[2]The Hebrew word isמשפט, which means "judgment," "right," "law." Dr.Hengstenberghas translated it byRecht, which is, as nearly as possible, expressed by the English word "right," (jus,) as including "law" and "statutes."--Tr.
[2]The Hebrew word isמשפט, which means "judgment," "right," "law." Dr.Hengstenberghas translated it byRecht, which is, as nearly as possible, expressed by the English word "right," (jus,) as including "law" and "statutes."--Tr.
The Servant of God, with whose person the Prophet had. by way of preparation, already made us acquainted in the first book of the second part, in chap. xlii., is here, at the beginning of the second book, at once introduced as speaking, surprising, as it were, the readers. In ver. 1-3, we have the destination and high calling which the Lord assigned to His Servant; in ver. 4, the contrast and contradiction of the result of this mission; the covenant-people, to whom it is, in the first instance, directed, reward with ingratitude His faithful work. In ver. 5 and 6, we are told what God does in order to maintain the dignity of His Servant; as a compensation for obstinate, rebellious Israel, He gives Him theGentilesfor an inheritance. From ver. 7 the Prophet takes the word. In ver. 7 the original contempt which, according to the preceding verses, the Servant of God meets with, especially inIsrael, is contrasted with the respectful worship of nations and kings which is to follow after it. Ver. 8 and 9 describe how the Servant of God proves himself to be the embodied covenant of the people, and form the transition to a general description of the enjoyment of salvation, which, in the Messianic times, shall be bestowed upon the Congregation of the Lord. This description goes on to chap. l. 3, and then, in chap. l. 4 ff., the person of the Servant of the Lord is anew brought before us.
The Messianic explanation of our passage is already met with in the New Testament. It is with reference to it thatSimeon, in Luke ii. 30, 31, designates the Saviour as theσωτήριονof God, which He had prepared before the face of all people (comp. ver. 6 of our passage: "That thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth"), as theφῶς εἰς ἀποκάλυψιν ἐθνῶν καὶ δόξαν λαοῦ σου Ἰσραήλ; comp. again ver. 6, according to which the Servant of God is to be at the same time, the light of the Gentiles, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. Ver. 1: "The Lord hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother hath He made mention of my name," is alluded to in Luke ii. 21:Καὶ ἐκλήθη τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦς, τὸ κληθὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀγγέλου πρὸ τοῦ συλληφθῆναι αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ κοιλίᾳ(comp. i. 31:συλλήψῃ ἐν γαστρὶ καὶ τέξῃ υἱόν καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦν) as is sufficiently evident fromἐν τῇ κοιλίᾳsc. matris, which exactly answers to theמבטןin the passage before us. In Acts xiii. 46, 47, Paul and Barnabas prove, from the passage under review, the destination of Christ to be the Saviour of the Gentiles, and their right to offer to them the salvation despised and rejected by the Jews:ἰδοὺ στρεφόμεθα εἰς τὰ ἔθνη· οὕτω γὰρ ἐντέταλται ἡμῖν ὁ Κύριος· τέθεικά σε εἰς φῶς ἐθνῶν τοῦ εἶναί σε εἰς σωτηρίαν ἕως ἐσχάτου τῆς γῆςIn the destination which, in Isaiah, the Lord assigns to Christ, Paul and Barnabas recognize an indirect command for his disciples, a rule for their conduct. In 2 Cor. vi. 1, 2, ver. 8 is quoted, and referred to the Messianic time.
It is obvious that the Jews could not be favourable to the Messianic interpretation; but the Christian Church has held fast by it for nearly 1800 years. Even such interpreters asTheodoretandClericus, who are everywhere rather disposed to explain away real Messianic references, than to find the Messiah where He is not presented, consider the Messianic interpretation to be, in this place, beyond all doubt. The former says: "This was said with a view to the Lord Christ, who is the seed of Abraham, through whom the nations received the promise." And when, in our century, men returned to the faith, the Messianic interpretation also returned. If the Church has Christ at all, it is impossible that she should fail to find Him here.
Gesenius, and those who have followed him, appeal to the circumstance, that the Messiah could not well be introduced as speaking, and, least of all, in such a manner, without any introductionand preparation. But it is difficult to see how this argument can be advanced by those who themselves assume that a mere personification, the collective body of the prophets, or, asBeckexpresses it, the Prophetκατ’ ἐξοχήνas a general substantial individual, or even the people, can be introduced as speaking. The introduction of persons is a necessary result of the dramatic character of prophetic Speech, comp.,e.g., chap. xiv., where now the king of Babylon, then the inhabitants of the Sheol, and again Jehovah, are introduced as speaking. The person who is here introduced as speaking is already known from chap. xlii., wherehe is spoken of. The prophecy before us stands to that prophecy in the very same relation as does Ps. ii. 7-9, where the Anointed One suddenly appears as speaking, to the preceding verses, where He was spoken of The Messiah is here so distinctly described, as to His nature and character, that it is impossible not to recognise Him. Who but He should be the Covenant of the people, the Light of the Gentiles, the Saviour for all the ends of the earth? The point which was here concerned was not, first to introduce Him to the knowledge of the people. His image existed there already in sharp outlines, even from and since Gen. xlix. 10, where the Peaceful One meets us, in whom Judah attains to the full height of his destination, and to whom the people adhere. The circumstance that it is just here that the Messiah appears as speaking, forms the most appropriate introduction to the second book, in which He is the principal figure.--It is by a false literal interpretation only that ver. 8, 9 have been advanced in opposition to the Messianic interpretation.
