from such troubles as -brought his old age to the grave. The evil, which it portends, is, as -we have seen, no persecution of the righteous, but a Divine judgement -upon the whole nation,--presumably the Exile. We may date it, -therefore, some time after Isaiah's death, but certainly--and this is -the important point--before the Exile. This, then, is an unmistakably -pre-exilic constituent of "Second Isaiah." - -Another feature corroborates this prophecy's original independence -of its context. Its style is immediately and extremely rugged. The -reader of the original feels the difference at once. It is the -difference between travel on the level roads of Mesopotamia, with -their unchanging horizons, and the jolting carriage of the stony -paths of Higher Palestine, with their glimpses rapidly shifting from -gorge to peak. But the remarkable thing is that the usual style of -"Second Isaiah" is resumed before the end of the prophecy. One cannot -always be sure of the exact verse at which such a literary change -takes place. In this case some feel it as soon as the middle of ver. -11, with the words, _Have not I held My peace even of long time, -and thou fearest Me not?_[259] It is surely more sensible, however, -after ver. 14, in which we are arrested in any case by an alteration -of standpoint. In ver. 14 we are on in the Exile again--before ver. -14 I cannot recognise any exilic symptom--and the way of return is -before us. _And one said_,--it is the repetition to the letter of the -strange anonymous voice of ch. xl. 6,--_and one said, Cast ye up, -Cast ye up, open up, or sweep open, a way, lift the stumbling block -from the way of My people_. And now the rhythm has certainly returned -to the prevailing style of "Second Isaiah," and the temper is again -that of promise and comfort. - -These sudden shiftings of circumstance and of prospect are enough -to show the thoughtful reader of Scripture how hard is the problem -of the unity of "Second Isaiah." On which we make here no further -remark, but pass at once to the more congenial task of studying the -great prophecy, vv. 14-21, which rises one and simple from these -fragments as does some homogeneous rock from the confusing _débris_ -of several geological epochs. - -For let the date and original purpose of the fragments we have -considered be what they may, this prophecy has been placed as their -conclusion with at least some rational, not to say spiritual, -intention. As it suddenly issues here, it gathers up, in the usual -habit of Scripture, God's moral indictment of an evil generation, by -a great manifesto of the Divine nature, and a sharp distinction of -the characters and fate of men. Now, of what kind is the generation, -to whose indictment this prophecy comes as a conclusion? It is a -generation which has lost its God, but kept its conscience. This -sums up the national character which is sketched in vv. 3-13. These -Israelites had lost Jehovah and His pure law. But the religion -into which they fell back was not, therefore, easy or cold. On the -contrary, it was very intense and very stern. The people put energy -in it, and passion, and sacrifice that went to cruel lengths. Belief, -too, in its practical results kept the people from fainting under -the weariness in which its fanaticism reacted. _In the length of -thy way thou wast wearied, yet thou didst not say, It is hopeless; -life for thy hand_--that is, real, practical strength--_didst thou -find: wherefore thou didst not break down_. And they practised their -painful and passionate idolatry with a real conscience. They were -seeking to work out righteousness for themselves (ver. 12 should -be rendered: _I will expose your righteousness_, the caricature of -righteousness which you attempt). The most worldly statesman among -them had his sincere ideal for Israel, and intended to enable her, in -the possession of her land and holy mountain, to fulfil her destiny -(ver. 13). The most gross idolater had a hunger and thirst after -righteousness, and burnt his children or sacrificed his purity to -satisfy the vague promptings of his unenlightened conscience. - -It was indeed a generation which had kept its conscience, but lost -its God; and what we have in vv. 15 to 21 is just the lost and -forgotten God speaking of His Nature and His Will. They have been -worshipping idols, creatures of their own fears and cruel passions. -But He is the _high and lofty one_--two of the simplest adjectives -in the language, yet sufficient to lift Him they describe above the -distorting mists of human imagination. They thought of the Deity as -sheer wrath and force, scarcely to be appeased by men even through -the most bloody rites and passionate self-sacrifice. But He says, -_The high and the holy I dwell in, yet with him also that is contrite -and humble of spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to -revive the heart of the contrite ones_. The rest of the chapter is -to the darkened consciences a plain statement of the moral character -of God's working. God always punishes sin, and yet the sinner is -not abandoned. Though he go in his own way, God _watches his ways -in order to heal him. I create the fruit of the lips_, that is, -_thanksgivings: Peace, peace, to him that is far off and him that is -near, saith Jehovah, and I will heal him_. But, as in ch. xlviii. and -ch. l., a warning comes last, and behind the clear, forward picture -of the comforted and restored of Jehovah we see the weird background -of gloomy, restless wickedness. - - - II. SOCIAL SERVICE AND THE SABBATH (ch. lviii.). - -Several critics (including Professor Cheyne) regard ch. lviii. as -post-exilic, because of its declarations against formal fasting -and the neglect of social charity, which are akin to those of -post-exilic prophets like Zechariah and Joel, and seem to imply -that the people addressed are again independent and responsible for -the conduct of their social duties. The question largely turns on -the amount of social responsibility we conceive the Jews to have -had during the Exile. Now we have seen that many of them enjoyed -considerable freedom: they had their houses and households; they had -their slaves; they traded and were possessed of wealth. They were, -therefore, in a position to be chargeable with the duties to which -ch. lviii. calls them. The addresses of Ezekiel to his fellow-exiles -have many features in common with ch. lviii., although they do not -mention fasting; and fasting itself was a characteristic habit of the -exiles, in regard to which it is quite likely they should err just as -is described in ch. lviii. Moreover, there is a resemblance between -this chapter's comments upon the people's enquiries of God (ver. 2) -and Ezekiel's reply when certain of the elders of Israel came to -enquire of Jehovah.[260] And again vv. 11 and 12 of ch. lviii. are -evidently addressed to people in prospect of return to their own -land and restoration of their city. We accordingly date ch. lviii. -from the Exile. But we see no reason to put it as early as Ewald -does, who assigns it to a younger contemporary of Ezekiel. There is -no linguistic evidence that it is an insertion, or from another hand -than that of our prophet. Surely there were room and occasion for -it in those years which followed the actual deliverance of the Jews -by Cyrus, but preceded the restoration of Jerusalem,--those years -in which there were no longer political problems in the way of the -people's return for our prophet to discuss, and therefore their moral -defects were all the more thrust upon his attention; and especially, -when in the near prospect of their political independence, their -social sins roused his apprehensions. - -Those, who have never heard an angry Oriental speak, have no idea of -what power of denunciation lies in the human throat. In the East, where -a dry climate and large leisure bestow upon the voice a depth and -suppleness prevented by our vulgar haste of life and teasing weather, -men have elaborated their throat-letters to a number unknown in any -Western alphabet; and upon the lowest notes they have put an edge, -that comes up shrill and keen through the roar of the upper gutturals, -till you feel their wrath cut as well as sweep you before it. In the -Oriental throat, speech goes down deep enough to echo all the breadth -of the inner man; while the possibility of expressing within so supple -an organ nearly every tone of scorn or surprise preserves anger from -that suspicion of spite or of exhaustion, which is conveyed by too -liberal a use of the nasal or palatal letters. Hence in the Hebrew -language _to call with the throat_ means to call with vehemence, but -with self-command; with passion, yet as a man; using every figure of -satire, but earnestly; neither forgetting wrath for mere art's sake, -nor allowing wrath to escape the grip of the stronger muscles of the -voice. It is _to lift the voice like a trumpet_,--an instrument, which, -with whatever variety of music its upper notes may indulge our ears, -never suffers its main tone of authority to drop, never slacks its -imperative appeal to the wills of the hearers. - -This is the style of the chapter before us, which opens with the words, -_Call with the throat, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet_. -Perhaps no subject more readily provokes to satire and sneers than the -subject of the chapter,--the union of formal religion and unlovely -life. And yet in the chapter there is not a sneer from first to last. -The speaker suppresses the temptation to use his nasal tones, and -utters, not as the satirist, but as the prophet. For his purpose is -not to sport with his people's hypocrisy, but to sweep them out of it. -Before he has done, his urgent speech, that has not lingered to sneer -nor exhausted itself in screaming, passes forth to spend its unchecked -impetus upon final promise and gospel. It is a wise lesson from a -master preacher, and half of the fruitlessness of modern preaching is -due to the neglect of it. The pulpit tempts men to be either too bold -or too timid about sin; either to whisper or to scold; to euphemise or -to exaggerate; to be conventional or hysterical. But two things are -necessary,--the facts must be stated, and the whole manhood of the -preacher, and not only his scorn or only his anger or only an official -temper, brought to bear upon them. _Call with the throat, spare not, -like a trumpet lift up thy voice, and publish to My people their -transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sin._ - -The subject of the chapter is the habits of a religious people,--the -earnestness and regularity of their religious performance contrasted -with the neglect of their social relations. The second verse, "the -descriptions in which are evidently drawn from life,"[261] tells -us that _the people sought God daily, and had a zeal to know His -ways, as a nation that had done righteousness_,--fulfilled the legal -worship,--_and had not forsaken the law_[262] _of their God: they -ask of Me laws[262] of righteousness_,--that is, a legal worship, -the performance of which might make them righteous,--_and in drawing -near to God they take delight_. They had, in fact, a great greed for -ordinances and functions,[263]--for the revival of such forms as -they had been accustomed to of old. Like some poor prostrate rose, -whose tendrils miss the props by which they were wont to rise to the -sun, the religious conscience and affections of Israel, violently -torn from their immemorial supports, lay limp and windswept on a -bare land, and longed for God to raise some substitute for those -altars of Zion by which, in the dear days of old, they had lifted -themselves to the light of His face. In the absence of anything -better, they turned to the chill and shadowed forms of the fasts -they had instituted.[264] But they did not thereby reach the face -of God. _Wherefore have we fasted_, say they, _and Thou hast not -seen? we have humbled our souls, and Thou takest no notice?_ The -answer comes swiftly: Because your fasting is a mere form! _Lo, in -the very day of your fast ye find a business to do, and all your -workmen you overtask._ So formal is your fasting that your ordinary -eager, selfish, cruel life goes on beside it just the same. Nay, it -is worse than usual, for your worthless, wearisome fast but puts a -sharper edge upon your temper: _Lo, for strife and contention ye -fast, to smile with the fist of tyranny_. And it has no religious -value: _Ye fast not_ like _as_ you are fasting _to-day so as to make -your voice heard on high_. _Is such the fast that I choose,--a day -for a man to afflict himself? Is it to droop his head like a rush, -and grovel on sackcloth and ashes? Is it this thou wilt call a fast -and a day acceptable to Jehovah?_ One of the great surprises of the -human heart is, that self-denial does not win merit or peace. But -assuredly it does not, if love be not with it. Though I give my body -to be burned and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Self-denial -without love is self-indulgence. _Is not this the fast that I -choose? to loosen the bonds of tyranny, to shatter the joints of the -yoke, to let the crushed go free, and that ye burst every yoke. Is -it not to break to the hungry thy bread, and that thou bring home -wandering poor?