13 Who hath directed the

Spirit of the LORD, or being Numa Pompilii, his counsellor hath taught him. R. Roman., 4. 14 With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding?

15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.

Job xxi. 22; xxxvi. 22, 23; Wisd. ix. 13; Rom. xi. 34; I Cor. ii. 16. Heb. man of his counsel.- Heb. made him Heb. understandings?· Dan. iv. 34. Psa.

understand. lxii. 9. and the herds giving suck to their young are with me; and if they should be overdriven, all the flock will die." Which is set in a still stronger light by the following remark of Sir John Chardin: "Their flocks," says he, speaking of those who now live in the east after the patriarchal manner, "feed down the places of their encampments so quick, by the great numbers that they have, that they are obliged to remove them too often, which is very destructive to their flocks, on account of the young ones, who have not strength enough to follow." Harmer's Observ. i., p. 126.

Verse 16. And Lebanon is not sufficient] The image is beautiful and uncommon. It has been imitated by an apocryphal writer, who however comes far short of the original:

"For all sacrifice is too little for a sweet savour

unto thee:

And all the fat is not sufficient for thy burntoffering." Judith xvi. 16. Does not the prophet mean here that all the burntofferings and sacrifices that could be offered were insufficient to atone for sin? That the nations were as nothing before him, not merely because of his immensity, but because of their insufficiency to make any atonement by their oblations for the iniquities which they had committed? Therefore the Redeemer was to come to Zion, &c.

Verse 19. And casteth silver chains—“ And forgeth for it chains of silver."] For 8 tsoreph, the participle, twenty-seven MSS., five ancient, and three editions, read tsaraph, pret. third person.

Verse 20. Chooseth a tree that will not rot]. For what? To make a god out of it! The rich we find made theirs of gold and silver; the poor man was obliged to put up with a wooden god! From the words "he that hath no oblation chooseth a tree," we may learn that the gold and silver necessary to make the graven image was first dedicated, and then formed

vanity of idolatry.

18 To whom then will ye

e liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?

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19 The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth i. over with gold, and casteth silver chains.

20 He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot, he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved.

21 Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?

22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as € Ver. 25; chap. xlvi. 5; Acts xvii. 29. Chap. xli. 6, 7; xliv. 12, &c.; Jer. x. 3, &c. Heb. is poor of oblation. Chap. xli. 7; Jer. x. 4. Psa. xix. 1; Acts xiv. 17; Rom. i. 19, 20. Or, Him that sitteth, &c. into a god! How stupid is idolatry! Strange that these people did not perceive that there could be no help in these molten and wooden idols!

Verse 21. Have ye not known?] On this verse Kimchi has a very interesting comment, an extract of which I subjoin. "The whole world may be considered as a house built up; heaven its roof; the stars its lamps; and the fruits of the earth its table spread. The Master of the house is God, blessed for ever; and man is the steward into whose hand all the business of the house is given. If he always consider in his heart that the Master of the house is continually over him, and that he keeps his eye upon his work; and if in consequence he acts wisely, he shall find favour in the eyes of the Master of the house. But if he find wickedness in the house, then will he remove him min pekidutho, from his stewardship." The foolish steward does not think of this; for as his eyes do not see the Master of the house, he saith in his heart, I will eat and drink what I find in this house, and will take my pleasure in it; nor shall I be careful whether there be a master over this house or not.' When the Lord of the house marks this, he comes and expels him from the house speedily, and with great anger; therefore it is said, ver. 23, He bringeth the princes to nothing." It seems that this parable had been long in use among the Jews, as our blessed Lord alludes to it in his parable of the unjust steward. Or did the rabbin, finding it to his purpose, steal the parable from the Gospel? In both places it has great and peculiar beauties.

Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth" Have ye not understood it from the foundations of the earth?"] The true reading seems to be merosh in

DIDD mimmosedoth, to answer to

the foregoing line. It follows a word ending with D mem, and out of three mems concurring, it was an easy mistake to drop the middle one.

Verse 22. As a curtain-“ As a thin veil"] “It is

The infinite sufficiency

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m

23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. 24 Yea, they shall not be planted: yea, they shall not be sown yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. 25 "To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.

26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.

28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall;

usual in the summer season, and upon all occasions when a large company is to be received, to have the court sheltered from heat or inclemency of the weather by a velum, umbrella, or veil, as I shall call it; which being expanded on ropes from one side of the parapet wall to the other, may be folded or unfolded at pleasure. The psalmist seems to allude to some covering of this kind in that beautiful expression of spreading out the heavens like a curtain."-Shaw's Travels, p. 274.

Verse 24. And he shall also blow upon them—“ And if he but blow upon them"] The Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, and MS. Bodl., with another, have □l gam, only, without the conjunction 1 vau, and.

Verse 26. Lift up your eyes on high] The rabbins say, He who is capable of meditating on the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, and does not meditate on them, is not worthy to have his name mentioned among men.

