which point of that period the destruction of Tyre is to fall, Isaiah does not disclose. It is quite proper that in reference to Tyre the announcement should not be so definite, in point of chronology, as in reference to Judah. That the capture of Tyre by the Chaldeans, which is here announced, really took place, has been more thoroughly established in my book: De rebus Tyriorum; and afterwards by Drechsler in his Commentary on Isaiah, and by Hävernick in his Commentary on Ezekiel.

After the end of the 70 years, Tyre is to resume her trade of whoring, and is to carry it on to a wide extent, and with great success. By the image of whoredom "-so we remarked in commenting upon Rev. xiv. 8-" in some passages of the Old Testament, that selfishness is designated which clothes itself in the garb of love, and, under its appearance, seeks the gratification of its own desires. In Is. xxiii. 15 ff., Tyre is, on account of her mercantile connexions, called a whore, and the profit from trade is designated as the reward of whoredom. The point of comparison is the endeavour to please, to feign love for the sake of gain." Under the dominion of the Persians, Tyre again began to flourish.

Tyre's reward of whoredom is consecrated to the Lord, and the bodily wants of His servants are provided from it,—quite in agreement with the words of the Apostle : εἰ ἡμεῖς ὑμῖν τὰ πνευματικὰ ἐσπείραμεν, μέγα, εἰ ἠμεῖς ὑμῶν τὰ σαρκικὰ θερίσομεν ; 1 Cor. ix. 11. Converted Tyre offers, in these gifts, its thanks for the noble gift which it received from the sanctuary.

Vitringa, who remarks that the Prophet was fully aware of "the great interval of time that would intervene betwixt the restoration of Tyre, and her dedication of herself, with her gains, to the Lord," is right, while Drechsler, who is of opinion that the doings of consecrated Tyre also are represented under the image of whoring, is wrong. Whoring designates a sinful conversation which is irreconcilable with conversion to the Lord. It does not designate trade, as such, but trade as it is carried on by those who, with unrenewed hearts, serve the god Mammon. We have here before us two stages, strictly separated. First, she resumes her old whorings; then, she consecrates her gain to the Lord. The severe catastrophe intervening, the new capture of Tyre, as

it took place by Alexander, is not yet beheld by Isaiah. The announcement of it was reserved for the post-exilic Prophet Zechariah, chap. ix. 3.

The announcement of the future conversion of Tyre received, in the time of Christ, a symbolical representation as it were, in the Canaanitish woman. Vitringa says: "The first fruits of this grace were received by that wise Canaanitish woman, who had been taught, as if she had been in the school of Christ, to ask for divine grace; whom Matth. xv. 22, calls a woman of Canaan, Mark vii. 26, a Syrophenician; but who was no doubt a Tyrian, inasmuch as she obtained mercy from Christ the Lord himself, while He sojourned in the territory of Tyre and Sidon. Paul found at Tyre a congregation of disciples of Christ already in existence, Acts xxi. 3 ff. At a subsequent period, there existed at Tyre a flourishing and wealthy church. Eusebius and Jerome describe to us, from their own experience, the fulfilment of this prophecy.

CHAPTERS XXIV.-XXVII.

Upon the ten single "burdens" as they were called forth by the threatening Assyrian catastrophe, there follows here a comprehensive description of the judgments of God upon His people, and upon the world's power hostile to His Kingdom. The characteristic feature in it is, that the Prophet abstains from all details.

The prophecy begins in chap. xxiv. 1-13, with the threatening of the judgment upon Judah. The fact that Judah is here spoken of, not alone, it is true, but together with his companions in suffering, with all the other nations crushed like him by the world's power in its various phases (verse 4 most clearly shows that it is not Judah alone which is spoken of; comp. the same comprehensive mode of representation in Jer. xxv.; Hab. ii. 6), appears from ver. 5: "For they transgressed the laws, violated the ordinances, broke the everlasting covenant," where there can exist only a collateral reference to the Gentile world; from ver. 13,

where the continuing gleaning is characteristic of the covenantpeople (comp. xvii. 6); but especially from ver. 23, where, after the time of punishment, the Lord reigneth on Mount Zion.

The judgment upon Judah bears a comprehensive character. As the single phases of the world's power, by which the sins of the people of God are visited, there had been mentioned in the cycle of the burdens, Asshur in chap. xiv. 25; Babylon in chap. xiii., xiv., xxi., (the circumstance that the first burden of the first half of the burdens, and likewise the first burden of the second half of the burdens-the ten burdens being thus divided into twice five-is directed against Babylon, shows that specially heavy judgments were to be inflicted by Babel); Elam in chap. xxii. 6 (comp. remarks on chap. xi. 11). Here the idea of judgment upon the covenant-people is viewed per se, and irrespective of the particular forms of its realization.

In vers. 14, 15, there is a sudden transition from the threatening to the promise: "They (the remnant left according to ver. 13) shall lift their voice, they shall shout for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud from the sea,"-from the sea into which they were driven away by the storm of the judgments of the Lord. To the "sea" here, correspond the "islands of the sea," in ver. 15; compare the mention of the islands in chap. xi. 11. Ver 15. "Therefore, in the light praise ye the Lord, in the isles of the sea the name of the Lord God of Israel." The words are addressed to the elect in the time of salvation. The Plural denotes the fulness of light or salvation, comp. chap. xxvi. 19; is, in both instances, used in a local sense. The light is the spiritual territory; the isles of the sea, the natural.