_[265] _when thou seest one naked that thou cover -him, and that from thine own flesh thou hide not thyself? Then shall -break forth like the morning thy light, and thy health_[266] _shall -immediately spring. Yea, go before thee shall thy righteousness, -the glory of Jehovah shall sweep thee on_, literally, _gather thee -up. Then thou shalt call, and Jehovah shall answer; thou shalt -cry, and He shall say, Here am I. If thou shalt put from thy midst -the yoke, and the putting forth of the finger, and the speaking of -naughtiness_--three degrees of the subtlety of selfishness, which -when forced back from violent oppression will retreat to scorn -and from open scorn to backbiting,--_and if thou draw out to the -hungry thy soul_,--tear out what is dear to thee in order to fill -his need, the strongest expression for self-denial which the Old -Testament contains,--_and satisfy the soul that is afflicted, then -shall uprise in the darkness thy light, and thy gloom shall be as -the noonday. And guide thee shall Jehovah continually, and satisfy -thy soul in droughts, and thy limbs make lissom; and thou shalt be -like a garden well-watered,_[267] _and like a spring of water whose -waters fail not. And they that are of thee shall build the ancient -ruins; the foundations of generation upon generation thou shalt -raise up, and they shall be calling thee Repairer-of-the-Breach, -Restorer-of-Paths-for-habitation._[268] Thus their _righteousness_ in -the sense of external vindication and stability, which so prevails -with our prophet, shall be due to their _righteousness_ in that -inward moral sense in which Amos and Isaiah use the word. And so -concludes a passage, which fills the earliest, if not the highest, -place in the glorious succession of Scriptures of Practical Love, to -which belong the Sixty-first chapter of Isaiah, the Twenty-fifth of -Matthew and the Thirteenth of First Corinthians. Its lesson is,--to -go back to the figure of the draggled rose,--that no mere forms of -religion, however divinely prescribed or conscientiously observed, -can of themselves lift the distraught and trailing affections of man -to the light and peace of Heaven; but that our fellow-men, if we -cling to them with love and with arms of help, are ever the strongest -props by which we may rise to God; that character grows rich and life -joyful, not by the performance of ordinances with the cold conscience -of duty, but by acts of service with the warm heart of love. - -And yet such a prophecy concludes with an exhortation to the -observance of one religious form, and places the keeping of the -Sabbath on a level with the practice of love. _If thou turn from -the Sabbath thy foot_, from _doing thine own business on My holy -day;_[269] _and callest the Sabbath Pleasure_,--the word is a strong -one, _Delight, Delicacy, Luxury,--Holy of Jehovah, Honourable; and -dost honour it so as not to do thine own ways, or find thine own -business, or keep making talk: then thou shalt find thy pleasure_, -or _thy delight, in Jehovah_,--note the parallel of pleasure in the -Sabbath and pleasure in Jehovah,--_and He shall cause thee to ride on -the high places of the land, and make thee to feed upon the portion -of Jacob thy father: yea, the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken_. - -Our prophet, then, while exalting the practical Service of Man at the -expense of certain religious forms, equally exalts the observance of -Sabbath; his scorn for their formalism changes when he comes to it -into a strenuous enthusiasm of defence. This remarkable fact, which is -strictly analogous to the appearance of the Fourth Commandment in a -code otherwise consisting of purely moral and religious laws, is easily -explained. Observe that our prophet bases his plea for Sabbath-keeping, -and his assurance that it must lead to prosperity, not on its physical, -moral or social benefits, but simply upon its acknowledgment of God. -Not only is the Sabbath to be honoured because it is the _Holy of -Jehovah_ and _Honourable_, but _making it one's pleasure_ is equivalent -to _finding one's pleasure in Him_. The parallel between these two -phrases in ver. 13 and ver. 14 is evident, and means really this: -Inasmuch as ye do it unto the Sabbath, ye do it unto Me. The prophet, -then, enforces the Sabbath simply on account of its religious and -Godward aspect. Now, let us remember the truth, which he so often -enforces, that the Service of Man, however ardently and widely pursued, -can never lead or sum up our duty; that the Service of God has, -logically and practically, a prior claim, for without it the Service -of Man must suffer both in obligation and in resource. God must be -our first resort--must have our first homage, affection and obedience. -But this cannot well take place without some amount of definite and -regular and frequent devotion to Him. In the most spiritual religion -there is an irreducible minimum of formal observance. Now, in that -wholesale destruction of religious forms, which took place at the -overthrow of Jerusalem,[270] there was only one institution, which was -not necessarily involved. The Sabbath did not fall with the Temple and -the Altar: the Sabbath was independent of all locality; the Sabbath was -possible even in exile. It was the one solemn, public and frequently -regular form in which the nation could turn to God, glorify Him and -enjoy Him. Perhaps, too, through the Babylonian fashion of solemnising -the seventh day, our prophet realised again the primitive institution -of the Sabbath, and was reminded that, since seven days is a regular -part of the natural year, the Sabbath is, so to speak, sanctioned by -the statutes of Creation. - -An institution, which is so primitive, which is so independent of -locality, which forms so natural a part of the course of time, but -which, above all, has twice--in the Jewish Exile and in the passage -of Judaism to Christianity--survived the abrogation and disappearance -of all other forms of the religion with which it was connected, and -has twice been affirmed by prophecy or practice to be an essential -part of spiritual religion and the equal of social morality,--has -amply proved its Divine origin and its indispensableness to man. - - - III. SOCIAL CRIMES (ch. lix.). - -Ch. lix. is, at first sight, the most difficult of all of "Second -Isaiah" to assign to a date.[271] For it evidently contains both -pre-exilic and exilic elements. On the one hand, its charges of guilt -imply that the people addressed by it are responsible for civic justice -to a degree, which could hardly be imputed to the Jews in Babylon. We -saw that the Jews in the Exile had an amount of social freedom and -domestic responsibility which amply accounts for the kind of sins they -are charged with in ch. lviii. But ver. 14 of ch. lix. reproaches -them with the collapse of justice in the very seat and public office -of justice, of which it was not possible they could have been guilty -except in their own land and in the days of their independence. On the -other hand, the promises of deliverance in ch. lix. read very much as -if they were exilic. _Judgement_ and _righteousness_ are employed in -ver. 9 in their exilic sense,[272] and God is pictured exactly as we -have seen Him in other chapters of our prophet. - -Are we then left with a mystery? On the contrary, the solution is -clear. Israel is followed into exile by her old conscience. The -charges of Isaiah and Ezekiel against Jerusalem, while Jerusalem was -still a "civitas," ring in her memory. She repeats the very words. -With truth she says that her present state, so vividly described in -vv. 9-11, is due to sins of old, of which, though perhaps she can -no longer commit them, she still feels the guilt. Conscience always -crowds the years together; there is no difference of time in the eyes -of God the Judge. And it was natural, as we have said already, that -the nation should remember her besetting sins at this time; that her -civic conscience should awake again, just as she was again about to -become a civitas.[273][274] - -The whole of this chapter is simply the expansion and enforcement -of the first two verses, that keep clanging like the clangour of a -great, high bell: _Behold, Jehovah's hand is not shortened that it -cannot save, neither is His ear heavy that it cannot hear; but your -iniquities have been separators between you and your God, and your -sins have hidden_ His _face from you, that He will not hear._ There -is but one thing that comes between the human heart and the Real -Presence and Infinite Power of God; and that one thing is Sin. The -chapter labours to show how real God is. Its opening verses talk of -_His Hand_, _His Ear_, _His Face_. And the closing verses paint Him -with the passions and the armour of a man,--a Hero in such solitude -and with such forward force, that no imagination can fail to see -the Vivid, Lonely Figure. _And He saw that there was no man, and He -wondered that there was none to interpose; therefore His own right -arm brought salvation unto Him, and His righteousness it upheld Him. -And He put on righteousness like a breastplate and salvation for -an helmet upon His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for -clothing, and wrapped Himself in zeal like a robe._ Do not let us -suppose this is mere poetry. Conceive what inspires it,--the great -truth that in the Infinite there is a heart to throb for men and a -will to strike for them. This is what the writer desires to proclaim, -and what we believe the Spirit of God moved his poor human lips -to give their own shape to,--the simple truth that there is One, -however hidden He may be to men's eyes, who feels for men, who feels -hotly for men, and whose will is quick and urgent to save them. Such -an One tells His people, that the only thing which prevents them -from knowing how real His heart and will are--the only thing which -prevents them from seeing His work in their midst--is their sin. - -The roll of sins to which the prophet attributes the delay of the -people's deliverance is an awful one; and the man who reads it with -conscience asleep might conclude that it was meant only for a period -of extraordinary violence and bloodshed. Yet the chapter implies that -society exists, and that at least the forms of civilisation are in -force. Men sue one another before the usual courts. But none _sueth -in righteousness or goeth to the law in truth. They trust in vanity -and speak lies._ All these charges might be true of a society as -outwardly respectable as our own. Nor is the charge of bloodshed to -be taken literally. The Old Testament has so great a regard for the -spiritual nature of man, that to deny the individual his rights or to -take away the peace of God from his heart, it calls the shedding of -innocent blood. Isaiah reminds us of many kinds of this moral murder -when he says, _your hands are full of blood: seek justice, relieve the -oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow_. Ezekiel reminds -us of others when he tells how God spake to him, that if he _warn not -the wicked, and the same wicked shall die in his iniquity, his blood -will I require at thy hand_. And again a Psalm reminds us of the time -_when the Lord maketh inquisition for blood, He forgetteth not the cry -of the poor_.[275] This is what the Bible calls murder and lays its -burning words upon,--not such acts of bloody violence as now and then -make all humanity thrill to discover that in the heart of civilisation -there exist men with the passions of the ape and the tiger, but such -oppression of the poor, such cowardice to rebuke evil, such negligence -to restore the falling, such abuse of the characters of the young -and innocent, such fraud and oppression of the weak, as often exist -under the most respectable life, and employ the weapons of a Christian -civilisation in order to fulfil themselves. We have need to take -the bold, violent standards of the prophets and lay them to our own -lives,--the prophets that call the man who sells his honesty for gain, -_a harlot_, and hold him _blood-guilty_ who has wronged, tempted or -neglected his brother. Do not let us suppose that these crimson verses -of the Bible may be passed over by us as not applicable to ourselves. -They do not refer to murderers or maniacs: they refer to social crimes, -to which we all are in perpetual temptation, and of which we all are -more or less guilty,--the neglect of the weak, the exploitation of -the poor for our own profit, the soiling of children's minds, the -multiplying of temptation in the way of God's little ones, the malice -that leads us to blast another's character, or to impute to his action -evil motives for which we have absolutely no grounds save the envy -and sordidness of our own hearts. Do not let us fail to read all such -verses in the clear light which John the Apostle throws on them when -he says: _He that loveth not abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his -brother is a murderer._ - -FOOTNOTES: - -[258] See vol. i., pp. 363, 364. - -[259] So Ewald, Cheyne and Briggs. Ewald takes lvi. 9-lvii. 11_a_ -as an interruption, borrowed from an earlier prophet in a time of -persecution, of the exilic prophecy, which goes on smoothly from lvi. -8 to lvii. 11_b_. We have seen that it is an error to suppose that -lvi. 9-lvii. rose from a time of persecution. - -[260] Ezek. xxi.; _cf._ xxxiii. 30 f. - -[261] Delitzsch. - -[262] Mishpat and mishpatim, _cf._ p. 299. - -[263] Such as is also expressed by exiles in Psalms xlii., xliii. and -lxiii., but there with what spiritual temper, here with what a hard -legal conception of righteousness. - -[264] For these see p. 61. - -[265] Literally, _the poor, the wandering_. It was a frequent -phrase in the Exile: Lam. iii. 19, _Remember mine affliction and my -homelessness_; i. 7, Jerusalem in the day _of her affliction and her -homelessness_. LXX. [Greek: astegoi], roofless. - -[266] Probably the fresh flesh which appears through a healing wound. -Made classical by Jeremiah, who uses it thrice of Israel,--in the -famous text, _Is there no balm_, etc., x. 22; and in xxx. 17; xxxiii. 6. - -[267] Jer. xxxi. 12. - -[268] _Cf._ Job xxiv. 13. - -[269] _Cf._ Amos viii. 5. - -[270] See pp. 43 f. - -[271] Ewald conceives chs. lviii., lix. to be the work of a younger -contemporary of Ezekiel, to which the chief author of "Second Isaiah" -has added words of his own: lviii. 