Chapter XXIII: The Burden Upon Tyre (4)

From these facts, however, we are not entitled to infer that, in the prophetic announcement, Israel is simply spoken of as the servant of God; but on the contrary the context must be viewed in a different and _nicer_ way. This is evident from the circumstance that, while in the passages chaps. xli. 7, xlviii. 20, Israel and Jacob are intentionally spoken of as the servant of God, or, at least, Israel is so distinctly pointed out that it cannot be at all misunderstood, such an express pointing to Israel is (with the sole exception of chap. xlix. 3), as intentionally, avoided in the prophetic announcement of the Servant of God. The phrase "My servant Jacob," which, in the former passages is the rule, never occurs in the latter. This circumstance clearly indicates that, besides the agreement, there exists a difference. The facts, however, which point out the agreement, receive ample justice by the supposition _that the Prophet considers Christ as the concentration and essence of Israel_, that he expects from Him the realization of the task which was given to Israel, but had not been fulfilled by them, and just thereby, also, the realization of the promises given to [Pg 203] Israel. But, besides other reasons, the fact that the whole description of the Servant of God stands in direct contradiction to what the Prophet elsewhere says of Israel, proves that Israel is not meant in _opposition_ to the Messiah,--the body without the head. It is especially chap. xlii. 19 which here comes into consideration: "Who is so blind as my servant, or so blind as my messenger whom I send?" Israel is here called servant of the Lord, because it had been called by Him to preserve the true religion on earth. Parallel is the appellation: "My messenger whom I send." Israel, as the messenger of God, was to deliver His commands to the Gentiles. The Prophet sharpens the reproof, in that he always contrasts what the people were, and what they ought to have been, according to the destination given to them by the Lord. The servant of the Lord, who, in order to execute His commissions, must have a sharp eye, is blind; His messenger is deaf and cannot hear what He says to him. The immense contrast between idea and reality which is here pointed out, implies, since the idea must necessarily be realized, that it shall receive another bearer; that in place of the messenger, who has become blind and deaf, there should come the true Messenger who first opens the eyes of Israel, and then those of the Gentiles,--that the destination of Israel, which the members are unfit to realize, should be realized by the head. We are not at liberty to say that the servant who had become blind and deaf shall be converted, shall put off the old man and put on the new man, and shall then accomplish the great things which, in the prophecies of the Servant of God, are assigned to him. For the conversion,--on which everything depends, and apart from which the announcement of the Prophet would be an empty fancy--is, in all these prophecies, not mentioned by a single word. On the contrary, the Servant of God is everywhere, from His very origin, brought before us as the absolutely just. No more glaring contrast can really be imagined than that which exists between that which the Prophet says of the ordinary Israel (whose outward state, as it is described in chap. xlii. 22: "This is a people robbed and spoiled, they are all of them snared in holes, and hid in prison-houses," is only a faithful image of the internal condition), and the Son of God in whom His soul delighteth, who in exuberant love seeks [Pg 204] that which is lost, whose overflowing righteousness justifies many, and who, as a substitute, can suffer for others. It is in Christ only, that Israel attains to its destination, both in a moral point of view, and as regards the Divine preservation and glorification. To this it may still be added, that neither here, nor in the parallel passages is [Hebrew: ebd ihvh] ever connected with a Plural, but always with the Singular only; while elsewhere, in the case of collective nouns and ideal persons, the real plurality not uncommonly shines forth from behind the unity; and in those passages, especially, where Israel appears personified as a unity, the use of the Singular is interchanged with that of the Plural. Comp., _e.g._, chap. xli. 8: "And thou Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, seed (_posterity_) of Abraham, my friend," chap. xliii. 10: "_Ye are my witnesses._ saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen." But a circumstance, which alone would be sufficient for the proof, is the fact, that in chap. xli. 6, (comp. chap. xlix. 5, 6) the Servant of the Lord is plainly distinguished from the people. How can the Lord say of the people, that He will give it for a covenant of the people, that in it He will cause the covenant with the people to attain to its truth? The fact, that this passage opposes an insurmountable barrier to the explanation which makes the people the subject, sufficiently appears from the circumstance, that the expositors saw themselves obliged to set aside its natural sense by a forced, unphilological explanation. _Finally_,--In understanding the people by the Servant of God, the prophecies of the Servant of God are brought into irreconcileable contradiction with all other prophecies, with the first part of Isaiah, and even with the second part, inasmuch as things would then be prophesied of the people which, everywhere else, are constantly assigned to the Messiah. This is quite openly expressed by _Köster_: "The Servant of Jehovah is the Jewish people; viewed, however, by the Prophet in such a manner as to combine in itself the attributes of both, the prophets and the Messiah." Prophetism would have dug its own grave if its organs had, in a manner so inconsiderate, contradicted each other as regards the highest hopes of the people. The national conviction of the inspiration of the prophets, which formed the foundation of their activity and efficiency, could, in that case, not have arisen at [Pg 205] all. The same arguments decide partly also against a modification of this explanation which evidently has proceeded from embarrassment only,[1] against those who, by the Servant of God, understand the better portion of Israel,--such as _Maurer_, _Ewald_, _Oehler_ (_Ueber den Knecht Gottes_, _Tübinger Zeitschrift_, 1840. The latter differs from the other supporters of this view in this, that, according to him, the notion of the ideal Israel which, he thinks, prevails in chap. xlii. and xlix., is, in chap. liii., raised to the view of an individual--the Messiah), _Knobel_ ("The theocratic substance of the people, to which especially the prophets and priests belonged.") By this modification, the explanation which makes the people the subject, loses its only apparent foundation, inasmuch as it can no more appeal to those passages in which Israel is spoken of as the Servant of the Lord; for it is obvious that, in these, not merely the pious portion of the people is spoken of. At the very outset, in ver. 19, the whole of the people are undeniably designated by the Servant of the Lord. It is they only who are blind and deaf in a spiritual point of view. The whole people, and not a portion of them, are in the condition of servitude, ver. 22. In ver. 24, Jacob and Israel are expressly mentioned. The whole people, and not merely the pious portion, are objects of the Lord's election (chap. xli. 8, xliv. 1, 2); the whole people are to be redeemed from Babylon, chap. xlviii. 20. The hypothesis of the pious portion of the people can as little account for the unexceptional use of the singular, as the hypothesis of the whole people; like it, it isolates the prophecies of the Servant of God, and brings them into contradiction with all the other prophecies, which assign to Christ the same things that are here assigned to the Servant of God. But what is especially in opposition to this hypothesis is ver. 3, where the Servant of God is designated as the Saviour of the poor and afflicted, which, in the first instance, are no other than the better portion of the people; as well as other reasons, which we shall bring out in commenting upon chap. liii. by which section the hypothesis is altogether overthrown.