The arbitrariness of the non-Messianic interpretation manifests itself in this also, that its supporters can, up to this day, not agree as to the subject of the prophecy. 1. According to several interpreters--Hitzig, last of all--the Servant of God is to beIsrael, and the idea this, that Israel would, at some future period, be the teacher of the Gentiles, and would spread the true religion on earth. It is apparently only that this interpretation receives some countenance from ver. 3, where the Servant of the Lord is called Israel. For this name does not there stand as an ordinarynomen proprium, but as an honorary name, to designate the high dignity and destination of the Servant of God. As this name had passed over froman individual to a people, so it may again be transferred from the people to that person in whom the people attain their destination, in which, up to that time, they had failed But decisive against this explanation, which makes the whole people the subject, is ver. 5, according to which the Servant of God is destined to lead back to the Lord, Jacob and Israel (in the ordinary sense), who then must be different from Him; ver. 6, according to which He is to raise up the tribes of Jacob; ver. 8, 9, according to which He is to be the Covenant of the people, to deliver the prisoners, &c. (Knobelremarks on this verse: "Nothing is clearer than that the Servant of God is not identical with the mass of the people, but is something different.") Supposing even that the people, destined to be the teachers of the Gentiles, appear here as speaking, it is difficult to see how, in ver. 4, they could say that hitherto they had laboured in vain in their vocation, and seen no fruits, since hitherto the people had made no attempt at all at the conversion of the Gentiles. 2.Maurer,Knobel, and others, endeavour to explain it ofthe better portion of the people. But conclusive against this interpretation is ver. 6, according to which the Servant of God has the destination of restoring the preserved of Israel, and hence must be distinct from the better portion; ver. 8, according to which He is given for a Covenant of the people, from which, according to ver. 4 and 6, the ungodly are excluded; so that the idea of the people is identical with that of the better portion. In general, the contrasting of the better portion of the people with the whole people, Jacob and Israel, the centre and substance of which was formed just by theἐκλογή, can scarcely be thought of, and is without any analogy. Nor is the mention of thewomb. andbowels of the mother, in ver. 1, reconcileable with a merely imaginary person, and that, moreover, a person of a character so indistinct and indefinite,--a character which has no definite and palpable historical beginnings. The parallel passages, in which the calling from the womb is mentioned, treat of real persons, of individuals.--3. According to several interpreters (Jarchi,Kimchi,Abenezra,Grotius,Steudel,Umbreit,Hofmann), the Servant of the Lord is to be none other thanthe Prophet himself. No argument has been adduced in favour of this view, except the use of the first person, ("If here, without introduction and preparation, a discourse begins with the firstperson, it refers most naturally to the Prophet, who is the author of the Book"),--an argument of very subordinate significance, and the more so that the person of the Prophet, everywhere else in the second part of Isaiah, steps so entirely into the background behind the great objects with which he is engaged. To follow thus the first appearance may, indeed, be becoming to a eunuch from Ethiopia, but not a Christian expounder of Scripture. The contents of the prophecy are decidedly in opposition to this opinion. Even the circumstance that a single prophet should assume the name of Israel, ver. 3, appears an intolerable usurpation.Farther--Like all the other prophets, Isaiah was sent to the Jews, and not to the Gentiles; but at the very outset,the most distant lands and all the distant nationsare here called upon to hearken. The Lord says to His Servant that the restoration of Israel was too little for Him, that He should be a light and salvation for all the heathen nations from one end of the earth to the other; kings and Princes shall fall down before Him, adoring and worshipping. The Prophet would thus simply have raised himself to be the Saviour.Umbreitexpressly acknowledges this: "He is to be the holy pillar of clouds and fire which leads the people back to their native land, after the time of their punishment has expired. But a still more glorious vocation and destination is in store for the prophets; they receive the highest, the Messianic destination." The usurpation of which the Servant of God would have made himself guilty, appears so much the more clearly, when it is known, that the work of the Servant of God comprehends even all that also, which is described in ver. 10-23, viz., the blossoming of the Church of God, her enlargement by the Gentiles, &c.It is obvious that, if the interpretation which refers this prediction to the prophets were the correct one, the authority of the Old Testament prophecy would be gone; the authority of the Lord himself would be endangered, inasmuch as He always recognizes, in these prophets, organs of divine inspiration and power.A vain attempt is made at mitigating this usurpation, by imperceptibly substituting the collective body of the prophets for the single prophet. This view thus leads to, and interferes with another which we shall immediately examine. But if we would not give up the sole argument by which thisexposition is supported, viz., the use of the first person, everything must, in the first instance, apply to and be fulfilled in Isaiah; and the other prophets can come into consideration only as continuators of his work and ministry. He is entitled to use the first person in that case only, when he is a perfect manifestation of prophetism.--4. According toGesenius, the Servant of the Lord is to bethe collective body of the prophets, the prophetic order. In opposition to this view,Stierremarks: "We maintain that, according to history, there did not at that time (the time of the exile, in whichGeseniusplaces this prophecy) exist any prophetic order, or any distinguished blossom of it; that hence it was impossible for any reasonable man to entertain this hope, when viewed in this way, without looking farther and higher." Ver. 1 is decisive against a mere personification. The name of Israel, too, in ver. 3, is very little applicable to the whole prophetic order. This is sufficiently evident from the fact thatGesenius, in his Commentary, declared this word to be spurious; and it was at a later period only, when he had become bolder, that he endeavoured to adapt it to his self-chosen subject. Nowhere in the Old Testament do the prophets appear like the Servant of God here--as the Covenant of the people, ver. 8, as the Light of the Gentiles, ver. 6.