12, lix. 21. The latter is -evidently an insertion; _cf._ change of person and of number, etc. -Delitzsch puts the passage down to the last decade of the Captivity, -when for a little time Cyrus had turned away from Babylon, and the -Jews despaired of his coming to save them. - -[272] See pp. 219 ff. - -[273] Another slight trace reveals the conglomerate nature of the -chapter. If, as the earlier verses indicate, it was Israel that -sinned, then it is the rebellious in Israel who should be punished. -In ver. 18_a_, therefore, the _adversaries_ or _enemies_ ought to be -Israelites. But in 18_b_ the foreign _islands_ are included. The LXX. -has not this addition. Bredenkamp takes the words for an insertion. -Yet the consequences of Israel's sin, according to the chapter, are -not so much the punishment of the rebellious among the people as -the delay of the deliverance for the whole nation,--a deliverance -which Jehovah is represented as rising to accomplish, the moment the -people express the sense of their rebellion and are penitent. The -_adversaries_ and _enemies_ of ver. 18, therefore, are the oppressors -of Israel, the foreigners and heathen; and 18_b_ with its _islands_ -comes in quite naturally. - -[274] _Note on mishpat and Ssedhaqah in ch. lix._ This chapter is a -good one for studying the various meanings of mishpat. In ver. 4 the -verb shaphat is used in its simplest sense of going to law. In vv. -8 and 14 mishpat is a quality or duty of man. But in ver. 9 it is -rather what man expects from God, and what is far from man because of -his sins; it is _judgement_ on God's side, or God's saving ordinance. -In this sense it is probably to be taken in ver. 15,--Ssedhaqah -follows the same parallel. This goes to prove that we have two -distinct prophecies amalgamated, unless we believe that a play upon -the words is intended. - -[275] Isa. i. 17; Ezek. ii. 18; Psalm ix. 12. - - - - - CHAPTER XXIV. - - _SALVATION IN SIGHT._ - - ISAIAH lx.-lxiii. 7. - - -The deliverance from Babylon has long been certain, since ch. -xlviii.; all doubts in the way of Return have been removed, ch. -xlix.-lii. 12; the means for the spiritual Restoration of the people -have been sufficiently found, ch. liii. and preceding chapters on -the Servant; Zion has been hailed from afar, ch. liv.; last calls to -leave Babylon have been uttered, ch. lv.; last councils and comforts, -lvi. 1-8; and the civic conscience has been rekindled, ch. lvi. -9-lix. There remains now only to take possession of the City herself; -to rehearse the vocation of the restored people; and to realise all -the hopes, fears, hindrances and practical problems of the future. -These duties occupy the rest of our prophecy, chs. lx.-lxvi. - -Ch. lx. is a prophecy as complete in itself as ch. liv. The -City, which in liv. was hailed and comforted from afar, is in -ch. lx. bidden rise and enjoy the glory that has at last reached -her. Her splendours, hinted at in ch. liv., are seen in full and -evident display. In chs. lxi.-lxii. her prophet, her genius and -representative, rehearses to her his duties, and sets forth her -place among the peoples. And in ch. lxiii. 1-7 we have another of -those theophanies or appearances of the--Sole Divine Author of His -people's salvation, which, abrupt and separate as if to heighten -the sense of the solitariness of their subject--occur at intervals -throughout our prophecy,--for instance, in ch. xlii., vv. 10-17, and -in ch. lix. 16-19. These three sections, ch. lx., chs. lxi.-lxii. and -ch. lxiii. 1-7, we will take together in this chapter of our volume. - - - I. ARISE, SHINE (ch. lx.) - -The Sixtieth chapter of Isaiah is the spiritual counterpart of a -typical Eastern day, with the dust laid and the darts taken out of -the sunbeams,--a typical Eastern day in the sudden splendour of its -dawn, the completeness and apparent permanence of its noon, the -spaciousness it reveals on sea and land, and the barbaric profusion -of life, which its strong light is sufficient to flood with glory. - -Under such a day we see Jerusalem. In the first five verses of the -chapter, she is addressed, as in ch. liv., as a crushed and desolate -woman. But her lonely night is over, and from some prophet at the -head of her returning children the cry peals, _Arise, shine, for -come hath thy light, and the glory of Jehovah hath risen upon thee_. -In the East the sun does not rise; the word is weak for an arrival -almost too sudden for twilight. In the East the sun leaps above the -horizon. You do not feel that he is coming, but that he is come. This -first verse is suggested by the swiftness with which he bursts upon -an Eastern city, and the shrouded form does not, as in our twilight, -slowly unwrap itself, but _shines_ at once, all plates and points -of glory. Then the figure yields: for Jerusalem is not merely one -radiant point in a world equally lighted by the sun, but is herself -Jehovah's unique luminary. _For behold the darkness shall cover the -earth, and gross darkness the peoples, but upon thee shall Jehovah -arise, and His glory upon thee shall be seen. And nations shall come -to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising._ In the next -two verses it is again a woman who is addressed. _Lift up_ thine -eyes _round about and see, all of them have gathered, have come to -thee: thy sons from afar are coming, and thy daughters are carried -in the arms._[276] Then follows the fairest verse in the chapter. -_Then thou shalt see and be radiant, and thy heart shall throb and -grow large; for there shall be turned upon thee the sea's flood-tide, -and the wealth of the nations shall come to thee._ The word which -the Authorised English version translated _shall flow together_, and -our Revised Version _lightened_, means both of these. It is liquid -light,--light that ripples and sparkles and runs across the face; -as it best appears in that beautiful passage of the thirty-fourth -Psalm, _they looked to Him and their faces were lightened_. Here it -suggests the light which a face catches from sparkling water. The -prophet's figure has changed. The stately mother of her people stands -not among the ruins of her city, but upon some great beach, with the -sea in front,--the sea that casts up all heaven's light upon her face -and drifts all earth's wealth to her feet, and her eyes are upon the -horizon with the hope of her who watches for the return of children. - -The next verses are simply the expansion of these two clauses,--about -the sea's flood and the wealth of the Nations. Vv. 6-9 look first -landward and then seaward, as from Jerusalem's own wonderful -position on the high ridge between Asia and the sea: between the -gates of the East and the gates of the West. On the one side, the -city's horizon is the range of Moab and Edom, that barrier, in -Jewish imagination, of the hidden and golden East across which pour -the caravans here pictured. _Profusion of camels shall cover thee, -young camels of Midian and Ephah; all of them from Sheba shall come: -gold and frankincense shall they bring, and the praises of Jehovah -shall they publish. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to -thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to thee: they shall come -up with acceptance on Mine altar, and the house of My glory will -I glorify._ These were just what surged over Jordan from the far -countries beyond, of which the Jews knew little more than the names -here given,--tawny droves of camels upon the greenness of Palestine -like a spate of the desert from which they poured; rivers of sheep -brimming up the narrow drove-roads to Jerusalem:--conceive it all -under that blazing Eastern sun. But then turning to Judah's other -horizon, marked by the yellow fringe of sand and the blue haze of -the sea beyond, the prophet cries for Jehovah: _Who are these like a -cloud that fly, and like doves to their windows? Surely towards Me -the Isles_[277] _are stretching, and ships of Tarshish in the van, -to bring thy sons from afar, their silver and their gold with them, -to the Name of Jehovah of Hosts and to the Holy of Israel, for He -hath glorified thee._ The poetry of the Old Testament has been said -to be deficient in its treatment of the sea; and certainly it dwells -more frequently, as was natural for the imagination of an inland and -a highland people to do, upon the hills. But in what literature will -you find passages of equal length more suggestive of the sea than -those short pieces in which the Hebrew prophet sought to render the -futile rage of the world, as it dashed on the steadfast will of God, -by the roar and crash of the ocean on the beach;[278] or painted a -nation's prosperity as the waves of a summer sea;[279] or described -the long coastlands as stretching out to God, and the white-sailed -ships coming up the horizon like doves to their windows! - -The rest of the chapter, from ver. 10 onwards, is occupied with the -rebuilding and adornment of Jerusalem, and with the establishment of -the people in righteousness and peace. There is a very obvious mingling -of the material and the moral. The Gentiles are to become subject to -the Jew, but it is to be a voluntary submission before the evidence -of Jerusalem's spiritual superiority. Nothing is said of a Messiah or -a King. Jerusalem is to be a commonwealth; and, while her _magistracy -shall be Peace and her overseers Righteousness_, God Himself, in -evident presence, is to be her light and glory. Thus the chapter ends -with God and the People, and nothing else. God for an everlasting light -around, and the people in their land, righteous, secure and growing -very large. _The least shall become a thousand, and the smallest a -strong nation: I Jehovah will hasten it in its time._ - -This chapter has been put through many interpretations to many -practical uses:--to describe the ingathering of the Gentiles to the -Church (in the Christian year it is the Lesson for Epiphany), to -prove the doctrine that the Church should live by the endowment of -the kingdoms of this world, and to enforce the duty of costliness -and magnificence in the public worship of God. _The glory of the -Lebanon shall come unto thee, fir-tree, plane-tree and sherbin -together, to beautify the place of My sanctuary, and I will make the -place of My feet glorious._ - -The last of these duties we may extend and qualify. If the coming in -of the Gentiles is here represented as bringing wealth to the Church, -we cannot help remembering that the going out to the Gentiles, in -order to bring them in, means for us the spending of our wealth on -things other than the adornment of temples; and that, besides the -heathen, there are poor and suffering ones for whom God asks men's -gold, as He asked it in olden days for the temple, that He may be -glorified. Take that last phrase:--_And_--with all that material -wealth which has flowed in from Lebanon, from Midian, from Sheba--_I -will make the place of My feet glorious_. When this singular name -was first uttered it was limited to the dwelling-place of the Ark -and Presence of God, visible only on Mount Zion. But when God became -man, and did indeed tread with human feet this world of ours, what -were then the _places of His feet_? Sometimes, it is true, the -Temple, but only sometimes; far more often where the sick lay, and -the bereaved were weeping,--the pool of Bethesda, the death-room of -Jairus' daughter, the way to the centurion's sick servant, the city -gateways where the beggars stood, the lanes where the village folk -had gathered, against His coming, their deaf and dumb, their palsied -and lunatic. These were _the places of His feet, who Himself bare -our sicknesses and carried our infirmities_; and these are what He -would seek our wealth to make glorious. They say that the reverence -of men builds now no cathedrals as of old; nay, but the love of man, -that Christ taught, builds far more of those refuges and houses of -healing, scatters far more widely those medicines for the body, those -instruments of teaching, those means of grace, in which God is as -much glorified as in Jewish Temple or Christian Cathedral. - -Nevertheless He, who set _the place of His feet_, which He would have -us to glorify, among the poor and the sick, was He, who also did not -for Himself refuse that alabaster box and that precious ointment, -which might have been sold for much and given to the poor. The -worship of God, if we read Scripture aright, ought to be more than -merely grave and comely. There should be heartiness and lavishness -about it,--profusion and brilliance. Not of material gifts alone or -chiefly, gold incense or rare wood, but of human faculties, graces -and feeling; of joy and music and the sense of beauty. Take this -chapter. It is wonderful, not so much for the material wealth which -it devotes to the service of God's house, and which is all that many -eyes ever see in it, as for the glorious imagination and heart for -the beautiful, the joy in light and space and splendour, the poetry -and the music, which use those material things simply as the light -uses the wick, or as music uses the lyre, to express and reveal -itself. What a call this chapter is to let out the natural wonder -and poetry of the heart, its feeling and music and exultation,--_all -that is within us_, as the Psalmist says,--in the Service of God. -Why do we not do so? The answer is very simple. Because, unlike this -prophet, we do not realise how present and full our salvation is; -because, unlike him, we do not realise that _our light has come_, and -so we will not _arise and shine_. - - - II. THE GOSPEL (chs. lxi.-lxii.) - -The speaker in ch. lxi. is not introduced by name. Therefore he -may be the Prophet himself, or he may be the Servant. The present -expositor, while feeling that the evidence is not conclusive against -either of these, and that the uncertainty is as great as in ch. -xlviii. 