CHAP. XII.

This chapter contains Israel's hymn of thanks after having obtained redemption and deliverance, and is connected with chap. ix. 2 (3), where the Prophet had, in general, mentioned the joy of the elect in the Messianic time. Here he embodies it in words. The hymn, which forms a kind of close, and, to a certain degree, belongs to the whole cycle of the preceding Messianic prophecies, is based upon the hymn of thanksgiving by Israel after having passed through the Red Sea,-that historical fact which contained so strong a guarantee for the future redemption, and is in harmony with chap. xi. 15, 16, where the Prophet had announced a renewal of those wonderful leadings of the Lord. The hymn falls into three stanzas, each consisting of two verses. In ver. 1 and 2, and in ver. 4 and 5, the redeemed ones are introduced speaking; ver. 3 and 5, which likewise form a couple, contain an epilogue of the Prophet on the double jubilus of the congregation.

Ver. 1. "And in that day thou sayest: I will praise thee, O Lord, for thou wast angry with me, and now thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me. Ver. 2. Behold, God is my salvavation; I trust, and am not afraid; for my strength and song is the Lord, and He became my Saviour."

The words "my strength and my song," are from Exod. xv. 2. The two members of the verse enter into the right relation to one another, and the becomes intelligible, only if we keep in mind that the words at the beginning, "The Lord is my salvation," are an expression of the conviction of the speaker; hence are equivalent to: we acknowledge Him as our God; so that the first part expresses the subjective disposition of the Church; the second, the objective circumstances of the case-that on which that disposition is founded, and from which it grew up. Ver. 3. "And ye draw water in joy out of the wells of salvavation."

During the journey through the wilderness, the bestowal of salvation had been represented under the form of granting

water. It is to it that we have here an allusion. The spiritual water denotes salvation.

Ver. 4. "And in that day ye say: Praise the Lord, proclaim His name, declare His doings among the nations, make mention that His name is exalted. Ver. 5. Praise the Lord, for He hath done great things; this is known in all the earth.”

Ver. 6. "Cry out and shout thou inhabitant of Zion; for great is the Holy One of Israel in thy midst."

There now follows a cycle of ten prophecies, which, in the inscriptions, have the name "burden," and in which the Prophet exhibits the disclosures into the destinies of the nations which he had received on the occasion of the threatening Assyrian invasion under Sennacherib. For, from the prophecy against Asshur in chap. xiv. 24, 25, which is contained in the very first burden, it clearly appears that the cycle which, by the equality of the inscriptions, is connected into one well arranged and congenial whole, belongs to this period. This prophecy against Asshur forms one whole with that against Babel, and by it the latter was suggested and called forth. In that prophecy, the defeat of Asshur, which took place in the 14th year of Hezekiah, is announced as future. It is true that the second burden, directed against the Philistines, in chap. xiv. 28-32, seems to suggest another time. Of this burden it is said, in ver. 28, that it was given in the year that king Ahaz died; not in the year in which his death was impending, but in that in which he died, comp. chap. vi. 1. The distressed circumstances of the new king raised the hopes of the Philistines, who, under Ahaz, had rebelled against the Jewish dominion. But the Prophet beholds in the Spirit that, just under this king, the heavenly King of Zion would destroy these hopes, and would thrust down Philistia from its imaginary height. But from the time of the original composition of the prophecy, that of its repetition must be distinguished. That took place, as is just shewn by the prophecy's being received in the cycle of the burdens, at the time when the invasion of Sennacherib was immediately impending. The Assyrians were the power from the North, by whom the

threatened destruction would break in upon the Philistines; and the truth of the word should be verified upon then, that prosperity is only the forerunner of the fall. In the view of the fulfilment, Isaiah repeated the prophecy.

From the series of these burdens, we shall very briefly comment upon those which are of importance for our purpose. First,

CHAPTERS XIII. 1.-XIV. 27.

This prophecy does not contain any characteristically expressed Messianic element; but it is of no small consequence for bringing out the whole picture of the future, as it was before the mind of the Prophet. It is in it that Babel meets us distinctly and definitely as the threatening world's power of the future, by which Judah is to be carried away into captivity.

