Chapter XXIII: The Burden Upon Tyre (2)

While the first part, containing the predictions which the Prophet uttered for the present generation during the time of his ministry, consists mainly of single prophecies which, separated by time and occasion, were first made publicly known singly, and afterwards united in a collected whole, having been marked out as different prophecies, either by inscriptions, or in any other distinguishable way,--the second part, destined as a legacy for posterity, forms a continuous, collected whole. The fact, first observed by _Fr. Rückert_, that it is divided into _three sections or books_, is, in the first instance, indicated by the [Pg 167] circumstance that, at the close of chap. xlviii. and chap. lvii., the same thought recurs in the same words: "There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked;" and that the same thought, viz. the exclusion of the wicked from the promised salvation, is found also a third time at the close of the whole, although there in another form. Yet, if nothing else could be advanced in favour of this tri-partition, we might perhaps be permitted to speak of an accident as _Knobel_ indeed does. But a closer consideration shows that the three sections are, inwardly and essentially, distinguished from one another. Beyond chap. xlviii. 22, there is no farther mention of _Babel_, which in the first book is mentioned four times (chap. xliii. 14, xlvii. 1, xlviii. 14, 20); nor of the _Chaldeans_, which occur there five times (chap. xliii. 14, xlvii. 1, 5, xlviii. 14, 20); nor any farther mention of _Koresh_, neither of his name (chap. xliv. 28, xlv. 1), nor of his person, which in chap. xl.-xlviii. is so prominently brought before us (chap. xli. 2, 25, xlvi. 11, xlviii. 14, 15, _i.e._ immediately at the _beginning_, after the introduction contained in chap. xl., at the _close_, and several times in the _middle_); nor of _Bel_ and _Nebo_. _Farther_--The whole first book is pervaded with the argumentation by which the God of Israel is proved to be the true God, from His having foretold the deliverance to be effected by _Koresh_. This argumentation we meet with in chap. xli., immediately after the introductory chap. xl., and so still in the last chap. xlviii.; but never again afterwards. With the end of the first book, this arguing and proving from prophecy, that the Lord is the true God, as well as the reference to _Koresh_, the subject of this prophecy, altogether disappear. But, in like manner, the announcement of a personal Messiah is wanting in the first book, the sole exception being chap. xlii. 1-9, where, after the first announcement of the author of the lower salvation, the Author of the higher salvation is, by way of anticipation, _contrasted_ with him. To give a more minute and finished description of the Author of the higher salvation is the object of the _second_ book. In the _third_ book, the person of the Redeemer is spoken of briefly only, is, as it were, only hinted at, in order to connect this book with the second; just as, by chap. xlii., the first book is connected with the second. The third book in so far as it is _promising_, is taken up with the description of the [Pg 168] _glory of the Kingdom of God_, in that new stage upon which it enters by the Redeemer,--a glory, the culminating point of which is the creation of the new heavens and the new earth, chap. lxv. 17, lxvi. 22. A description of the glory of Zion, like that in chap. lxii., is not found in the first and second book. In the third book, however, _reproof and exhortation_ prevail, in contradistinction to the first and second book, in which the direct _promise_ prevails. A transition from this, however, to the reproof and exhortation, is made at the close of the second book. From chap. lv. 1, the preaching of repentance appears first intermingled with the announcement of salvation. Up to that the prevailing tendency of the Prophet had been, throughout, to comfort the godly; but from chap. lv. 1, the other tendency shows itself by the side of it, that of calling sinners to repentance, by which alone they can obtain a participation in the promised salvation. In chap. lvi. 9, lvii. 21, the latter tendency appears distinctly and exclusively. The second book had commenced with the announcement of salvation, and thence to the close had advanced to reproof and threatening. The third book takes