16,[280] inclines to think that there is, on the whole, less -objection to its being the prophet who speaks than to its being -the Servant. See the appended note. But it is not a very important -question, which is intended, for the Servant was representative of -prophecy; and if it be the prophet who speaks here, he also speaks -with the conscience of the whole function and aim of the prophetic -order. That Jesus Christ fulfilled this programme does not decide -the question one way or the other; for a prophet so representative -was as much the antetype and foreshadowing of Christ as the Servant -himself was. On the whole, then, we must be content to feel about -this passage, what we must have already felt about many others in -our prophecy, that the writer is more anxious to place before us the -whole range and ideal of the prophetic gift than to make clear in -whom this ideal is realised; and for the rest Jesus of Nazareth so -plainly fulfilled it, that it becomes, indeed, a very minor question -to ask whom the writer may have intended as its first application. - -If ch. lx. showed us the external glory of God's people, ch. lxi. opens -with the programme of their inner mission. There we had the building -and adornment of the Temple, that _Jehovah might glorify His people_: -here we have the binding of broken hearts and the beautifying of soiled -lives, that _Jehovah may be glorified_. But this inner mission also -issues in external splendour, in a righteousness, which is like the -adornment of a bride and like the beauty of spring. - -The commission of the prophet is mainly to duties we have already -studied in preceding passages, both on himself and on the Servant. -It will be enough to point out its special characteristics. _The -Spirit of my Lord Jehovah is upon me, for that Jehovah hath anointed -me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; He hath sent me to bind -up the broken-hearted, to proclaim to the captive liberty, and to -the prisoners open ways;_[281] _to proclaim an acceptable year for -Jehovah, and a day of vengeance for our God; to comfort all that mourn; -to offer to the mourners of Zion, to give unto them a crest_[282] _for -ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the mantle of praise for the spirit -of dimness;_[283] _so that men may call them Oaks-of-Righteousness, the -planting of Jehovah, that He may break into glory._ - -There are heard here all the keynotes of our prophet, and clear, -too, is that usual and favourite direction of his thoughts from the -inner and spiritual influences to the outward splendour and evidence, -the passage from the comfort and healing of the heart to the rich -garment, the renown, and his own dearest vision of great forest -trees,--in short, Jehovah Himself breaking into glory. But one point -needs special attention. - -The prophet begins his commission by these words, _to bring good -tidings to the afflicted_, and again says, _to proclaim to the -captive_. _The afflicted_, or _the poor_, as it is mostly rendered, -is the classical name for God's people in Exile. We have sufficiently -moved among this people to know for what reason the _bringing -of good tidings_ should here be reckoned as the first and most -indispensable service that prophecy could render them. Why, in the -life of every nation, there are hours, when the factors of destiny, -that loom largest at other times, are dwarfed and dwindle before -the momentousness of a piece of news,--hours, when the nation's -attitude in a great moral issue, or her whole freedom and destiny, -are determined by telegrams from the seat of war. The simultaneous -news of Grant's capture of Vicksburg and Meade's defeat of Lee, news -that finally turned English opinion, so long shamefully debating and -wavering, to the side of God and the slave; the telegrams from the -army, for which silent crowds waited in the Berlin squares through -the autumn nights of 1870, conscious that the unity and birthright -of Germany hung upon the tidings,--are instances of the vital and -paramount influence in a nation's history of a piece of news. The -force of a great debate in Parliament, the expression of public -opinion through all its organs, the voice of a people in a general -election, things in their time as ominous as the Fates, all yield -at certain supreme moments to the meaning of a simple message from -Providence. Now it was for _news_ from God that Israel waited in -Exile; for good tidings and the proclamation of fact. They had with -them a Divine Law, but no mere exposition of it could satisfy men who -were captives and waited for the command of their freedom. They had -with them Psalms, but no beauty of music could console them: _How -should we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?_ They had Prophecy, -with its assurance of the love and the power of their God; and much -as there was in it to help them to patience and to hope, general -statements were not enough for them. They needed the testimony of a -fact. Freedom and Restoration had been promised them: they waited -for the proclamation that it was coming, for the good news that it -had arrived. Now our prophecy is mainly this proclamation and good -news of fact. The prophet uses before all other words two,--to call -or proclaim, kara, and to tell good tidings, bisser. We found them -in his opening chapter: we find them again here when he sums up his -mission. A third goes along with them, _to comfort_, naham, but it is -the accompaniment, and they are the burden, of his prophecy. - -But _good tidings_ and the _proclamation_ meant so much more than -the mere political deliverance of Israel--meant the fact of their -pardon, the tale of their God's love, of His provision for them, -and of His wonderful passion and triumph of salvation on their -behalf--that it is no wonder that these two words came to be ever -afterwards the classical terms for all speech and prophecy from God -to man. We actually owe the Greek words of the New Testament for -_gospel_ and _preaching_ to this time of Israel's history. The Greek -term, from which we have _evangel_, _evangelist_ and _evangelise_, -originally meant good news, but was first employed in a religious -sense in the Greek translation of our prophecy. And our word "preach" -is the heir, though not the lineal descendant, through the Latin -_prædicare_ and the Greek [Greek: kêryssein], of the word, which is -translated in ch. lx. of our prophet to _proclaim_, but in ch. xl. to -_call_ or _cry_. It is to the Exile that we trace the establishment -among God's people of regular preaching side by side with sacramental -and liturgical worship; for it was in the Exile that the Synagogue -arose, whose pulpit was to become as much the centre of Israel's -life as was the altar of the Temple. And it was from the pulpit -of a synagogue centuries after, when the preaching had become dry -exposition or hard lawgiving, that Jesus re-read our prophecy and -affirmed again the _good news_ of God. - -What is true of nations is true of individuals. We indeed support -our life by principles; we develop it by argument;--we cannot lay -too heavy stress upon philosophy and law. But there is something of -far greater concern than either argument or the abstract principles -from which it is developed; something that our reason cannot find of -itself, that our conscience but increases our longing for. It is, -whether certain things are facts or not; whether, for instance, -the Supreme Power of the Universe is on the side of the individual -combatant for righteousness; whether God is love; whether Sin has -been forgiven; whether Sin and Death have ever been conquered; -whether the summer has come in which humanity may put forth their -shoots conscious that all the influence of heaven is on their -side, or whether, there being no heavenly favours, man must train -his virtue and coax his happiness to ripen behind shelters and in -conservatories of his own construction. Now Christ comes to us with -the good news of God that it is so. The supreme force in the Universe -is on man's side, and for man has won victory and achieved freedom. -God has proclaimed pardon. A Saviour has overcome sin and death. We -are free to break from evil. The struggle after holiness is not the -struggle of a weakly plant in an alien soil and beneath a wintry -sky, counting only upon the precarious aids of human cultivation; -but summer has come, the acceptable year of the Lord has begun, and -all the favour of the Almighty is on His people's side. These are -the _good tidings_ and _proclamation_ of God, and to every man who -believes them they must make an incalculable difference in life. - -As we have said, the prophet passes in the rest of this prophecy from -the spiritual influences of his mission to its outward effects. The -people's righteousness is described in the external fashion, which we -have already studied in Chapter Fourteen; Zion's espousals to Jehovah -are celebrated, but into that we have also gone thoroughly (pp. 398 -ff.); the restoration of prophecy in Jerusalem is described (lxii. -6-9), as in ch. lii. 8; and another call is given to depart from -Babylon and every foreign city and come to Zion. This call coming -now, so long after the last, and when we might think that the prophet -had wholly left Babylon behind, need not surprise us. For even though -some Jews had actually arrived at Zion, which is not certain, others -were hanging back in Babylon; and, indeed, such a call as this might -fitly be renewed for the next century or two: so many of God's people -continued to forget that their citizenship was in Zion. - - - III. THE DIVINE SAVIOUR (ch. lxiii. 1-7). - -Once again the prophet turns to hail, in his periodic transport, the -Solitary Divine Hero and Saviour of His people. - -That the writer of this piece is the main author of "Second Isaiah" -is probable, both because it is the custom of the latter to describe -at intervals the passion and effort of Israel's Mighty One, and -because several of his well-known phrases meet us in this piece. The -_speaker in righteousness mighty to save_ recalls ch. xlv. 19-24; -and _the day of vengeance and year of my redeemed_ recalls ch. lxi. -2; and _I looked, and there was no helper, and I gazed, and there -was none to uphold_, recalls lix. 16. The prophet is looking out -from Jerusalem towards Edom,--a direction in which the watchmen upon -Zion had often in her history looked for the return of her armies -from the punishment of Israel's congenital and perpetual foe. The -prophet, however, sees the prospect filled up, not by the flashing -van of a great army, but by a solitary figure, without ally, without -chariot, without weapons, _swaying on in the wealth of his strength_. -The keynote of the piece is the loneliness of this Hero. A figure -is used, which, where battle would only have suggested complexity, -enthrals us with the spectacle of solitary effort,--the figure of -trampling through some vast winefat alone. The Avenging Saviour of -Israel has a fierce joy in being alone: it is his new nerve to effort -and victory,--_therefore mine own right arm, it brought salvation to -me_. We see One great form in the strength of one great emotion. _My -fury, it upheld me._ - -The interpretation of this chapter by Christians has been very -varied, and often very perverse. To use the words of Calvin, -"Violenter torserunt hoc caput Christiani." But, as he sees very -rightly, it is not the Messiah nor the Servant of Jehovah, who is -here pictured, but Jehovah Himself. This Solitary is the Divine -Saviour of Israel, as in ch. xlii. 7 f. and in ch. lix. 16 f. In -Chapter Eight of this volume we spoke so fully of the Passion of God, -that we may now refer to that chapter for the essential truth which -underlies our prophet's anthropomorphism, and claims our worship -where a short sight might only turn the heart away in scorn at the -savage and blood-stained surface. One or two other points, however, -demand our attention before we give the translation. - -Why does the prophet look in the direction of Edom for the return of -his God? Partly, it is to be presumed, because Edom was as good a -representative as he could choose of the enemies of Israel other than -Babylon.[284] But also partly, perhaps, because of the names which -match the red colours of his piece,--the wine and the blood. Edom -means _red_, and Bossrah is assonant to Bôsser, a _vinedresser_.[285] -Fitter background and scenery the prophet, therefore, could not have -for his drama of Divine Vengeance. But we must take care, as Dillmann -properly remarks, not to imagine that any definite, historical invasion -of Edom by Israel, or other chastening instrument of Jehovah, is here -intended. It is a vision which the prophet sees of Jehovah Himself: it -illustrates the passion, the agony, the unshared and unaided effort -which the Divine Saviour passes through for His people. - -Further, it is only necessary to point out, that the term in ver. 1 -given as _splendid_ by the Authorised Version, which I have rendered -_sweeping_, is literally _swelling_, and is, perhaps, best rendered -by _sailing on_ or _swinging on_. The other verb which the Revised -Version renders _marching_ means _swaying_, or moving the head or -body from one side to another, in the pride and fulness of strength. -In ver. 2 _like a wine-treader_ is literally _like him that treadeth -in the pressing-house_--Geth (the first syllable of Gethsemane, the -oil-press). But [Hebrew: h vr] in ver. 3 is the _pressing-trough_. - - _Who is this coming from Edom,_ - _Raw-red_ his _garments from Bossrah!_ - _This sweeping on in his raiment,_ - _Swaying in the wealth of his strength?_ - - _I that do speak in righteousness,_ - _Mighty to save!_ - - _Wherefore is red on thy raiment,_ - _And thy garments like to a wine-treader's?_ - - _A trough I have trodden alone,_ - _Of the peoples no man was with me. - So I trod them down in my wrath,_ - _And trampled them down in my fury;_ - _Their life-blood sprinkled my garments,_ - _And all my raiment I stained._ - _For the day of revenge in my heart,_ - _And the year of my redeemed has come._ - _And I looked, and no helper;_ - _I gazed, and none to uphold!_ - _So my righteousness won me salvation;_ - _And my fury, it hath upheld me._ - _So I stamp on the peoples in my wrath,_ - _And make them drunk with my fury,_ - _And bring down to earth their life-blood._ - -FOOTNOTES: - -[276] Literally, _on the side_ or _hip_, the Eastern method of -carrying children. - -[277] Or _coasts_. See pp. 109 ff. - -[278] Isa. xiv.; _Isaiah i.-xxxix._, pp. 281 ff. - -[279] Isa. xlviii. 