The pride and folly

B. C. cir. 712.

CHAP. XLVII.

Olymp. XVH.1. come to thee in a moment in

cir. annum

of the Chaldeans.

A. M. cir. 3292. 9 But these two things shall with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth: if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail.

Numa Pompilii, one day, the loss of children and R. Roman., 4. widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their pefection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance. of thine enchantments.

10 For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me.

· 11 Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know y from whence it riseth: and mischief_shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and a desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.

e

d

A. M. cir. 3292.
B. C. cir. 712.

Olymp. XVII. 1.

cir. annum

Numa Pompilii,
R. Roman., 4.

13 Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.

14 Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.

15 Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth they shall wander every one to

12 Stand now with thine enchantments, and his quarter; none shall save thee.

r Chap. li. 19.- 1 Thess. v. 3.—— Nah. iii. 4. Psa, lii. 7.—v Chap. xxix. 15; Ezek. viii. 12; ix. 9. Or, caused thee to turn away. X Ver. 8. -y Heb. the morning thereof.— Heb. expiate.1 Thess. v. 3.

Verse 9. These two things shall come to thee in a moment] That is, suddenly. Belshazzar was slain; thus the city became metaphorically a widow, the husband-the governor of it, being slain. In the time, in which the king was slain, the Medes and Persians took the city, and slew many of its inhabitants, see Dan. v. 30, 31. When Darius took the city, he is said to have crucified three thousand of its principal inhabitants.

b Chap. Ivii. 10-e Chap. xliv. 25; Dan. ii. 2.- La Heb. viewers of the heavens.- e Heb. that give knowledge concerning the months. Nah. í, 10; Mal. iv. 1. Heb. their souls. h Rev. xviii. 11.

In order to set in a proper light this judicious remark, it is necessary to give the reader an exact verbal translation of the whole verse :—

"And evil shall come upon thee, thou shalt not know how to deprecate it;

And mischief shall fall upon thee, thou shalt not be able to expiate it;

And destruction shall come suddenly upon thee, thou shalt not know”

In their perfection—" On a sudden"] Instead of What? how to escape, to avoid it, to be delivered from bethummam, "in their perfection," as our trans-it? perhaps n tseth mimmennah, "they could lation renders it, the Septuagint and Syriac read, in not go out from it," Jer. xi. 11. I am persuaded that the copies from which they translated, DN pithom, a phrase is here lost out of the text. But as the an-, suddenly; parallel to y rega, in a moment, in the preceding alternate member of the sentence. The concurrent testimony of the Septuagint and Syriac, favoured by the context, may be safely opposed to the authority of the present text.

For the multitude-" Notwithstanding the multitude"] berob. For this sense of the particle

beth, see Num. xiv. 14:

Verse 11. Thou shalt not know from whence it riseth-"Thou shalt not know how to deprecate"]

shachrah; so the Chaldee renders it, which is approved by Jarchi on the place; and Michaelis Epim. in Prælect. xix.; see Psa. lxxviii. 34.

Videtur in fine hujus commatis deese verbum, ut hoc membrum prioribus respondeat. "A word appears to be wanting at the end of this clause to connect it properly with the two preceding."-SECKER.

cient versions retain no traces of it, and a wide field lies open to uncertain conjecture, I have not attempted to fill up the chasm, but have in the translation, as others have done before me, palliated and disguised the defect, which I cannot with any assurance pretend to supply.-L.

Verse 13. From these things" What are the events"] For ND measher, read mah asher, so the Septuagint, "what is to happen to thee." Verse 15. To his quarter-"To his own business"] y leebro. Expositors give no very good account of this word in this place. In a MS. it was at first y leabdo, to his servant or work, which is probably the true reading. The sense however is pretty much the same with the common interpretation. Every one shall turn aside to his own business; none shall deliver thee."

187

66

The obstinacy of

ISAIAH.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

the Jews reproved.