the opposite course; and thus the two principal portions of reproof and threatening border upon one another. Yet, the reproof and threatening do not go on without interruption and distinction, so that no _boundary line_ could be recognized between the two books. At the close of the second book, the Prophet has preeminently to do with _apostates_, while, at the beginning of the third, he has to do with _hypocrites_; so that thus these two portions of reproof supplement one another, and conjointly form a complete disclosure of the prevailing corruption, according to its two principal tendencies. But the third book is distinguished from the second by this circumstance, that in it reproof and threatening are not limited to the beginning, which corresponds with the close of the second book. At the close of chap. lix. the Prophet returns to the announcement of salvation; but with chap. lxiii. 7, a new preaching of repentance commences, which goes on to the end of chap. lxiv. The Prophet, in the Spirit, transposes himself into the time when the visitation has already taken place, and puts into the mouth of the people the words by which they are, at that time, to supplicate for the mercy of the Lord. This discourse [Pg 169] implies what has preceded. In the view of the glorious manifestation of the Lord's mercy and grace which are there exhibited, the Prophet calls here upon the people to repent and be converted, in order that they may become partakers of that mercy. If they, as a people, are anxious to attain that object, they must repeat what the Prophet here pronounces before them. But that up to this time has not been done, and hence that has taken place which is spoken of by St Paul: "The election have obtained it, but the rest have been blinded." In chap. lxv., which contains the Lord's answer to this repenting prayer of the people, and is nothing else than an indirect _paraenesis_, reproof and threatening likewise prevail, and it is only at the close that the promise appears. The last chapter, too, begins with reproof and threatening. Rightly have the Church Fathers called Isaiah the Evangelist among the prophets. This appears also from the circumstance that the reproof is so thoroughly an appendage of the promise, that it is only at the _close_, after the whole riches of the promise have been exhibited, that it expands itself It appears, farther, also from the circumstance that, even in the last book, the threatening does not prevail _exclusively_, but that, even there, it is still interwoven with the most glorious promises which are so exceedingly fitted to allure sinners to repentance.

In the whole of the second part, the Prophet, _as a rule_, takes his stand in the time which was announced and foretold in the former prophecies, and especially, with the greatest clearness and distinctness, in chap. xxxix., on the threshold of the second part,--the time when Jerusalem is captured by the Chaldeans, the temple destroyed, the country desolated, and the people carried away. It is in this time that he thinks, feels, and acts; it has become present to him; from it he looks out into the Future, yet in such a manner that he does not everywhere consistently maintain this ideal stand-point. He addresses his discourse to the people pining away in captivity and misery. He comforts them by opening up a view into a better Future, and exhorts them to remove by repentance the obstacles to the coming salvation.

Rationalistic Exegesis, everywhere little able to sympathize with, and enter into existing circumstances and conditions, and always ready to make its own shadowy, coarse views the rule [Pg 170] and arbiter, has been little able to enter into, and sympathize with this ideal stand-point occupied by the Prophet; nor has it had the earnest will to do so. To its rationalistic tendencies, which took offence at the clear knowledge of the Future, a welcome pretext was here offered. Thus the opinion arose, that the second part was not written by Isaiah, but was the work of some anonymous prophet, living about the end of the exile,--an opinion which, at the time of the absolute dominion of Rationalism, has obtained so firm a footing, that it has become all but an _axiom_, and, by the power of tradition, carries away even such as would not think of entertaining it, if they were to enter independently and without prejudice upon the investigation.