According to _De Wette_ (_de morte expiat._ p. 26) and _Gesenius_, [Pg 206] the subject of the prophecy is the collective body of the prophets. Substantially, _Umbreit_ too (_Der Knecht Gottes_, Hamburg 1840) adheres to this interpretation. He rejects the explanation which refers it to Christ in the sense of the Christian Church, and on p. 13 he completely assents to _Gesenius_, by remarking that he could not find in the prophets any supernatural, distinct predictions of future events. The Prophet, according to him, formed to himself, by his own authority, an "ideal of a Messiah," the abstraction of what he saw before his eyes in the people, especially in the better portion of them, but chiefly in the order of the prophets, and then persuaded himself that this self-invented image would, at some future period, come into existence as a real person. "The highest ideal of the prophetic order, viewed as teaching, is represented in the unity of a person." "We find the prophets as a collective body in the [Hebrew: ebd], but chiefly, the prophets who, in future only, on the regained paternal soil, are, in some person, to reach the highest perfection."

This hypothesis of the collective body of the prophets violently severs the prophecy before us, and the parallel passages from those passages of the second part in which Israel is spoken of as the Servant of God. It is quite impossible to point out anywhere in the Old Testament, and especially in the second part of Isaiah, an analogous personification of the order of the prophets as the Servant of God. The reference to chap. xliv. 26: "That establisheth the word of His servant, and performeth the counsel of His messengers; that saith of Jerusalem: She shall be inhabited, and of the cities of Judah: They shall be built, and I will raise up the walls thereof," is, in this respect, altogether out of place, inasmuch as the servant of the Lord, in that verse, is not the collective band of the prophets, but Isaiah himself, just as in chap. xxiii. The parallelism between the servant of the Lord and His messengers is not a _synonymous_, but a _synthetic_ one, just as, afterwards, Jerusalem and the cities of Judah are placed beside one another. The parallel passages clearly intimate that, by the servant of the Lord, Isaiah only is to be understood. Throughout, the Prophet refers exclusively to his own prophecies, as regards the impending salvation of Israel (the prophecies of others he mentions, everywhere else, always in reference to the past only); [Pg 207] and it cannot be imagined that, in this single passage only, he should have designated himself as one among the many. If we consider those parallel passages, we must assume that the _messengers_ also are represented chiefly by our Prophet; that he is their mouth and organ, just as, in Rev. i. 1, and xxii. 6, the servants of God and the prophets are represented by John.

_Farther_--It cannot be denied that a certain amount of truth lies at the foundation of the explanation which makes the prophetic order the subject. The Messiah appears in our prophecy pre-eminently as the Prophet, in harmony and connection with Deut. xviii. (comp. Vol. i., p. 107); and the substratum of the description forms chiefly the prophetic order, while, in the prophecies of the first part, it is chiefly the regal office which appears, and, in chap. liii., the priestly. But the mistake (as _Umbreit_ himself partly saw) is, that this explanation changes the person into a personification, instead of recognizing that the idea, which hitherto was only imperfectly realised by the prophetic order, demands a future perfect realisation in an individual, so that we could not but expect such an one even if there did not exist any Messianic prophecy at all. Every prophet who, in human weakness, performed his office, was a guarantee of the future appearance of _the_ Prophet, as surely as God never does by halves what, according to His nature, and as proved by the existence of the imperfect, He must do. But the fact that, here, we have not before us a mere personification of the prophetic order, nor, as little, according to the opinion of _Umbreit_, a single individual by whom, in future, the idea of the prophetic order was to be most perfectly realised, is evident from the circumstance that the Servant of God does not, by any means, represent himself as being _only_ the Prophet. The contrast between Cyrus and the Servant of God, which _G. Müller_ advances: "Evidently, the former is a conqueror; the latter, a meek teacher," is one-sided; for the Servant of God appears, at the same time, as a powerful _ruler_, just as Christ, in chap. lv. 4, is at the same time designated as a _Witness_, and as Prince and Lawgiver of the nations. To the mere teacher not even ver. 3 is applicable, if the parallel passages are compared, but far less ver. 4: "The isles shall wait for _His law_." Nor does a mere teacher come up to the embodied covenant with Israel in ver. 6, nor to _the_ [Pg 208] _light_, _i.e._, Salvation and Saviour of the Gentiles. By mere teaching, salvation cannot be wrought out. Ver. 7 also does not apply to the mere _teacher_.