The Jews reproved for their obstinate attachment to idols, notwithstanding their experience of the Divine providence over them; and of the Divine prescience that revealed by the prophets the most remarkable events which concerned them, that they should not have the least pretext for ascribing any portion of their success to their idols, 1-8. The Almighty, after bringing them to the furnace for their perverseness, asserts his glorious sovereignty, and repeats his gracious promises of deliverance and consolation, 9-11. Prophecy concerning that individual (Cyrus) who shall be an instrument in the hand of God of executing his will on Babylon, and his power on the Chaldeans; and the idols of the people are again challenged to give a like proof of their foreknowledge, 12–16. Tender and passionate exclamation of Jehovah respecting the hardened condition of the Jewish nation, to which the very pathetic exclamation of the Divine Saviour when he wept over Jerusalem' may be considered a striking parallel, 17-19. Notwithstanding the repeated provocations of the house of Israel, Jehovah will again be merciful to them. They are commanded to escape from Babylon; and God's gracious favour towards them is beautifully represented by images borrowed from the exodus from Egypt, 20, 21. Certain perdition of the finally impenitent, 22. It will be proper here to remark that many passages in this chapter, and indeed the general strain of these prophecies, have a plain aspect to a restoration of the Church in the latter days upon a scale much greater than the world has yet witnessed, when the very violent fall of Babylon the Great, mentioned in the Revelation, of which the Chaldean capital was an expressive type, shall introduce by a most tremendous political convulsion, (Rev. xvi. 17-21,) that glorious epoch of the Gospel, which forms so conspicuous a part of the prophecies of the Old Testament, and has been a subject of the prayers of all saints in all ages.

е

C

2 For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is his name.

3 I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them; I did them suddenly,

and they came to pass.

4 Because I knew that thou art hobstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;

5. I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I showed it

Psa. Ixviii. 26. - Deut. vi. 13; chap. lxv. 16; Zeph. i. 5. e Jer. iv. 2; v. 2.- d Chap. lii. 1.e Mic. iii. 11; Rom. ii. 17. Chap. xli. 22; xlii. 9; xliii. 9; xliv. 7, 8; xlv. 21; xlvi. 9, 10. Josh, xxi. 45. h Heb. hard.

NOTES ON CHAP. XLVIII.

A.

4. M. cir. 3292. Olymp. XVII. 1. Numa Pompilii,

B. C. eir. 712.

cir. annum

R. Roman., 4.

thee: lest thou shouldest say,
Mine idol hath done them; and
my graven image, and my molten
image, hath commanded them.
6 Thou hast heard, see all this; and will
not ye declare it?
I have showed thee new
things from this time, even hidden things, and
thou didst not know them.

7 They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.

8 Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not: yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called ma transgressor from the womb.

9

For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain

i Exod. lii. 9; Deut. xxxi. 27. Ver. 3.- Chap. xxxiii. 1; Jer. iii. 20; v. 11; Hos. v. 7; vi. 7; Mal. ii. 10, 14, 15, 16. m Psa. Iviii. 3. Psa. lxxix. 9; cvi. 8; chap. xliii. 25; ver. 1'; Ezek. xx. 9, 14, 22, 44.—————a Psa. lxxviii. 38.

has 'n vechazith, "thou hast heard, and thou hast seen, the whole." Perhaps it should be on hinneh, behold. In order to express the full sense, I have rendered it somewhat paraphrastically.

Verse 6. Thou hast heard, see all this-" Thou Verse 1. Are come forth out of the waters of Judah didst hear it beforehand; behold, the whole is accom"Ye that flow from the fountain of Judah"], "plished"] For in chazeh, see, a MS. has nin hazzeh, mimmey," from the waters." Perhaps y mimmeey, this; thou hast heard the whole of this: the Syriac "from the bowels," so many others have conjectured, or 17 meni yehudah, or D meyhudah, “ from Judah." -Secker. But see Michaelis in Prælect, not. 22. And we have py' j'y eyn yaakob, "the fountain of Jacob," Deut. xxxiii. 28, and p mimmekor yishrael, "from the fountain of Israel," Psa. lxviii. 27. Twenty-seven MSS. of Kennicott's, six of De Rossi's and two of my own, with six editions, have 'D' meymey," from the days ;" which makes no good sense.

Verse 9. And for my praise—“ And for the sake of my praise"] I read ' ¡ ulemaan tehillathi. The word lemaan, though not absolutely necessary here, for it may be understood as supplied from the preceding member, yet seems to have been removed

cir. annum

Numa Pompilii,
10 Behold, I have refined thee,
R. Roman., 4.
but not with silver; I have
chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.

11 For mine own sake, even for mine own şake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted and "I will not give my glory unto another.

12 Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.

13 Mine hand also hath laid the foundation

from hence to ver. 11; where it is redundant, and where it is not repeated in the Septuagint, Syriac, and a MS. I have therefore omitted it in the latter place, and added it here.

Verse 10. I have chosen thee" I have tried thee"] For becharticha, “I have chosen thee," a MS. has Tan bechanticha, “I have tried thee." And so perhaps read the Syriac and Chaldee interpreters; they retain the same word bechartach ; but in those languages it signifies, I have tried thee. kecheseph, quasi argentum," as silver." Vulgate.

since.

,cur כור'

in their captivity.

of the earth, and my right hand
hath spanned the heavens: when
I call unto them, they stand up
together.

