chapter before us, where the blindness of Israel is mentioned, it appears that Israel too must not be excluded. Hence, we shall say: It is here more particularly described how the Servant of God proves himself as the Covenant of the people and the Light of the Gentiles, how He puts an end to the misery under which both equally groan. It will be better to understand blindness, in connection with imprisonment, sitting in darkness, as a designation of the need of salvation, than as a designation of spiritual blindness, of the want of the light of knowledge. That is also suggested by the preceding: "for the Light of the Gentiles," which, according to the common usus loquendi, and according to chap. ix. 1 (2) is not to be referred to the spiritual illumination especially, but to the bestowal of salvation. To this view we are likewise led by a comparison of ver. 16: "And I will lead the blind by a way that they knew not, I will lead them in paths that they have not known, I will change the darkness before them into light, the crooked things into straightness." The blind in this verse are those who do not know what to do, and how to help themselves, those who cannot find the way of salvation, the miserable; they are to be led by the Lord on the ways of salvation, which are unknown to them. In a similar sense and connection, the blind are, elsewhere also, spoken of, comp. Remarks on Ps. cxlv. 8.-On the words: "Bring out them that are bound from the prison," Knobel remarks: "The citizens of Judah were, to a great extent, imprisoned; the Prophet hopes for their deliverance by the theocratic portion of the people." A strange hope! By this coarsely literal interpretation, the connection with "for the Light of the Gentiles" is broken up; and this is the less admissible that the words at the close of the verse: "those that sit in darkness," so clearly refer to it. Imprisonment is a figurative designation of the miserable condition, not less than the darkness, which, on account of the light contrasted with it, and on account of chap. ix. 1 (2), cannot be understood otherwise than figuratively. Under the image of men bound in dark prisons, the miserable and afflicted appear also in Ps. cvii. 10-16; Job xxxvi. 8, where the words, "bound in fetters," are explained by the parallel "holden in the cords of misery." When David, in Ps. cxlii. 8, prays: "Bring my soul out of the prison," he himself explains this in Ps. cxliii. 11 by the parallel: "Thou

wilt bring my soul out of trouble;" comp. also Ps. xxv. 17: “O bring thou me out of my distresses." If we here understand the prison literally, we might, with the same propriety in other passages, also, e.g., in Ps. lxvi. 11, understand literally the net, the snare, the trap.

Ver. 8: "I the Lord, that is my name, and my honour I will not give to another, nor my glory to idols. Ver. 9. The former (things), behold, they came to pass, and new (things) do I declare; before they spring forth, I cause you to hear."

We have here the solemn close and exhortation. At the close of chap. xli. it had been pointed out, how the prediction of the Conqueror from the East serves for the glory of Jehovah, who thereby proves himself to be the only true God. Here the zeal of God for His glory is indicated as the reason which has brought forth the prediction of the Servant of God and His glorious work,—a prediction which cannot be accounted for from natural causes. It is thus the object of the prophecy which is here, in the first instance, stated. It is intended to manifest the true God as such, as a God who is zealously bent on His glory. But the same attribute of God which called forth the prophecy, calls forth also the events prophesied, viz., the appearance of the Servant of God, and the victory over the idols accomplished thereby, the bringing forth of the law of God over the whole earth through Him, and the full realization of the covenant with Israel. The thought is this:-that a God who does not manifest and prove himself as such, who is contented with the honour granted to Him without His interference, cannot be a God; that the true God must of necessity be filled with the desire of absolute, exclusive dominion, and cannot but manifest and prove this desire. From this thought, the prophecy and that which it promises flow with a like necessity.-According to Stier, , "the former (things)" means "the redemption of the exiled by Cyrus," which in chaps. xli., xlviii. forms the historico-typical foreground, whose coming is here anticipated by the Prophet. But the parallel passsages, chaps. xli. 22, xliii. 9, xlviii. 3, are conclusive against this view; for, according to these passages, it is only the former, already fulfilled predictions of the Prophet and his colleagues, from the beginnings of the people, which can be designated by "the former (things)." By "the new (things)"

therefore, is to be understood the aggregate of the events which are predicted in the second part, to which belongs the prophecy of the Servant of God which immediately precedes, and which the Prophet has here as pre-eminently in view (Michaelis: et nova, imprimis de Messia), as, in the parallel passage chap. xli. 22, the announcement of the conqueror from the East. Both of these verses seem to round off our prophecy, by indicating that such disclosures regarding the Future are not by any means intended to serve for the gratification of idle curiosity, but to advance the same object to which the events prophesied are also subservient, viz., the promotion of God's glory. The modern view of Prophetism is irreconcileable with the verses under consideration, which evidently shew, that the prophets themselves were filled with a different consciousness of their mission and position. And in like manner it follows from them, that there is no reason to put, by means of a forced interpretation, the prophecy within the horizon of the Prophet's time, seeing that the Prophet himself shows himself to be thoroughly penetrated by its altogether supernatural character.

CHAPTER XLIX. 1-9.

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 vers. 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 vers. 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 the Gentiles for 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 in Israel, is contrasted with the respectful worship of nations and kings which is to follow after it. Vers. 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. 1. 3, and then, in chap. 1. 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 that Simeon, in Luke ii. 30, 31, designates the Saviour as the σwrńpiov of 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 the φῶς εἰς ἀποκάλυψιν ἐθνῶν καὶ δόξαν λaoû σov 'Iσpanλ; 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: Kaì ékλý◊ŋ тò őνoμа AνTOÛ Ἰησοῦς, τὸ κληθὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀγγέλου πρὸ τοῦ συλληφθῆναι αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ κοιλίᾳ (comp. i. 31 : συλλήψῃ ἐν γαστρὶ καὶ τέξῃ υἱὸν καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦν), as is sufficiently evident from Ev Tŷ Koiλía 8c. matris, which exactly answers to the in the passage before us. In Acts xiii. 46, 47, Paul and Barnabas prove, from thepassage 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 γῆς. In 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 as Theodoret and Clericus, 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 introduction and 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, as Beck expresses it, the Prophet kaт' èçoxýv as 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., where he 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 vers. 8, 9 have been advanced in opposition to the Messianic interpre

tation.