The fact which here meets us does not by any means stand isolated. The prophets did not prophesy in the state of rational reflection, but in _exstasis_. As even their ordinary name, "seers," indicates, the objects were presented to them in inward vision. They did not behold the Future from a distance, but they were rapt into the future. This inward vision is frequently reflected in their representation. Very frequently, that appears with them as present which, in reality, was still future. They depict the Future before the eyes of their hearers and readers, and thus, as it were, by force, drag them into it out of the Present, the coercing force of which exerts so pernicious an influence upon them. Our Prophet expressly intimates this peculiar manner of the prophetic announcement by making, in chap. xlix. 7, the Lord say: "First I said to Zion: _Behold there, behold there_," by which the graphic character of prophecy is precisely expressed, and by which it is intimated that hearers and readers were led _in rem praesentem_ by the prophets. Even grammar has long ago acknowledged this fact, inasmuch as it speaks of _Praeterita prophetica_, _i.e._, such as denote the _ideal_ Past, in contrast to those which denote the _real_ Past. Unless we have attained to this view and insight, it is only by inconsistency that we can escape from _Eichhorn's_ view, that the prophecies are, for the most part, disguised historical descriptions,--a view into which even expositors, such as _Ewald_ and _Hitzig_, frequently relapse. Frequently, the whole of the Future appears with the prophets in the form of the _Present_. At other times, they take their stand in the [Pg 171] more immediate Future; and this becomes to them the _ideal_ Present, from which they direct the eye to the distant Future. From the rich store of proofs which we can adduce for our view, we shall here mention only a few.

This mode of representation meets us frequently so early as in the parting hymn of Moses, Deut. xxxii., which may be considered as the germ of all prophetism; compare _e.g._ vers. 7 and 8. On the latter verse, _Clericus_ remarks: "Moses mourns over this in his hymn, as if it were already past, because he foresees that it will be so, and he, in the Spirit, transfers himself into those future times, and says that which then only should be said."

In Isaiah himself, the very first chapter presents a remarkable proof The Present in chap. i. 5-9 is not a _real_, but an _ideal_ Present. In the Spirit, the Prophet transfers himself into the time of the calamity impending upon the apostate people, and, stepping back upon the real Present, he, in the farther course of the prophecy, predicts this calamity as future. The reasons for this view have been thoroughly stated, even to exhaustion, by _Caspari_, in his _Beiträge zur Einleitung in das Buch Jesaia_. In the second half of ver. 2, the kingdom appears as flourishing and powerful. To the same result we are led also by the description of the rich sacrificial worship in vers. 15-19. If, then, we view vers. 5-9 as a description of the Present, we obtain an irreconcilable contradiction. _Farther_--Everywhere else Isaiah always connects, with the description of the sin, that of the punishment following upon it, but never that of the punishment which has followed it.--In chap. v. 13, in a prophecy from the first time of his ministry, the _future carrying away_ of the people presents itself to the Prophet as present. Similarly, in vers. 25, 26, the Praet. and Fut. with _Vav Conv._ must be understood prophetically; for in chap. i.-v., the Prophet has, throughout, to do with future calamity. In the Present, according to ver. 19, the people are yet in a condition of prosperity and luxury,--as yet, it is the time of _mocking_; it is only of future calamity that vers. 5 and 6 in the parable speak of, the threatenings of which are here detailed and expanded.--In the prophecy against Tyre, chap. xxiii., the Prophet beholds as present the siege by the Chaldeans impending over the city, and describes [Pg 172] as an eye-witness the flight of the inhabitants, and the impression which the intelligence of their calamity makes upon the nations connected with them. From the more immediate Future, which to him has become present, he then casts a glance to the more distant. He announces that after 70 years--counting not from the _real_, but from the _ideal_ Present--the city shall again attain to its ancient greatness. His look then rises still higher, and he beholds how at length, in the days of Messiah, the Tyrians shall be received into the communion of the true God.--The future dispersion and carrying away of the people is anticipated by the Prophet in the passage, chap. xi. 11, also, which may be considered as a comprehensive view of the whole second part.--It is true that, in the second part, as a rule, the misery, and not the salvation, appears as present; but, not unfrequently, the latter, too, is viewed as present by the Prophet, and spoken of in Preterites, comp. _e.g._, chap. xl. 2, xlvi. 1, 2, li. 3, lii. 9, 10, lx. 1. If, then, the Prophet is to be measured by the ordinary rule, these passages, too, must have been written at a time when the salvation had already taken place.--In chap. xlv. 20, the escaped of the nations are those Gentiles who have been spared in the divine judgments. They are to become wise by the sufferings of others. The Prophet takes his stand in a time when these judgments, which were to be inflicted by Cyrus, had already been completed. Even those who maintain the spuriousness of the second part must here acknowledge that the Prophet takes his stand in an _ideal_ Present.--In chap. liii. the Prophet takes his stand between the sufferings and the glorification of the Messiah. The sufferings appear to him as past; the glorification he represents as future.