I cannot think becheseph, WITH silver, is the true reading. kecheseph, LIKE silver, as the Vul gate evidently read it, I suppose to have been the original reading, though no MS. yet found supports this word; the similarity of the two letters, beth and caph, might have easily led to the mistake in the first instance; and it has been but too faithfully copied ever which we translate furnace, should be rendered crucible, the vessel in which the silver is 1 melted. The meaning of the verse seems to be this: I have purified you, but not as silver is purified; for when it is purified, no dross of any kind is left behind. Had I done this with you, I should have consumed you altogether; but I have put you in the crucible of affliction, in captivity, that you may acknowledge your sins, and turn unto me.

Verse 11. For how should my name be polluted― "For how would my name be blasphemed "] The word 'shemi, my name, is dropped out of the text; it is supplied by a MS. which has " shemi; and by the Septuagint, iri so sμov ovoμa Beßnλoura. The Syriac and Vulgate get over the difficulty, by making the verb in the first person; that I may not be blasphemed.

Verse 12. O Jacob-" O Jacob, my servant"] After Spy yaakob, a MS. of Kennicott's, two of De Rossi's, and the two old editions of 1486 and 1488, add the word "y abdi, "my servant," which is lost out of the present text; and there is a rasure in its place in another ancient MS. The Jerusalem Talmud has the same word.

a

C. r. 712. Olymp. XVII. 1.

B. cir.

cir. annum

Numa Pompili

R. Roman., 4.

14 All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these things? The LORD hath loved him he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.

15 I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.

e

16- Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I

Psa. cii. 25. Or, the palm of my right hand hath spread out. z Chap. xl. 26.a Chap. xli. 22; xliv. 7; xlv. 20, 21.Chap. xlv. 1.- Chap. xliv. 28.- Chap. xlv. 1, 2, &c.Chap. xlv. 19.

aph ani, "even I," two ancient MSS. and the ancient Versions, read veani, “and I;" more properly.

Verse 14. Which among them hath declared these things "Who among you hath predicted these things"] For Dn bahem, "among them," twenty-one MSS., nine ancient, and two editions, one of them that of the year 1488, fourteen of De Rossi's, and one ancient of my own, have a bachem, " among you ;" and so the Syriac.

The Lord hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon" He, whom JEHOVAH hath loved, will execute his will on Babylon"] That is, Cyrus; so Symmachus has well rendered it: 'Ov ó Kupros nyarnos Tods To Jeλnpa autou, "He whom the Lord hath loved will perform his will."

On the Chaldeans.] The preposition is lost; it is supplied in the edition of 1486, which has a bechasdim, and so the Chaldee and Vulgate,

Verse 16, Come ye near unto me] After the word kirbu, " draw near," a MS. adds ▷ goyim, “O ye nations ;" which, as this and the two preceding verses are plainly addressed to the idolatrous nations, reproaching their gods as unable to predict future events, is probably genuine.

Hear ye this" And hear ye this"] A MS. adds the conjunction, wow vashimu; and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.

I have not spoken in secret] The Alexandrine copy of the Septuagint adds here, oude EV TOTW INS OXOTEIN, "nor in a dark place of the earth," as in chap. xlv. 19. That it stands rightly, or at least stood very early, in this place of the Version of the Septuagint, is highly probable, because it is acknowledged by the Arabic Version, and by the Coptic MS. St. Germain de Prez, Paris, translated likewise from the Septuagint. But whether it should be inserted, as of right belonging to the Hebrew text, may be doubted; for a transcriber of the Greek Version might easily add it by memory from the parallel place; and it is not necessary to the sense.

From the time that it was- "Before the time when it began to exist"] An ancient MS. has □ heyoI also am the last—"I am the last"] For Itham," they began to exist;" and so another had it at

A. M. cir. 3292. have not spoken in secret from
Olymp. XVII. 1. the beginning; from the time
Numa Pompilii, that it was, there am I: and now
R. Roman., 4. the Lord GOD, and his Spirit,
hath sent me.

and the offspring of thy bowels A. M. cir. 3292 like the gravel thereof; his name Olymp. XVII. 1. should not have been cut off nor Numa Pompilii, destroyed from before me.

cir. annum

R. Roman., 4.

20 m Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from 17 Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the God which teacheth thee to profit, which earth; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his h leadeth thee by the way that thou should-servant Jacob. est go.

18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:

19

21 And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out. 22 There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto

Thy seed also had been as the sand, the wicked.

first. From the time that the expedition of Cyrus was planned, there was God managing the whole by the economy of his providence.