The collective body of the prophets, or the ideal prophet, is altogether out of place in chap. liii.; for there the Servant of God does not appear as a Prophet, but as a High Priest and Redeemer. This hypothesis meets with farther difficulties by the mention of Israel in chap. xlix. 3. _Farther_--It cannot well be conceived how the Prophet who, according to these expositors, lived about the end of the exile, could expect such glorious things of the prophetic order, as that from it even a preliminary and partial realization of his hopes should proceed. At that time the prophetic order was already dying out; and a prophetic order among the exiled cannot well be spoken of _Finally_--That which is here ascribed to the Servant of God--the grand influence upon the heathen world--is not of such a character, as that the prophets could be considered as even the precursors and companions in the work of _the Prophet_. Neither prophecy nor history assigns to the prophets any share in this work. This hypothesis severe the second part from its connection with the whole remaining Old Testament, according to which it is by Christ alone that the reception of the Gentiles into the Kingdom of God shall be effected. And in this second part itself, it stands likewise in contradiction to chap. lv. 3, 4.

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Ver. 1. "_Behold my Servant whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my Spirit upon Him, He shall bring forth right_[2] _to the Gentiles._"

Every pious man is called, in general, "servant of the Lord," comp. Job i. 8; Ps. xix. 12, 14; but ordinarily, the designation is, in a special sense, applied to those whom God makes use of for the execution of His purposes, to whom He entrusts the administration of His affaire, and whom He equips for the promotion of His glory. David, who, according to Acts xiii. 36, had in his generation served the counsel of God, calls himself [Pg 209] in his prayer in 2 Sam. vii., not fewer than ten times, the servant of God, (Vol. i, p. 135, 136); and the same designation he gives to himself in the inscriptions of Ps. xviii. and xxxvi. The _Prophets_ are called servants of God in 2 Kings xiii. 3; Jer. xxvi. 5. In the highest and most perfect degree, that designation belongs to Christ, who, in the most perfect manner, carried out the decrees of God, and to whom all former servants and instruments of the Lord in His kingdom, pointed as types. But the designation has not merely a reference to the subjective element of obedience, but points, at the same time, to the _dignity_ of him who is thus designated. It is a high honour to be received by God among the number of His servants, who enjoy the providence and protection of their mighty and rich Lord. That this aspect--the dignity--comes here chiefly into consideration, in the case of Him who is the Servant of God [Greek: kat'ezochên], and in whom, therefore, this dignity must reach its highest degree, so that the designation, _My Servant_, borders very closely upon that of _My Son_, (comp. Matth. iii. 17, xvii. 5);--that this aspect comes here chiefly into consideration is probable even from the circumstance that, in those passages of the second part which treat of _Israel_ as the servant of God, it is just this aspect which is pre-eminently regarded. Thus it is in chap. xli. 8: "And thou Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend." To be the servant of God appears here as an honour, as the privilege which was bestowed upon Israel in preference to the Gentiles. On ver. 9: "Thou, whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and from her borders called thee, and said unto thee: Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee and not cast thee away," Luther remarks: "The name, 'my servant,'contains the highest _consolation_, both when we look to Him who speaks, viz.. He who has created everything, and also to him who is addressed, viz., afflicted and forsaken man." In chap. xliv. 1, 2: "And now hear, O Jacob, my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen; thus saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, who will help thee: Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, and Jeshurun, whom I have chosen," all the designations of God and Israel serve only for an introduction to the exhortation: "Fear not," by laying open the necessity which exists for the promise in [Pg 210] ver. 3, which, without such ca foundation, would be baseless. The context and the parallelism with "whom I have chosen" show that the designation, "servant of God" in these verses has no reference to a duty imposed, but to a privilege, a relation which is the pledge of divine aid to Israel. Jeshurun stands as a kind of _nomen proprium_, and is not parallel to [Hebrew: ebdi], but to Jacob. In chap. xliv. 21: "Remember this, O Jacob, and Israel, for thou art my servant, I have formed thee for a servant to me, Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me," the [Hebrew: alh] "this" refers to the folly of idolatry exhibited in the preceding verses. The duty that Israel should remember this, is founded upon the fact, that he is the servant of the Lord, called by Him to a glorious dignity, to high prerogatives, of which he must not rob himself by apostatizing from Him. It is He who has bestowed upon him this dignity, and He will soon show by deeds, that He cannot forget him, if only his heart does not forget his God. In a similar manner, in chap. xlv. 4, the protecting providence and love of God are looked to. The aspect of the duty and of the service which Israel has to perform to his Lord, is specially pointed out in a single passage only, in chap. xlii. 19; all the other passages place the dignity in the foreground. That, in the designation. Servant of God, in the passage before us, prominence is also given to the dignity, is confirmed by the addition of "whom I uphold," which presents itself as an immediate consequence of the relation of a servant of God, and by the parallel: "mine elect in whom my soul delighteth."