13 I have raised him up in Olymp. XVII. 1. righteousness, and I will direct Numa Pompilii, all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts. R. Roman., 4. those who trust in him. A. M. cir. 3292. B. C. cir. 712. Olymp. XVII. 1. 16 They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together Numa Pompilii, that are makers of idols. i cir. annum R. Roman., 4. 17h But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. 18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. 19 I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: "I the LORD 1 15 Verily thou art a God that hidest thy- speak righteousness, I declare things that are self, O God of Israel, the Saviour. Do ye question me concerning my children? And do ye give me directions concerning the work of my hands?" Verse 13. I have raised him up] This evidently refers to Cyrus, and to what he did for the Jews; and informs us by whom he was excited to do it. Verse 14. The labour of Egypt-" The wealth of Egypt."] This seems to relate to the future admission of the Gentiles into the Church of God. Compare Psa. lxviii. 32; lxxii. 10; chap. lx. 6-9. And perhaps these particular nations may be named, by a metonymy common in all poetry, for powerful and wealthy nations in general. See note on chap. Ix. 1. The Sabeans, men of stature-"The Sabeans, tall of stature"] That the Sabeans were of a more majestic appearance than common, is particularly remarked by Agatharchides, an ancient Greek historian quoted by Bochart, Phaleg, ii. 26, τα σωματα εστι των κατοικουν Twv azionoywrepa. So also the Septuagint understand it, rendering it avôges inλo, "tall men." And the same phrase, na ws anshey middah, is used for persons of extraordinary stature, Num. xiii. 32, and 1 Chron. xx. 6. They shall make supplication unto thee-"They shall in suppliant guise address thee"] The conjunction 1 vau is supplied by the ancient Versions, and confirmed by fifteen MSS. of Kennicott's, (seven ancient,) thirteen of De Rossi's, and six editions, 7 veelayich. Three MSS. (two ancient) omit the vau before Th elayich at the beginning of the line. Verse 15. Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself] At present, from the nations of the world. O God of Israel, the Saviour] While thou revealest thyself to the Israelites and savest them. Verse 16. They shall be ashamed-" They are ashamed"] The reader cannot but observe the sudden transition from the solemn adoration of the secret and mysterious nature of God's counsels in regard to his right. people, to the spirited denunciation of the confusion of idolaters, and the final destruction of idolatry; contrasted with the salvation of Israel, not from temporal strongly marked by the repetition and augmentation of captivity, but the eternal salvation by the Messiah, the phrase, to the ages of eternity. But there is not only a sudden change in the sentiment, the change is equally observable in the construction of the sentences; which, from the usual short measure, runs out at once Prelim. Dissert. p. 66, &c. There is another instance into two distichs of the longer sort of verse. of the same kind, and very like to this, of a sudden transition in regard both to the sentiment and construction in chap. xlii. 17. See of the beauty of the distich, is imperfect in the present His adversaries"] This line, to the great diminution expressed, as it is in the line following. The version text the subject of the proposition is not particularly of the Septuagint happily supplies the word that is lost: of avrixεiμevol aur, "his adversaries," the original word was 1 tsaraiv.-L. formed it to be inhabited"] An ancient MS. has ‘> kı Verse 18. He formed it to be inhabited—“ For he before na lashebeth; and so the ancient Versions. place of the earth] In opposition to the manner in Verse 19. I have not spoken in secret, in a dark which the heathen oracles gave their answers, which were generally delivered from some deep and obscure cavern. Such was the seat of the Cumean Sybil :Excisum Euboicæ latus ingens rupis in antrum. VIRG, En. vi. 42. "A cave cut in the side of a huge rock." Such was that of the famous oracle at Delphi; of which, says Strabo, lib. ix,, φασι δ' είναι το μαντείον aνтρov xoiñoν μεTα Balous, ou pada supudroμov. "The oracle is said to be a hollow cavern of considerable depth, with an opening not very wide." And Diodorus, giving an account of the origin of this oracle, says 21 Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? Pand there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour: there is none beside me. r belongeth salvation the ends of the earth: for I am S 23 I have sworn by myself, A. M. cir. 3292 B. C. cir. 712. Olymp. XVII. 1 cir. annum Numa Pompilii, the word is gone out of my mouth R. Roman., 4. in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow," every tongue shall swear. W V t x 24 Surely, shall one say, In the LORD have I w righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. 