"If the prophecy," says he, "relates to the return from the Babylonish captivity, as it seems to do, it is to be wondered how it comes to pass, that in the Book of Verse 18. There am I"I had decreed it"] I Ezra, in which he gives an account of their return, no take D sham for a verb, not an adverb.

And now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me "And now the Lord JEHOVAH hath sent me, and his Spirit"] Τις εστιν ὁ ἐν τῷ Ησαίῳ λεγων, Και νυν Κυριος απέστειλε με και το Πνέυμα αυτου; εν ώ, αμφιβόλου οντος του ῥήσου, ποτέρον ὁ Πατηρ και το Αγιον Πνευμα απέστειλαν τον Ιησουν, η ὁ Πατηρ απέστειλε τον σε Χριςτον και το Άγιον Πνευμα· το δευτερον εστιν αληθες. Who is it that saith in Isaiah, And now the Lord hath sent me and his Spirit? in which, as the expression is ambiguous, is it the Father and the Holy Spirit who have sent Jesus; or the Father, who hath sent both Christ and the Holy Spirit. The latter is the true interpretation."—Origen cont. Cels. lib. i. I have kept to the order of the words of the original, on purpose that the ambiguity, which Origen remarks in the Version of the Septuagint, and which is the same in the Hebrew, might still remain; and the sense which he gives to it, be offered to the reader's judgment, which is wholly excluded in our translation.

mention is made that such miracles were wrought for
them; as, for instance, that God clave the rock for them
in the desert." It is really much to be wondered, that
one of the most learned and judicious of the Jewish
expositors of the Old Testament, having advanced so
far in a large Comment on Isaiah, should appear to be
totally ignorant of the prophet's manner of writing;
of the parabolic style, which prevails in the writings
of all the prophets, and more particularly in the pro-
phecy of Isaiah, which abounds throughout in para-
bolical images from the beginning to the end; from
"Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth," to "the
worm and the fire" in the last verse..
And how came
he to keep his wonderment to himself so long? Why
did he not expect that the historian should have related
how, as they passed through the desert, cedars, pines,
and olive-trees shot up at once on the side of the way
to shade them; and that instead of briers and brambles
the acacia and the myrtle sprung up under their feet,
according to God's promises, chap. xli. 19 and lv. 13?

Verse 18. As a river-" Like the river"] That is, These and a multitude of the like parabolical or poetthe Euphrates.

Verse 19. Like the gravel thereof—“ Like that of the bowels thereof”] ́`n oni on 'yo `Nyxy] betseetsáey meey haiyam vehem haddagim; "As the issue of the bowels of the sea; that is, fishes."-Salom. ben Melec. And so likewise Aben Ezra, Jarchi, Kimchi, &c. His name "Thy name"] For 1 shemo, "his name," the Septuagint had in the copy from which they translated shimcha, “ thy name."

99

ical images, were never intended to be understood literally. All that the prophet designed in this place, and which he has executed in the most elegant manner, was an amplification and illustration of the gracious care and protection of God vouchsafed to his people in their return from Babylon, by an allusion to the miraculous exodus from Egypt. See De S. Poësi, Hebr. Præl. ix.

Verse 22. There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.] See below, note on chap. lvii. 21. As Verse 20. Tell this-" Make it heard"] Twenty- the destruction of Babylon was determined, God comseven MSS. of Kennicott's, (ten ancient,) many of De mands his people to hasten out of it; for, saith the Rossi's, and two ancient, of my own, with the Septua- Lord, there is no peace (prosperity) to the wicked; ovx gint, Syriac, Chaldee, and Arabic, and one edition, pre-sori xaige TO015 aσɛßeσiv, λɛyei Kugios.-Sept. "There fix to the verb the conjunction 1 vau, w`n vehashmiu. is no rejoicing or prosperity to the wicked saith the Verse 21. They thirsted not-through the deserts] Lord." Their is not pese to unrptous men seith the Kimchi has a surprising observation upon this place: Lord.-Old MS. Bible.

CHAP. XLIX.

CHAPTER XLIX.

In this chapter the Messiah is introduced, declaring the full extent of his commission, which is not only to be Saviour to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles. The power and efficacy of his word is represented by apt images; the ill success of his ministry among the Jews is intimated, and the great success of the Gospel among the Gentiles, 1-12. But the prophet, then casting his eye on the happy, though distant, period of Israel's restoration, makes a beautiful apostrophe to the whole creation to shout forth the praises of God on the prospect of this remarkable favour, 13. The tender mercies of God to his people, with the prosperity of the Church in general, and the final overthrow of all its enemies, make the subject of the remaining verses, 14-26.

B. C. cur. 12. LISTEN, O isles, unto me; hid me, and made me a polished A. and hearken, ye people, from shaft; in his quiver hath he