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7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for m Heb. cut off- n Heb. and in his hand a live coal. Rev. Heb. caused it to touch. See Jer. i. 9; Dan. x. Gen. i. 26; iii. 22; xi. 7.Heb. Behold me. Ch. xliii. 8; Matt. xiii. 14; Mark iv. 12; Luke viii. 10; John xii. been a man of unclean lips, and because thou hast still an unclean heart..

vii. 3. 16.

9 And he said, Go, and tell
this people, Hear ye " indeed,
▾ but understand not; and see ye
but perceive not.

V

of Isaiah.

A. M. 3245. B. C. 759. Anno Olymp. Quinta 2. Ante Urbem Conditam 6.

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10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes:

lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

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Aristogit. I., sub. fin. The prophet, by the bold figure in the sentiment above mentioned, and the elegant form and construction of the sentence, has raised it from a common proverb into a beautiful mashal, and given it the sublime air of poetry.

I am undone―"I am struck dumb"]') nid-μas ópwvтaç μŋ ópav, kai akovovтas un akoveiv; Contra meythi, twenty-eight MSS. (five ancient) and three editions. I understand it as from DT dum or damnam, silere," to be silent;" and so it is rendered by the Syriac, Vulgate, Symmachus, and by some of the Jewish interpreters, apud Sal. b. Melec. The rendering of the Syriac is 'N VIA tavir ani, stupens, attonitus sum, "I am amazed." He immediately gives the reason why he was struck dumb because he was a man of polluted lips, and dwelt among a people of polluted lips; and was unworthy, either to join the seraphim in singing praises to God, or to be the messenger of God to his people. Compare Exod. iv. 10; vi. 12; Jer. i. 6.

Verse 6. A live coal] The word of prophecy, which was put into, the, mouth of the prophet.

From off the altar] That is, from the altar of burnt. offerings, before the door of the temple, on which the fire that came down at first from heaven (Lev. ix. 24; 2 Chron. vii. 1) was perpetually burning. It was never to be extinguished, Lev vi. 12, 13. Verse 9. And he said]li, to me, and the Syriac. Thirteen MSS. have

the regular form.

two MSS:
raah, in

Or the words may be understood thus, according to the Hebrew idiom: "Ye certainly hear, but do not understand; ye certainly see, but do not acknowledge." Seeing this is the case, make the heart of this people fat-declare it to be stupid and senseless; and remove from them the means of salvation, which they have so long abused.

There is a saying precisely like this in Eschylus :-
βλέποντες έβλεπον μάτην,
Κλύοντες ουκ ηκούον. ESCH. Prom. Vinct. 456.
"Seeing, they saw in vain; and hearing, they did
not understand."

And shut-"Close up"] yon hasha. This word Sal. ben Melec explains to this sense, in which it is hardly used elsewhere, on the authority of Onkelos. He says it means closing up the eyes, so that one cannot see; that the root is y shava, by which word

the

Verse 10. Make the heart of this people fat-the Targum has rendered the word no tach, Lev. xiv. "Gross"] The prophet speaks of the event, the fact 42, 'n no vetach eth beith, "and shall plaster the house." And the word no tach is used in the same as it would actually happen, not of God's purpose and So that it signifies to close up act by his ministry. The prophets are in other places sense, Isa. xliv. 18. Mr. said to perform the thing which they only foretell :eyes by some matter spread upon the lids. Harmer very ingeniously applies to this passage a prac"Lo! I have given thee a charge this day tice of sealing up the eyes as a ceremony, or as a kind Over the nations, and over the kingdoms; of punishment used in the East, from which the image To pluck up, and to pull down; may possibly be taken. Observ. ii. 278. To destroy, and to demolish; To build, and to plant." And Ezekiel says, "When I came to destroy the city" that is, as it is rendered in the margin of our version, "when I came to prophesy that the city should be destroyed;" chap. xliii. 3. To hear, and not understand; to see, and not perceive; is a com

Jer. i. 10.

With their heart-"With their hearts"] 11 ubilebabo, fifteen MSS. of Kennicott's and fourteen of De Rossi's, and two editions, with the Septuagint, Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate.

I veer

And be healed-" And I should heal"] pa, Septuagint, Vulgate. So likewise Matt. xiii. 14; John xii. 40; Acts xxviii. 27.

Confederacy

A. M. 3245.

B. C. 759.

b

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12 And the LORD have re- | shall return, and shall be eaten :

Anno Olymp. moved inen far away, and there as a teil tree, and as an oak,

Quintæ 2. Ante Urbem Conditam 6.