Verse 28. There is no searching of his understanding" And that his understanding is unsearchable."] Twenty-four MSS., two editions, the Septuagint and Vulgate, read veein, with the conjunction 1 vau.

Verse 31. They shall mount up with wings as eagles "They shall put forth fresh feathers like the moulting eagle"] It has been a common and popular opinion that the eagle lives and retains his vigour to a great age; and that, beyond the common lot of other birds, he moults in his old age, and renews his feathers, and with them his youth. "Thou shalt renew thy youth like the eagle," says the psalmist, ciii. 5; on which

Psa. cxlvii. 4.-P Psa. cxlvii. 5; Rom. xi. 33. Psa. ciii. 5.- Heb. change.

place St. Ambrose notes, Aquila longam ætatem ducit, dum, vetustis plumis fatiscentibus, nova pennarum successione juvenescit :-"The eagle lives to a very advanced age; and in moulting his youth is renewed with his new feathers,"

Phile, De Animalibus, treating of the eagle, and addressing himself to the emperor Michael Palæologus junior, raises his compliment upon the same notion :

Τούτου συ, βασιλευ, τον πολυν ζωοις βίον,
Αει νεουργων, και κρατύνων την φυσιν.

"Long may'st thou live, O king; still like the eagle

Renew thy youth, and still retain thy vigour."

To this many fabulous and absurd circumstances are added by several ancient writers and commentators on Scripture; see Bochart, Hieroz. u. ii. 1. Rabbi Saadias says, Every tenth year the eagle flies near the sun; and when not able any longer to bear the burning heat, she falls down into the sea, and soon loses her feathers, and thus renews her vigour. This she does every tenth year till the hundredth, when, after she has ascended near the sun, and fallen into the sea, she rises no more. How much proof do such stories require! Whether the notion of the eagle's renewing his youth is in any degree well founded or not, I need not inquire; it is enough for a poet, whether profane or sacred, to have the authority of popular opinion to support an image introduced for illustration or ornament.-L.

Gracious purposes

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KEEP

bow.

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let us come near together to judgment.

C

e

3 He pursued them, and passed

safely; even by the way that

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4 f Who hath wrought and done it, calling from the beginning?

d

Zech. ii. 13.b Heb. righteousness.c Chap. xlvi. 11. d See Gen. xiv. 14, &c.; ver. 25; chap. xlv. 1.

NOTES ON CHAP. XLI. Verse 1. Keep silence before me, O islands—“Let the distant nations repair to me with new force of mind"] Eyzawisode, Septuagint. For whacharishu, be silent, they certainly read in their copy hachadishu, be renewed; which is parallel and synonymous with no 1 yechalephu coach, "recover their strength;" that is, their strength of mind, their powers of reason; that they may overcome those prejudices by which they have been so long held enslaved to idolatry. A MS. has har, upon a rasure. The same mistake seems to have been made in this word, Zeph. iii. 17. For yacharish beahabatho, silebit in dilectione sua, as the Vulgate renders it; which seems not consistent with what immediately follows, exultabit super te in laude; the Septuagint and Syriac read, yachadish beahabatho, "he shall be renewed in his love." elai, to me, is wanting in one of De Rossi's MSS. and in the Syriac.

Verse 2. The righteous man] The Chaldee and Vulgate seem to have read,py tsaddik. But Jerome, though his translation has justum, appears to have read pry tsedek; for in his comment he expresses it by justum, sive justitiam. However, I think all interpreters understand it of a person. So the Septuagint in MS. Pachom. sxaλsøɛv aurov, “ he hath called him;" but the other copies have aury, her. They are divided in ascertaining this person; some explain it of Abraham, others of Cyrus. I rather think that the former is meant; because the character of the righteous man, or righteousness, agrees better with Abraham than with Cyrus. Besides, immediately after the description of the success given by God to Abraham and his posterity, (who, I presume, are to be taken into the account,) the idolaters are introduced as greatly alarmed at this event. Abraham was called out of the east; and his posterity were introduced into the land of Canaan, in order to destroy the idolaters of that country, and they were established there on purpose to stand as a barrier against the idolatry then prevailing, and threatening to overrun the whole face of the earth. Cyrus, though not properly an idolater or worshipper of images, yet

1

am he.

e Heb. in peace.- Ver. 26; chap. xliv. 7; xlvi. 10.- Chap. xliii. 10; xliv. 6; xlviii. 12; Rev. i. 17; xxii. 13.

had nothing in his character to cause such an alarm among the idolaters, ver. 5-7. Farther, after having just touched upon that circumstance, the prophet with great ease returns to his former subject, and resumes Abraham and the Israelites; and assures them that as God had called them, and chosen them for this purpose, he would uphold and support them to the utmost, and at length give them victory over all the heathen nations, their enemies; ver. 8-16. Kimchi is of the same mind, and gives the same reasons.

