pen in eternal life." If, in respect to the high estimation of prophecy, our age were to follow in the steps of Jesus, it would also most readily agree with Him as regards the subject of the prophecy before us. This alone is the cause of the aberration from Him, that people confined and shut up the prophet within the horizon of his time, and then imagined that he could not know any thing of the suffering Christ. It was altogether different in the ancient Christian Church. In it, the Messianic interpretation prevailed throughout; and Grotius, who in a lower sense would refer the prophecy to Isaiah, and, in a higher sense only, to Christ, met with general opposition, even on the part of Clericus.

In favour of the Messianic explanation there is the remarkable agreement existing between prophecy and fulfilment, comp. Matth. xxvi. 67, 68 : Τότε ἐνέπτυσαν εἰς τὸ πρόςωπον αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐκολάφισαν αὐτόν. Οἱ δὲ ἐῤῥάπισαν λέγοντες· προφήτευσον ἡμῖν, χριστέ, τίς ἐστιν ὁ παίσας σε; xxvii. 30 : καὶ ἐμπτύσαντες εἰς αὐτὸν ἔλαβον τὸν κάλαμον καὶ ἔτυπτον εἰς τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ,— an agreement, the significance and importance of which are only enhanced by the circumstance, that one of the most individualizing features of the prophecy, viz., the plucking off of the beard, is not met with in the history of Christ; for it is just thereby that this agreement is proved to be a free and spontaneous one. Farther The exactness with which, in vers. 10 and 11, the destinies of Israel, after the rejection of Christ, are drawn ; and the destruction which the mass of the people, who did not believe in the Servant of God, prepared for themselves, by their attempts to help themselves by their own strength, by enkindling the flame of war, whilst those who fear the Lord and listen to the voice of His Servant, obtain salvation. Farther-Ver. 11, where the Servant of God ascribes to himself the judgment upon the unbelieving mass of the people: "From my hand is this to you," in harmony with Matth. xxvi. 64 and other passages, where the Son of Man appears as executing judgment upon Jerusalem. Finally -The parallel passages.

Most of the modern interpreters assume that the Prophet himself, Isaiah or Pseudo-Isaiah, is the subject of the prophecy. Jerome mentions that this explanation was the prevailing one among the Jews of his time. The explanation which refers it to

the better portion of the people, found only one defender, viz., Paulus. The explanation which refers it to the whole of the Jewish people, or to the collective body of the prophets, has been entirely abandoned, although it is maintained in reference to the parallel passages.

Since it is undeniable that this Section is related to the other prophecies which treat of the Servant of God,-and hence an identity of subject is necessarily required-those who, in the Section under consideration, are compelled to give up their former hypothesis, themselves bear witness against the correctness of it, at the same time time, also against the soundness of their explanation of the passage before us. For an explanation which compels to the severance of what is necessarily connected, cannot be right and true. It is only then that Exegesis has attained its object, when it has arrived at] a subject in whom all those features, which occur in the single prophecies which are connected with each other, are found at the same time. Knobel, in saying: "This small unconnected Section is the only one in the whole collection, in which the Prophet speaks of himself only, and represents his sufferings and hopes," has thereby himself pronounced judgment upon his own interpretation of this Section, and, at the same time, of the other prophecies of the Servant of God.

Moreover, the Prophet would here form rather a strange figure; he would appear, as it were, as if he had been blown in by a snow-storm. According to Hofmann, he describes how he is rewarded for his activity and zeal in his vocation. But how does this suit the contents of the second part, which evidently is a whole, the single parts of which must stand in a close relation to its fundamental idea! It is only a person of central importance that is suitable to this context. It is only when we refer it to Christ, that the expectations are satisfied which were called forth by the words: Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. This call is answered only by pointing to the future Saviour of the world.

One element of truth, indeed, there is in the explanation which makes the Prophet the subject. It is revealed to him, indeed, that the Servant of God shall undergo persecution, shame, and ignominy; but he has the natural substratum for this know

ledge in the experience of himself and his colleagues, comp. Matt. xxiii. 29-37; Heb. xi. 36, 37. The divine, wherever it enters into the world of sin, as well as the servant of truth who upholds it in the face of prevailing falsehood, must undergo struggles, shame, and ignominy. This truth was confirmed in the case of the prophets as types, in the case of Christ as the antitype. All that which the prophets had to experience in their own cases was a prophecy by deeds of the sufferings of Christ; and we should the less have any difficulty in admitting their knowledge of this, that it would be rather strange if they were destitute of such knowledge.

Ver. 4: "The Lord Jehovah hath given me a disciple's tongue, that I should know to help the weary with a word: He awakeneth morning by morning, wakeneth mine ear, that I may hear as the disciples."