Hosea had, in chap. xiii., predicted to Israel great divine judgments, the desolation of the country, and the carrying away of its inhabitants by powerful enemies. This punishment and judgment appear in chap. xiv. 1 (xiii. 16) as still future; but in ver. 2 (1 ff.) he transfers himself in spirit to the time when these judgments had already been inflicted. He anticipates the Future as having already taken place, and does not by any means exhort his _contemporaries_ to a sincere repentance, but those upon whom the calamity had already been inflicted: "O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for [Pg 173] thou hast fallen by thine iniquity." This parallel passage shews especially, with what right it has been asserted that the addresses to the people pining away in exile "were out of place in the mouth of Isaiah, who, as he lived 150 years before, could _prophesy_ only of the exiled" (_Knobel_).--Micah says in chap. iv. 8 (compare vol. i., p. 449 ff.): "And thou tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, unto thee it will come, and to thee cometh the former dominion." If the Prophet, a cotemporary of Isaiah, speaks here of a _former dominion_, and announces that it shall again come back to the house of David, he transfers himself from his time, in which the royal family of David still existed and flourished, into that period of which he had just before spoken, and during which the dominion of the Davidic dynasty was to cease. In vers. 9, 10: "Now why dost thou raise a cry! Is there no king in thee, or is thy counsellor gone? For pangs have seized thee as a woman in travail," &c., mourning Zion, at the time of the carrying away of her sons into captivity, stands before the eye of the Prophet, and is addressed by him. (In commenting upon this passage, we pointed already to Hosea xiii. 9-11 as an analogous instance of representing as present the time of the calamity.) The moment of the carrying away into exile forms to him the Present; the deliverance from it, the Future: "There shalt thou be delivered, there the Lord thy God shall redeem thee out of the hand of thine enemies." In chap. vii. 7, Micah introduces, as speaking, the people already carried away into exile, and makes them declare both the justice of the divine punishment, and their confidence in the divine mercy. In the answer of the Lord also, ver. 11, the city is supposed to be destroyed; for He promises that her walls shall be rebuilt.--The anticipation of the Future prevails throughout the whole prophecy of Obadiah also. The song of Habakkuk in chap. iii. takes its stand in the midst of the anticipated misery. In the announcement of the invasion of the Chaldeans in chap. i. 6 ff., the Future presents itself in the form of the Present. Here, as in the case of Obadiah, _Hitzig_ and others, overlooking and misunderstanding this prophetic peculiarity, and considering the _ideal_, to be the _real_ Present, have been led to fix the age of the Prophet in a manner notoriously erroneous.--Jeremiah, in chap. iii. 22, 25, [Pg 174] introduces as speaking the Israel of the Future. In chap. xxx. and xxxi., he anticipates the future carrying away of Judah. Even in the Psalms we perceive a faint trace of this prophetic peculiarity. On Ps. xciii. 1: "The Lord reigneth, He hath clothed himself with majesty," &c., we remarked: "The Preterites are to be explained from the circumstance that the Singer as a _seer_ has the Future before his eyes. He _beholds_ rejoicingly how the Lord enters upon His Kingdom, puts on the garment of majesty, and girds himself with the sword of strength in the face of the proud world." A similar anticipation of redemption, even before the catastrophe has taken place, we meet with in Ps. xciv. 1. The situation in the whole Psalm, yea in the whole cycle to which it belongs, the lyrical echo of the second part of Isaiah, is not a _real_, but an _ideal_ one. This cycle bears witness that the singers and seers of Israel were living in the Future, in a manner which it would be so much the greater folly to measure by our rule as, for the people of the Old Covenant, the Future had a significance altogether different from that which it has for the people of the New Covenant. That which is common to all the Psalms, from xciii. onward, is the confident expectation of a glorious manifestation of the Lord, which the Psalmist, following the example of the prophets, beholds as present. A counterpart is the cycle Ps. cxxxviii.-cxlv., in which David, stirred up by the promise in 2 Sam. vii., accompanies his house throughout history.

