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CHAPTER XLI

The prophet, having intimated the deliverance from Babylon, and the still greater redemption couched under it, resumes the subject. He begins with the Divine vocation of Abraham, the root of the Israelitish family, and his successful exploits against the idolaters, 1-7. He then recurs to the Babylonish captivity, and encourages the seed of Abraham, the friend of God, not to fear, as all their enemies would be ultimately subdued under them, 8-16; and every thing furnished necessary to refresh and comfort them in them passage homewards through the desert, 17-20. The prophet then takes occasion to celebrate the prescience of God, from his knowledge of events so very distant as instanced in the prediction concerning the messenger of glad tidings which should be given to Jerusalem to deliver her from all her enemies; and challenges the idols of the heathen to produce the like proof of their pretended divinity, 21-27. But they are all vanity, and accursed are they that choose them, 28, 29.

NOTES ON CHAP. XLI

Verse 1. "Keep silence before me, O islands "Let the distant nations repair to me with new force of mind"" - egkainizesqe, Septuagint. For wyrjh hacharishu, be silent, they certainly read in their copy wydjh hachadishu, be renewed; which is parallel and synonymous with jk wpljy 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 rh har, upon a rasure. The same mistake seems to have been made in this word, Zeph. iii. 17. For wtbhab yrjy yacharish beahabatho, silebit in directions sua, as the Vulgate renders it; which seems not consistent with what immediately follows, exultabit super te in laude; the Septuagint and Syriac read wtbhab ydjy yachadish beahabatho, "he shall be renewed in his love. " yla 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 qydx tsaddik. But Jerome, though his translation has justum, appears to have read qdx 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. ekalesen auton, "he hath called him; " but the other copies have authn, 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 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.

"Be 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. 6; 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 µbrj µtq 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 ynpl 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.

But the Vulgate by gladio ejus, to his sword, and arcui ejus, to his bow, seems to express wbrjl lecharbo, to his sword, and wtql lekashto, to his bow, the admission of which reading may perhaps be thought preferable to Kimchi's ellipsis.

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; en eirhnh, to pace, µwlb 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 sups plied by an ancient MS., hla elleh, "these things; " and by the Septuagint, tauta; and by the Vulgate, haec; and by the Chaldee, la elin; all of the same meaning.

Verse 5. "Were afraid "And they were terrified"" - Three MSS. have wdrjyw vaiyecheridu, adding the conjunction w 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 w vau, "and, "reading alw velo, "and not, "which seems to be right.

Verse 9. "And called thee from the chief men thereof "And called from the extremities thereof"" - hylyxam lyxa atsil meatsileyha, signifies the arm, ascilla, ala; and is used like Pnk 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 twxqm mikkatsoth, "from the ends, "in the preceding member.

Verse 10. Be not dismayed-[tt law veal tishta, "AND be not dismayed. " The w vau is added by twenty-one of Dr. Kennicott's MSS., thirty of De Rossi's, and one of my own, and three editions. It makes the sense 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 them with abundant water, when distressed with thirst, in allusion to the exodus. This verse expresses the relief afforded to them, fainting with heat in their journey through that hot country, destitute of shelter, by causing shady trees, and those of the tallest and most beautiful kinds, to spring up for their defense. The apocryphal Baruch, speaking of the return from Babylon, expresses God's protection of his people by the same image: "Even the woods and every sweet-smelling tree shall overshadow Israel by the commandment of God.

" Chap. v. 8.

"The oil tree" - This, Kimchi says, is not to be understood of the olive tree, for the olive is distinguished, Neh. viii. 15; but it means the pine or fir, from which pitch is extracted.

Verse 20. "And consider" - The verb wmyy yasimu, without bl leb added, cannot signify to apply the heart, or to attend to a thing, as Houbigant has observed; he therefore reads wmy yashshemu, they shall wonder. The conjecture is ingenious; but it is much more probable that the word bl leb is lost out of the text; for all the ancient versions render the phrase to the same sense, as if it were fully expressed, bl wmyy yasimu leb; and the Chaldee renders it paraphrastically, yet still retaining the very words in his paraphrase, whbl l[ ytljd www vishavvun dechalti al lebehon, "that they may put my fear in their heart. " See also ver. 22, where the same phrase is used.