The greater number of expositors explain a disciple's tongue by: "A tongue such as instructed people, or scholars possess,—an eloquent tongue." But, everywhere else in Isaiah, means "pupil," "disciple," and is used especially of the disciples of the Lord, those who go to His school, are instructed by Him; comp. chaps. viii. 16, liv. 13. A disciple's tongue is such as the disciples of the Lord possess. Its foundation is formed by the disciple's ear mentioned at the close of the verse. He who hears the Lord's words, speaks also the Lord's words. The signification, "learned," is not suitable in the last clause of the verse, and its reference to the first does not permit of our assuming a different signification in either clause. Just as here the Servant of God traces back to God that which He speaks, so Jesus says, in John viii. 26: κἀγὼ ἃ ἤκουσα παρ' αὐτοῦ ταῦτα λαλῶ εἰς τὸν κόσμον, comp. iii. 34 : ὃν γὰρ ἀπέστειλεν ὁ θεὸς τὰ ῥήματα τοῦ θεοῦ λαλεῖ. The verb y, which occurs only here, means, according to the Arabic "to help," "to support;" Aquila: voorηpioai, Vulg. sustentare. Like other similar verbs, e.g.,, in Gen. xxvii. 37, it is construed with a double accusative: "that I may help the weary, word," i.e., may support him by comforting words. The weary or fatigued are, like the bent reed, the faintly burning wick, in chap. xlii. 3; the blind, the prisoners sitting in darkness, ibid., ver. 7; the broken-hearted, chap. lxi. 1 ; them that mourn, ibid., ver. 2. Just as here the Servant of God represents the

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suffering and afflicted ones as the main objects of His mission, so Christ announces, that His mission is specially directed to these, comp. e.g., Matth. v. 4, xi. 28. In order to be able to fulfil this mission, He must be able to draw from the fulness of God, who looketh to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, chap. lxvi. 2, and who alone understands to heal the broken in heart, and to bind up their wounds, Ps. cxlvii. 3.—In the words: "He wakeneth, &c.," we are told in what manner the Lord gives to His Servant the disciple's tongue. To waken the ear is equivalent to to make attentive, to make ready for the recep tion of the divine communications. The expression "morning by morning" indicates that the divine wakening is going on uninterruptedly, and that the Servant of God unreservedly surrenders himself to the influences which come from above, in which He has become an example to us.

Ver. 5: "The Lord Jehovah hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, I have not turned back."

The phrases "to open or uncover the ear" have always the signification, "to make known something to some one," "to reveal to him something," "to inform him," both in ordinary circumstances (comp. 1 Sam. xx. 12; Ruth iv. 4), and on the religious territory, comp. 2 Sam. vii. 27: "For thou, Lord of Hosts, God of Israel, hast opened the ear of thy servant, saying: I will build thee an house;" Is. xlviii. 8: "Thou heardest not, thou knewest not, nor was formerly thine ear opened;" chap. xlii. 20: "The ear was opened to him." According to this well established usus loquendi, "The Lord hath opened mine ear," can only mean: The Lord hath revealed to me, hath informed me inwardly; Abenezra: "He has made known to me His secret." What the Lord has made known to His Servant, we are not here expressly told; but it may be inferred from ver. 6, where the Servant declares that which, in consequence of the divine manifestation, He did, viz., that He should give His back to the smiters, &c. The words: "The Lord hath opened mine ear" here are connected with: "The Lord wakeneth mine ear, that I may hear," in the preceding verse: The Lord has specially made known to me that, in carrying out my vocation, I shall have to endure severe sufferings. To this subject the Ser

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vant of God quickly passes over, after having, in the introduction, described, by a few features, the vocation, in the carrying out of which these sufferings should befal Him. As the authors of these sufferings, we must conceive of the party opposed to the weary, viz., the proud, secure, unbroken sinners. On "I was not rebellious," compare what, in Deut. xxi. 20, is written of the stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father; and farther, the words: λǹv ovx ws ¿yw Oéλw ảλλ' ¿s σú, Matth. xxvi.39. Ver. 6. "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to the pluckers, I hid not my face from shame and spitting."

The words express in an individualizing manner the thought, that the Servant of God, in His vocation as the Saviour of the personae miserabiles, would experience the most shameful and ignominious treatment, and would patiently bear it. In God's providence, part of the contents was literally fulfilled upon Christ. But the fact that this literal agreement is not the main point, but that it serves as a hint and indication only of the far more important substantial conformity which would take place, although the hatred of the world against the Saviour of the poor and afflicted should have manifested itself in forms altogether dif ferent, this fact is evident from the circumstance that regarding the fulfilment of the words: "and my cheeks to the pluckers". plucking the cheeks, or plucking off of the beard being the greatest insult and disgrace in the East, comp. 2 Sam. x. 4-there is no mention in the New Testament history.

In vers. 7-9 we have the future glory which makes it easy for the Servant of God to bear the sufferings of the Present. If God be for Him, who may be against Him?

Ver. 7. "But the Lord Jehovah helpeth me, therefore I am not confounded, therefore I make my face like a flint, and I know that I am not put to shame."

.in the preceding verse כלמות refers to נכלמתי

He whom the Lord helps is not confounded or put to shame by all the ignominy which the world heaps upon him. The expression : "I make my face like a flint" denotes "the holy hardness of perseverance" (Stier); comp. Ezek. iii. 8. In that passage it is especially the assailing hardness which comes into consideration; here, on the contrary, it is the suffering one. There is an allu

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