mitigated by mercy; that, in the way of their works, Israel would have found total destruction. Thus, e.g., chap. xlviii. 9: "For my name's sake will I be long-suffering, and for my praise will I moderate mine anger unto thee, that I cut thee not off;" chap. i. 9: "Except the Lord of Hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom; we should have been like unto Gomorrah." In order to be fully convinced how much this view of Israel, enforced upon the godly men of the Old Testament, is in contradiction to their own view, the prayer of Ezra may still be compared in Neh. ix., especially ver. 20 ff.— (c). The sufferings of the Jewish people cannot be vicarious, because they are destitute of the very first condition of substitution, viz., sinlessness and righteousness. That even Hitzig does not venture to claim for them. But how can an ungodly man, even supposing that his punishment is too severe, justify others by a righteousness of his which does not exist? Finally-The fourth sign, patience, so little belongs to the Jewish people, that it is one of the main tasks of our Prophet himself to oppose their murmuring impatience; comp. e.g., chap. xlv. 9 ff.

Against the hypothesis that the people are the subject of the prophecy, there is the circumstance that it carries along with it the unnatural supposition that, in chap. liii. 1-10, the heathens are introduced as speaking. Decisive against this supposition are specially the designation in ver. 8, and the most forced explanation to which it compels us in some verses, especially ver. 2.

The interpretation which considers the godly portion of the people to be the subject of the prophecy, is overthrown by the fact that, according to the view of Scripture, even those who, in the ordinary sense, are righteous, are unable to render a vicarious satisfaction for others. For such, absolute righteousness is required. But the "righteous ones" are begotten by sinful seed (Ps. li.), and they have need daily to pray that God would pardon their secret sins, Ps. xix. 13; they themselves live only by the pardoning mercy of God, and cannot think of atoning for others, Ps. xxxii. Even for believers, the captivity is, according to chap. xlii., the merited punishment of their sins. In that passage, the greatness of the mercy of God is pointed out, who grants a twofold salvation for sins, while infinite punishment should be their natural consequence. It is not to a

single portion of the people, but to the whole, that, in the passages formerly quoted, every share in effecting deliverance and salvation is denied. How little an absolute righteousness existed in the elect, sufficiently appears from the fact, that, in the second part, it forms a main object of the Prophet to oppose their want of courage, their despair and distrust of God. Farther-The ungodly could not by any means consider the sufferings of the righteous ones as vicarious, because they themselves suffered as much; and as little could they despise the godly on account of their sufferings. It is a mere invention, destitute of every historical foundation, to assert that it was especially the God-fearing who had to suffer so grievously in the captivity. On the contrary, their fear of God gained for them the respect of the Gentiles; and among their own people also, whose sinful disposition was broken by the punishment, they occupied an honourable position. Ezekiel we commonly find surrounded by the elders of the people, listening to his words; and Daniel, Esther, and Mordecai, Ezra, and Nehemiah, richly furnished with the goods of this world, enjoyed high esteem in the Gentile world. The fact that the supporters of this hypothesis are compelled to have recourse to such an unhistorical fiction, which has been carried to the extreme, especially by Knobel, sufficiently proves it to be untenable.

In opposition to the interpretation which refers the prophecy to the collective body of the Prophets, Hitzig very justly remarks: "The supposition that, by the Servant of God, the prophetic order is to be understood, is destitute of all foundation and probability." In commenting on chap. xlii., we remarked, that there are no analogous cases at all in favour of such a personification of the prophetic order. Moreover, the defenders of this view commonly deny, at the same time, the genuineness of the second part. From this stand-point it becomes still more evident, how untenable this hypothesis is. A prophetic order can, least of all, be spoken of during the time of the Babylonish captivity. With the captivity, Prophetism began to die out. Jeremiah in Jerusalem, and Ezekiel among the exiled, already stood very much isolated. Jeremiah, during the last days of the Jewish state, stands out everywhere as a single individual, opposed to the whole mass of the false prophets. "There is no more any

prophet," is, at the time of the destruction by the Chaldeans, the lamentation of the author of Ps. lxxiv. in ver. 9. According to an unanimous tradition (comp. 1 Maccab. ix. 27, iv. 46, xiv. 41, and the passages from the Talmud and other Jewish writings in Knibbe's history of the Prophets, S. 347 ff., and in Joh. Smithi Dissert. de Prophetis, in the appendix to Clericus' Commentary on the Prophets, chap. xii.), Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi were the last of the prophets, and according to the historical books and their own prophecies, the only prophets of their time. How, now, were it possible that the Prophet should speak of a great corporation of the prophets, who become not only the founders and rulers of the new state, but who are to enlighten all the other nations of the earth with the light of the true religion, and incorporate them into the Church of God? Of all that is characteristic of the vocation of the prophets, nothing is found here; while, on the other hand, almost everything which is said of the Servant of God is in opposition to the vocation and destination of the prophets. That which here, above everything, comes into consideration is the vicarious satisfaction. Chap. vi., where the Prophet when, after having administered the prophetic office for several years, he beheld the Lord, exclaims: "Woe is unto me for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips," is sufficient to show how far the thoughts of such a vicarious satisfaction were from the prophets. Such is surely not the ground from which the delusion of being substitutes for others can grow up. All those who entertained such a delusion, such as Gichtel, Bourignon, Guyon, were misled into it by proudly shutting their eyes to their own sinfulness. It would surely be abasing the prophets without any cause, if we were to assign to them that delusion. Moreover, the hopes which here, according to these interpreters, are uttered in reference to the prophetic order, contradict its idea and institution. A prophetic pride would here come out, such as is not equalled by priestly pride in all history. Schenkel, no doubt, is right in remarking against the interpretation which makes the Jewish people the subject of the prophecy,—an interpretation of which Hitzig is the representative: "Is it to be believed that the prophets, whose object all along it was to suppress the moral pride