Verse 21. "Bring forth your strong reasons "Produce these your mighty powers"" - "Let your idols come forward which you consider to be so very strong. " Hieron. in loc. I prefer this to all other interpretations of this place; and to Jerome's own translation of it, which he adds immediately after, Afferte, si quid forte habetis. "Bring it forward, if haply ye have any thing. " The false gods are called upon to come forth and appear in person; and to give evident demonstration of their foreknowledge and power by foretelling future events, and exerting their power in doing good or evil.

Verse 23. "That we may be dismayed, and behold it together "Then shall we be struck at once with admiration and terror."" - The word arnw venere is written imperfectly in the Hebreto text; the Masoretes supply h he at the end; and so it is read in twenty-two MSS. and four editions; that is, harnw venireh, and we shall see. But the true reading seems to be arynw venira, and we shall fear, with y yod supplied, from ary yara.

Verse 24. "Your work of naught "Your operation is less than naught"" - For [pam meepha, read µpam meephes; so the Chaldee and Vulgate. A manifest error of the text; compare chap. xl. 17. The rabbins acknowledge no such error, but say that the former word signifies the same with the latter, by a change of the two letters s samech and [ ain. - Sal ben Melec in loc.

Verse 25. "I have raised up one from the north" - "That is, "says Kimchi, "the Messiah. The king of Assyria placed the ten tribes in Chalach and Chabar by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, 2 Kings xvii. 6, which lands lie northerly and easterly." He shall come upon princes "He shall trample on princes"] For aby yabo, Le Clerc reads sby yebes, from the Chaldee, who seems to read both words. "Forte legend. sbyw vaiyebes vel smryw vaiyirmos: sequitur s . " "This should perhaps be read sbyw vaiyebes, or smryw vaiyirmos: a s samech follows." -Secker. See Nahum iii. 14.

Verse 26. "Your word" - µkytrma imrntheychem; but, instead of this, one of my most ancient MSS. has µkyrbd dibreychem. The meaning is nearly the same: but in this reading this HIS. is singular.

Verse 27. "The first shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them "I first to Zion gave the word, Behold they are here"" - This verse is somewhat obscure by the transposition of the parts of the sentence, and the peculiar manner in which it is divided into two parallel lines. The verb at the end of the sentence belongs to both parts; and the phrase, Behold, they are here! is parallel to the messenger of glad tidings; and stands like it, as the accusative case to the verb. The following paraphrase will explain the form and the sense of it. "I first, by my prophets, give notice of these events, saying, Behold, they are at hand! and I give to Jerusalem a messenger of glad tidings."

Verse 28. "Among them "Among the idols"" - For hlamw umeelleh, I read µylamw umeellim, with the Septuagint, kai apo twn eidwlwn, "and from or among the idols. " See Exod. xv. 11; chap. lvii. 5.

R. D. Kimchi has many good observations on this chapter. Bishop Lowth follows him in applying it to Abraham, and not to Cyrus; the whole being spoken in the past tense, which is not used, or rarely, in such a case for the future. Almost the whole of the rabbins understand it of Abraham. On Kimchi's plan, the following is a paraphrase.

The righteous man-Abram, from the eastthe land of his nativity, called the land of the children of the east, Gen. xxix. 1.

Brought him to his feet-Whithersoever his feet went, he preached righteousness and truth; as it is written, "There he proclaimed in the name of JEHOVAH, "Gen. xxi. 31. And he called it wharqyw vaiyikraehu-that is, qrx tsedek, righteousness, to his feet, enabled him to hold it forth wherever he went.

He called the nations-To leave their idols and worship him who made the universe. He taught them the way of righteousness, truth, and faith. Was there ever a prodigy like to this? A man who had been an idolater, rising up against all the nations of the earth, reproving their faith, and not fearing before them nor their kings! Who stirred up his heart to do this? Was it not the Lord? Gave the nations before him-And made him rule over kings-Chedorlaomer, and the kings which were with him: whom the Lord gave as dust to his sword, and stubble to his bow.

He pursued them-He and his three hundred and eighteen servants.