25 In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel 22 Look unto me, and be ye saved, all be justified, and shall glory. Chap. xliv. 17, 18, 19; xlvi. 7; xlviii. 7; Rom. i. 22, 23. Rom. xiv. 11; Phil. ii. 10.- . Gen. xxxi. 53; Deut. vi. Chap. xli. 22; xliii. 9; xliv. 7; xlvi. 10; xlviii. 14.- P Ver. 13; Psa. Ixiii. 11; chap. lxv. 16.- Or, Surely he shall say of 5, 14, 18; chap. xliv. 8; xlvi. 9; xlviii. 3, &c.- Psa. xxii.me, In the LORD is all righteousness and strength.- w Jer. 27; lxv. 5. Psa. lxv. 3; xcviii. 3.- Gen. xxii. 16; Jer. xxiii. 5; 1 Cor. i. 30.-Heb. righteousnesses. - Chap. xli. xlix. 13; li. 14; Amos vi. 8; Heb. vi. 13. → Ver. 17.- 1 Cor. i. 31. "that there was in that place a great chasm or cleft in the earth; in which very place is now situated what is called the Adytum of the temple." Adurov, ornλasov, n to anoxpupov μεpos Tou iεpou. Hesych. "Adytum means a cavern, or the hidden part of the temple." I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare things that are right-"I am JEHOVAH, who speak truth, who give direct answers."] This also is said in opposition to the false and ambiguous answers given by the heathen oracles, of which there are many noted examples; none more so than that of the answer given to Crœsus when he marched against Cyrus, which piece of history has some connexion with this part of Isaiah's prophecies. Let us hear Cicero's account of the Delphic answers in general, and of this in particular: Sed jam ad te venio, Osancte Apollo, qui umbilicum certum terrarum obsides, above to Cræsus, from the oracle at Delphi, which was: If Crœsus march against Cyrus, he shall overthrow a great empire: he, supposing that this promised him success, fought, and lost his own, while he expected to destroy that of his enemy. Here the quack demon took refuge in his designed ambiguity. He predicted the destruction of a great empire, but did not say which it was; and therefore he was safe, howsoever the case fell out. Not one of the predictions of God's prophets is conceived in this way. Verse 21. Bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together] For 1yr yoatsu or yivvaatsu, let, them consult, the Septuagint read wyr yedau, let them know: but an ancient MS. has у yoedu, let them come together by appointment; which may probably be the true reading. Verse 22. Look unto me, and be ye saved, &c.] This verse and the following contain a plain prediction of the universal spread of the knowledge of God through Christ; and so the Targum appears to have understood it; see Rom, xiv. 11; Phil. ii. 10. ing of the Targum is remarkable, viz., ithpeno lemeymri, look to my WORD, & Aoyos, the Lord Jesus. The read Verse 23. I have sworn by myself]" bemeymri, by my WORD: and the word- pithgam, or saying, to distinguish it from the personal substantial WORD meymra, mentioned before. See the Targum. Croesus Halym penetrans magnam pervertet opum vim: hostium vim sese perversurum putavit; pervertit autem suam. Utrum igitur eorum accidisset, verum oraculum fuisset. De Divinat. ii. 56. Mountainous countries, The word is gone out of my mouth-"Truth is gone and those which abounded in chasms, caves, and grot-forth from my mouth; the word"] So the Septuagint tos, were the places in which oracles were most fre- distinguish the members of the sentence, preserving quent. The horror and gloom inspired by such places the elegance of the construction and the clearness of were useful to the lying priests in their system of de- the sense. ception. The terms in which those oracles were conceived, (they were always ambiguous, or equivocal, or false, or illusory,) sometimes the turn of a phrase, or a peculiarity in idiom or construction which might be li, unto me; and instead of li amar, he said turned pro or con, contained the essence of the