18. - -[280] See p. 210, note. Some points of the speaker's description of -himself--for example, the gift of the Spirit and the anointing--suit -equally well any prophet, or the unique Servant. The lofty mission -and its great results are not too lofty or great for our prophet, -for Jeremiah received his office in terms as large. That the prophet -has not yet spoken at such length in his own person is no reason -why he should not do so now, especially as this is an occasion -on which he sums up and enforces the whole range of prophecy. It -can, therefore, very well be the prophet who speaks. On the other -hand, to say with Diestel that it cannot be the Servant because the -personification of the Servant ceases with ch. liii. is to beg the -question. A stronger argument against the case for the Servant is -that the speaker does not call himself by that name, as he does in -other passages when he is introduced; but this is not conclusive, for -in l. 4-9 the Servant, though he speaks, does not name himself. To -these may be added this (from Krüger), that the Servant's discourse -never passes without transition into that of God, as this speaker's -in ver. 8, but the prophet's discourse often so passes; and this, -that [Hebrew: vsr], [Hebrew: kr] and [Hebrew: nchm] are often used -of the prophet, and not at all of the Servant. These are all the -points in the question, and it will be seen how inconclusive they -are. If any further proof of this were required, it would be found -in the fact that authorities are equally divided. There hold for the -Servant Calvin, Delitzsch, Cheyne (who previously took the other -view), Driver, Briggs, Nägelsbach and Orelli. But the Targums, Ewald, -Hitzig, Diestel, Dillmann, Bredenkamp and Krüger hold by the prophet. -Krüger's reasons, _Essai sur la Théologie d'Isaïe xl.-lxvi._, p. 76, -are specially worthy of attention. - -[281] Literally, _opening_; but the word is always used of opening of -the eyes. Ewald renders _open air_, Dillmann _hellen Blick_. - -[282] Any insignia or ornament for the head. - -[283] The same word as in xlii. 3, _fading wick_. - -[284] See _Isaiah i.-xxxix._, pp. 438-40. - -[285] _Cf._ Krüger, _Essai sur la Théologie d'Isaïe xl.-lxvi._, -pp. 154-55. Lagarde has proposed to read [Hebrew: me'addam], past -participle, for [Hebrew: me'edom] and [Hebrew: mibbtzer] for [Hebrew: -mibbatzerah]. _Who is this that cometh dyed red, redder in his -garments than a vinedresser?_ - - - - - CHAPTER XXV. - - _A LAST INTERCESSION AND THE JUDGEMENT._ - - ISAIAH lxiii. 7-lxvi. - - -We might well have thought, that with the section we have been -considering the prophecy of Israel's Redemption had reached its -summit and its end. The glory of Zion in sight, the full programme -of prophecy owned, the arrival of the Divine Saviour hailed in the -urgency of His feeling for His people, in the sufficiency of His -might to save them,--what more, we ask, can the prophecy have to give -us? Why does it not end upon these high notes? The answer is, the -salvation is indeed consummate, but the people are not ready for it. -On an earlier occasion, let us remember, when our prophet called the -nation to their Service of God, he called at first the whole nation, -but had then immediately to make a distinction. Seen in the light of -their destiny, the mass of Israel proved to be unworthy; tried by -its strain, part immediately fell away. But what happened upon that -call to Service happens again upon this disclosure of Salvation. The -prophet realises that it is only a part of Israel who are worthy of -it. He feels again the weight, which has been the hindrance of his -hope all through,--the weight of the mass of the nation, sunk in -idolatry and wickedness, incapable of appreciating the promises. He -will make one more effort to save them--to save them all. He does -this in an intercessory prayer, ch. lxiii. 7-lxiv., in which he -states the most hopeless aspects of his people's case, identifies -himself with their sin, and yet pleads by the ancient power of God -that _we all_ may be saved. He gets his answer in ch. lxv., in which -God sharply divides Israel into two classes, the faithful and the -idolaters, and affirms that, while the nation shall be saved for the -sake of the faithful remnant, Jehovah's faithful servants and the -unfaithful can never share the same experience or the same fate. -And then the book closes with a discourse in ch. lxvi., in which -this division between the two classes in Israel is pursued to a last -terrible emphasis and contrast upon the narrow stage of Jerusalem -itself. We are left, not with the realisation of the prophet's prayer -for the salvation of all the nations, but with a last judgement -separating its godly and ungodly portions. - -Thus there are three connected divisions in lxiii. 7-lxvi. _First_, -the prophet's Intercessory Prayer, ch. lxiii. 7-lxiv.; _second_, the -Answer of Jehovah, ch. lxv.; and _third_, the Final Discourse and -Judgement, ch. lxvi. - - - I. THE PRAYER FOR THE WHOLE PEOPLE (ch. lxiii. 7-lxiv.). - -There is a good deal of discussion as to both the date and the -authorship of this piece,--as to whether it comes from the early -or the late Exile, and as to whether it comes from our prophet or -from another. It must have been written after the destruction and -before the rebuilding of the Temple; this is put past all doubt by -these verses: _Thy holy people possessed it but a little while: -our adversaries have trodden down Thy sanctuary. Thy holy cities -are become a wilderness, Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a -desolation. The house of our holiness and of our ornament, wherein -our fathers praised Thee, is become for a burning of fire, and all -our delights are for ruin._[286] - -This language has been held to imply that the disaster to Jerusalem -was recent, as if the city's conflagration still flared on the -national imagination, which in later years of the Exile was impressed -rather by the long, cold ruins of the Holy Place, the haunt of wild -beasts. But not only is this point inconclusive, but the impression -that it leaves is entirely dispelled by other verses, which speak of -the Divine anger as having been of long continuance, and as if it -had only hardened the people in sin; compare ch. lxiii. 17 and lxiv. -6, 7. There is nothing in the prayer to show that the author lived -in exile, and accordingly the proposal has been made to date the -piece from among the first attempts at rebuilding after the Return. -To the present expositor this seems to be certainly wrong. The man -who wrote vv. 11-15 of ch. lxiii. had surely the Return still before -him; he would not have written in the way he has done of the Exodus -from Egypt unless he had been feeling the need of another exhibition -of Divine Power of the same kind. The prayer, therefore, must come -from pretty much the same date as the rest of our prophecy,--after -the Exile had long continued, but while the Return had not yet taken -place. Nor is there any reason against attributing it to the same -writer. It is true the style differs from the rest of his work, but -this may be accounted for, as in the case of ch. liii., by the -change of subject. Most critics, who hold that we still follow the -same author, take for granted that some time has elapsed since the -prophet's triumphant strains in chs. lx.-lxii. This is probable; but -there is nothing to make it certain. What is certain is the change of -mood and conscience. The prophet, who in ch. lx. had been caught away -into the glorious future of the people, is here as utterly absorbed -in their barren and doubtful present. Although the salvation is -certain, as he has seen it, the people are not ready. The fact he has -already felt so keenly about them,--see ch. xlii., vv. 24, 25,--that -their long discipline in exile has done the mass of them no good, -but evil, comes forcibly back upon him (ch. lxiv. 5_b_ ff.). _Thou -wast angry, and we sinned_ only the more: _in such a state we have -been long, and shall we be saved_! The banished people are thoroughly -unclean and rotten, fading as a leaf, the sport of the wind. But -the prophet identifies himself with them. He speaks of their sin as -_ours_, of their misery as _ours_. He takes of them the very saddest -view possible, he feels them all as sheer dead weight: _there is -none that calleth on Thy name, that stirreth himself up to take hold -on Thee: for Thou hast hid Thy face from us, and delivered us into -the power of our iniquities_. But the prophet thus loads himself -with the people in order to secure, if he can, their redemption as -a whole. Twice he says in the name of them all, _Doubtless Thou art -our Father_. His great heart will not have one of them left out; _we -all_, he says, _are the work of Thy hand, we all are Thy people_. - -But this intention of the prayer will amply account for any change -of style we may perceive in the language. No one will deny that it -is quite possible for the same man now to fling himself forward -into the glorious vision of his people's future salvation, and -again to identify himself with the most hopeless aspects of their -present distress and sin; and no one will deny that the same man will -certainly write in two different styles with regard to each of these -different feelings. Besides which, we have seen in the passage the -recurrence of some of our prophecy's most characteristic thoughts. We -feel, therefore, no reason for counting the passage to be by another -hand than that which has mainly written "Second Isaiah." It may be -at once admitted that he has incorporated in it earlier phrases, -reminiscences and echoes of language about the fall of Jerusalem in -use when the Lamentations were written. But this was a natural thing -for him to do in a prayer, in which he represented the whole people -and took upon himself the full burden of their woes. - -If such be the intention of chs. lxiii. 7-lxiv., then in them we have -one of the noblest passages of our prophet's great work. How like he -is to the Servant he pictured for us! How his great heart fulfils the -loftiest ideal of Service: not only to be the prophet and the judge -of his people, but to make himself one with them in all their sin and -sorrow, to carry them all in his heart. Truly, as his last words said -of the Servant, he himself _bears the sin of many, and interposes for -the transgressors_. Before we see the answer he gets, let us make clear -some obscure things and appreciate some beautiful ones in his prayer. - -It opens with a recital of Jehovah's ancient lovingkindness and -mercies to Israel. This is what perhaps gives it connection with -the previous section. In ch. lxii. the prophet, though sure of the -coming glory, wrote before it had come, and _urged_ upon _the Lord's -remembrancers to keep no silence, and give Him no silence till He -establish and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth_. This -work of remembrancing, the prophet himself takes up in lxiii. 7: -_The lovingkindnesses of Jehovah I will record_, literally, _cause -to be remembered, the praises of Jehovah, according to all that -Jehovah hath bestowed upon us_. And then he beautifully puts all -the beginnings of God's dealings with His people in His trusting of -them: _For He said, Surely they are My people, children that will not -deal falsely; so He became their Saviour. In all their affliction -He was afflicted, the Angel of His Face saved them._ This must be -understood, not as an angel of the Presence, who went out from the -Presence to save the people, but, as it is in other Scriptures, God's -own Presence, God Himself; and so interpreted, the phrase falls into -line with the rest of the verse, which is one of the most vivid -expressions that the Bible contains of the personality of God.[287] -_In His love and in His pity He redeemed them, and bare them, -and carried them all the days of old._ Then he tells us how they -disappointed and betrayed this trust, ever since the Exodus, the days -of old. _But they rebelled and grieved the Spirit of His holiness: -therefore He was turned to be their enemy, He Himself fought against -them._ This refers to their history down to, and especially during, -the Exile: compare ch. xlii., vv. 24, 25. Then in their affliction -they _remembered the days of old_--the English version obscures the -sequence here by translating _he remembered_--and then follows the -glorious account of the Exodus. In ver. 13 the _wilderness_ is, of -course, _prairie_, flat _pasture-land_; they were led as smoothly -as _a horse in a meadow, that they stumbled not. As cattle that -come down into the valley_--cattle coming down from the hill sides -to pasture and rest on the green, watered plains--_the Spirit of -Jehovah caused them to rest: so didst Thou lead Thy people to make -Thyself a glorious name_. And then having offered such precedents, -the prophet's prayer breaks forth to a God, whom His people feel no -longer at their head, but far withdrawn into heaven: _Look down from -heaven, and behold from the habitation of Thy holiness and Thy glory: -where is Thy zeal and Thy mighty deeds? the surge of Thy bowels and -thy compassions are restrained towards me._ Then he pleads God's -fatherhood to the nation, and the rest of the prayer alternates -between the hopeless misery and undeserving sin of the people, and, -notwithstanding, the power of God to save as He did in times of -old; the willingness of God to meet with those who wait for Him and -remember Him; and, once more, His fatherhood, and His power over -them, as the power of the potter over the clay. - -Two points stand out from the rest. The Divine Trust, from which all -God's dealing with His people is said to have started, and the Divine -Fatherhood, which the prophet pleads. - -_He said, Surely they are My people, children that will not deal -falsely: so He was their Saviour._ The "surely" is not the fiat of -sovereignty or foreknowledge: it is the hope and confidence of love. -It did not prevail; it was disappointed. - -This is, of course, a profound acknowledgment of man's free will. -It is implied that men's conduct must remain an uncertain thing, -and that in calling men God cannot adventure upon greater certainty -than is implied in the trust of affection. If one asks, What, then, -about God's foreknowledge, who alone knoweth the end of a thing from -the beginning, and His sovereign grace, who chooseth whom He will? -are you not logically bound to these?