A. M. 3245.
B. C. 759.
Anno Olymp

Quinta 2.
Ante Urbem
Conditam 6.

be a great forsaking in the midst whose substance is in them, of the land. when they cast their leaves: so 13 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

с

b2 Kings xxv. 21.- Le Or, when it is returned, and hath been dOr, stock or stem. Ezra ix. 2; Mal. ii. 13; Romans

broused.

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xi. 5.

and had become very numerous again in their country; Hadrian, provoked by their rebellious behaviour, slew above half a million more of them, and a second time almost extirpated the nation. Yet after these signal

after so many other repeated exterminations and massacres of them in different times and on various occasions since, we yet see, with astonishment, that the stock still remains, from which God, according to his promise frequently given by his prophets, will cause his people to shoot forth again, and to flourish.-L.

A tenth, ¡y asiriyah. The meaning, says Kim

lishshaer. Verse 13. A tenth] This passage, though somewhat bscure, and variously explained by various interpret-and almost universal destructions of that nation, and ers, has, I think, been made so clear by the accomplishment of the prophecy, that there remains little room to doubt of the sense of it. When Nebuchadnezzar had carried away the greater and better part of the people into captivity, there was yet a tenth remaining in the land, the poorer sort left to be vinedressers and husbandmen, under Gedaliah, 2 Kings xxv. 12, 22, and the dispersed Jews gathered them-chi, of this word is, there shall yet be in the land ten selves together, and returned to him, Jer. xl. 12; yet even these, fleeing into Egypt after the death of Gedaliah, contrary to the warning of God given by the prophet Jeremiah, miserably perished there. Again, in the subsequent and more remarkable completion of the prophecy in the destruction of Jerusalem and the dissolution of the commonwealth by the Romans, when the Jews, after the loss of above a million of men, had increased from the scanty residue that was left of them,

kings from the time of declaring this prophecy. The names of the ten kings are Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiachin, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah; then there shall be a general consumption, the people shall be carried into captivity, and Jerusalem shall be destroyed.

For bam, in them, above seventy MSS., eleven of Kennicott's, and thirty-four of De Rossi's, read a bah, in it; and so the Septuagint.

CHAPTER VII.

The Lord gives Ahaz a sign that the confedepoints out the miraculous conception of the MesPrediction of very heavy calamities which the

The king of Judah and the royal family being in the utmost consternation on receiving accounts of the invasion of the kings of Syria and Israel, the prophet is sent to assure them that God would make good his promises to David and his house; so that, although they might be corrected, they could not be destroyed, while these prophecies remained to be accomplished, 1-9. racy against Judah shall be broken, which sign strikingly siah, who was to spring from the tribe of Judah, 10–16. Assyrians would inflict upon the land of Judea, 17–25. A. M. cir. 3262. B. C. cir. 742. Anno Olymp. Nonæ 3.. Ante Urbem

AN

b

ND it came to pass in the | Syria, and Pekah the son of A. M. cir. 3262. days of Ahaz the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king toward Jerusalem to war against Conditam 12. of Judah, that Rezin the king of it, but could not prevail against it.

a 2 Kings xvi. 5; 2 Chron xxiii. 5, 6.

The confederacy of Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Israel, against the kingdom of Judah, was formed in the time of Jotham; and perhaps the effects of it were felt in the latter part of his reign; see 2 Kings xv. 37, and note on chap. i. 7-9. However, in the very beginning of the reign of Ahaz, they jointly invaded Judah with a powerful army, and threatened to destroy or to dethrone the house of David. The king and royal family being in the utmost consternation on receiving advices of their designs, Isaiah is sent to them to support and comfort them in their present distress, by assuring them that God would make good his promises to David and his house. This makes the

b2 Kings xv. 25, 30, 37.

B. C. cir. 742.
Anno Olymp.
Nonæ 3.
Ante Urbem
Conditam 12.

subject of this, and the following, and the beginning of the ninth chapters, in which there are many and great difficulties.

