occurs elsewhere also in the signification of versus, e.g., Ezek. viii. 5, xl. 20, 46; it will be necessary to supply after it, just as in the case of the

that

דרך

66

following. It is without עבר הירדן

any

instance

way" should stand for "region," "country." The region on the sea is then divided into its two parts

as עבר הירדן

πέραν τοῦ Ἰορδάνου, the land on the east bank of Jordan, and Galilee. The latter answers to the land of Zebulun and Naphtali; for the territory of these two tribes occupied the centre and principal part of Galilee. In opposition to the established usus loquendi, many would understand as meaning the land "on the side," i.e., this side "of the Jordan," proceeding upon the supposition that the local designations must, from beginning to end, be congruous. Opposed to it is also the circumstance that, in 2 Kings, xv. 29, the most eastward and most northward countries, Peraea and Galilee, are connected. In that passage the single places are mentioned which Tiglathpilezer took; then, the whole districts "Gilead and Galilee, the whole land of Naphtali." By the latter words, that part of Galilee is made especially prominent upon which the catastrophe fell most severely and completely. In the phrase, "Galilee of the Gentiles," Galilee is a geographical designation which was already current at the time of the Prophet. There is no reason for fixing the extent of ancient Galilee differently from that of the more modern Galilee, for assigning to it a more limited extent. We are told in 1 Kings ix. 11, that the twenty cities which Solomon gave to Hiram lay in the land of Galil, but not that the country was limited to them. The qualification, "of the Gentiles," is nowhere else met with in the Old Testament; it is peculiar to the Prophet. It serves as a hint to point out in what the disgrace of Galilee and Peraea consisted. This Theodoret also saw. He says: "He calls it 'Galilee of the Gentiles' because it was inhabited by other tribes along with the Jews; for this reason, he says also of the inhabitants of those countries, that they were walking in darkness, and speaks of the inhabitants of that land as living in the shadow and land of death, and promises the brightness of heavenly light." It is of no small importance to observe that Isaiah does not designate Galilee according to what it was at the time when this prophecy was uttered, but according to what it was

to become in future. The distress by the Gentiles appears in chap. vii. and viii. everywhere as a future one. At the time when the Prophet prophesied, the Jewish territory still existed in its integrity. In vers. 4, and 5-7 he announces Asshur's inroad into the land of Israel as a future one; in the present moment, it was the kingdom of the ten tribes in connection with Aram which attacked and threatened Judea. The superior power of the world which, according to the clear foresight of the Prophet, was threatening, could not but be sensibly felt in the North and East. For these formed the border parts against the Asiatic world's power; it was from that quarter that its invasions commonly took place; and it was to be expected that there, in the first instance, the Gentiles would establish themselves, just as, in former times, they had maintained themselves longest there; comp. Judges i. 30-38; Keil on 1 Kings ix. 11. But very soon after this, the name "Galilee of the Gentiles" ceased to be one merely prophetical; Tiglathpilezer carried the inhabitants of Galilee and Gilead into exile, 2 Kings xv. 29. At a later period, when the Greek empire "peopled Palestine, in the most attractive places, with new cities, restored many which, in consequence of the destructive wars, had fallen into decay, filled all of them, more or less, with Greek customs and institutions, and, along with the newly-opened extensive commerce and traffic, everywhere spread Greek manners also," this change was chiefly limited to Galilee and Peraea; Judea remained free from it, comp. Ewald, Geschichte Israels, iii. 2 S. 264 ff. In 1 Maccab. v. Galaaditis and Galilee appear as those parts of the country where the existence of the Jews is almost hopelessly endangered by the Gentiles living in the midst of, and mixed up with them. What is implied in "Galilee of the Gentiles" may be learned from that chapter, where even the expression reverts in ver. 15. With external dependence upon the Gentiles, however, the spiritual dependence went hand in hand. These parts of the country could the less oppose any great resistance to the influences of heathendom, that they were separated, by a considerable distance, from the religious centre of the nation -the temple and metropolis, in which the higher Israelitish life was concentrated. A consequence of this degeneracy was the contempt in which the Galileans were held at the time of Christ,