Ver. 1. "Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken ye people from far; the Lord hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother hath He made mention of my name."
As the stand-point which the Messiah occupies in the vision of the Prophet, we have to conceive of the time, at which He had already entered upon His office, and had already experienced many proofs of the Jews' unbelief and hardness of heart,--an event of the Future, the foresight of which was, even in a human point of view, very readily suggested to the Prophet after the painful experience acquired during his own long ministry; comp. chap. vi. For the fruitlessness of His ministry among the mass of the covenant-people, ver. 4, as well as the great contempt which the Servant of God found among them, ver. 7, are represented as having already taken place;while the enlightenment of the Gentiles, the worship of the kings, &c., which are to be expected by Him, are represented as being still future. In the same manner, in chap. liii., the humiliation of the Servant of God appears as past; the glorification, as future, the reason why theislesare addressed (comp. remarks on chap. xlii. 4) appears in ver. 6 only, at the close of the discourse of the Servant of God, for all that precedes serves as a preparation. In that verse, the Servant of the Lord announces that the Lord had appointed Him to be the Light of the Gentiles; that He should be His salvation unto the ends of the earth. It is very significant that the second book at once begins with an address to the Gentiles, inasmuch us, thus, we are here introduced into the sphere of a redemption which does not refer to a single nation, like that with which thefirstbook is engaged, but to the ends of the earth. At the close of the first book, in chap. xlviii. 20, it was said: "Declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth, say ye: The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob." The fact that the redemption, in the first instance peculiar to Jacob, is to be proclaimed to all the nations of the earth, leads us to expect that these nations, too, have their portion in the Lord; that at some future period they are to hear a message which concerns them stillmore particularly. This expectation is realized here, at the opening of the second book. The fact that the Gentiles are to listen here, as those who have a personal interest in the message, is proved by the circumstance, that the words: "Unto the ends of the earth," in ver. 6 of the chapter before us, point back to the same words in chap. xlviii. 20.--The Lord had called me from the womb.It is sufficient to go thus far back in order to repress or refute the idea of His having himself usurped His office, and to furnish a foundation for the expectation that God would powerfully uphold and protect His Servant in the office which He himself had assigned to Him. Calvin remarks on these words: "They do not indicate the commencement of the time of His vocation, as if God had, only from the womb, called Him; but it is just as if it were said: Before I came forth from the womb, God had decreed that I was to undertake this office. In the same manner Paul also says that he had been separated from his mother's womb, although he was chosen beforethe foundation of the world." To be called from the womb is, in itself, nothing extraordinary; it is common to all the servants of the Lord. Jeremiah ascribes it to himself in chap. i. 5: "Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee;" and in harmony with this passage in Jeremiah--not with that before us--Paul says in Gal. i. 15:ὁ θεὸς ὁ ἀφορίσας(corresponding to: I havesanctifiedthee)με ἐκ κοιλίας μητρός μου. But we have here merely theintroduction to what follows, where the calling, to which the Servant of God had been destined from the womb appears as quite unique.--From the bowels of my mother hath He made mention of my name.The name is here not an ordinary proper name, buta name descriptive of the nature,--one by which His office and vocation are designated. This making mention was, in the case of Christ, not a thing concealed; the prophecy before us received its palpable confirmation and fulfilment; inasmuch as, in reference to it, Joseph received, even before His birth, the command to call Him Jesus, Saviour:τέξεται δὲ υἱὸν καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦν· αὐτὸς γὰρ σώσει τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν αὐτῶν, Matth. i. 21, after the same command had previously come to Mary, Luke i. 31; comp. ii. 21, where, as we have already remarked, there is a distinct reference to the passage before us.
Ver. 2. "And He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of His hand hath He hid me, and He hath made me a sharpened arrow, in His quiver hath He hid me."