Several interpreters cannot altogether resist the force of these facts. They grant "that other prophets also sometimes, in the Spirit, transfer themselves into later times, especially into the idealistic times of the Messiah," and draw their arguments from the circumstance only, that the latter again came back to their personal stand point, whilst our Prophet continues cleaving to the later time. Now it is true, and must be conceded, that this mode of representation is here employed to an extent greater than it is anywhere else in the Old Testament. But, in matters of this kind, measuring by the ell is quite out of place. In other respects also, the second part of Isaiah stands out as quite unique. There is, in the whole Old Testament, no other continuous prophecy which has so absolutely and pre-eminently proceeded from _cura posteritatis_. If [Pg 175] it be acknowledged that the prophesying activity of Isaiah falls into two great divisions,--the one--the results of which are contained in the first 39 chapters--chiefly, pre-eminently indeed, destined for the Present; the other,--which lies before us in the second part, belonging to the evening of the Prophet's life--forming a prophetical legacy, and hence, therefore, never delivered in public, but only committed to writing;--then we shall find it quite natural that the Prophet, writing, as he did, chiefly for the Future, should here also take his stand in the Future, to a larger extent than he has elsewhere done.

That it is in this manner only that this fact is to be accounted for, appears from the circumstance that, although our Prophet so extensively and frequently represents the Past as Present, yet he passes over, in numerous passages, from the _ideal_ into the _real_ Present.[2] We find a number of references which do not at all suit the condition of things after the exile, but necessarily require the age of Isaiah, or, at least, the time before the exile. If Isaiah be the author, these passages are easily accounted for. It is true that, in the Spirit, he had transferred himself into the time of the Babylonish exile; and this time had become Present to him. But it would surely be suspicious to us, if the real Present had not sometimes prevailed, and attracted the eye of the Prophet. It is just thus, however, that we find it. The Prophet frequently steps out of his ideal view and position, and refers to conditions and circumstances of his time. _Now_, he has before his eyes the condition of the unhappy people in the Babylonish exile; _then_, the State still existing at his time, but internally deranged by idolatry and apostacy. This apparent contradiction cannot be reconciled in any other way than by assuming that Isaiah is the author. As a rule, the punishment appears as already inflicted; city and temple as destroyed; the country as devastated; the people as carried away; compare _e.g._, chap. lxiv. 10, 11. But in a series of passages, in which the Prophet steps back from the _ideal_, to the _real_ stand-point, _the punishment appears as still future_; _city and temple as still existing_. In chap. xliii. [Pg 176] 22-28, the Prophet meets the delusion, as if God had chosen Israel on account of their deserts. Far from having brought about their deliverance by their own merits, they, on the contrary, sinned thus against Him, that, to the inward apostacy, they added the outward also. The greater part of Israel had left off the worship of the Lord by sacrifices. It is the mercy alone of the Lord which will deliver them from the misery into which they have plunged themselves by their sins. But how can the Lord charge the people in exile for the omission of a service which, according to His own law, they could offer to Him in their native country only, in the temple consecrated to Him, but then destroyed? The words specially: "Put me in remembrance," in ver. 26, "of what I should have forgotten," imply that there existed a possibility of acquiring apparent merits, and that, hence, the view of our opponents who, in vers. 22-24, think of a compulsory, and hence, guiltless omission of the sacrificial service during the exile, must be rejected. Vers. 27, 28 also, which speak of the punishment which