--then it can only be asked in -return, Is it not better to be without logic for a little, if at -the expense of it we obtain so true, so deep a glimpse into God's -heart as this simple verse affords us? Which is better for us to -know--that God is Wisdom which knows all, or Love that dares and -ventures all? Surely, that God is Love which dares and ventures all -with the worst, with the most hopeless of us. This is what makes this -single verse of Scripture more powerful to move the heart than all -creeds and catechisms. For where these speak of sovereign will, and -often mock our affections with the bare and heavy (if legitimate) -sceptre they sway, this calls forth our love, honour and obedience -by the heart it betrays in God. Of what unsuspicious trust, of what -chivalrous adventure of love, of what fatherly confidence, does it -speak! What a religion is this of ours in the power of which a man -may every morning rise and feel himself thrilled by the thought that -God trusts him enough to work with His will for the day; in the power -of which a man may look round and see the sordid, hopeless human life -about him glorified by the truth, that for the salvation of such -God did adventure Himself in a love that laid itself down in death. -The attraction and power of such a religion can never die. Requiring -no painful thought to argue it into reality, it leaps to light -before the natural affection of man's heart; it takes his instincts -immediately captive; it gives him a conscience, an honour and an -obligation. No wonder that our prophet, having such a belief, should -once more identify himself with the people, and adventure himself -with the weight of their sin before God. - -The other point of the prayer is the Fatherhood of God, concerning -which all that is needful to say here is that the prophet, true to -the rest of Old Testament teaching on the subject, applies it only to -God's relation to the nation as a whole. In the Old Testament no one -is called the son of God except Israel as a people, or some individual -representative and head of Israel. And even of such the term was seldom -employed. This was not because the Hebrew was without temptation to -imagine his physical descent from the gods, for neighbouring nations -indulged in such dreams for themselves and their heroes; nor because -he was without appreciation of the intellectual kinship between the -human and the Divine, for he knew that in the beginning God had said, -_Let us make man in our own image._ But the same feeling prevailed with -him in regard to this idea, as we have seen prevailed in regard to the -kindred idea of God as the husband of His people.[288] The prophets -were anxious to emphasize that it was a moral relation,--a moral -relation, and one initiated from God's side by certain historical acts -of His free, selecting, redeeming and adopting love. Israel was not -God's son till God had evidently called and redeemed him. Look at how -our prophet uses the word Father, and to what he makes it equivalent. -The first time it is equivalent to Redeemer: _Thou, O Lord, art our -Father; our Redeemer from old is Thy name_ (lxiii. 16_b_). The second -time it is illustrated by the work of the potter: _But now, O Lord, -Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our potter; and we are -all the work of Thy hand_ (lxiv. 8). Could it be made plainer in what -sense the Bible defines this relation between God and man? It is not -a physical, nor is it an intellectual relation. The assurance and the -virtue of it do not come to men with their blood or with the birth of -their intellect, but in the course of moral experience, with the sense -that God claims them from sin and from the world for Himself; with the -gift of a calling and a destiny; with the formation of character, the -perfecting of obedience, the growth in His knowledge and His grace. And -because it is a moral relation time is needed to realise it, and only -after long patience and effort may it be unhesitatingly claimed. And -that is why Israel was so long in claiming it, and why the clearest, -most undoubting cries to God the Father, which rise from the Greek in -the earliest period of his history, reach our ears from Jewish lips -only near the end of their long progress, only (as we see from our -prayer) in a time of trial and affliction. - -We have a New Testament echo of this Old Testament belief in the -Fatherhood of God, as a moral and not a national relation, in Paul's -writings, who in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (vi. 17, 18) -urges thus: _Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, -saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive -you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and -daughters, saith the Lord Almighty_. - -On these grounds, then,--that God in His great love had already -adventured Himself with this whole people, and already by historical -acts of election and redemption proved Himself the Father of the -nation as a whole,--does our prophet plead with Him to save them all -again. The answer to this pleading he gets in ch. lxv. - - - II. GOD'S ANSWER TO THE PROPHET'S INTERCESSION (ch. lxv.). - -God's answer to his prophet's intercession is twofold. _First_, He -says that He has already all this time been trying them with love, -meeting them with salvation; but they have not turned to Him. The -prophet has asked, _Where is Thy zeal? the yearning of Thy bowels and -Thy compassions are restrained towards me. Thou hast hid Thy face -far from us. Wilt Thou refrain Thyself for these things, O Jehovah? -wilt Thou hold Thy peace and afflict us very sore._ And now, in the -beginning of ch. lxv., Jehovah answers, not with that confusion of -tenses and irrelevancy of words with which the English version makes -Him speak; but suitably, relevantly and convincingly. _I have been to -be inquired of those who asked not_ for _Me. I have been to be found -of them that sought Me not. I have been saying, I am here, I am here, -to a nation that did not call on My name. I have stretched out My -hands all the day to a people turning away, who walk in a way that is -not good, after their own thoughts; a people that have been provoking -Me to My face continually_,--and then He details their idolatry. -This, then, is the answer of the Lord to the prophet's appeal. "In -this I have not all power. It is wrong to talk of Me as the potter -and of man as the clay, as if all the active share in salvation -lay with Me. Man is free,--free to withhold himself from My urgent -affection; free to turn from My outstretched hands; free to choose -before Me the abomination of idolatry. And this the mass of Israel -have done, clinging, fanatical and self-satisfied, to their unclean -and morbid imaginations of the Divine, all the time that My great -prophecy by you has been appealing to them." This is a sufficient -answer to the prophet's prayer. Love is not omnipotent; if men -disregard so open an appeal of the Love of God, they are hopeless; -nothing else can save them. The sin against such love is like the sin -against the Holy Ghost, of which our Lord speaks so hopelessly. Even -God cannot help the despisers and abusers of Grace. - -The rest of God's answer to His prophet's intercession emphasizes -that the nation shall be saved for the sake of a faithful remnant -in it (vv. 8-10). But the idolaters shall perish (vv. 11, 12). They -cannot possibly expect the same fare, the same experience, the same -fate, as God's faithful servants (vv. 13-15). But those who are true -and faithful Israelites, surviving and experiencing the promised -salvation, shall find that God is true, and shall acknowledge Him as -_the God of Amen, because the former troubles are forgotten_--those -felt so keenly in the prophet's prayer in ch. lxiv.--_and because -they are hid from Mine eyes_. The rest of the answer describes a -state of serenity and happiness wherein there shall be no premature -death, nor loss of property, nor vain labour, nor miscarriage, nor -disappointment of prayer nor delay in its answer, nor strife between -man and the beasts, nor any hurt or harm in Jehovah's Holy Mountain. -Truly a prospect worthy of being named as the prophet names it, _a -new heaven and a new earth_! - -Ch. lxv. is thus closely connected, both by circumstance and logic, -with the long prayer which precedes it. The tendency of recent -criticism has been to deny this connection, especially on the line of -circumstance. Ch. lxv. does not, it is argued, reflect the Babylonish -captivity as ch. lxiii. 7-lxiv. so clearly does; but, on the -contrary, "while some passages presuppose the Exile as past, others -refer to circumstances characteristic of Jewish life in Canaan."[289] -But this view is only possible through straining some features of the -chapter adaptable either to Palestine or Babylon, and overlooking -others which are obviously Babylonian. _Sacrificing in gardens and -burning incense on tiles_ were practices pursued in Jerusalem before -the Exile, but the latter was introduced there from Babylon, and -the former was universal in heathendom. The practices in ver. 5 are -never attributed to the people before the Exile, were all possible in -Babylonia, and some we know to have been actual there.[290] The other -charge of idolatry in ver. 11 "suits Babylonia," Cheyne admits, "as -well as (probably) Palestine."[291] But what seems decisive for the -exilic origin of ch. lxv. is that the possession of Judah and Zion -by the seed of Jacob is still implied as future (ver. 9). Moreover -the holy land is alluded to by the name common among the exiles in -flat Mesopotamia, _My mountains_, and in contrast with the idolatry -of which the present generation is guilty the idolatry of their -fathers is characterised as having been _upon the mountains and upon -the hills_, and again the people is charged with _forgetting My holy -mountain_, a phrase reminiscent of Psalm cxxxvii., ver. 4, and more -appropriate to a time of exile, than when the people were gathered -about Zion. All these resemblances in circumstance corroborate the -strong logical connection which we have found between ch. lxiv. and -ch. lxv., and leave us no reason for taking the latter away from the -main author of "Second Isaiah," though he may have worked up into it -recollections and remains of an older time. - - - III. THE LAST JUDGEMENT (ch. lxvi.). - -Whether with the final chapter of our prophecy we at last get -footing in the Holy Land is doubtful.[292] It was said on p. 20 -that, "in vv. 1 to 4 of this chapter the Temple is still unbuilt, -but the building would seem to be already begun." This latter clause -should be modified to, "the building would seem to be in immediate -prospect." The rest of the chapter, vv. 6-24, has features that speak -more definitely for the period after the Return; but even they are -not conclusive, and their effect is counterbalanced by some other -verses. Ver. 6 may imply that the Temple is rebuilt, and ver. 20 that -the sacrifices are resumed; but, on the other hand, these verses may -be, like parts of ch. lx., statements of the prophet's vivid vision -of the future.[293] Vv. 7 and 8 seem to describe a repeopling of -Jerusalem that has already taken place; but ver. 9 says, that while -the _bringing to the birth_ has already happened, which is, as we -must suppose, the deliverance from Babylon,--or is it the actual -arrival at Jerusalem?--the _bringing forth from the womb_, that is, -the complete restoration of the people, has still to take place. Ver. -13 is certainly addressed to those who are not yet in Jerusalem. - -These few points reveal how difficult, nay, how impossible, it is to -decide the question of date, as between the days immediately before -the Return and the days immediately after. To the present expositor -the balance of evidence seems to be with the later date. But the -difference is very small. We are at least sure--and it is really -all that we require to know--that the rebuilding of Jerusalem is -very near, nearer than it has been felt in any previous chapter. The -Temple is, so to speak, within sight, and the prophet is able to talk -of the regular round of sacrifices and sacred festivals almost as if -they had been resumed. - -To the people, then, either in the near prospect of Return, or -immediately after some of them had arrived in Jerusalem, the prophet -addresses a number of oracles, in which he pursues the division, -that ch. lxv. had emphasized, between the two parties in Israel. -These oracles are so intricate, that we are compelled to take up -the chapter verse by verse. The first of them begins by correcting -certain false feelings in Israel, excited by former promises of the -rebuilding and the glory of the Temple. _Thus saith Jehovah, The -heavens are My throne, and earth is My footstool: what is this for a -house that ye will build_--or, _are building--Me, and what is this -for a place for My rest? Yea, all these things_--that is, all the -visible works of God in heaven and earth--_My hand hath made_, and -so _came to pass all these things, saith Jehovah. But unto this will -I look, unto the humble and contrite in spirit, and that trembleth -at My word._ These verses do not run counter to, or even go beyond, -anything that our prophet has already said. They do not condemn the -building of the Temple: this was not possible for a prophecy which -contains ch. lx. They condemn only the kind of temple which those -whom they address had in view,--a shrine to which the presence of -Jehovah was limited, and on the raising and maintenance of which -the religion and righteousness of the people should depend. While -the former Temple was standing, the mass of the people had thus -misconceived it, imagining that it was enough for national religion -to have such a structure standing and honoured in their midst. And -now, before it is built again, the exiles are cherishing about it the -same formal and materialistic thoughts. Therefore the prophet rebukes -them, as his predecessors had rebuked their fathers, and reminds them -of a truth he has already uttered, that though the Temple is raised, -according to God's own promise and direction, it will not be to its -structure, as they conceive of it, that He will have respect, but -to the existence among them of humble and sincere personal piety. -The Temple is to be raised: _the place of His feet God will make -glorious_, and men shall gather round it from the whole earth, for -instruction, for comfort and for rejoicing. But let them not think -it to be indispensable either to God or to man,--not to God, who -has heaven for His throne and earth for His footstool; nor to man, -for God looks direct to man, if only man be humble, penitent and -sensitive to His word. These verses, then, do not go beyond the Old -Testament limit; they leave the Temple standing, but they say so much -about God's other sanctuary man, that when His use for the Temple -shall be past, His servant Stephen[294] shall be able to employ these -words to prove why it should disappear. - -The next verse is extremely difficult. Here it is literally: _A -slaughterer of the ox, a slayer of a man; a sacrificer of the lamb, a -breaker of a dog's neck; an offerer of meat-offering, swine's blood; -the maker of a memorial offering of incense, one that blesseth an -idol_, or _vanity_. Four legal sacrificial acts are here coupled -with four unlawful sacrifices to idols. Does this mean that in the -eye of God, impatient even of the ritual He has consecrated, when -performed by men who do not tremble at His word, each of these lawful -sacrifices is as worthless and odious as the idolatrous practice -associated with it,--the slaughter of the ox as the offering of a -human sacrifice, and so forth? Or does the verse mean that there -are persons in Israel who combine, like the Corinthians blamed by -Paul,[295] both the true and the idolatrous ritual, both the table of -the Lord and the table of devils? Our answer will depend on whether -we take the four parallels with ver. 2, which precedes them, or with -the rest of ver. 3, to which they belong, and ver. 4. If we take them -with ver. 2, then we must adopt the first, the alternative meaning; -if with ver. 4, then the second of these meanings is the right one. -Now there is no grammatical connection, nor any transparent logical -one, between vv. 2 and 3, but there is a grammatical connection -with the rest of ver. 3. Immediately after the pairs of lawful and -unlawful sacrificial acts, ver. 3 continues, _yea, they have chosen -their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations_. -That surely signifies that the unlawful sacrifices in ver. 3 are -things already committed and delighted in, and the meaning of -putting them in parallel to the lawful sacrifices of Jehovah's -religion is either that Israelites have committed them instead of -the lawful sacrifices, or along with these. In this case, vv. 3, 4 -form a separate discourse by themselves, with no relation to the -equally distinct oracle in vv. 1 and 2. The subject of vv. 3 to 4 -is, therefore, the idolatrous Israelites. They are delivered unto -Satan, their choice; they shall have no part in the coming Salvation. -In ver. 5 the faithful in Israel, who have obeyed God's word by the -prophet, are comforted under the mocking of their brethren, who shall -certainly be put to shame. Already the prophet hears the preparation -of the judgement against them (ver. 6). It comes forth from the city -where they had mockingly cried for God's glory to appear. The mocked -city avenges itself on them. _Hark, a roar from the City! Hark, from -the Temple! Hark, Jehovah accomplishing vengeance on His enemies!_ - -A new section begins with ver. 7, and celebrates to ver. 9 the -sudden re-population of the City by her children, either as already -a fact, or, more probably, as a near certainty. Then comes a call -to the children, restored, or about to be restored, to congratulate -their mother and to enjoy her. The prophet rewakens the figure, -that is ever nearest his heart, of motherhood,--children suckled, -borne and cradled in the lap of their mother fill all his view; nay, -finer still, the grown man coming back with wounds and weariness -upon him to be comforted of his mother. _As a man whom his mother -comforteth, so will I comfort you, and ye shall be comforted in -Jerusalem. And ye shall see, and rejoice shall your heart, and your -bones shall flourish like the tender grass._ But this great light -shines not to flood all Israel in one, but to cleave the nation -in two, like a sword of judgement. _The hand of Jehovah shall be -known towards His servants, but He will have indignation against -His enemies,_--enemies, that is, within Israel. Then comes the -fiery judgement, _For by fire will Jehovah plead, and by His sword -with all flesh; and the slain of Jehovah shall be many_. Why there -should be slain of Jehovah within Israel is then explained. Within -Israel there are idolaters: _they that consecrate themselves and -practise purification for the gardens, after one in the middle;_[296] -_eaters of swine's flesh, and the Abomination, and the Mouse. They -shall come to an end together, saith Jehovah, for I_ know, or will -punish,[297] _their works and their thoughts_. In this eighteenth -verse the punctuation is uncertain, and probably the text is corrupt. -The first part of the verse should evidently go, as above, with ver. -17. Then begins a new subject. - -_It is coming to gather all the nations and the tongues, and they -shall come and shall see My glory; and I will set among them a -sign_,--a marvellous and mighty act, probably of judgement, for he -immediately speaks of their survivors,--_and I will send the escaped -of them to the nations Tarshish, Put_[298] _and Lud, drawers of the -bow, to Tubal and Javan_,--that is, to far Spain, and the distances -of Africa, towards the Black Sea and to Greece, a full round of -the compass,--_the isles far off that have not heard report of Me, -nor have seen My glory; and they shall recount My glory among the -nations. And they shall bring all your brethren from among all the -nations an offering to Jehovah, on horses and in chariots and in -litters, and on mules and on dromedaries, up on the Mount of My -Holiness, Jerusalem, saith Jehovah, just as when the children of -Israel bring the offering in a clean vessel to the house of Jehovah. -And also from them will I take to be priests, to be Levites, saith -Jehovah. For like as the new heavens and the new earth which I am -making shall be standing before Me, saith Jehovah, so shall stand -your seed and your name._ But again the prophecy swerves from -the universal hope into which we expect it to break, and gives us -instead a division and a judgement: the servants of Jehovah on -one side occupied in what the prophet regards as the ideal life, -regular worship--so little did he mean ver. 1 to be a condemnation -of the Temple and its ritual!--and on the other the rebels' unburied -carcases gnawed by the worm and by fire, an abomination to all. _And -it shall come to pass from new moon to new moon, and from sabbath to -sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me, saith Jehovah: -and they shall go out and look on the carcases of the men who have -rebelled against Me; for their worm dieth not, and their fire is not -quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh._ - -We have thus gone step by step through the chapter, because its -intricacies and sudden changes were not otherwise to be mastered. -What exactly it is composed of must, we fear, still remain a problem. -Who can tell whether its short, broken pieces are all originally from -our prophet's hand, or were gathered by him from others, or were the -fragments of his teaching which the reverent hands of disciples picked -carefully up that nothing might be lost? Sometimes we think it must -be this last alternative that happened; for it seems impossible that -pieces so strange to each other, so loosely connected, could have -flowed from one mind at one time. But then again we think otherwise, -when we see how the chapter as a whole continues the separation made -evident in ch. lxv., and runs it on to a last emphatic contrast. - - * * * * * - -So we are left by the prophecy,--not with the new heavens and the new -earth which it promised: not with the holy mountain on which none -shall hurt nor destroy, saith the Lord; not with a Jerusalem full of -glory and a people all holy, the centre of a gathered humanity,--but -with the city like to a judgement floor, and upon its narrow surface -a people divided between worship and a horrible woe. - -O Jerusalem, City of the Lord, Mother eagerly desired of her -children, radiant light to them that sit in darkness and are far off, -home after exile, haven after storm,--expected as the Lord's garner, -thou art still to be only His threshing-floor, and heaven and hell -as of old shall, from new moon to new moon, through the revolving -years, lie side by side within thy narrow walls! For from the day -that Araunah the Jebusite threshed out his sheaves upon thy high -windswept rock, to the day when the Son of Man standing over against -thee divided in His last discourse the sheep from the goats, the wise -from the foolish, and the loving from the selfish, thou hast been -appointed of God for trial and separation and judgement. - -It is a terrible ending to such a prophecy as ours. But is any -other possible? We ask how can this contiguity of heaven and hell -be within the Lord's own city, after all His yearning and jealousy -for her, after His fierce agony and strife with her enemies, after -so clear a revelation of Himself, so long a providence, so glorious -a deliverance? Yet, it is plain that nothing else can result, if -the men on whose ears the great prophecy had fallen, with all its -music and all its gospel, and who had been partakers of the Lord's -Deliverance, did yet continue to prefer their idols, their swine's -flesh, their mouse, their broth of abominable things, their sitting -in graves, to so evident a God and to so great a grace. - -It is a terrible ending, but it is the same as upon the same floor -Christ set to His teaching,--the gospel net cast wide, but only to -draw in both good and bad upon a beach of judgement; the wedding -feast thrown open and men compelled to come in, but among them a -heart whom grace so great could not awe even to decency; Christ's -Gospel preached, His Example evident, and Himself owned as Lord, and -nevertheless some whom neither the hearing nor the seeing nor the -owning with their lips did lift to unselfishness or stir to pity. -Therefore He who had cried, _Come all unto Me_, was compelled to -close by saying to many, _Depart_. - -It is a terrible ending, but one only too conceivable. For though -God is love, man is free,--free to turn from that love; free to be -as though he had never felt it; free to put away from himself the -highest, clearest, most urgent grace that God can show. But to do -this is the judgement. - -_Lord, are there few that be saved?_ The Lord did not answer the -question but by bidding the questioner take heed to himself: _Strive -to enter in at the strait gate_. - - * * * * * - -Almighty and most merciful God, who hast sent this book to be the -revelation of Thy great love to man, and of Thy power and will to -save him, grant that our study of it may not have been in vain by the -callousness or carelessness of our hearts, but that by it we may be -confirmed in penitence, lifted to hope, made strong for service, and -above all filled with the true knowledge of Thee and of Thy Son Jesus -Christ. Amen. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[286] Ch. lxiii. 18 and lxiv. 10, 11. In the Hebrew ch. lxiv. begins -a verse later than it does in the English version. - -[287] Semites had a horror of painting the Deity in any form. But -when God had to be imagined or described, they chose the form of a -man and attributed to Him human features. Chiefly they thought of His -face. To see His face, to come into the light of His countenance, -was the way their hearts expressed longing for the living God. Exod. -xxiii. 14; Psalm xxxi. 16, xxxiv. 16, lxxx. 7. But among the heathen -Semites God's face was separated from God Himself, and worshipped as -a separate god. In _heathen_ Semitic religions there are a number of -deities who are the faces of others. But the Hebrew writers, with -every temptation to do the same, maintained their monotheism, and -went no farther than to speak of the _angel of God's Face_. And in -all the beautiful narratives of Genesis, Exodus and Judges about the -glorious Presence that led Israel against their enemies, the angel -of God's face is an equivalent of God Himself. Jacob said, the _God -which hath fed me, and the angel which hath redeemed me, bless the -lads_. In Judges this angel's word is God's Word. - -[288] See pp. 398 ff. - -[289] Cheyne. Similarly Bredenkamp, who contends that the prophecy is -Isaianic, and to be dated from the time of Manasseh. - -[290] _Cf._ Dillmann, _in loco_. - -[291] Among Orientals the planets Jupiter and Venus were worshipped -as the Larger and the Lesser Luck. They were worshipped as Merodach -and Istar among the Babylonians. Merodach was worshipped for -prosperity (_cf._ Sayce, _Hibbert Lectures_, pp. 460, 476, 488). It -may be Merodach and Istar, to whom are here given the name Gad, or -Luck (_cf._ Genesis xxii. 11, and the name Baal Gad in the Lebanon -valley) and Meni, or Fate, Fortune (_cf._ Arabic al-manijjat, -fate; Wellhausen, _Skizzen_, iii., 22 ff., 189). There was in the -Babylonian Pantheon a "Manu the Great who presided over fate" -(Lenormant, _Chaldean Magic_, etc., p. 120). Instances of idolatrous -feasts will be found in Sayce, _op. cit._, p. 539; _cf._ 1 Cor. x. -21, _Ye cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table -of devils_. See what is said in p. 62 of this volume about the -connection of idolatry and commerce. - -[292] Bleek (5th ed., pp. 287, 288) holds ch. lxvi. to be by a prophet -who lived in Palestine after the resumption of sacrificial worship (vv. -3, 6, 30), that is, upon the altar of burnt-offering which the Returned -had erected there, and at a time when the temple-building had begun. -Vatke also holds to a post-exilic date, _Einleitung in das A.T._, pp. -625, 630. Kuenen, too, makes the chapter post-exilic. Bredenkamp takes -vv. 1-6 for Palestinian, but pre-exilic, and ascribes them to Isaiah. -With ver. 1 he compares 1 Kings viii. 27; and as to ver. 6 he asks, How -could the unbelieving exiles be in the neighbourhood of the Temple and -hear Jehovah's voice in thunder from it? Vv. 7-14 he takes as exilic, -based on an Isaianic model. - -[293] So Dillmann and Driver; Cheyne is doubtful. - -[294] Acts vii. 49. - -[295] 1 Cor. x. - -[296] So, in literal translation of the text, _the One_ being a -master of ceremonies, who, standing in the middle, was imitated -by the worshippers (_cf._ Baudissin, _Studien zur Semitischen -Religions-geschichte_, i., p. 315, who combats Lagarde's and Selden's -view, that [Hebrew: hd], _one_, stands for the God Hadad). The -Massoretes read the feminine form of one, which might mean some goddess. - -[297] _Know_, Pesh. and some editions of the LXX.; _punish_, -Delitzsch and Cheyne. - -[298] The Hebrew text has Pul, the LXX. Put. Put and Lud occur -together, Ezek. xxvii. 