--[Hebrew: tmK] "to take," "to seize," "to hold," when followed by [Hebrew: b], always signifies _to lay hold of_, _to hold fast_, _to support_. With the words: "Behold my servant whom I uphold," corresponds what the Lord says in John viii. 29: [Greek: ho pempsas me met'emou estin. ouk aphêke me monon ho Patêr, hoti egô ta aresta autô poiô pantote]; comp. John iii. 2; Acts x. 38. The Preterite [Hebrew: ntti] is employed, because the communication of the Spirit is the condition of his bringing forth right, just as, in ver. 6, the _calling_ is the ground of the preservation. In the whole of the description of the Servant of God, the Future prevails throughout; the _Praeteritum propheticum_ is employed only, where something is to be designated, which, relatively, is antecedent; compare the words: "And the Spirit of the Lord rests upon [Pg 211] Him," in chap. xi. 2; lxi. 1; Matt. iii. 16; John iii. 34. The three passages in Isaiah which speak of the communication of the Spirit to Christ are inseparably connected with one another, and, on the whole Old Testament territory, there is no passage exactly parallel to them. The Hiphel of [Hebrew: ica] must not be explained by "to announce," as some interpreters do; for in this signification it nowhere occurs; and according to what follows, and the parallel passages, the Servant of God does not by any means establish right by the mere announcement, but by His holy disposition. But as little can we explain [Hebrew: hvcia] by "to lead out," in contrast to the circumstance that, under the Old Testament, right was limited to a single nation. For in the parallel passage, chap. li. 4: "Hearken unto me, my people, and give ear unto me, O my congregation, for law shalt proceed from me, and I will set my right for the light of the nations," [Hebrew: ica] does not mean to go _out_, but to go _forth_, _i.e._, to proceed. In the same way, in Hab. i. 4: "And not does right go forth for ever," _i.e._, it never comes forth, is never established, comp. Vol. i., p. 442, 443. Hence [Hebrew: hvcia] here can mean only "to bring to light," "to bring forth." [Hebrew: mwpT] is, by several interpreters, taken in the signification, "religion;" but it is just ver. 4, by which they support their view, which shows that the ordinary signification "right," must be retained here. For in that verse, _right_ stands in parallelism with _law_, by which right is established; comp. chap. li. 4. Before God's Kingdom was, by the Servant of God, extended to the Gentile nations, there existed among them, notwithstanding all the excellence of outward legal arrangements, a condition without right in the higher sense. Right, in its essence, has its root in God, as may be seen from the Ten Commandments, which everywhere go back to God, and in all of which Luther, in his exposition of the ten commandments, rightly repeats: "We shall fear and love God." Where, therefore, the living God is not known, there can be no right. The commandment: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," _e.g._, has any meaning only where the eye is open for the divine image which the neighbour bears, and for the redemption of which he is a fellow-partaker. The commandment: "Honour thy father and thy mother" will go to the heart only where the divine paternity is known, of which all earthly paternity is only an image. [Pg 212] In Deut. iv. 5-8, Israel's happiness is praised, in that they alone, among all the nations, are in possession of God's laws and commandments. Those privileges of Israel are, by the Servant of God, to be extended to the Gentiles who, because they are destitute of right, are, in Deut. xxxii. 21, called a foolish nation. In Ps. cxlvii. 19, 20, it is said: "He showeth His word unto Jacob, His statutes and laws unto Israel. He has not dealt so with any nation, and law they do not know." This passage touches very closely upon that before us; like it, it denies right to the Gentiles in general. "The Gentiles, being without God in the world, do not know any right at all. For that which they call so, is only the shadow of that which really deserves this name, is only a dark mixture of right and wrong." As regards the first table of the Ten Commandments, they grope entirely in the dark; and with respect to the second table, it is only here and there that they see a faint glimpse of light.--A consequence of the bringing forth of right to the Gentiles is the ceasing of war, as it is described in chap. ii. 4. When right has obtained dominion, it cannot tolerate war beside it; where there is true right, there is also peace. The benefit which, in the first instance, is conferred upon the Gentiles, is enjoyed by Israel also: The intention of comforting and encouraging Israel clearly appears in the parallel passage, chap. li. 4. For the right which obtains dominion among the Gentiles, is Israel's pride and ornament, so that, along with their God and His right, they obtain also the dominion over the Gentile world, by which they were hitherto kept in bondage; and whensoever and wheresoever the divine right obtains dominion, the violent oppression must cease, under which the people of God had been groaning up to that time. The Servant of God, however, who brings forth right to the Gentiles, forms the contrast to the worldly conqueror, of whom it was said in chap. xli. 25: "He cometh upon princes as mortar, and, just as the potter treadeth the clay."--The words: "He shall bring forth right," purposely return again in ver. 3; and equally intentionally, the words: "He shall found right on the earth," in ver. 4, refer to them. "We have thus"--_Stier_ pertinently remarks--"in ver. 1, the sum and substance, even to its aim. But it is immediately brought more distinctly to view, what [Pg 213] will be the spirit and character, the mode of operation, by which this aim is to be brought about."