Israel deserves, just on account of the omitted service of the Lord, and which it has found in the way of its works, prove that this view must be rejected, and that vers. 22-24 contain a reproof. The passage can, hence, have been written only at the time when the temple was still standing. Of this there can so much the less be any doubt that, in vers. 27, 28, the exile is expressly designated as future: "Thy first father (the high-priestly office) hath sinned, and thy mediators have transgressed against me." (The sacrificial service was by a disgraceful syncretism profaned even by those whose office it was to attend to it). "Therefore I _will_ profane the princes of the sanctuary, and _will_ give Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches." Even [Hebrew: vaHll] is the common Future, and to [Hebrew: vatnh] the [Hebrew: h] _optativum_ is added; and hence, we cannot by any means translate and explain it by: _I gave_.--In chap. lvi. 9, it is said: "All ye beasts of the field come ye to devour all the beasts in the forest." This utterance stands in connection with the [Hebrew: lnqbciv], at the close of the preceding verse. The gathering of Israel by God the good Shepherd, promised there, must be preceded by the scattering, by being given up to the world's power--mercy, by judgment. By the wild beasts are to be understood the Gentiles who shall be sent by God upon [Pg 177] His people for punishment. This mission they must first fulfil before they can, according to ver. 8, be added to, and gathered along with, the gathered ones of Israel. By the "beasts in the forest," brutalized, degraded, and secularized Israel is to be understood, comp. Jer. xii. 7-12; Ezek. xxxiv. 5; and my Commentary on Rev. ii. 1.

The beasts have not yet come; they are yet to come. We can here think of nothing else than the invasion of the Chaldeans, which the Prophet, stepping back to the stand-point of his time, beholds here as future; whilst, in what precedes, from his ideal stand-point, which he had taken in the Babylonish exile, he had, for the most part, considered it as past.--In chap. lvi. 10-12, we meet with corrupted rulers of the people, who are indolent, when everything depends upon warding off the danger, greedy, luxurious, gormandizing upon what they have stolen. The people are not under foreign dominion, but have rulers of their own, who tyrannize over, and impoverish them; comp. Is. chap. v.; Micah, chap. iii.--In chap. lvii. 1, it is said: "The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart, and the men of kindness are taken away, no one considering that, on account of the evil, the righteous is taken away." The Prophet mentions it as a sign of the people's hardening that, in the death of the righteous men who were truly bearing on their hearts the welfare of the whole, they did not recognize a harbinger of severe divine judgments, from which, according to a divine merciful decree, these righteous were to be preserved by an early death. "On account of the evil," _i.e._, in order to withdraw them from the judgments, which were to be inflicted upon the ungodly people, comp. Gen. xv. 15; 2 Kings xxii. 20; Is. xxxix. 8. The evil, _i.e._ according to 2 Kings xxii. 20, the Chaldean catastrophe, appears here as still future. In chap. lvii. 2: "They enter in peace, they rest in their beds who have walked before themselves in uprightness," the "peace" forms the contrast to the awful condition of suffering which the survivors have to encounter.--In chap. lvii. 9, it is said: "And thou lookest on the king anointed with oil, and increasest thy perfumes, and sendest thy messengers far off, sendest them down into hell." The apostacy from the Lord their God is manifested not only in idolatry, but also in their not leaving untried any means to [Pg 178] procure for themselves human helpers, in their courting human aid. The personification of Israel as a woman, which took place in the preceding verses, is here continued. She leaves no means untried to heighten her charms; she makes every effort to please the mighty kings. The king is an ideal person comprehending a real plurality within himself A parallel passage, in which the seeking for help among foreign