10-xxx. 5. Put is Punt, the Egyptian name for -East Africa. Lud is not Lydia, but a North African nation. Jeremiah, -xlvi. 9, mentions, along with Cush, Put and the Ludim in the service -of Egypt, and the Ludim as famous with the bow. - - - - INDEX TO CHAPS. XL.-LXVI. - - _The Arabic numerals on the right-hand column refer to the pages, the - Roman to the chapters of the volume._ - - - xl. 1-11 67, V. - - xl. 12-31 VI. - - xli.-xlv. 9 - - xli. VII. - - xli. 2 164 f. - - xli. 8-20 244 f., 256 - - xli. 25 12, 113, 130 f., 145 - - xli. 26 225 - - xlii. 1-7 261 f., XVIII. - - xlii. 8-17 VIII. - - xlii. 18 ff. 262 f. - - xlii. 22 59 - - xlii.-xliii. XV. - - xliii.-xlviii. IX. - - xliii. 1-7 257 - - xliii. 3, 4 246 - - xliii. 8, 10 158 f., 263 f. - - xliii. 14 147, 246 - - xliii. 16-19 158 - - xliii. 22-24 156 - - xliii. 25 157 - - xliv. 1 ff. 256 - - xliv. 7, 8 158 - - xliv. 9-20 153 f. - - xliv. 21 256 - - xliv. 21, 22 157 - - xliv. 24-28 160, X. - - xlv. 1-13 X. - - xlv. 8 228 - - xlv. 13 224 - - xlv. 18 227 - - xlv. 19 159, 224 - - xlv. 19-25 225 f. - - xlvi. XI. - - xlvi. 11 168 - - xlvi. 13 228 - - xlvii. XII. - - xlvii. 6 59 - - xlviii. XIII. - - xlviii. 18 221 - - xlviii. 22 17 - - xlix. 1-9 240 f., 264 f., XIX., 381. - - xlix. 9-26 XXI. - - l. 1-3 XXI. - - l. 4-11 XIX. - - li.-lii. 12 XXI. - - li. 5 228 - - lii. 7 50 - - lii. 13-liii. 18, 267, XX. - - liv.-lvi. 8 XXII. - - liv. 397 - - lv. 402 - - lvi. 1-8 406 - - lvi. 1 222, 229 - - lvi. 9-lix. 18 f., XXIII. - - lvi. 9-lvii. 409 - - lviii. 61, 414 - - lviii. 2 222 - - lix. 423 - - lix. 4 222 - - lx.-lxiii. 7 19, XXIV. - - lx. 429 - - lxi., lxii. 435 - - lxi. 10, 228 - - lxi. 11 220 - - lxiii. 2 220 - - lxiii. 1-6 441 - - lxiii. 7-lxvi. 19 f., XXV. - - lxiii. 7-lxiv. 446 - - lxiv. 5 222 - - lxv. 455 - - lxvi. 458 - - - - - INDEX OF SUBJECTS - - (_The Arabic numerals refer to pages, the Roman to chapters._) - - - Anshan or Anzan, 112 f. - - - Babylon, 55 ff.; - capture of, 146 f., xii.; - compared with Rome,189, 199 f.; - meaning of its name, 191; - its pride, 191; - early history, 192 n.; - cruelty, 201; - yielding to Cyrus, 193; - religion, 193; - in the modern world, 200 ff.; - ruin, 199, 204; - call to leave, 211, 396. - - Babylonia, described, 53; - history of, 107 ff., 146 f. - - Baudissin, 463. - - Belshazzar, 113. - - Bredenkamp argues for "Isaianic" elements in Isa. xl.-lxvi., 24, 205, - 211. - - Briggs, Prof., theory of two different writings in Isa. xl.-lxvi., - 18, 315, 336, cf. 234. - - - Calvin, testimony to exilic authorship of Isa. xl.-lxvi., 14 f.; - fair exegesis, 215; - Commentary, _Introduction_. - - Captivity. _See_ Exile. - - Chaldea. _See_ Babylon. - Astrology, 193, 198. - - Cheyne, Prof., 19, 121, 211, 435. - - Croesus, 113; - and the oracles, 114; - defeated by Cyrus, 144 f. - - Cyropædia, 164, 170. - - Cyrus, alleged mention of his name by Isaiah, 7; - not monotheist, 40, 165, 179; - not a prediction but a fulfilment, 9, 11, 66, 111 ff.; - Jehovah's claim on, 130, 166, 144, 162 ff.; - capture of Babylon, 146, 178; - Greek presentation of, compared with Hebrew, 164 f., 169 ff.; - As Messiah: Hebrew objection to, 167 f., 175; - a fulfilment of prediction, 207 f.; - an elect instrument, not the Servant, 253. - - - Davidson, Prof. A. B., quoted, 15, 17, 306, 317. - _See also_ Introduction, 121. - - Delitzsch, 121, 211, etc. - - Dillmann, 435, etc. - - Driver, Prof., _Isaiah: His Life and Times_, 14, 18, 121, 435, etc. - - - Ewald, 121, 269, 336, etc. - - Exile, the Babylonian, reason of, 28 ff.; - What Israel took into Exile, iii.; - Israel in Exile, iv.; - the first deportation, number, and quality of exiles, 32 ff.; - second deportation, 35; - march to Babylon, 48 f.; - condition of the exiles, 55 ff.; - social condition of exiles, 57 ff.; - literary efforts, 59 f.; - religious life, 61; - commerce, 62; - spiritual experience, 63; - traces of exile in Jewish literature, 63; - condition of Israel at end of exile, 66. - - Ezekiel, compared with Jeremiah, 34, 46; - picture of captivity, 59; - sin-bearer, 352; - and the Messiah, 404. - - - Face of God, 450 n. - - Fasts in the exile, 61, 415. - - Fatherhood of God, 453 ff. - - - Giesebrecht, 210. - - God and history, 87 f., 100, 106 ff., 157 ff. - - God and the idols, vi., ix. (especially 153). - - God, His Omnipotence and Faithfulness, 121 ff., 390. - - God the Saviour, 136; - Personality of, 148 f.; - Passion of God, viii.; - spirituality of Jewish conception, 137. - - Gospel, or Good News. Meaning in the Exile, 437 f.; - development from then, 439 f. - - Grace, proclamation of, characteristic of "Second Isaiah," 78 f.; - to fulfil service, 290. - - - Herodotus, quotation from, 114 f. - - Hahn, 121. - - - Idolatry, 91, 94 ff., 116, 152 ff., 177 ff. - - Incarnation, true O. T. prophecies of, 135 ff., 141. - - Individualism, 41 ff. - - Isaiah, the Prophet: his prophecies of exile, 23, 29 f.; - his connection with chs. xl.-lxvi., 23, 24; - are there fragments by him in ch. xl.-lxvi.? 24; - his use of the word Righteousness, 216, 218. - - Isaiah, Book of: plurality of authors in, 4; - on its own testimony composite book, 4 f. - - Isaiah xl.-lxvi.: their date, i.; - do not claim to be by Isaiah, 5; - New Testament quotations from, 6; - speak of exile and Cyrus as actual facts, 8, 9; - use Cyrus as a fulfilment of previous prophecies, 11, 12; - local colour, 13; - language and style, 15; - characteristic doctrine, 16; - unity, 18 f., 21,212, 222, 234, 314 f., 336 ff., 409, 441, 446; - Palestinian and pre-exilic elements, 18-20, 409 ff.; - post-exilic elements, 18, 414, 458, 465. - - Isaiah xl.-lxvi.: the double problem of the prophecy, _Introduction_, - 377, 378. - - "Isles," or coast-lands, 109 ff. - - Israel: sketch of history from Isaiah to exile, ii., iii., iv.; - uniqueness; reason of election by God, xv.; - missionary career, 44 f.; - prominence given to, 236; - elected for service, 237; - qualities of nation, 240 ff.; - Jesus a Jew, 249 f. - - - Jeremiah, his prediction of exile, 8, 27, 66, 79; - teaching on this contrasted with Isaiah's, 27; - Jeremiah's significance for "Second Isaiah," and foreshadowing of - the Servant of the Lord, as suffering for the people, 42, 275, - 277; - and for God's Word, 330; - and as sin-bearer, 352, 358; - cf. also 326, 435 n. - - Jerusalem or Zion, fall of, 30 ff.; - religious significance of its destruction, 43 ff.; - the exiles take the city's name to themselves, 47, 72; - personification of Israel under name of Zion, 382 ff.; - her restoration, 395, xxiv.; - the Bride of God, 397 ff.; - City of Judgement, 466. - - Jesus Christ, and the Passion of God, viii.; - a Jew, 249; - His testimony as to His uniqueness, 283, 369 f.; - His example of service, 284, 285, 305 ff.; - called the Servant of the Lord in the _Acts_, 286; - so recognised by Peter and Paul, 287; - God's will first with Him, 298; - martyrs for the Word of God, 285, 331; - and the Fifty-third of Isaiah, 366 ff.; - as bringer of good news, 439. - - John the Baptist and the Book of Isaiah, 282 f. - - Josiah, King, 30. - - - Krüger, 435, 442. - - - Love of God, 76 f., viii., 399 f., 451 f.; - sin against it, 467. - - - Marriage, figure of religious marriage use among the Semites, 398 ff.; - purified and exalted in the Old Testament, 400; - a test of the uniqueness of Hebrew prophecy, 398 f., cf. 76 f. - - Media, 107. - - Mesopotamia, 51 ff. - - Monotheism, 88; - and the imagination, 95 ff.; - of Israel defined, 36 ff., 129, 149 ff. - - - Nabunahid or Nabonidos, King of Babylon, 65, 113, 193. - - Nebuchadrezzar, 32, 34, 54, 107. - - New Testament quotations from Isaiah xl.-lxvi., p. 6 and references, - 282, 284 f., xvii. - - - Persia, 111. - - Pfleiderer, quoted, 127. - - Positivism and the service of man, 294. - - Prediction, Jehovah's claim to, 120 ff., 208; - the ri'shonoth, 206; - new things, 206. - - Prophecy, in the Exile, its anonymousness, 61; - and appeal to former scriptures, 62; - precedes history as well as interprets it, 100; - uniqueness of Hebrew prophecy, 248, ff., xix., 321 ff.; - and martyrdom, 328. - - - Redemption of Israel. _Political_, fulfilled by Cyrus, 271; - _spiritual_, fulfilled by Servant, 271, 273. - - Renan, "Natural Monotheism of the Semites," 149. - - Return from exile, promise of, 46; - facts of, 57; - call to 211 ff., 396, 405, etc. - - Revelation, conditions of, 73; - method of, 100 f., 148 f. - _See_ Prophecy. - - Righteousness, 127 f., xiv.; - root and growth of word, 215 f.; - of Israel, 217; - of Jehovah, 224, cf. 365, 392, 410, 436 f. - - - Sabbath, 61, 422. - - Sacramental character of prophecy, 89 f. - - Sayce, 163, 165, 179, 457. - - Sin, its effects, 387; - its punishment, 29, 465 ff.; - grounds of forgiveness, 79; - borne by God, viii., 183; - by Jeremiah and Ezekiel, 352; - by the Servant, xx. - - Sinim, land of, 383. - - Socialism and the service of man, xviii. - - Suffering, vicarious, Jeremiah 422, 64; - of the Servant, 272 f., 331. - - - The Servant of Jehovah, God's commission of, 132 f.; - Christ's relation to, 142; - possibly speaker summing moral meaning of Exile, 210; - passages on, 233; - his character, 254; - as a nation, 236 ff., 256 f.; - as part of a nation, 257 ff.; - as realised by one man--prophet and martyr, 276; - a person, 276, etc.; - a personification, 266; - fulfilled by Christ, 267, 281 ff., 367; - an individual, objections answered to recognising this-- - 1st, 270, - 2nd, 272, - 3rd, 274; - cf. xx., 405. - - The Servant's office, extended by Paul, 287 f.; - by Peter, 286 f. - - The Servant's chief end, 317; - as prophet and martyr, 313 ff.; - as sin-bearer, xx. - - - Voice, the human, in Isaiah xl.-lxvi., 302, 416. - - - Wellhausen, 238, 269, 457 n. - - - Xenophanes, the Eleatic, contemporary of "Second Isaiah," 125. - - Xenophon, portrait of Cyrus, 163 f. - - - HEBREW AND GREEK WORDS SPECIALLY TREATED. - - [Hebrew: m], 109 - - [Hebrew: rtz] and [Hebrew: hrtz], 262, 292, 298. - - [Hebrew: 'm vrt], 262. - - [Hebrew: vshr], 84, 85, 437 ff. - - [Hebrew: nm], 206. - - [Hebrew: 'l-lv dvr], 76. - - [Hebrew: mshlm], 263. - - [Hebrew: mshft], 299. - - [Hebrew: 'nv], 384. - - [Hebrew: nsh] and [Hebrew: mvl], 179 ff., 343, 352. - - [Hebrew: hvh 'vd], 255, xvi. - - [Hebrew: tzdk] and [Hebrew: tzdkh], xiv., 392. - - [Hebrew: tzlch], 168. - - [Hebrew: kr], 82. - - [Hebrew: vshm kr], 130 f., 437 ff. - - [Hebrew: rshnvt] and [Hebrew: chrt], 121, 206. - - [Hebrew: trsh], 117, 119. - - [Greek: doulos] and [Greek: pais], 286 n. - - - - - _BY THE SAME AUTHOR._ - - THE BOOK OF ISAIAH. Vol. I. - - CHAPS. I.--XXXIX. - - -=Spectator.=--"This is a very attractive book. Mr. George Adam Smith -has evidently such a mastery of the scholarship of his subject that it -would be a sheer impertinence for most scholars, even though tolerable -Hebraists, to criticise his translations; and certainly it is not the -intention of the present reviewer to attempt anything of the kind, to -do which he is absolutely incompetent. All we desire is to let English -readers know how very lucid, impressive, and, indeed, how vivid a study -of Isaiah is within their reach--the fault of the book, if it has a -fault, being rather that it finds too many points of connection between -Isaiah and our modern world, than that it finds too few. In other -words, no one can say that the book is not full of life." - -=Saturday Review.=--"He writes with great rhetorical power, and -brings out into vivid reality the historical position of his author." - -=Record.=--"He is always reverent and thoroughly Christian in his -exposition. He gives us models of exposition. They are full of -matter, and show careful scholarship throughout. We can think of no -commentary on Isaiah from which the preacher will obtain scholarly -and trustworthy suggestions for his sermons so rapidly and so -pleasantly as from this." - -=Prof. T. K. Cheyne in "Academy."=--"Here is a well-trained critical -scholar coming forward to help preachers and ordinary readers to a -truer comprehension of their Scriptures. In all essentials this new -expositor has succeeded. 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He has given us one or two volumes which will be read -when the problems of this present time have been forgotten; but he -has given us nothing which is more likely to be helpful, both to his -own and to future generations, than 'The Living Christ and the Four -Gospels.'... Its publication is a most helpful sign of the times. It -will bring light to many who have been feeling their way. It will -encourage many to speak out. It will help to dissipate the mists -begotten by spurious Protestantism, and to show us where we are and -what the ground is that we stand upon. A more significant or a more -valuable book has not appeared for many a day."--_Professor Marcus -Dods, in the "British Weekly."_ - - LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON, 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. - - - - -Transcriber's Notes: - - -Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been fixed throughout. - -Non-Latin characters have been replaced with the nearest Latin -equivalent for example oe (the oe ligature), was replaced with oe. - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Expositor's Bible, by George Adam Smith - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE *** - -***** This file should be named 43672-8.txt or 43672-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/6/7/43672/ - -Produced by Douglas L. 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