Ver. 2; "_He shall not cry nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street._"

After [Hebrew: iwa] "he shall lift up," "His voice" must be supplied from the context. The words must not be understood in such a manner, as if they stood in opposition to chap. lviii. 1: "Cry with thy throat, do not refrain, lift up thy voice like the trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sins." The Prophet, in that passage, encourages himself; and he cannot mean to represent that as objectionable, by the circumstance that, in the case of the Servant of God, the very ideal of all the servants of God, he points out and praises the very opposite. And, in like manner, every interpretation is to be avoided according to which "dumb dogs which cannot bark" find a pretext in this passage. According to Prov. i. 20: "Wisdom crieth aloud without, she uttereth her voice in the streets." Just as the prohibition of swearing in Matt. v. 34 is qualified by the opposition to Pharisaic levity in cursing and swearing, so here, also, the antithesis to the loud manner of the worldly conqueror must be kept in view,--the contrast to his violence which stakes every thing upon carrying his own will, which cries and rages when it meets with opposition and resistance, (Matt. renders [Hebrew: iceq] by [Greek: erisei], "He shall contend"), to the earnestly sought publicity, to the intention of causing sensation, as it proceeds from vanity or pride. The [Greek: kraugasei], by which Matthew renders the [Hebrew: iwa], has nothing in common with the [Greek: ekraxe] which, in John vii. 28, 37, is said of Christ. With the passionate restlessness, with which the conqueror from the East seeks to carry through his human plans, and to place himself in the centre of the world's history, is here contrasted the inward composure and deportment of the Servant of God, His equanimity, His freedom from excitement,--all of which are based upon the clear consciousness of His dignity and mission, upon the conviction of the power of the truth which is of God, of the power of the Spirit which opens up the minds and hearts for it, and which has its source in the declaration: "I put my Spirit upon Him," by which the great wall of separation between Him and the conqueror from the East is set up. It is just [Pg 214] because of His not being beat upon carrying through any thing, because of His great confidence, that the Servant of God _gains_ everything, and obtains His object of bringing right to the nations.--Matt., in chap. xii. 15-21, finds the confirmation of the character here assigned to Christ in two circumstances:--_first_, in His not entering into a violent dispute with the Pharisees opposing Him ([Greek: hoi de pharisaioi sumboulion elabon kat'autou exelthontes, hopôs auton apolesôsin]), in His not exciting against them the masses who were devoted to Him, but in withdrawing from them ([Greek: ho de Iêsous gnous anechôrêsen ekeithen], ver. 15), being convinced that the cause was not His but God's, and that there was no reason for getting angry with those who were contending against God; just as David said of Shimei: "Let him curse, because the Lord has said unto him, Curse David."--_Secondly_, in the circumstance that instead of availing himself of the excitement of the aroused masses, He charged them that they should not make known His miraculous deeds ([Greek: kai epetimêsen autois hina mê phanêron auton poiêsôsin], ver. 16), being convinced that He did not need to seek to draw attention to himself, but that, by the secret and hidden power of God, His work would be accomplished.

Ver. 3. "_The bent reed shall He not break, and the dimly burning wick shall He not quench; in truth shall He bring forth right._"