The genuineness is incontrovertibly testified by the close; and it is only by a naturalistic tendency that it can be denied. With the announcement of the deliverance from Babel is first, in chap. xiv. 24, 25, connected an announcement of deliverance from Asshur; and then follows in vers. 26 and 27, the close of the whole prophecy from chap. xiii. 1, onward. Vers. 26 and 27, which speak of the whole earth and of all the nations, refer to chap. xiii., where the Prophet had spoken of an universal judgment, comp. ver. 5, 9, 10, &c.; while, in the verses immediately preceding, one single people, the Assyrians only, were spoken of. It is thereby rendered impossible to separate chap. xiv. 24, 27 from the whole.

Behind the world's power of the present—the Assyrian—the Prophet beholds a new one springing up-the Babylonish. Those who have asserted that the prophecy against Babel is altogether without foundation as soon as Isaiah is supposed to have composed it, are utterly mistaken. Although the prophecy was by no means destined for the contemporaries only, as prophecy is generally destined for all times of the Church, yet, even for the Prophet's contemporaries, every letter was of consequence. If Israel's principal enemies belonged to the future, how very little was to be feared from the present ones; and especially if Israel

should and must rise from even the deepest abasement, how should God not then deliver them from the lower distress and need? But just because weak faith does not like to draw such inferences, the Prophet at the close expressly adverts to the present affliction, and gives to the weak faith a distinct and sure word of God, by which it may support itself, and take encouragement in that affliction.

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The points of connection must not be overlooked which the prophecy in chap. xi. offers for the prophecy before us. We already met there the total decay of the royal house of David, the carrying away of Judah into exile, and their dispersion into all lands. It is on this foundation that the prophecy before us takes its stand it points to the power by which these conditions are to be brought about. Farther-There, as well as here, the conditions of the future are nct expressly announced as such, but supposed: the Prophet takes his stand in the future. There, as well as here, the Prophet draws consolation in the sufferings of the present from a salvation to be bestowed in a far distant future only.

From the very outset, the Prophet announces an impending carrying away of the people, and, at the same time, that, even in this distress, the Lord would have compassion upon His people, comp. e.g. chaps. v., vi. From the very outset, the Prophet clearly saw that it was not by the Assyrians that this carrying away would be effected. This much we consider to be fully proved by history. The progress which the prophecy before us offers, when compared with those former ones, consists in this circumstance only, that the Prophet here expressly mentions the names of the future destroyers. And in reference to this circumstance we may remark, that, according to the testimony of history, as early as at that time, the plan of the foundation of an independent power was strongly entertained and fostered at Babylon, as is clearly enough evidenced by the embassy of the viceroy of Babylon to Hezekiah.

In chap. xxiii. 13-the prophecy against Tyre, which is acknowledged to be genuine by the greater number of rationalistic interpreters-the Prophet shows the clearest insight into the future universal dominion of Chaldea, which forms the

point of issue for the prophecy before us. With perfect clearness this insight meets us in chap. xxxix. also, on which even Gesenius cannot avoid remarking: "The prophetic eye of Isaiah foresaw, even at that time, that, in a political point of view, Babylon would, in a short time, altogether enter into the track of Assyria."

CHAPTERS XVII., XVIII.

These two chapters form one whole, as, generally, the series of the ten burdens is nowhere interrupted by inserted, heterogeneous, independent portions. Chapter xx. forms an appendix only to chapter xix. In the same manner, the prophecy against Sebna in chap. xxii. 16-25, stands in an internal connection with vers. 1-15; in that which befel him, the destinies of the people were to be typified. That these two chapters belong to one another is clearly proved by the parallelism of chap. xvii. 10, 11, and chap. xviii. 4–6.

The inscription runs: "Burden of Damascus." It is at the commencement of the prophecy that the Syrians of Damascus are spoken of; the threatening soon after turns against Judah and Israel. This is easily accounted for by the consideration that the prophecy refers to a relation where Judah and Israel appear in the retinue of Damascus. It was from Damascus that, in the Syrico-Damascenic war, the whole complication proceeded. Aram induced Israel to join him in the war against Judah, and misled Judah to seek help from Asshur. In a general religious point of view, also, all Israel, the kingdom of the ten tribes, as well as Judah, were at that time, as it were, incorporated into Damascus; comp. ver. 10, according to which Israel's guilt consisted in having planted strange vines in his vineyard, with 2 Kings xvi. 10, according to which Ahaz got an altar made at Jerusalem after the pattern of that which he had seen at DamasThe circumstance that Israel had become like Damascus, was the reason why it was given up to the Gentiles for punish

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From the comparison of chap. x. 28--34, it appears that chap.