of the people, should wantonly have awakened it by such a thought?" But Hitzig is equally in the right when, in opposition to Schenkel and others who refer this prediction to the prophetic order, he remarks: "It is quite obvious, how very unsuitable it would be to limit the hitherto wretched condition and the future glory of the people to the prophets, as if they alone, as true κατακυριεύοντες τῶν κληρων, constituted the people." According to this hypothesis, the prophets are supposed to flatter themselves with the hope that they would be the rulers of the state again flourishing, and would celebrate worldly triumphs. Altogether apart from the folly of this hope, it was entirely opposed to the destiny of the prophetic order. By divine institution, the dominion in the Kingdom of God had for ever been given over to David and his family. By usurping it, the prophets would have rebelled against God, whose rights they were called to uphold.—Farther, As the principal sphere of the ministry of the Servant of God, the heathen world here appears. But with it, the prophets have, nowhere else, any thing to do; their mission is every where to Israel only. The sufferings which the prophets had to endure during the captivity, were not different from those of the people. Every proof, yea, even every probability is wanting that, during the time of the captivity, the prophets-and history mentions and knows only Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel-were pre-eminently afflicted. On the contrary, they occupy an honourable position. Jeremiah receives, after the capture of Jerusalem, proofs of esteem from Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel is entrusted with the highest public offices. Ezekiel is held in honour by his compatriots. How then could the people despise the prophets on account of their sufferings? How could they imagine that they had been smitten by God? they afterwards conceive the idea that the sufferings of the prophets had a vicarious character?-To what quarter soever we look, impossibilities present themselves; and if, moreover, we also look at the parallel passages, we must indeed wonder, that a hypothesis altogether so untenable should ever have been listened to.

How could

CHAP. LV. 1-5.

The Lord exhorts those who are anxious to be saved, to appropriate the blessings of salvation which are so liberally offered, and which, although bestowed without money and price, can alone truly satisfy the soul, vers. 1 and 2. For He is to make with them a covenant of everlasting duration, in which the eternal mercy promised to the family of David is to be realized, ver. 3. David-such is the salvation in store for the Church -is to be a witness, prince, and lawgiver of all the Gentiles who, with joyful readiness, shall unite themselves to Israel.

Ver. 1. "Ho, all ye that thirst, come ye to the water, and ye that have no silver, come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without silver and without price."

The discourse is addressed to the members of the Church pining away in misery. By the water, salvation is denoted, as is not unfrequently the case, comp. chap. xii. 3: "And with joy ye shall draw water out of the wells of salvation,” xliv. 3; Ps. lxxxvii. 7, lxxxiv. 7, cvii. 35. The thirsty one is he who stands in need of salvation. To the words: "Ho, all ye that thirst, come ye to the water," the Lord refers in John vii. 37: ἐάν τις διψᾷ ἐρχέσθω πρός με καὶ πινέτω, where the πρός με had been added from ver. 3. It is to be observed that Christ there appropriates to himself what Jehovah is here speaking. Michaelis says: "Christ, in consequence of the highest identity, makes the words of the Father His own." There is an evident reference to the same words in Rev. xxi. 6 also: èyà tậ difŵvti δώσω ἐκ τῆς πηγῆς τοῦ ὕδατος τῆς ζωῆς δωρεάν. Similarly in Rev. xxii. 17 : καὶ ὁ διψῶν ἐρχέσθω, ὁ θέλων λαβέτω ὕδωρ ζωῆς δωρεάν. In a somewhat more distant relation to the words before us, but yet undeniably depending upon them, is John iv. 10: σὺ ἂν ἴτησας αὐτὸν καὶ ἔδωκεν ἄν σοι ὕδωρ ζῶν, Vers. 13, 14: πᾶς ὁ πίνων ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος τούτου διψήσει πάλιν· ὃς δ ̓ ἂν πίῃ ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος, οὗ ἐγὼ δώσω αὐτῷ, οὐ μὴ διψήσῃ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα. And so does, in another aspect, Matth. xi. 28: δεῦτε πρός με οἱ κοπιῶντες καὶ πεφορτισμένοι κἀγὼ ἀναπαύσω vuâs, which, however, has still nearer points of resemblance to