Here, too, the antithesis to the worldly conqueror who, without mercy, "Cometh upon princes as mortar, and as a potter treadeth the clay" (chap. xli. 25), whose mind is bent only upon destroying and cutting off nations not a few (chap. x. 7), who does not give rest until he has fully cast down to the ground the broken power. The Servant of God, far from breaking the bent reed, shall, on the contrary--this is the positive opposed to the negative--care for, and assist the wretched with tender love. Just thereby does He accomplish the object of His efforts. The confirmation of the character here assigned to Christ is, by Matthew, found in His healing the sick ([Greek: kai etherapeusen autous pantas], ver. 15), as prefiguring all that which He, who has declared the object of His coming to be to seek all that which was lost, did and accomplished, in general, for the misery of the human race. There cannot be any doubt that the bent reed and the dimly burning wick are figurative designations [Pg 215] of those who, beaten down by sufferings, feel themselves to be poor and miserable. These the weary and heavy laden, the Servant of God will not drive to despair by severity, but comfort and refresh by tender love. His conduct towards them is that of a Saviour. As a bent reed, [Hebrew: qnh rcvC], Pharaoh appears on account of his broken power, in chap. xxxvi. 6, and in chap. lviii. 6, the [Hebrew: rcvciM] are the oppressed. The fact, that the _wick_ dimly burning and near to being extinguished is an image of exhausted strength, is shown by chap. xliii. 17, where, in reference to the Egyptians carried away by the judgment, it is said: "They are extinct, they are quenched like a wick." In the parallel passages which treat of the Servant of God, the _weary_ in chap. l. 4, and the _broken-hearted_ in chap. lxi. 1, correspond to it. Elsewhere, too, the wretched appear as objects of the loving providence of the Saviour. Thus, in chap. xi. 4: "And He judges in righteousness the low;" in Ps. lxxii. 4: "He shall judge the poor of the people; He shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor;" and in vers. 12-14: "For He delivereth the needy when he crieth, and the miserable, and him that hath no deliverer. From oppression and violence He delivereth their soul, and precious is their blood in His sight." Just as, in the passage before us, the bringing forth of right appears as a consequence of the loving providence for the bent reed, and the dimly burning wick, so in that Psalm, the great fact: "And all the kings worship Him, and all the nations serve Him," is traced back to the tender love with which He cares for and helps the poor and needy. In the Sermon on the Mount, the beatitude of the [Greek: ptôchoi], Matt. v. 3, of the [Greek: penthountes], ver. 4, and in Matt. xi. 28, the invitation of the [Greek: kopiôntes kai pephortismenoi], exactly correspond. The wicked and ungodly, upon whom the judgments of God have been inflicted, are not included, because they are not wretched in the full sense; for they harden themselves against the suffering, or seek to divert themselves in it; they do not take it fully to heart. The [Greek: tô pneumati], "in their consciousness," which in Matthew is added to the simple [Greek: ptôchoi], which alone we find in Luke, must be understood as a matter of course. He only is poor in the full sense, who feels and takes to heart his poverty. According to an interpretation widely spread, repenting sinners are designated [Pg 216] by the bent reed, and dimly burning wick. Thus Luther writes: "That means that the wounded conscience, those who are terrified at the sight of their sins, the weak in life and faith are not cast away by Him, are not oppressed and condemned, but that He cares for them, tends and nurses them, makes them whole and embraces them with love." But repenting sinners do not here come into consideration _per se_, but only as one species of the wretched, inasmuch as, according to Luther's expression, truly to feel sin is a torment beyond all torments.--The last words: "In truth shall He bring forth right" again take up the close of ver. 1, after the means have been stated, in the intervening words, by which He is to bring about the result. The [Hebrew: lamt] must not be translated: "For truth" (LXX: [Greek: eis alêtheian]); for there is a thorough difference between [Hebrew: l] and [Hebrew: al]; the former does not, like the latter, designate the motion towards some object, but is rather, here also, a preposition signifying "belonging to;" hence [Hebrew: lamt] means "belonging to truth," "in a true manner," "in truth." By every other mode of dealing, right would be established _in appearance_ and _outwardly_ only. Matthew renders it: [Greek: heôs an ekbalê eis nikos tên krisin], "until He has led right to victory." By the addition of [Greek: heôs] he intimates, that the last words state the result which is brought about by the conduct of the Servant of God described in the preceding words. [Greek: Eis nikos] is a free translation of [Hebrew: lamt]; [Greek: krisis] is "right," as in chap. xxiii. 23.--How objectionable and untenable all the non-Messianic explanations are, appears very clearly in this verse. If Israel were the Servant of God, then the _Gentile world_ must be represented by the bent reed and dimly burning wick. But in that case, we must have recourse to such arbitrary interpretations as, _e.g._, that given by _Köster_: "The weak faith and imperfect knowledge of the Gentiles." No weak faith, no imperfect knowledge, however, is spoken of; but the Servant of God appears as a Saviour of the poor and afflicted, of those broken by sufferings. Those who, by the Servant of God, understand the better portion of the people, or the prophetic order, speak of "the meek spirit of the mode of teaching, which does not by any means altogether crush the sinner already brought low, but, in a gentle, affectionate manner, raises him up," (_Umbreit_); or say with _Knobel_: "These poor and afflicted He does not [Pg 217] humble still more by hard, depressing _words_, but _speaks_ to them in a comforting and encouraging way, raising them up and strengthening them." But in this explanation everything is, without reason, drawn into the territory of speech, while Matthew rightly sees, in the healing of the sick by Christ, a confirmation by deeds of the prophecy before us. In chap. lxi., also, the Servant of God does not only bring glad tidings, but _creates_, at the same time, the blessings announced. According to chap. lxi. 3, He gives to them that mourn in Zion beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, garment of praise for a weak ([Hebrew: khh]) spirit. Verse 6 of the chapter before us most clearly indicates how little we are allowed to limit ourselves to mere speaking; for, according to that verse, the Servant of God is himself the covenant of the people, and the light of the Gentiles, and according to ver. 7, He opens the eyes of the blind, &c.

Ver. 4. "_He shall not fail nor run away until He shall have founded right in the earth, and for His law the isles shall wait._"