nations is represented under the same image, is Ezek. xvi. 26 ff., comp. Hos. xii. 2 (1). It occurs also in immediate connexion with seeking help from the idols, in chap. xxx. 1 ff. The verb [Hebrew: wvr] means always "to see," "to look at;" and this signification is, here too, quite appropriate: Israel is _coquetting_ with her lover, the king. The reproach which the Prophet here raises against the people has no meaning at all in the time of the exile, when the national independence was gone. We find ourselves all at once transferred to the time of Isaiah, who, in chap. xxxi. 1, utters a woe upon them "that go down to Egypt for help,"--who, in chap. xxx. 4, complains: "His princes are at Zoar, and his ambassadors come to Hanes,"--who, in chap. vii., exhibits the dangerous consequences of seeking help from Asshur. The historical point at issue is brought before us by passages such as 2 Kings xvi. 7: "And Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglathpileser, king of Assyria, saying: I am thy servant and thy son; come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Aram, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who rise against me."--In chap. lvii. 11-13, the thought is this: Israel is not becoming weary of seeking help and salvation from others than God. But He will soon show that He alone is to be feared, that He alone can help; that they are nothing against whom, and from whom help is sought. The words in ver. 11: "Am I not silent, even of old; therefore thou fearest me not," state the cause of the foolish forgetfulness of God, and hence form the transition to the subsequent announcement of judgment. The prophecy is uttered at a time when Israel still enjoyed the sparing divine forbearance, inasmuch as for time immemorial (since they were in Egypt), no destructive catastrophe had fallen upon them. It was in the Babylonish catastrophe only that the Egyptian received its counterpart. But how does this suit the time of the Babylonish exile, when the people were groaning under the severe judgments of God, [Pg 179] and had not experienced His forbearance, but, on the contrary, for almost 70 years, the full energy of His punitive justice? In ver. 13, it is said: "In thy crying, let thy hosts (thy whole Pantheon so rich, and yet so miserable) help thee." "In thy crying, _i.e._, when _thou_, in the judgment to be inflicted upon thee in future, wilt cry for help." In chap. lxvi. the punishment appears as future; temple and city as still existing; the Lord as yet enthroned in Zion. So specially in ver. 6: "A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, the voice of the Lord that rendereth recompence to His enemies," A controversy with the hypocrites who presumed upon the temple and their sacrificial service, in vers. 1, 3, has, at the time of the exile, no meaning at all, _Gesenius_, indeed, was of opinion that the Prophet might judge of the worship of God in temples, and of the value of sacrifices, although they were not offered at that time; but it must be strongly denied that the Prophet could do so in such a context and connection. For, the fact that the Prophet has in view a definite class of men of his time, and that he does not bring forward at random a _locus communis_ which, at his time, was no longer applicable--a thing which, moreover, is not by any means his habit--appears from the close of the verse, and from ver. 4, where divine judgment is threatened to those men: "Because they choose their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations: I also will choose their derision, and will bring their fears upon them." Even in ver. 20: "And they (the Gentiles who are to be converted to the Lord), shall bring all your brethren out of all nations for a meat-offering unto the Lord, upon horses, &c., _just as the children of Israel are bringing_ ([Hebrew: ibvav], expresses an habitual offering), _the meat-offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord_," the house of God appears as still standing, the sacrificial service in full operation; the future spiritual meat-offering of the Gentiles is compared to the bodily meat-offering which the children of Israel are now offering in the temple.