According to the common interpretation, the words: "He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword. He hath made me a sharpened arrow," are to express only such a gift of powerful, impressive speech as is common to all the servants of God, to all the prophets. But the two subjoined clauses are opposed to that interpretation. The second and fourth clauses state the reason of the first and third, and point to the source from which that emanates which is stated in them. There cannot be any doubt but that in the second and fourth clauses, the Servant of God indicates that He stands under the protection of divine omnipotence, so that the expression: "Whom I uphold," in chap. xlii. 1, is parallel. Theshadowis the ordinary figure of protection. The figure of the sword is dropped in the second clause, and hence the objection, that a drawn sword does not require any protection, is out of place. This willappear from a comparison of chap. li. 16: "And I put my words in thy mouth, and I cover thee with the shadow of mine hand," where the sword is not mentioned at all, and the shadow belongs simply to the person. The quiver which keeps the arrow is likewise a natural image of divine protection. The two accessory clauses do not suit, if the first and third clauses are referred to therhetorical endowmentof the Servant of God;that does not flow from the source of the protecting omnipotence of God. These accessory clauses rather suggest the idea that, by the comparison of themouthwith the sharp sword, of thewhole personwith the sharpened arrow, there is indicatedthe absolutely conquering power which, under the protection of omnipotence, adheres to the word and person of the Servant of God, so that He will easily put down everything which opposes,--equivalent to:He has endowed me with His omnipotence, so that my word produces destructive effects, and puts down all opposition, just as does His word; so that there would be a parallel in chap. xi. 4, where the word of the Servant of God likewise appears as being borne by omnipotence: "He smiteth the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He slayeth the wicked." To the same result we are led also by a comparison of chap. li. 16, where the word of the Lord, which is put into the mouth of the Servant of God, is so living and powerful, so borne by omnipotence, that thereby the heavens are planted, and the foundations of the earth are laid. But of special importance are those passages of Revelation which refer to the verse under consideration. In chap. i. 16, the sharp two-edged sword does not by any means represent the power of the discourse piercing the heart for salvation; but rather the destructive power of the word which is borne by omnipotence. It designates the almighty punitive power of Christ directed against his enemies. "By the circumstance, that the sword goes out of the mouth of Christ, that destructive power is attributed to His mere word, He appears as partaking of divine omnipotence. For it belongs to God to slay by the words of His mouth, Hos. vi. 5." The same applies to chap. ii. 16. On Rev. xix. 15: "And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations," we remarked: "the sharp sword is not that of a teaching king,but that of omnipotence which speaks and it is done, and slayeth by the breath of the lips. How Christ casts down His enemies by the word of His mouth is seen, in a prophetical instance, John xviii. 6; Acts ix. 4, 5." With the sword, Christ appears even where He does not mean to destroy, but to bring salvation; for, even in those who are to be blessed, hostile powers are to be overcome. The image, however, is here, in the fundamental passage, occasioned by the comparison of the Servant of God with the conqueror from the East, whose sword, according to chap. xli. 2, the Lord makes as dust, and his bow as the driven stubble. Where the merewordserves as a sword, the effect must be much more powerful. The conquering power throwing down every opposing power, which, in the first clause, is assigned to the mouth, is, in the third clause ("And He hath mademea sharpened arrow"), attributed to the whole person. He, of whom it was already said in Ps. xlv. 6: "Thine arrows are sharp, people fall under thee, they enter into the heart of the king's enemies," is himself to be esteemed as a sharp arrow.
Ver. 3. "And He said unto me: Thou art my Servant, O Israel, in whom I glorify myself."
"My Servant" stands here as an honorarydesignation; to be the Servant of God appears here as the highest privilege, as is evident not only from the analogy of the parallel passages, which treat of the Servant of God (comp. remarks on chap. xlii. 1), but also from the parallel second clause. In it, the Servant of God is calledIsraelas the concentration and consummation of the covenant-people, as He in whom it is to attain to its destination, in whom its idea is to be realized. (It is evident from ver. 5, and from those passages in the second part in which the people of Israel is spoken of as the Servant of God [comp. remarks on chap. xlii.], that Israel must here be understood as the name of the people, not as the name of the ancestor only.)Hävernickrightly remarks that the Messiah is here called Israel, "in contrast to the people to whom this name does not properly belong." Analogous is Matt. ii. 15, where that which, in the Old Testament, is written of Israel, is referred to Christ. As the true Israel, Christ himself also represents himself in John i. 52; with a reference to that which in Gen. xxviii. 12 is written, not of Jacob asan individual, but as the representative of the whole race, it is said there:ἀπ᾽ ἄρτι ὄψεσθε τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀνεῳγότα, καὶ τοὺς ἀγγέλους του̂ θεου̂ ἀναβαίνοντας καὶ καταβαίνοντας ἐπὶ τὸν υἱὸν του̂ ἀνθρώπουAll those declarations of the Old Testament, in which the name of Jacob or Israel is used to designate theelection, to the exclusion of the false seed, the true Israelites in whom there is no guile,--all those passages prepare the way for, and come near to the one before us. Thus Ps. lxiii. 1: "Truly good is God to Israel, to such as are of a clean heart;" and then Ps. xxiv. 6: "They that seek thy face are Jacob,"i.e., those only who, with zeal and energy in sanctification, seek for the favour of God. In the passage before us, the same principle is farther carried out. The true Israel is designated as he in whom God glorifies, or will glorify himself, inasmuch as his glorification will bear testimony to God's mercy and faithfulness; comp. John xii. 23:ἐλήλυθεν ἡ ὥρα ἵνα δοξασθῇ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου; xvii. 5:καὶ νῦν δοξασόν με σύ πάτερ. The verbפארmeans inPiel, "to adorn," inHithp."to adorn one's self," "to glorify one's self." Thus it occurs in Judg. vii. 2; Is. x. 15; lx. 21: "Work of my hands for glorifying,"i.e., in which I glorify myself; lxi. 3: "Planting of the Lord for glorifying." There is no reason for abandoning this well-supported signification either here or in chap. xliv. 23: "The Lord hath redeemed Israel and glorified himself in Israel." If God glorifies himself in His Servant, He just thereby gets occasion to glory in Him as a monument of His goodness and faithfulness. Our Saviour prays in John xii. 28:Πάτερ δόξασόν σου τὸ ὄνομα.The Father, by glorifying the Son, glorifies at the same time His name. Those who explainאתפארby:per quem ornabor, overlook the circumstance that, also in the phrase: "Thou art my Servant," the main stress does not, according to the parallel passages, lie in that which the Servant has to perform, but in His being the protected and preserved by God.
Ver. 4. "And I said: I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for emptiness and vanity; but my right is with the Lord, and my reward with my God."