On: "He shall not fail," properly, "He shall not become dim," comp. Deut. xxxiv. 7, where it is said of Moses, the servant of God: "His eye had not become dim, nor had his strength fled." The [Hebrew: la irvC] "He shall not run away" (properly, "He shall not _run_") is qualified and fixed by the parallelism with [Hebrew: la ikhh] "He shall not fail." [Hebrew: rvC] in other passages also, several times receives, by the context, the qualified signification "to run away," "to take to flight," "to flee;" comp. Judges viii. 21; Jer. xlix. 19. The words: "He shall not fail nor run away" imply that, in the carrying out of His vocation, the Servant of God shall meet with powerful _obstacles_, with obstinate _enemies_, and shall have to endure severe sufferings. That which is here merely hinted at, is carried out and detailed in chap. xlix., l., liii. How near He was to failing and running away (David, too, was obliged to say: "Oh! that I had wings like a dove, then would I fly away and be at rest") is seen from His utterance in Matt. xvii. 17: [Greek: ô genea apistos kai diestrammenê, heôs pote esomi meth' humôn; heôs pote anexomai humôn.]--According to the current opinion, [Hebrew: irvC] is here assumed to be the Future of [Hebrew: rcC], for [Hebrew: irC], and that in the appropriate signification: "He shall not be broken." (Thus it was probably [Pg 218] viewed by the Chaldean Paraphrast who renders [Hebrew: la ilai] _non laborabit_; by the LXX., who translate [Greek: ou thrauthsêsetai], while _Aquila_ and _Symmachus_, according to the account of _Jerome_, render, _non curret_, thus following the derivation from [Hebrew: rvC]). As [Hebrew: ikhh] points back to [Hebrew: khh] in the preceding verse, so, in that case [Hebrew: irvC] would point back to [Hebrew: rcvC] "He shall not break that which is bent, nor quench that which is dimly burning; but neither shall He himself be broken or quenched." But this explanation is opposed by the circumstance, that we must make up our minds to admit a double anomaly. The territories of the two verbs [Hebrew: rcC] and [Hebrew: rvC] are everywhere else kept distinct, and the former everywhere else means "to break," and not "to be broken." In the only passage, Eccl. xii. 6, brought forward in support of this irregularity, [Hebrew: rvC] "to run," "to flee away," being in parallelism with [Hebrew: nrHq] "to be removed," is quite appropriate; just as in the second clause of that verse [Hebrew: rvC] "to be crushed," is in parallelism with [Hebrew: nwbr] "to be broken."--[Hebrew: aiiM] are, in the _usus loquendi_ of Isaiah, not so much the real islands, as rather the islands in the sea of the world, the countries and kingdoms; compare remarks on Rev. vi. 14, and Ps. xcvii. 1 (second Edition). The _law_ for which the islands wait is not so much a ready-made code of laws, as the single decisions of the living Lawgiver, which the Gentiles, with anxious desire, shall receive as their rule in all circumstances, after they have spontaneously submitted to the dominion of the Servant of God, having been attracted by His loving dispensations. Several unphilologically translate: "for His _doctrine_," which does not even give a good sense, for it is not the doctrine which is waited for; its value is known only after it has been preached. The Servant of God appears here as the spiritual Ruler of the nations; and this He becomes by being, in the fullest sense, the Servant of God, so that His will is not different from the will of God, nor [Hebrew: tvrh] from that of God, just as, in a lower territory, even Asaph speaks the bold word: "Hear, my people, my law." "The singer comes forth as one who has full authority, the 'Seer' and 'Prophet' utter _laws_ which leave no alternative between Salvation and destruction." Parallel is chap. ii. 3, 4, where the nations go up to Zion, in order there to seek laws for the regulation of their practical conduct, and according to which the Lord _judges_ among the nations, and the law goes forth [Pg 219] out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. The difference is this only,--that, in that passage, the matter is traced back immediately to God, while here, the Servant of God is mentioned as the Mediator between Him and the Gentiles. But we must keep in mind that, for chap. ii. also, the parallel passages in chap. iv., ix., xi., furnish the supplement. We must, farther, compare also chap. li. 5: "My righteousness is near, my salvation goes forth, _mine arms shall judge the nations_, the isles shall wait for me, and on mine arm shall they hope." The _judging_ in that passage does not mean divine punitive judgments; but it is rather thereby intimated that all the nations shall recognise the Lord as their King, to whose government they willingly submit, and with whom they seek the decision of their disputes. Matthew purposely changes it into: "And in _His name_ shall the Gentiles trust." The desire for the commands of the Lord is an effect of the love of His _name_, _i.e._, of Him who is glorified by His deeds. For the name is the product of deeds,--here especially of those designated in ver. 2 and 3. The commands are desired and longed for, only because the person is beloved on account of His deeds. Matthew has only distinctly brought out that which, in the original text, is intimated by the connection with the preceding verses. In consequence of this, His quiet, just, and merciful dispensation, the isles shall wait for His law.

In ver. 5-7 the Lord addresses His Servant, and promises Him that, by His omnipotence, the great work for which He has called Him, shall be carried out and accomplished, viz., that the covenant relation to Israel shall be fully realized, and the darkness of the Gentile world shall be changed into light.

Ver. 5. "_Thus saith God the Lord, who createth the heavens and stretcheth them out; who spreadeth forth the earth and that which cometh out of it; who giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk thereon._"

The Prophet directs attention to the omnipotence of God, in order to give a firm support to faith in the promise which exceeds all human conception. It is by this that the accumulation of the predicates is to be accounted for. He who fully realizes what a great thing it is to bring an apostate world back to God, to that God who has become a stranger to it, [Pg 220] will surely not explain this accumulation by a "disposition, on the part of the Prophet, to diffuseness."

Ver. 6. "_I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and I will seize thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for the covenant of the people and, for the Light of the Gentiles._"