אריס

Ver. 16 returns to the threatening: "From the uttermost parts of the earth we hear songs: Glory to the righteous! And I say: Misery to me, misery to me, woe to me! the treacherous are treacherous, and very treacherous are the treacherous." The song of praise of the redeemed, which is heard coming forth from a far distant future, is suppressed by the same affliction which is immediately impending, by the look to the rod of chastisement by the world's power with its treachery, its policy feigning love and concealing hatred, with which the Lord is to visit His people, and the floods of which, like a new flood, are, according to ver. 15, to overflow the whole earth. Compare the very similar tran

sition from triumphant hope to lamentation over the misery of the future more immediately at hand, in Hab. iii. 16.

In ver. 21, ff. the promise breaks forth anew. Ver. 21: "And it shall come to pass in that day: the Lord shall visit the host of the height in the height, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. Ver. 22. And they are all of them gathered together as prisoners in the pit, and are shut up in the prison, and after many days they are visited. Ver. 23. And the moon blusheth, and the sun is ashamed, for the Lord of hosts reigneth on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients is glory.”

In ver. 21 the destruction of the world's power is announced. The "kings of the earth" form the explanation of the "host of the height." It is very common to represent rulers under the image of stars; compare Numb. xxiv. 17; Rev. vi. 13, viii. 10; Is. xiv. 12, xxxiv. 4, 5, compared with ver. 12.

is used in and in chap.

reference to the great ones of the earth in ver. 4, xxvi. 5, also. The explanation by evil heavenly powers has no Old Testament analogies in its favour.-In ver. 22, the words: "And after many days they are visited," intimates that the time will appear very long to Zion until the visitation takes place. "Many days," or "a long time," viz., after the beginning of their raging, which was to continue for a series of centuries, until Christ at length spoke: "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." The visitation consists in their being gathered together.—In ver. 23, the words: "The Lord reigneth," contain an allusion to the formula used in proclaiming the accession of earthly kings to the throne, and point to an impending new and glorious manifestation of the government of the Lord,-as it were, a new accession to the throne; compare remarks on Ps. xciii. 1; Rev. xix. 6. The "ancients" are the ideal representatives of the Church; compare remarks on Rev. iv. 4. Before them is glory, inasmuch as the Lord imparts to them of His glory.

In chap. xxv. 1-5, the Lord is praised on account of the glorious redemption bestowed upon His people. "For thou hast made”—it is said in ver. 2-" of a city a heap, of a firm city a ruin, the palace of strangers to be no city; it shall not be built in eternity." The city, palace (we must think of such an one as comes up to a city, as is even now the case with the palaces of the princes in India) bear an ideal character, and represent the

whole fashion of the world, the whole world's power; comp. ver. 12, chaps. xxvi. 5, xxvii. 10. Gesenius speaks of "the strange conjectures of interpreters who have guessed all possible cities." But he himself has lost himself in the sphere of strange conjectures and guesses, by remarking: "The city whose destruction is here spoken of can be none other than Babylon." The circumstance that Babylon is not mentioned at all in the whole prophecy in chaps. xxiv.-xxvii. shows plainly enough that a special reference to Babylon cannot here be entertained; and the less so, that it would be against the character of our prophecy, which abstains from all details.

While in vers. 1-5 the discourse was laudatory and glorifying, and addressed to the Lord, in vers. 6-8 the Lord is spoken of:

Ver. 6. "And in this mountain the Lord of hosts maketh unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of lees well-refined. Ver. 7. And destroyeth in the mountain the surface of the vail covering all the nations, and the covering cast upon all the nations. Ver. 8. And destroyeth death for ever, and the Lord Jehovah wipeth away the tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all the earth; for the Lord hath spoken."

"In this mountain," ver. 6, where He enters upon His government (chap. xxiv. 23), and dwells in the midst of His people in a manner formerly unheard of." Unto all people," comp. chap. ii. 2 ff. The verse under consideration forms the foundation for the words of Christ in Matthew viii. 2 : λέγω δὲ ὑμῖν ὅτι πολλοὶ ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν καὶ δυσμῶν ἥξουσι καὶ ἀνακλιθήσονται μετὰ ̓Αβραὰμ καὶ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ Ἰακὼβ ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τῶν οὐρανῶν ; comp. xxii. 1 ff.; Luke xxii. 30. In ver. 7, "the surface of the vail" is the vail itself, inasmuch as it lies over it. The "covering" here comes into consideration as a sign of mourning, comp. 2 Sam. xv. 30: "And David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet, weeping, and his head covered, and so also all the people with him." The explanation is given in ver. 8, where the is intentionally resumed. We cannot, therefore, agree with Drechsler who explains the being "covered," by "dullness and deadness in reference to spiritual things."-The first part of ver. 8 is again resumed in Rev. vii. 17, xxi. 4. As death entered into