Chap. vii. begins with an historical account of the occasion of this prophecy; and then follows, ver. 4-16, a prediction of the ill success of the designs of the Israelites and Syrians against Judah; and from thence to the end of the chapter, a denunciation of the calamities to be brought upon the king and people of Judah by the Assyrians, whom they had now hired to assist them. Chap. viii. has a pretty close connection with the foregoing; it contains a confirmation of the prophecy before given of the approaching destruction

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c Heb. resteth on Ephraim.- d Chap. x. 21,— That is, The remant shall return; see ch. vi. 13; x. 21.—2 Kings xviii. 17; chap. xxxvi. 2.-8 Or, causeway. h Heb. let not thy heart be

of the kingdoms of Israel and Syria by the Assyrians, of the denunciation of the invasion of Judah by the same Assyrians. Verses 9, 10, give a repeated general assurance, that all the designs of the enemies of God's people shall be in the end disappointed, and brought to naught; ver. 11, &c., admonitions and threatenings, (I do not attempt a more particular explanation of this very difficult part,) concluding with an illustrious prophecy, chap. ix. 1-6, of the manifestation of Messiah, the transcendent dignity of his character, and the universality and eternal duration of his kingdom,

NOTES ON CHAP. VII.

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of them, and casting his eye on the third, might easily proceed to write after the first line beginning with verosh, that which ought to have followed the third line beginning with N verosh. Then finding his mistake, to preserve the beauty of his copy, added at the end the distich which should have been in the middle; making that the second distich, which ought to have been the third. For the order as it now stands is preposterous: the destruction of Ephraim is denounced, and then their grandeur is set forth; whereas naturally the representation of the grandeur of Ephraim should precede that of their destruction. And the destruction of Ephraim has no coherence with the grandeur of Syria, simply as such, which it now follows:

Verse 3. Now] na, is omitted by two MSS., the but it naturally and properly follows the grandeur of Septuagint, Syriac, Arabic, and Vulgate,

Verse 4. The Syriac omits D

ria;" the Vulgate reads

vearam, “and Symelech aram, "king of Syria:" one or the other seems to be the true reading. I prefer the former: or, instead of 11 vearam uben, read ja po vepekach ben, and pekah

son, MS.

Verse 5. Because-Remaliah] All these words are omitted by one MS. and the Syriac; a part of them also by the Septuagint.

Verses 8, 9. For the head of Syria, &c.]
"Though the head of Syria be Damascus,
And the head of Damascus Retsin;
Yet within threescore and five years

Ephraim, joined to that of Syria their ally.
"The arrangement then of the whole sentence seems
originally to have been thus:-

Though the head of Syria be Damascus ;
And the head of Damascus Retsin;

And the head of Ephraim be Samaria,
And the head of Samaria Remaliah's son:

Yet within threescore and five years
Ephraim shall be broken that he be no more a people."
DR. JUBB.

Threescore and five years] It was sixty-five years from the beginning of the reign of Ahaz, when this prophecy was delivered, to the total depopulation of the kingdom of Israel by Esarhaddon, who carried away Ephraim shall be broken, that he be no more a the remains of the ten tribes which had been left by

people:

And the head of Ephraim be Samaria; And the head of Samaria Remaliah's son. "Here are six lines, or three distichs, the order of which seems to have been disturbed by a transposition, occasioned by three of the lines beginning with the same word 1 verosh, "and the head," which three lines ought not to have been separated by any other line intervening; but a copyist, having written the first

Tiglath-pileser, and Shalmaneser, and who planted the country with new inhabitants. That the country was not wholly stripped of its inhabitants by Shalmaneser appears from many passages of the history of Josiah, where Israelites are mentioned as still remaining there, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 6, 7, 33; xxxv. 18; 2 Kings xxiii. 19, 20. This seems to be the best explanation of the chronological difficulty in this place, which has much embarrassed the commentators: see Usserii Annal.

Promise of

A. M. cir. 3262.
B. C. cir 742.

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10 Moreover the LORD spake | men, but will ye weary my God A. M. cir. 3262.

Anno Olymp. again unto Ahaz, saying,

Nonæ 3.

Ante Urbem

Conditam 12.

also?

8

B. C. cir. 742.
Anno Olymp.

Nonæ 3.
Ante Urbem
Conditam 12.

11 Ask thee a sign of the 14 Therefore the LORD himself LORD thy God; ask it either in shall give you a sign; ⚫ Behold, a the depth, or in the height above. virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and 12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither" shall call his name ▾ Immanuel. will I tempt the LORD.

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15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

Chap. ix. 6. Or, thou, O virgin, shalt call; see Genesis iv. 1, 25; xvi. 11; xxix. 32; xxx. 6,8; 1 Sam. iv. 21. Ch. viii. 8.

V. T. ad an. 3327, and Sir I. Newton, Chronol. close connection of this threat to the Jews with the p. 283. prophecy of the destruction of Israel, is another strong proof that the order of the preceding lines above proposed is right."-DR. JUBB.