It is so obvious that [Hebrew: bcdq] must be translated by "in righteousness," that the explanations which disagree with it do not deserve to be even mentioned. The mission of the Servant of God has its root in the divine _righteousness_, which gives to every one his due,--to the covenant-people, salvation. Even apart from the promise, the appearance of Christ rests on the righteousness of God. For it is in opposition to the nature and character of a people of God to be, for any length of time, in misery, and shut up to one corner of the earth. That which is to be accomplished for Israel by the Servant of God, forms, in the sequel, the first subject of discourse. But even that which He affords to the _Gentiles_ is, at the same time, given to Israel, inasmuch as it is one of their prerogatives that salvation for the Gentiles should go forth from them. As, here, the mission of the Servant of God, so, in chap. xlv. 13, the appearance of the lower deliverer appears as the work of divine righteousness: "I have raised him up in righteousness, and all his ways I will make straight." Similarly also in chap. xli. 2: "Who raised up from the East him whom righteousness calls wherever he goes," _i.e._, him, all whose steps are determined by God's righteousness, who, in all his undertakings, is guided by it.--The seizing by the hand, the keeping, &c., are the consequence of His being called, and are equivalent to: just because I have called him, therefore will I, &c. Luther remarks: "Namely, for this reason, that Satan and the world, with all their might and wisdom, will _resist_ thy work." In the words: "For the Covenant of the people, and for the Light of the Gentiles," [Hebrew: eM] and [Hebrew: gviM] form an antithesis. The absence of the article shows that we ought properly to translate: "For a Covenant of a people, for a Light of Gentiles." It is thus, in the first instance, only said that the Servant of God should be the personal covenant for a people; but _what_ people that should be, cannot admit of a moment's doubt. To Israel, as such, the name of the _people_ pre-eminently belongs. Israel, in preference to all others, is called [Hebrew: eM] (compare _Gesenius'_ [Pg 221] Thesaurus _s.v._ [Hebrew: gvi]), because it is only the people of God that is a people in the full sense, connected by an internal unity; the Gentiles are [Hebrew: la eM], _non-people_, according to Deut. xxxii. 21, because they lack the only real tie of unity. But what is still more decisive is the mention of the _Covenant_. The covenant can belong to the covenant-people only, [Greek: hôn hai diathêkai], Rom. ix. 4,--the old, no less than the new one. The covenant with Abraham is an everlasting covenant of absolute exclusiveness, Gen. xvii. 7. The Servant of God is called the personal and embodied Covenant, because in His appearance the covenant made with Israel is to find its full truth; and every thing implied in the very idea of a covenant, all the promises flowing from this idea, are to be in Him, Yea and Amen. The Servant of God is here called the Covenant of Israel, just in the same manner as in Mic. v. 4 (comp. Ephes. ii. 14), it is said of Him: "This (man) is Peace," because in Him, peace, as it were, represents itself personally;--just as in chap. xlix. 6, He is called the _Salvation_ of God, because this salvation becomes personal in Him, the Saviour,--just as in Gen. xvii. 10, 13, circumcision is called a covenant, as being the embodied covenant,--just as in Luke xxii. 20, the cup, the blood of Christ, is called the New Covenant, because in it it has its root. The explanation: Mediator of the covenant, [Greek: diathêkês enguos], is meagre, and weakens the meaning. The circumstance that the Servant of God is, without farther qualification, called the Covenant of the people, shows that He stands in a different relation to the covenant from that of Moses, to whom the name of the _Mediator_ of the covenant does not the less belong than to Him. From Jer. xxxi. 31, we learn which are the blessings and gifts which the Servant of God is to bestow, and by which He represents himself as the personal Covenant. They are concentrated in the closest connection to be established by Him between God and His people: "I will be their God, and they shall be my people." It is only in the New Covenant, described in that passage of Jeremiah, that the Old Covenant attains to its truth. The second destination of the Servant of God, which, according to the context, here comes into special consideration, is, to be _the Light of the Gentiles_. By the realization of this destination, an important feature in [Pg 222] the former was, at the same time, realized. For it formed part of the promises of the covenant with Israel that, from the midst of them, salvation for all the families of the earth should go forth, as our Saviour says: [Greek: hê sôtêria ek tôn Ioudaiôn estin.] Light is here, according to the common _usus loquendi_ of Scripture, a figurative designation of _salvation_. In the parallel passage, chap. xlix. 6, light is at once explained by salvation. The designation proceeds upon the supposition that the Gentiles, not less than Israel, (comp. chap. ix. 1 [2]) shall, until the appearance of the Servant of God, sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,--that they are in misery, although, in some instances, it may be a _brilliant_ misery. The following verse farther carries out and declares what is implied in the promise: "Light of the Gentiles." Parallel is chap. lx. 3: "And the heathen walk in thy (Zion's) light"--they become partakers of the salvation which shines for Zion--"and kings in the brightness which riseth to thee."--The supporters of that opinion, which understands Israel by the Servant of God, are in no small difficulty regarding this verse, and cannot even agree as to the means of escape from that difficulty. Several assume that [Hebrew: eM] is used collectively, and refer it to the Gentile nations. But opposed to this explanation is the evident antithesis of [Hebrew: eM] and [Hebrew: gviM]; and it is entirely overthrown by the parallel passage in chap. xlix. Scripture knows nothing of a covenant with the Gentiles. According to the view of the Old, as well as of the New Testament, the Gentiles are received into the communion of the covenant with Israel. Others (_Hitzig_, _Ewald_) explain: "covenant-people, _i.e._, a mediatorial, connecting people, a bond of union between God and the nations." But the passage, chap. xlix. 8, is most decidedly opposed to this. _Farther_--The parallelism with [Hebrew: avr gviM] shows that [Hebrew: brit eM] is the _status constructus_. But _f[oe]dus alicujus_, is, according to the remark of _Gesenius_, _f[oe]dus cum aliquo sancitum_. Thus in Lev. xxvi. 45, the covenant of the ancestors is the covenant entered into with the ancestors; Deut. iv. 31; Lev. xxvi. 42 (the covenant of Jacob, the covenant of Isaac, &c.) According to _Knobel_: "the true theocrats are to become a covenant of the people, the restorers of the Israelitish Theocracy, they themselves having connection and unity by faithfully holding fast by Jehovah, and by representing His cause." This explanation, [Pg 223] also, is opposed to the _usus loquendi_, according to which "covenant of the people" can have the sense only of "covenant with the people," not a covenant among the people. And, _farther_, the parallel passage in chap. xlix. 8 is opposed to this interpretation also, inasmuch as, in that passage, the Servant of the Lord is called [Hebrew: brit eM], not on account of what He is in himself, but on account of the influence which He exercises upon others, upon the whole of the people: "That thou mayest raise up the land, distribute desolate heritages, that thou mayest say to the prisoners: Go forth," &c. In that passage the land, the desolate heritages, the prisoners, &c., evidently correspond to the people. _Finally_--A covenant is a relation between two parties standing opposite one another. "The word is used," says _Gesenius_, "of a covenant formed between nations, between private persons, _e.g._, David and Jonathan, between Jehovah and the people of Israel." But here no parties are mentioned to be united by the covenant.

Ver. 7. "_That thou mayest open blind eyes, bring out them that are bound from the prison, and from the house of confinement them that sit in darkness._"