_Throughout the whole second part we perceive the people under the, as yet, unbroken power of idolatry._ It appears everywhere as the principal tendency of the sinful apostacy among the people; to counteract it appears to be the chief object of the Prophet. The controversy with idolatry pervades everything. At the very commencement, in chap. xl. 18-26, we are met [Pg 180] with a description of the nothingness of idolatry, and an impressive warning against it. In the whole series of passages, commencing with chap. xli.--of which we shall afterwards speak more in detail--the sole Deity of the God of Israel, and the vanity of the idols are proved from prophecy in connection with its fulfilment; and this series has for its supposition the power which, at the time when the prophecy was uttered, idolatry yet possessed over the minds of men. Chap. xlii. 17 announces that the future historical development shall bring confusion upon those "that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images: Ye are our gods." In chap. xliv. 12-20, the absurdity of idolatry is illustrated in a brilliant description. We have here before us the real _locus classicus_ of the whole Scripture in this matter, the main description of the nothingness of idolatry. The emotion and excitement with which the Prophet speaks, shew that he has here to do with the principal enemy to the salvation of his people. According to chap. xlvi. the idols of Babel shall be overturned and carried away. From this, Israel may learn the nothingness of idolatry, and the apostates may return to the Lord. In the hortatory and reproving section, the punishment of idolatry forms the beginning; in chap. lvii. idolatry is described as far-spread, manifold, advancing to the greatest horrors. The offering up of children as sacrifices especially appears as being in vogue; and it can be proved that this penetrated into Israel, from the neighbouring nations, at the time of the Prophet (comp. 2 Chron. xxviii. 3; xxxiii. 6), while, at the time of the exile, there was scarcely any cause for warning against it,--at least, existing information does not mention any such sacrifices among the Babylonians (comp. _Münter_, _die Religion der Babylonier_, S. 72). The people appear as standing under the dominion of idolatry in chap. lxv. 3: "The people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face, that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon the bricks;" comp. ver. 7: "Who have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills;" chap. lxvi. 17: "They that sanctify themselves and purify themselves in the gardens behind one in the midst, who eat swine's flesh, and the abominations, and mice, shall be consumed together, saith the Lord." Idolatry is the service of nature, and was, therefore, chiefly practised [Pg 181] in places where nature presents herself in all her splendour, as in gardens and on the hills. The gardens are mentioned in a similar way in chap. i. 29: "Ye shall blush on account of the _gardens_ that ye have chosen." (On the words which precede in that verse: "For they shall be ashamed of the _oaks_ which ye have desired," chap. lvii. 5 offers an exact parallel: "Who inflame themselves among the _oaks_ under every green tree.") In chap. lxv. 11, they are denounced who forsake the Lord, forget His holy mountain (on which, at the time when this was written, the temple must still have stood), who prepare a table to _Fortune_, and offer drink-offerings to _Fate_. The second main form of sinful apostacy--hypocrisy and dead ceremonial service--is only rarely mentioned by the Prophet (in chap. lvii., lxvi.), while he always anew reverts to idolatry. Now _this absolutely prevailing regard to idolatry can be accounted for, only if Isaiah be the author of the second part._ From Solomon, down to the time of the exile, the disposition to idolatry in Israel was never thoroughly broken. During Isaiah's ministry, it came to the fullest display under Ahaz. Under Hezekiah it was kept down, indeed; but with great difficulty only, as appears from the fact that, under the reign of Manasseh, who was a king after the heart of the people, it again broke openly forth; comp. 2 Kings xxi. 1-18; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 1-18; 2 Kings xxi. 6, according to which Manasseh made his own son to pass through the fire. But it is a tact generally admitted, and proved by all the books written during and after the exile, that, with the carrying away into exile, the idolatrous disposition among the people was greatly shaken. This fact has its cause not only in the deep impression which misery made upon their minds, but still more in the circumstance that it was chiefly the godly part of the nation that was carried away into captivity. The disproportionately large number of _priests_ among the exiled and those who returned--they constitute the tenth part of the people--is to be accounted for only on the supposition, that the heathenish conquerors saw that the real essence and basis of the people consisted in the faith in the God of Israel, and were, therefore, above all, anxious to remove the priests as the main representatives of this principle. If, for this reason, they carried away the priests, we cannot think otherwise but that, in [Pg 182] the selection of the others also, they looked chiefly to the theocratic disposition on which the nationality of Israel rested. To this we are led by Jer. xxiv. also, where those carried away are designated as the flower of the nation, as the nursery and hope of the Kingdom of God. Incomprehensible, for the time of the exile, is also the _strict antithesis_ between the servants of the Lord, and the servants of the idols--the latter hating, assailing, and persecuting the former--an antithesis which meets us especially in the last two chapters; comp. especially chap. lxv. 5 ff. 13-15; lxvi. 16. That such a state of things existed at the time of the Prophet is, among other passages, shown by 2 Kings xxi. 16, according to which Manasseh shed much innocent blood at Jerusalem, and, according to ver. 10, 11, especially the blood of the prophets, who had borne a powerful testimony against idolatry.