"If ye believe not in me."-The exhortation of Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xx. 20, to his people, when God had promised to them, by the prophet Jahaziel, victory over the Moabites and Ammonites, is very like this both in sense and expression, and seems to be delivered in verse:

"Hear me, O Judah; and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem;

Believe in JEHOVAH your God, and ye shall be - established:

"That the last deportation of Israel by Esarhaddon was in the sixty-fifth year after the second of Ahaz, is probable for the following reasons: The Jews, in Seder Olam Rabba, and the Talmudists, in D. Kimchi on Ezek. iv., say, that Manasseh king of Judah was carried to Babylon by the king of Assyria's captains, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11, in the twenty-second year of his reign; that is, before Christ 676, according to Dr. Blair's tables. And they are probably right in this. It could not be much earlier; as the king of Assyria was not king of Babylon till 680, ibid. As Esarhaddon was then in the neighbourhood of Samaria, it is highly probable that he did then carry away the last remains of Israel, and brought those strangers thither who mention him as their founder, Ezra iv. 2. But this year is just the sixty-fifth from the second of Ahaz, which was 740 before Christ. Now the carrying away the remains of Israel, who, till then, though their king-ye will not believe in me, ye shall not be established." dom was destroyed forty-five years before, and though small in number, might yet keep up some form of being a people, by living according to their own laws, entirely put an end to the people of Israel, as a people separate from all others: for from this time they never returned to their own country in a body, but were confounded with the people of Judah in the captivity; and the whole people, the ten tribes included, were called Jews."-DR. JUBB. Two MSS. have twenty-five instead of sixty-five; and two others omit the word five, reading only sixty.

Believe his prophets, and ye shall prosper." Where both the sense and construction render very probable a conjecture of Archbishop Secker on this place; that instead of ' ki, we should read bi. "If

So likewise Dr. Durell. The Chaldee has, "If ye will not believe in the words of the prophet;" which seems to be a paraphrase of the reading here proposed. In favour of which it may be farther observed, that in one MS. ki is upon a rasure; and another for the last lo reads 1 velo, which would properly follow bi, but could not follow ki.

Some translate thus, and paraphrase thus: If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. Or, If ye do not give credit, it is because ye are unfaithful. Ye have not been faithful to the grace already given: therefore ye are now incapable of crediting my promises.

Verse 11. In the depth-" Go deep to the grave"] So Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and the Vulgate. Verse 14. The Lord-JEHOVAH"] For '18 Adonai, twenty-five of Kennicott's MSS., nine ancient, and fourteen of De Rossi's, read ¡n Yehovah. And so ver. 20, eighteen MSS.

If ye will not believe—" If ye believe not"] "This clause is very much illustrated by considering the captivity of Manasseh as happening at the same time with this predicted final ruin of Ephraim as a people. The near connection of the two facts makes the prediction of the one naturally to cohere with the prediction of the other. And the words are well suited to this event in the history of the people of Judah: If ye believe not, ye shall not be established;' that is, unless ye be- Immanuel.] For ny Immanuel, many MSS. and lieve this prophecy of the destruction of Israel, ye Jews editions have 1]ny immanu El, God with us. also, as well as the people of Israel, shall not remain Verse 15. That he may know" When he shall established as a kingdom and people; ye also shall be know"] Though so much has been written on this visited with punishment at the same time as our Sa- important passage, there is an obscurity and inconseviour told the Jews in his time, 'Unless ye repent, ye quence which still attends it, in the general run of all shall all likewise perish;' intimating their destruction the interpretations given to it by the most learned. by the Romans; to which also, as well as to the cap- And this obscure incoherence is given to it by the false tivity of Manasseh, and to the Babylonish captivity, rendering of a Hebrew particle, viz., ↳ le, in ny¬h. the views of the prophet might here extend. The ledato. This has been generally rendered, either 'that

66

Promise of

A. M. cir. 3262.
B. C. cir. 742.
Nona 3.
Ante Urbem
Conditam 12.

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B. C. cir. 742.
Anno Olymp.
Nona 3.
Ante Urbem
Conditam 12.

16 For before the child shall 17 The LORD shall bring A. M. cir. 3262. Anno Olymp. know to refuse the evil, and upon thee, and upon thy peochoose the good, the land that ple, and upon thy father's house, thou abhorrest shall be forsaken days that have not come from day that Ephraim departed from

of both her kings.

ver. 16.