oracu- or shall say unto me, the Septuagint read, in the copy lar declaration. Sometimes, in the multitude of guesses, which they used, lemor, saying. For x yabo, one turned out to be true; at other times, so equivocal HE shall come, in the singular, twelve MSS. (three anwas the oracle, that, however the thing fell out, the de-cient) read * yabeu, plural; and a letter is erased at claration could be interpreted in that way; as in the the end of the word in two others and so the Alex. Verse 24. Surely, shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength-" Saying, Only to JEHOVAH belongeth salvation and power"] A MS. omits andrine copy of the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate read it. For pay tsedakoth, plural, two MSS. read 3 tsidkath, singular; and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Chaldee." and idolaters. knowledged that all his success came from Jehovah. And this sentiment is in effect contained in his decree or proclamation, Ezra i. 2: "Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the Probably these are the words of Cyrus, who ac- kingdoms of the earth," &c. CHAPTER XLVI. The idols of Babylon represented as so far from being able to bear the burden of their votaries, that they themselves are borne by beasts of burden into captivity, 1, 2, This beautifully contrasted with the tender care of God, in bearing his people from first to last in his arms, and delivering them from their distress, 3, 4. The prophet then, with his usual force and elegance, goes on to show the folly of idolatry, and the utter inability of idols, 5-7. From which he passes with great ease to the contemplation of the attributes and perfections of the true God, 8-10. Particularly that prescience which foretold the deliverance of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, with all its leading circumstances; and also that very remote event of which it is the type in the days of the Messiah, 11-13. B. C, cir. 712. A. M. cir. 3292. BEL boweth down, Nebo made, and I will bear; even Olymp. XVII. 1. cır. annum Numa Pompilii, upon the beasts, and upon the R. Roman., 4. cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden to the weary beast. 2 They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity. с 7. Chap. xxi. 9; Jer. 1, 2; li. 44. Jer. x. 5. Jer. xlviii. Heb. their soul.- -e Exod. xix. 4; Deut. i. 31; xxxii. 11; Psa. lxxi. 6: chap. lxiii. 9. NOTES ON CHAP. XLVI. Verse 1. Their carriages were heavy loaden "Their burdens are heavy"] For D'] nesuotheychem, your burdens, the Septuagint had in their copy Da nesuotheyhem, their burdens. Verse 2. They could not deliver the burden-"They could not deliver their own charge"] That is, their worshippers, who ought to have been borne by them. See the two next verses. The Chaldee and Syriac Versions render it in effect to the same purpose, those that bear them, meaning their worshippers; but how they can render massa in an active sense, I do not understand. For lo, not, velo, and they could not, is the reading of twenty-four of Kennicott's, sixteen of De Rossi's, and two of my own MSS. The added vau gives more elegance to the passage, But themselves-" Even they themselves"] For will carry, and will deliver you. 5 h To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and me, that we may be like? compare I 6 They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they fall down, yea, they worship. 7 They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth; from his place shall he not remove; yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble. 1 fPsa. cii. 27; Mal. iii, 6. -8 Psa. xlviii. 14; lxxi. 18. h Chap. xl. 18, 25. Chap. xl. 19; xli. 6; xliv. 12, 19; Jer. x. 3. Jer. x. 5.- Chap. xlv. 20. lity of the false gods of the heathen. He like an indulgent father had carried his people in his arms, 66 as a man carrieth his son," Deut. i. 31. He had protected them, and delivered them from their distresses: whereas the idols of the heathen are forced to be earried about themselves, and removed from place to place, with great labour and fatigue, by their worshippers; nor can they answer, or deliver their votaries, when they cry unto them. Moses, expostulating with God on the weight of the charge laid upon him as leader of his people, expresses that charge under the same image of a parent s carrying his children, in very strong terms: "Have I conceived all this people have I begotten them? that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers;" Num, xi. 12. ki כי נפשם venaphsham, an ancient MS. has ונפשם Verse 7. They bear him upon the shoulder and set naphsham, with more force. him in his place.] This is the way in which the HinVerse 3. Which are borne by me from the belly-doos carry their gods; and indeed so exact a picture "Ye that have been borne by me from the birth"] The prophet very ingeniously, and with great force, contrasts the power of God, and his tender goodness effectually exerted towards his people, with the inabi is this of the idolatrous procession of this people, that the prophet, might almost be supposed to have been sitting among the Hindoos when he delivered this pro phecy.-WARD'S Customs, Deut. xxxii. 7. Chap. xlv. 4 Psa. xxxiii. 11; Prov. xix. 21; Chap. xli. 2, 25. Chap. xliv. 19; xlvii. 7. 5, 21. Chap. xlv. 21. xxi. 30; Acts v. 39; Heb. vi. 17. Pindar has treated with a just and very elegant ridicule the work of the statuary even in comparison with his own poetry, from this circumstance of its being fixed to a certain station. "The friends of Pytheas," says the Scholiast, “came to the poet, desiring him to write an ode on his victory. Pindar demanded three drachms, (mine, I suppose it should be,) for the ode. No, say they, we ean have a brazen statue for that money, which will be better than a poem. However, changing their minds afterwards, they came and offered him what he had demanded." This gave him the hint of the following ingenious exordium of his ode: perfections of God. B. C. cir. 712. Olymp. XVII. 1. Numa Pompilii, cir. annum the man that executeth A. M. cir. 3292. my counsel from a far country: yea, "I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it. W R. Roman., 4. 12 Hearken unto me, ye stout-hearted, that are far from righteousness: 13 I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory. ́ $ Heb. the man of my counsel.— Chap. xliv. 28; xlv. 13. Num. xxiii. 19.— Psa. lxxvi. 5. Rom. x. 3.- Chap. li. 5; Rom. i. 17; iii. 21. -y Hab. ii. 3.-z Chap. lxii. 11. The work of the artificer's hand with the axe; With silver and with gold it is adorned; With nails and with hammers it is fastened, that it may not totter. Like the palm-tree they stand stiff, and cannot speak; They are carried about, for they cannot go : Verse 8. Show yourselves men] www hithoshashu. This word is rather of doubtful derivation and signification. It occurs only in this place and some of the ancient interpreters seem to have had something different in their copies. The Vulgate read wwann hithbosheshu, take shame to yourselves; the Syriac hithbonenu, consider with yourselves; the Septuagint drevažere, perhaps 19 hithabbelu, groan or mourn, within yourselves. Several MSS. read wwINTA hithosheshu, but without any help to the sense. Verse 11. Calling a ravenous bird from the east— "Calling from the east the eagle"] A very proper embecause the ensign of Cyrus was a golden eagle, blem for Cyrus, as in other respects, so particularly AETOX Xpurous, the very word by ayit, which the prophet uses here, expressed as near as may be in Greek letters. XENOPH. Cyrop. lib. vii. sub. init. Kimchi says his father understood this, not of Cyrus, but of the Messiah. From a far country-"From a land far distant"] Two MSS. add the conjunction ↑ vau, pidi umeerets ; and so the Septuagint; Syriac, and Vulgate. Verse 12. Hearken unto me, ye stout-hearted— This is an address to the Babylonians, stubbornly bent on the practice of injustice towards the Israelites. CHAPTER XLVII. The The destruction of Babylon is denounced by a beautiful selection of circumstances, in which her prosperous is contrasted with her adverse condition. She is represented as a tender and delicate female reduced to the work and abject condition of a slave, and bereaved of every consolation, 1–4. And that on account of her cruelty, particularly to God's people, her pride, voluptuousness, sorceries, and incantations, 5-11. folly of these last practices elegantly exposed by the prophet, 12-15. It is worthy of observation that almost all the imagery of this chapter is applied in the book of the Revelation, (in nearly the same words,) to the antitype of the illustrious capital of the Chaldean empire, viz. Babylon the GREAT. Prophecy concerning the cir. annum a A. M. cir. 3292. COME down, and sit in the shalt no more be called, The lady R. Roman., 4. 