The Servant of God, after having spoken of His sublime dignity and mission, here prepares the transition for proclaiming His destination to be a Saviour of the Gentiles, to whom His whole discourse is addressed. He complains of the smallfruits of His ministry among Israel; but comforts himself by the confidence placed upon the righteousness of God, that the faithful discharge of the duty committed to Him cannot remain without reward. The speaking on the part of the Servant of God in this verse refers to the speaking of God in verse 3.Jerome, who remarks on this point: "But when the Father told me that which I have repeated, I answered Him: How wilt thou be glorified in me, seeing that I have laboured in vain?" recognised this reference, but erroneously viewed the words as being addressed to the Lord. It is a soliloquy which we have here before us. Instead of "I said," we are not at liberty to put: "I imagined;" the Servant of God had in reality expended His strength for nothing and vanity. As thesceneof the vain labour of the Servant of God, theheathen worldcannot be thought of; inasmuch as this is, first in ver. 6, assigned to Him as an indemnification for that which, according to the verse before us, He had lost elsewhere. It isIsraelonly which can be the object of the vain labour of the Servant of God; for it was to them that, according to ver. 5, the mission of the Servant of God in the first instance referred: The Lord had formed Him to be His Servant, to bring back to Him Jacob and Israel that were not gathered. Since, then, the mission is directed toapostateIsrael, it can the less be strange that the labour was in vain. To the same result we are led also by the circumstance that, in ver. 6, the saving activity of the Servant of God appears as limited tothe preservedof Israel, while the original mission had been directed to thewhole. And this portion to which His activity is limited, is comparatively asmallportion. For that is suggested by the circumstance that to have the preserved of Israel for His portion is represented as a light thing--not at all corresponding to the dignity of the Servant of God. As, in that verse, the preserved of Israel form the contrast to the mass of the peoplegiven upby the Lord, so in the verse under consideration, the opposition which the Servant of God finds, is represented as so great, that His ministry was, in the main, in vain; so that accordingly the great mass of the people must have been unsusceptible of it.--In the view that a great portion of the people would reject the salvation offered in Christ, and thereby become liable to judgment, the Song of Solomonhad already preceded our Prophet. As regards the natural grounds of this foresight, we remarked in the Commentary on the Song of Solomon, S. 245: "With a knowledge of human nature, and especially of the nature of Israel, as it was peculiar to the people from the beginning, and was firmly and deeply impressed upon them by the Mosaic laws,--after the experience which the journey through the wilderness, the time of the Judges, the reign of David and of Solomon also offered, it was absolutely impossible for the enlightened to entertain the hope that, at the appearance of the Messiah, the whole people would do homage to Him with sincere and cordial devotion." How very much this was the case, the very first chapter of Isaiah can prove. It is impossible that one who has so deeply recognized the corrupted nature of his people, should give himself up to vain patriotic fancies; to such an one, the time of the highest manifestation of salvation must necessarily be, at the same time, a period of the highest realization of judgment. The same view which is given here, we meet with also in chap. liii. 1-3. In harmony with Isaiah, Zechariah, too, prophesies, in chaps. xi., xiii. 8, that the greater portion of the Jews will not believe in Christ. Malachi iii. 1-6, 19, 24, contrasts with the longed-for judgment upon the heathen, the judgment which, in the Messianic time, is to be executed upon the people itself.--On the words: "My right is with the Lord, and my reward with my God," compare Lev. xix, 13: "The reward of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning." The God who watches that among men the well-earned wages of faithful labour shall not be withheld, will surely himself not withhold them from His Servant. The right, the well-deserved reward of His Servant iswith Him; it is there safely kept, in order that it may be delivered up to Him in due time. That which the Servant of the Lord here, in the highest sense, says of himself, holds true of His inferior servants also. Their labour in the Lord is, in truth, never in vain. Their right and their reward can never fail them.
Ver. 5. "And now, saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be a Servant to himself, to bring Jacob again to Him, and Israel which is not gathered, and I am honoured in the eyes of the Lord, and my God was my strength.Ver.6.And He saith: It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my Servant only to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel, and I give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my Salvation unto the ends of the earth."