John i. 47, vii. 52; Matt. xxvi. 69.-But in what consisted the honour or the glorification which Galilee, along with Peraea, was to obtain in the after-time? Chap. ix. 5 (6), where the deliverance and salvation announced in the preceding verses are connected with the person of the Redeemer, show that we must not seek for it in any other than that of the Messianic time. Our Lord spent the greater part of His public life in the neighbourhood of the lake of Gennesareth; it was there that Capernaum-His ordinary residence-was situated, Matt. ix. 1. From Galilee were most of His disciples. In Galilee He performed many miracles; and it was there that the preaching of the Gospel found much entrance, so that even the name of the Galileans passed over in the first centuries to the Christians. Theodoret strikingly remarks: "Galilee was the native country of the holy Apostles; there the Lord performed most of His miracles; there He cleansed the leper; there He gave back to the centurion his servant sound; there He removed the fever from Peter's wife's mother; there He brought back to life the daughter of Jairus who was dead; there He multiplied the loaves; there He changed the water into wine." Very aptly has Gesenius compared Micah v. 1 (2). Just as in that passage the birth of the Messiah is to be for the honour of the small, unimportant Bethlehem, so here Galilee, which hitherto was covered with disgrace, which was reproached by the Jews, that there no prophet had ever risen, is to be brought to honour, and to be glorified by the appearance of the Messiah. It was from the passage under review that the opinion of the Jews was derived, that the Messiah would appear in the land of Galilee. Comp. Sohar, p. 1. fol. 119 ed. Amstelod; fol. 74 ed. Solisbae: boban "King Messiah will reveal himself in the land of Galilee." But we must beware of putting prophecy and fulfilment into a merely accidental outward relation, of changing the former into a mere foretelling, and of supposing, in reference to the latter, that, unless the letter of the prophecy had existed, Jesus might as well have made Judea the exclusive scene of His ministry. Both prophecy and history are overruled by a higher idea, by the truth absolutely valid in reference to the Church of the Lord, that where the distress is greatest, help is nearest. If it was established that the misery of the

משיחא בארעה דגליל

covenant-people, both outward and spiritual, was especially concentrated in Galilee, then it is also sure that He who was sent to the lost sheep of Israel must devote His principal care just to that part of the country. The prophecy is not exhausted by the one fulfilment; and the fulfilment is a new prophecy. Wheresoever in the Church we perceive a new Galilee of the Gentiles, we may, upon the ground of this passage, confidently hope that the saving activity of the Lord will gloriously display itself.

Chap. ix. 1 (2). "The people that walk in darkness see a great light, they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them light ariseth."

"The people" are the inhabitants of the countries mentioned in the preceding verse; but they are not viewed in contrast to, and exclusive of the other members of the covenant-people,-for according to chap. viii. 22, darkness is to cover the whole of itbut only as that portion which comes chiefly into consideration. Light is, in the symbolical language of Scripture, salvation. That in which the salvation here consists cannot be determined from the words themselves, but must follow from the context. It will not be possible to deny that, according to it, the darkness consists, in the first instance, in the oppression by the Gentiles, and, hence, salvation consists in the deliverance from this oppression, and in being raised to the dominion of the world; and in ver. 2 (3) ff, we have, indeed, the farther displaying of the light, or deliverance. But it will be as little possible to deny that the sad companion of outward oppression by the Gentile world is the spiritual misery of the inward dependence upon it. Farther,—It is as certain that the elevation of the covenant-people to the dominion of the world cannot take place all on a sudden, and without any farther ceremony, inasmuch as, according to a fundamental view of the Old Testament, all outward deliverance appears as depending upon conversion and regeneration. "Thou returnest," so we read in Deut. xxx. 2, 3, "to the Lord thy God, and the Lord thy God turneth to thy captivity." And in the same chapter, vers. 6, 7: "The Lord thy God circumciseth thy heart, and then the Lord thy God putteth all these curses upon thine enemies." Before Gideon is called to be the deliverer of the people from Midian, the Prophet must first hold up their sin to the

people, Judg. vi. 8 ff., and Gideon does not begin his work with a struggle against the outward enemies, but must, first of all, as Jerubbaal, declare war against sin. All the prosperous periods in the people's history are, at the same time, periods of spiritual revival. We need only think of David, Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah. Outward deliverance always presents itself in history as an addition only which is bestowed upon those seeking after the kingdom of God. Without the inward foundation, the bestowal of the outward blessing would be only a mockery, inasmuch as the holy God could not but immediately take away again what He had given. But the circumstance that it is the outward salvation, the deliverance from the heathen servitude, the elevation of the people of God to the dominion of the world, as in Christ it so gloriously took place, which are here, in the first instance, looked at, is easily accounted for from the historical cause of this prophetic discourse which, in the first instance, is directed against the fears of the destruction of the kingdom of God by the world's power. Ps. xxiii. 4; "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me," must so much the more be considered as the fundamental passage of the verse under consideration, that the Psalm, too, refers to the whole Christian Church. It was in the appearance of Christ, and the salvation brought through Him, in the midst of the deepest misery, that this Psalm found its most glorious confirmation.—

,"darkness of death," is the darkness which prevails in death or in Sheol. Such compositions commonly occur in proper names only, not in appellatives; and hence, by "the land of the darkness (shadow) of death," hell is to be understood. But darkness of hell is, by way of a shortened comparison, not unfrequently used for designating the deepest darkness. The point of comparison is here furnished by the first member of the verse. Parallel is Ps. lxxxviii. 4 ff., where Israel laments that the Lord had thrust it down into dark hell. The Preterite tense of the verbs in our verse is to be explained from the prophetical view which converts the Future into the Present. How little soever modern exegesis can realise this seeing by, and in faith, and how much soever it is everywhere disposed to introduce the real Present instead of the ideal, yet even Ewald is compelled to