2 Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers. d 0 3 Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.' 4 As for four Redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel. 5 Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou Jer. xlviii. 18.-b Chap. iii. 26.c Exod. xi. 5; Judg. xvi. 21; Matt. xxiv. 41.- Chap. iii. 17; xx. 4; Jer. xiii. 22, 26; Nah. iii. 5. Rom. xii. 19.Chap. xliii. 3, 14; Jer. 1. 34. g1 Sam. ii. 9.- Ver. 7; chap. xiii. 19; Dan. ii. 37. NOTES ON CHAP. XLVII. Verse 1. Come down, and sit in the dust-"Descend, and sit on the dust"] See note on chap. iii. 26, and on chap. lii. 2. 6 I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst show them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke. 1 are obliged to truss very high, to which there seems a reference in the third verse: Thy nakedness shall be uncovered. Verse 3. I will not meet thee as a man- "Neither Verse 2. Take the mill-stones, and grind meal—will I suffer man to intercede with me." e."] The "Take the mill, and grind corn"] It was the work of verb should be pointed, or written, 1 aphgia, în slaves to grind the corn. They used hand-mills: wa- Hiphil. ter-mills were not invented till a little before the time of Augustus, (see the Greek epigram of Antipater, which seems to celebrate it as a new invention, Anthol. Cephala, 653;) wind-mills, not until long after. It was not only the work of slaves, but the hardest work; and often inflicted upon them as a severe punishment : Molendum in pistrino; vapulandum; habendæ compedes. TERENT. Phorm. ìi. 1. 19. Hominem pistrino dignum. Id. Heaut. iii. 2. 19. To grind in the mill, to be scourged, to be put in the stocks, were punishments for slaves. Hence a delinquent was said to be a man worthy of the mill. The tread-mill, now in use in England, is a revival of this ancient usage. But in the east grinding was the work of the female slaves. See Exod. xi. 5; xii. 29, (in the version of the Septuagint ;) Matt. xxiv. 41; Homer, Odyss. xx. 105-108. And it is the same to this day. "Women alone are employed to grind their corn;" Shaw's Algiers and Tunis, p. 287. "They are the female slaves, that are generally employed in the east at those hand-mills for grinding corn; it is extremely laborious, and esteemed the lowest employment in the house;" Sir J. Chardin, Harmer's Observ. i., p. 153. The words denote that state of captivity to which the Babylonians should be reduced. Make bare the leg, uncover the thigh] This is repeatedly seen in Bengal, where there are few bridges, and both sexes, having neither shoes nor stockings, truss up their loose garments, and walk across, where the waters are not deep. In the deeper, water they Verse 4. Our Redeemer-" Our Avenger"] Here a chorus breaks in upon the midst of the subject, with a change of construction, as well as sentiment, from the longer to the shorter kind of verse, for one distich only; after which the former subject and style are resumed. See note on chap. xlv. 16. Verse 6. I was wroth with my people] God, in the course of his providence, makes use of great conquerors and tyrants as his instruments to execute his judgments in the earth; he employs one wicked nation to scourge another. The inflicter of the punishment may perhaps be as culpable as the sufferer; and may add to his guilt by indulging his cruelty in executing God's justice. When he has fulfilled the work to which the Divine vengeance has ordained him, he will become himself the object of it; see chap. x. 5-12. God charges the Babylonians, though employed by himself to chastise his people, with cruelty in regard to them. They exceeded the bounds of justice and humanity in oppressing and destroying them; and though they were really executing the righteous decree of God, yet, as far as it regarded themselves, they were only indulging their own ambition and violence. The Prophet Zechariah sets this matter in the same light: "I was but a little angry, and they helped forward the affliction;" chap. i. 15.-L. Verse 7. So that thou didst not-" Because thou didst not"] For y ad, read by al; so two MSS., and one edition. And for N acharithah," the latter end of it," read s acharithecha,“ thy latter end;" so thirteen MSS., and two editions, and the Vulgate. Both the sixth and seventh verses are wanting in one of my oldest MSS. |