The confidence which the Servant of the Lord has placed in Him has not been put to shame by the result, but rather has been gloriously justified by Him. He who was, in the first instance, sent to Israel, is appointed to be the Saviour of the Gentiles, in order to compensate Him for the unbelief of those to whom His mission was in the first instance directed.And now,i.e., since the matter stands thus (Gen. xlv. 8),--since Israel, to whom my mission is, in the first instance, directed, reject me.Saith the Lord--That which the Lord spoke follows in ver. 6 only, which, on account of the long interruption, again begins with: "And He saith," equivalent to: I say. He hath spoken. The declaration of the Lord has reference to the destination of His Servant to be the Saviour of the Gentiles. This declaration is, in ver. 5, based upon two reasons:--first, the frustration of the original mission of the Servant of the Lord to the Jews; andsecondly, on the intimate relation in which He stands to the Lord, who cannot withhold from Him the reward which He deserves for His work. In the New Testament, also, the mission of Christ appears as being at first directed to the Jews only. The Lord says, in Matt. xv. 24:οὐκ ἀπεστάλην εἰ μὴ εἰς τὰ πρόβατα τὰ ἀπολωλότα οἴκου Ἰσραήλ. He says, in Matt. x. 6, to the Apostles, after having forbidden them to go to the heathens, and to the Samaritans, who were nothing but disguised heathens:πορεύεσθε δὲ μᾶλλον πρὸς τὰ προβατα τὰ ἀπολωλότα οἴκου Ἰσραήλ.Paul and Barnabas say, in Acts xiii. 46:ὑμῖν ἦν ἀναγκαῖον πρῶτον λαληθῆναι τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ· ἐπειδὴ δε ἀπωθεῖσθε αὐτὸν καὶ οὐκ ἀξίους κρίνετε ἑαυτοὺς τῆς αἰωνίου ζωῆς, ἰδοὺ στρεφόμεθα εἰς τὰ ἔθνη.It is rather an idle question to ask what would have happened, if the Jews as a nation had accepted the offered salvation. But so much is certain that here, in the prediction, as well as in history, the rejection of Christ, on the part of the Jews, appears to have been a necessary condition of His entering upon His vocation as the Saviour of the Gentiles. Those who understood the people by the Servant of the Lord referלשיבבto Jehovah, and consider it as a Gerund.reducendo, orqui reducit ad se Jacobum. In the same way they explain also the Infinit. withלin the following verse, as also in chap. li. 16. But although the Infinit. withלis sometimes, indeed, used for the Gerund., yet this is neither the original nor the ordinary use; and nowhere does it occur in such accumulation. Moreover, by this explanation, this verse, as well as the following ones, are altogether broken up, and the wordsלשובב יעקב אליוmust indicate the destination for which He was formed. And it is not possible that Jehovah's bringing Jacob back to himself should be a display of Israel's being formed from the womb to be the Servant, inasmuch as the bringing back would not, like the formation, belong to the first stage of the existence of the people.--"And Israel, which is not gathered." Beforeאשר,לאmust be supplied. According to the parallel words: "To bring Jacob again to Him," the not gathering of Israel is to be referred to its having wandered away from the Lord. It was appropriate that this should be expressly mentioned, and not merely supposed, as is the case in: "To bring Jacob again to Him." The image which lies at the foundation, is that of a scattered flock; comp. Mic. ii. 12. Parallel is Isaiah liii. 6: "All welike sheephave gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way."--To the words under consideration the Lord alludes in Matt. xxiii. 37:Ἰερουσαλήμ ... ποσάκις ἠθέλησα ἐπι συναγαγεῖν τὰ τέκνα σου ὃν τρόπον ἐπισυναγει ὄρνις τὰ νοσσία ἐαὐτῆς ὑπὸ τὰς πτέρυγας καὶ οὐκ ἠθελήσατε.; comp. also Matt. ix. 36:ἰδὼν δὲ τοὺς ὄχλους ἐσπλαγχνίσθη περὶ αὐτῶν ὅτι ἦσαν ἐσκυλμένοι καὶ ἐρριμμένοι ὡσεὶ πρόβατα μὴ ἔχοντα ποιμένα.On account of chap. xi. 12, it will not do to takeאסףin the signification of "to snatch away," "to carry off," as is done byHitzig. Moreoverנאסףmeans, indeed, "to be gathered," but never "to be carried off" The Mazoreths would readלאforלו: "And that Israel might be gathered toHim." Thus it is rendered, among the ancient translators, byAquilaand the Chaldee; whileSymmachus,Theodoret, and the Vulgate express the negation. Most of the modern interpreters have followed the Mazoreths. But the assumption of several of these, thatלאis only a different writing forלו, is altogether without foundation, compare the remarks on chap. ix. 2; and the reading of the Mazoreths is just like all theKris, a mere conjecture, owing its origin, as has already beenremarked byJerome, only to a bad Jewish patriotism. The circumstance that, with the sole exception, of 2 Chron. xxx. 3,--an exception which, from the character of the language of that book, is of no importance--the verbאסףin the signification "to gather" has the person to whom it is gathered never joined to it by means ofל, but commonly by means ofאל, is of so much the greater importance, thatלhas nothing to do withאל. WhenStierremarks that ver. 6, where Jacob and Israel were again beside each other in a completely parallel clause, proves that Israel's gathering can be spoken of positively only, he has overlooked the essential difference of ver. 5, which refers to the position of the Servant of God towards the whole people and ver. 6, which refers to His destination for theelection.--The words: "And I am honoured in the eyes of the Lord, and my God is my strength,"i.e., my protection and helper, recapitulate what, in ver. 2 and 3, was said about the high dignity of the Servant of God, of which the effect appears, in ver. 6, in His appointment to be the Saviour of the Gentiles, after the mission to Israel has been fruitless. In ver. 6, it is not the decree of the salvation of the Gentiles through Christ which forms the subject (that decree is an eternal one), but rather that this decree should be carried out. It is for this that Israel's unbelief offers an occasion "As the salvation of the elect among Israel (in reference to the great mass, the Servant of God had laboured in vain, ver. 4) would be too small a reward for thee, I assign to thee in addition to them, an infinitely larger inheritance, viz., the whole heathen world."