See chap. viii. 4.2 Kings xv. 30; xvi. 9. he may know,' or 'till he know.' It is capable of either version, without doubt; but either of these versions makes ver. 15 incoherent and inconsistent with For ver. 16 plainly means to give a reason for the assertion in ver. 15, because it is subjoined to it by the particle 'ki, for. But it is no reason why a child should eat butter and honey till he was at an age to distinguish, that before that time the land of his nativity should be free from its enemies. This latter supposition indeed implies what is inconsistent with the preceding assertion. For it implies, that in part of that time of the infancy spoken of the land should not be free from enemies, and consequently these species of delicate food could not be attainable, as they are in times of peace. The other version, that he may know,' has no meaning at all; for what sense is there in asserting, that a child shall eat butter and honey that he may know to refuse evil and choose good? Is there any such effect in this food? Surely not. Besides, the child is thus represented to eat those things, which only a state of peace produces, during its whole infancy, inconsistently with ver. 16, which promises a relief from enemies only before the end of this infancy implying plainly, that part of it would be passed in distressful times of war and siege, which was the state of things when the prophecy was delivered.

ל

6

·

the

y 2 Chron. xxviii. 19. 1 Kings xii. 16. as a mark of peace restored to it. Indeed, in ver. 22 it expresses a plenty arising from the thinness of the people; but that it signifies, ver. 15, a plenty arising from deliverance from war then present, is evident; because otherwise there is no expression of this deliverance. And that a deliverance was intended to be here expressed is plain, from calling the child which should be born Immanuel, God with us. It is plain, also, because it is before given to the prophet in charge to make a declaration of the deliverance, ver. 3-7; and it is there made; and this prophecy must undoubtedly be conformable to that in this matter."Dr. Jubb.

The circumstance of the child's eating butter and honey is explained by Jarchi, as denoting a state of plenty: "Butter and honey shall this child eat, because our land shall be full of all good." Comment in locum. The infant Jupiter, says Callimachus, was tenderly nursed with goat's milk and honey. Hymn. in Jov. 48. Homer, of the orphan daughters of Pandareus :

Κόμισσε δε δι' Αφροδίτη
Τυρῳ, και μελιτι γλυκερῳ, και ήδει οινω.
ODYSS. XX., 68.

"Venus in tender delicacy rears
With honey, milk, and wine, their infant years."
POPE.

Tpvons eotiv evdeišis; "This is a description of delicate
food," says Eustathius on the place.

Agreeably to the observations communicated by the learned person above mentioned, which perfectly well explain the historical sense of this much disputed passage, not excluding a higher secondary sense, the obvious and literal meaning of the prophecy is this: "that within the time that a young woman, now a virgin, should conceive and bring forth a child, and that child should arrive at such an age as to distinguish between good and evil, that is, within a few years, (compare chap. viii. 4,) the enemies of Judah should be destroyed.' But the prophecy is introduced in so solemn a manner; the sign is so marked, as a sign selected and given by God himself, after Ahaz had rejected the offer of any sign of his own choosing out of the whole compass of nature; the terms of the prophecy are so peculiar, and the name of the child so

"But all these objections are eut off, and a clear, coherent sense is given to this passage, by giving another sense to the particle le, which never occurred to me till I saw it in Harmer's Observat., vol. i., p. 299. See how coherent the words of the prophet run, with how natural a connection one clause follows another, by properly rendering this one particle: Behold this Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and thou shalt call his name Immanuel; butter and honey shall he eat, when he shall know to refuse evil, and choose good. For before this child shall know to refuse evil and choose good, the land shall be desolate, by whose two kings thou art distressed.' Thus ver. 16 subjoins a plain reason why the child should eat butter and honey, the food of plentiful times, when he came to a distinguishing age; viz., because before that time the country of the two kings, who now distressed Judea, should be desolated; and so Judea should recover that plenty which attends peace. That this rendering, which gives perspicuity and rational connection to the passage, is according to the use of the Hebrew particle, is cer-expressive, containing in them much more than the tain. Thus liphnoth boker, at the appearing of morning, or when morning appeared,' Exod. xiv. 27; any leeth haochel, at meal-time, or when it was time to eat,' Ruth ii. 14. In the same manner, yhledato, at his knowing, that is, when he knows.' “Harmer (ibid.) has clearly shown that these articles of food are delicacies in the East, and, as such, denote a state of plenty. See also Josh. v. 6. They therefore naturally express the plenty of the country,

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circumstances of the birth of a common child required, or even admitted; that we may easily suppose that, in minds prepared by the general expectation of a great Deliverer to spring from the house of David, they raised hopes far beyond what the present occasion suggested; especially when it was found, that in the subsequent prophecy, delivered immediately afterward, this child, called Immanuel, is treated as the Lord and Prince of the land of Judah, Who could this be,

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