He gave them as the dust to his sword-"Hath made them like the dust before his sword"] The image is strong and, beautiful; it is often made use of by the sacred poets; see Psa. i. 4; xxxv. 5; Job xxi. 18, and by Isaiah himself in other places, chap. xvii. 13; xxix. 5. But there is great difficulty in making out the construction. The Septuagint read an op kashtam, charbam, their sword, their bow, understanding it of the sword and bow of the conquered kings: but this is not so agreeable to the analogy of the image, as employed in other places. The Chaldee paraphrast and Kimchi solve the difficulty by supposing an ellipsis of liphney before those words. It must be owned that the ellipsis is hard and unusual: but I choose rather to submit to this, than, by adhering with Vitringa to the more obvious construction, to destroy entirely both the image and the sense. by gladio ejus, to his sword, and arcui ejus, to his bow, seems to express 1 lecharbo, to his sword, and p lekashto, to his bow, the admission of which reading may perhaps be thought preferable to Kimchi's ellipsis.

But the Vulgate

Verse 3. And passed safely—" He passeth in safety"]. The preposition seems to have been omitted in the text by mistake; the Septuagint and Vulgate seem to have had it in their copies; ev signvy, in pace, ɔwɔ beshalom, "prosperously." It is so in one of De Rossi's MSS.

Verse 4. Who hath wrought and done it-" Who hath performed and made these things"] A word is here lost out of the text. It is supplied by an ancient MS., elleh," these things ;" and by the Septuagint,

Olymp. XVII. 1. the ends of the earth were afraid, Numa Pompilii, drew near, and came,

cir. annum

R. Roman., 4. 6 They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, i Be of good courage.

7 So the carpenter encouraged the 'goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer m him that smote the anvil," saying, It is ready for the soddering: and he fastened it with nails, • that it should not be moved.

8 But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my a friend.

9 Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.

S

10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of righteousness,

my

11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and "they that strive with thee shall perish,

12 Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee:

Chap. xl. 19; xliv. 12. Heb. Be strong.- -k Chap. xl. 19. 1Or, founder.- m Or, the smiting. Or, saying of the sodder, It is good. Chap. xl. 20. Deut. vii. 6; x. 15; xiv. 2; Psa. cxxxv. 4; chap. xliii. 1; xliv. 1.-42 Chron. xx. 7; James. ii. 23. Ver. 13, 14; chap. xliii. 5.- sDeut, xxxi. 6, 8.

to defend his followers.

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unto thee,

14 Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye y men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. 15 Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.

a

e

19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together:

Exod. xxiii. 22; chap. xlv. 24; lx. 12; Zech. xii. 3.- "Heb. the men of thy strife. Heb. the men of thy contention.- Heb. the men of thy war.- x Ver. 10.7 Or, few men.· - Mic. iv. 13; 2 Cor. x. 4, 5.- -a Heb. mouths. Jer. li. 2. Chap. xlv. 25. Chap. xxxv. 6, 7; xliii. 19; xliv. 3.—e .d Psa. cvii. 35.

Verse 5. Were afraid-" And they were terrified"] Three MSS. have 17 vaiyecheridu, adding the conjunction vau, which restores the second member of the sentence to its true poetical form.

Verse 7. That it should not be moved-"That it shall not move."] Five MSS., (two ancient,) and the ancient Versions, add the conjunction ↑ vau, "and," reading velo," and not," which seems to be right. Verse 9. And called thee from the chief men thereof—“ And called from the extremities thereof"]

' atsil meatsileyha, signifies the arm, axilla, ala; and is used like canaph, "the wing," for any thing extended from the extremity of another, or joined on to it. It is here parallel with and synonymous to my mikkatsoth, " from the ends," in the preceding member.

Verse 10. Be not dismayed—yrins veal tishta, "AND be not dismayed." The vau is added by twentyone of Dr. Kennicott's MSS., thirty of De Rossi's, and

more complete.

Verse 14. Fear not, thou worm Jacob] In the rabbinical commentary on the five books of Moses, Yelamedenu, it is asked, Why are the Israelites called a worm? To signify, that as the worm does not smite, that is, gnaw the cedars, but with its mouth, which is very tender, yet it nevertheless destroys the hard wood; so all the strength of the Israelites is in prayer, by which they smite the wicked of this world, though strong like the cedars, to which they are compared, Ezek. xxxi. 3.

Verse 15. A new sharp threshing instrument having teeth" A threshing wain; a new corn-drag armed with pointed teeth"] See note on chap. xxviii. 27, 28.

Thou shalt thresh the mountains] Mountains and hills are here used metaphorically for the kings and princes of the Gentiles.-Kimchi.

Verse 19. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar] The two preceding verses express God's mercy to them in their passage through the dry deserts, in supplying