שובinHiphilfrequently means "to lead back," in the ordinary sense, but sometimes also "to lead back into the former, ornormalcondition," "to restore," compare remarks on Dan. ix. 25; Ps. lxxx. 4. The parallel, "to raise up," which is opposed to thelying down(Ps. xli. 9), shows that here it stands in the sense of "to restore." The local leading back belongs to the sphere of Koresh, to whom the first book is dedicated; but, with that, the abnormal condition of misery and abasement, which is so much opposed to the idea of the people of God, is not completely and truly removed. That which the Servant of God bestows upon the elect of Israel, viz.,raising up and restoration, is, in substance, the same which, according to what follows, He becomes to theGentiles,viz.,light and salvation. By becoming light and salvation to the elect of Israel, He raises them up and leads them back, inasmuch as this was the normal, natural condition of the covenant-people, from which they had only fallen by their sins. It is to that, that the election is restored by the Servant of God. By thetribes of Jacob, the better part only of the people is to be understood, to the exclusion of those souls who are cut off from their people, because they have broken the covenant of the Lord, comp. ver. 4. This appears from the addition: "And the preserved of Israel" (theKethibhנעיריis an adjective form with a passive signification; the marginal readingנצוריis the Part. Pass.); just as, similarly in Ps. lxxiii. 1, Israel is limited to the true Israel by the explanatory clause: "Such as are of a clean heart." The verbנצר, "to watch," is, according toGesenius, especially usedde Jehova homines custodiente et tuente.Hence, the preserved of Israel are those whom God keeps under His gracious protection and care, in contrast to the great mass of the covenant-breakers whom Hegives up. Chap. lxv. 13, 14: "Behold my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry; behold my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty; behold my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed; behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit," likewise points to a great separation which shall take place in the Messianic time.Light(compare remarks on chap. xlii. 6), andsalvationare related to one another, as the image to the thing itself From the circumstance that the point here in question is the reward for the Servant of God, who is to be indemnified for the loss which He suffered by Israel (comp. ver. 4), it is obvious that we must not explain: "that my salvation be," but: "that thou mayest be my salvation;" for it is only when He is the salvation that such an indemnification is spoken of Moreover, the Infinitive withלcan here not well be understood otherwise than in the preceding clause. The servant of God is the personal salvation of the Lord for the heathen world; comp. chap. xlii. 6, and, in the chapter under consideration, ver. 8, where He is called thecovenantof the people, because this covenant finds in Him its truth; compare also the expression: "This man ispeace," in Mic. v. 4 (5).Geseniusrightly remarks, thatthere is here an allusion to the promises given to the Patriarchs, Gen. xii. 3, &c. In Christ, the Shiloh to whom the people adhere, the old promise of the future extension of salvation to all the Gentiles is to be fulfilled.
Ver. 7. "Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, to Him that is despised by every one, to the abhorrence of the people, to the servant of rulers: Kings shall see and rise up, princes, and prostrate themselves because of the Lord that is faithful, the Holy One of Israel that hath chosen thee."
Hitherto, the Servant of the Lord has spoken: here, the Prophet speaks of Him. He gives a short and comprehensive summary of the contents of ver. 1-6, the rejection of the Servant of God by the people to whom His mission was, in the first instance, directed, and His appointment to be the Saviour of the Gentiles. The matter is traced back to the Redeemer of Israel and their Holy One,i.e., the high and glorious God, because the Servant of God is, in the first instance, sent to Israel asδιάκονος περιτομῆς ὑπὲρ ἀληθείας θεοῦ εἰς τὸ βεβαιῶσαι τὰς ἐπαγγελίας τῶν πατέρων, Rom. xv. 8; but still more, because He himself is the concentration of Israel (ver. 3), theκεφαλὴ τοῦ σώματος τῆς ἐκκλησίας, Col. i. 18,--He in whose glorification the true Israel, as opposed to the darkened refuse, attain to their right. According to the context, the contempt, &c., must proceed chieflyfrom the apostate portion of the covenant-people: Theprinces and kingsmust, according to ver. 6 (comp. chap. lii. 15), be conceived of as heathenish ones. The verse under consideration merely exhibits, in short outlines, the contrast already alluded to in the preceding context. It cannot appear at all strange that the Prophet foresees the reproach of Christ, and His sufferings from the ungodly world. In those Psalms which refer to the suffering righteous one, righteousness and the hostility of the wicked world are represented as being inseparably connected with each other. Hence it cannot be conceived of otherwise, but that the Servant of God, who, inHis person, represented theidealof righteousness, should, in a very special manner, have been liable to this hostility. Moreover, it can be proved that, in some Psalms which refer to the suffering righteous one, David has, besides the individual and the whole people, in view, at the same time, his ownfamily, and Him in whom it was to centre; comp. my commentary on Ps. Vol. iii. p. lxxx. ff. There seems here to be a special reference to Ps. xxii. 7, 8: "And I am a worm and no man, a reproach of man and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn, open their lips, shake their heads;" and it is the more natural to assume this reference that, in chap. lii. 14; liii. 3, this passage also is referred toבְּזֹהis, after the example ofKimchi, viewed by several interpreters as an infinitive form standing in place of a Noun, "despising or contemning," instead of "contempt," and this again instead of "object of contempt." Others view it as theStat. construct.of an adjectiveבָּזֹהwith a passive signification. This latter view is more natural; and the reason whichStieradduces against it, viz., that of verbsלהno such forms are found, cannot be considered as conclusive.בזה־נפש, literally the "despised one of thesoul" might, according to Ezek. xxxvi. 5: "Against Edom who have taken my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with the contempt of their soul," mean, "who is inwardly and deeply despised," the soul being viewed as the seat of the affections. But we are led to another explanation by the fundamental passage, Ps. xxii. 7, and by the circumstance thatנפשishereparallel toנוי, and that the latter corresponds to theעםin Ps. xxii. "The despised one of the soul" must, accordingly, be he who is despised of every one. The soul corresponding tomanin Ps. xxii. is, as it were, conceived of as a great concrete body. In a similar manner, "soul" is used for all that has a soul, in Gen. xiv. 21, where the king of Sodom says to Abraham: "Give me thesoul, and take the goods to thyself."--"To the abhorrence of the people."תעבinPielnever has another signification than "to abhor." Such is the signification in Job ix. 31 also, where the clothes abhor Job plunged in the dirt, resist being put on by him; likewise in Ezek. xv. 25, where Judah abhors his beauty, disgracefully tramples under feet his glory, as if he hated it. In favour of the signification: "To cause to abhor" (Rödiger:horrorem incutiens populo, qui abominationi est populo), interpreters cannot adduce even one apparent passage, except that before us. We are, therefore, only at liberty to explain, after the example ofKimchi: "to the ... people abhorring,"i.e., to him against whom thepeople feel an abhorrence.גויis used of the Jewish people in Is. i. 4 also.Hofmannis of opinion that it ought to have the article, if it were to refer to the Jewish people. But no one asserts a direct reference to them; it designates, in itself, the mass only, in contrast to single individuals, just asעםin Ps. xxii. The abhorrence is felt by the masses--is popular. The fact that it is among Israel that the Servant of God meets this general abhorrence, is not implied in the word itself, but is suggested by the whole context. Whileנפשandגויdesignate the generality of this hatred,משליםpoints to the highest places of it. Of heathen rulers this word occurs in chap. xiv. 5; of native rulers, in chap. lii. 5; xxviii. 14. The heathen rulers can here come into consideration, in so far only as they are the instruments of the native ones; comp. John xix. 10:λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Πιλᾶτος· ἐμοὶ οὐ λαλεῖς; οὐκ οἶδας ὅτι ἐξουσίαν ἔχω σταυρῶσαί σε καὶ ἐξουσίαν ἔχω ἀπολῦσαί σεTheservant of rulersforms the contrast to the servant of the Lord. But in the words: "Kings shall see," &c., it is described how the original dignity finally breaks forth powerfully, and reacts against the momentary humiliation. It was especially at the crucifixion that Christ presented himself as "He that was despised by every one, as the abhorrence of the people, as the servant of rulers." The historical commentary on these words we have in Matt. xxii. 39 ff.:οἱ δε παραπορευόμενοι ἔβλασφήμουν αὐτὸν κ.τ.λ. ὁμοίως δέ καὶ οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς ἐμπαίζοντες μετὰ τῶν γραμματέων καὶ πρεσβυτέρων ἔλεγον· ἄλλους ἔσωσεν κ.τ.λ. τὸ δ᾽ αὐτὸ καὶ οἱ λῃσταὶ οἱ συσταυρωθέντες αὐτῷ ὠνείδιζον αὐτόν.--Afterיראו"they shall see," the object must be supplied from ver. 6, viz., the brilliant turn which, under the Lord's direction. His destiny shall take,--His being constituted the light and salvation of the Gentiles. The kings who sit on their thrones rise up; the nobles who stand around the throne prostrate themselves. The Servant of God is the concentration of Israel, ver. 3. Hence His glorification is, at the close, once more traced back to theHoly One of Israel; and that so much the rather, because the glorification which is bestowed upon Him is bestowed upon Him for the benefit of the Congregation, whom He elevates along with himself out of the condition of deep abasement; comp. vers. 8 and 9. The verse before us forms the germ of that which, in chap. lii. 13, is carried out and expanded.
Ver. 8. "Thus saith the Lord: In the time of favour have I heard thee, and in the day of salvation have I helped thee; and I will preserve thee, and give thee for the Covenant of the people, that thou mayest raise up the land, divide desolate heritages.Ver. 9.That thou mayest say to the prisoners: Go forth; to them that are in darkness: Come to light; they shall feed in the ways, and on all bare hills shall be their pasture."
The time of favourmay be either the time when God shows His delight in, and favour to His Servant, and, in Him, to the Church,q. d., of delight in thee, mercy for thee,--in which case chap. lx. 10 would be parallel: "In mywrathI smote thee, and in my favour have I had mercy on thee;" or, "in the time of favour," may be equivalent to: "at the agreeable, acceptable time" (LXX., which Paul follows in 2 Cor. vi. 1, 2,καιρῷ δεκτῷ, Vulg.tempore placito); in contrast to a preceding unacceptable time, in which the Lord seemed to have forsaken His Servant, in which it appeared as if He had laboured in vain, and spent His strength for nought and vanity. Acceptable is the time to all parties, not only to the Servant of God, but also to those who are to be redeemed through Him; and not less to God, to whom it is a joy to pour out upon His Servant the rivers of His salvation. The Preterites in ver. 8 must be viewed as prophetic Preterites. Concerning "Covenant of the people," compare remarks on chap. xlii. 6. The idea of the people is more closely defined and qualified by ver. 6 and 7. The souls who have been cut off from their people, because they have broken the covenant of the Lord, and despised His Servant, are justly passed by. But sinceעםcan here be understood of the better portion of the people only, of the invisible Church in the midst of the visible, the Servant of God cannot be the better portion of the people.--In the words: "That thou mayest raise up the land, divide desolate heritages," the bestowal of salvation is described under the image of the restoration of a devastated country. In ver. 9, the misery of the Congregation of God is described under the image of pining away in a dark prison; comp. remarks on chap. xlii. 7. With the second half of the verse, there begins a more general description of the glorious salvation which the Lord will giant to His people; and the person of the Mediatorsteps into the back-ground, in order afterwards to come forth more prominently. Thewaysandbare hillshave come into consideration as places which, in themselves, are completely barren, and which the wonderful grace of God can alone cause to bud and flourish.