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CHAPTER XLIV

This chapter, besides promises of redemption, of the effusion of the Spirit, and success of the Gospel, 1-5, sets forth, in a very sublime manner, the supreme power and foreknowledge, and absolute eternity, of the one true God; and exposes the folly and absurdity of idolatry with admirable force and elegance, 6-20. And to show that the knowledge of future events belongs only to Jehovah, whom all creation is again called to adore for the deliverance and reconciliation granted to his people, 21-23, the prophet concludes with setting in a very strong point of view the absolute impotence of every thing considered great and insurmountable in the sight of men, when standing in the way of the Divine counsel; and mentions the future deliverer of the Jewish nation expressly by name, nearly two hundred years before his birth, 24-28.

NOTES ON CHAP. XLIV

Verse 2. "Jesurun" - Jeshurun means Israel. This name was given to that people by Moses, Deuteronomy xxxii. 15; xxxiii. 5, 26. The most probable account of it seems to be that in which the Jewish commentators agree; namely, that it is derived from ry yashar, and signifies upright. In the same manner, Israel, as a people, is called µlm meshullam, perfect, chap. xlii. 19, They were taught of God, and abundantly furnished with the means of rectitude and perfection in his service and worship. Grotius thinks that wry yeshurun is a diminutive of lary yishrael, Israel; expressing peculiar fondness and affection; israhlidion, O little Israel.

Verse 4. "They shall spring up as among the grass "They shall spring up as the grass among the waters"" - ryxj ybb bebeyn chatsir, "They shall spring up to the midst of, or rather, in among, the grass. " This cannot be right: eleven MSS., and thirteen editions, have ybk kebeyn, or bk keben.

Twenty-four MSS. read it without the y yod, bb beben, in the son of the grass; and so reads the Chaldee; bb beben, in the son of the grass.

Twenty-four MSS. of Dr. Kennicott's, thirty-three of De Rossi's, and one of my own, with six editions, have this reading. The Syriac, ybm mibbeyn.

The true reading is in all probability ybk kebeyn; and the word µym mayim, which should have followed it, is lost out of the text: but it is happily supplied by the Septuagint, wv ana meson udatov, as among the water "In every place where there is water, there is always grass; for water makes every thing grow in the east. " Sir John Chardin's note on 1 Kings xvii. 5. Harmer's Observations i. 64.

Verse 5. "Shall call himself "Shall be called"" - Passive, arqy yikkare; klhqhsetai, Symmachus.

"Another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord "This shall inscribe his hand to JEHOVAH"" - kai eterov epigrayei ceiri (ceira, Ag., Sym.) autou, tou qeou eimi "And another shall write upon his hand, I belong to God." -Sept. They seem to have read here, as before, yna hwhyl laihovah ani, I belong to JEHOVAH. But the repetition of the same phrase without any variation is not elegant. However, they seem to have understood it rightly, as an allusion to the marks, which were made by punctures rendered indelible, by fire or by staining, upon the hand or some other part of the body, signifying the state or character of the person, and to whom he belonged. The slave was marked with the name of his master, the soldier, of his commander; the idolater, with the name or ensign of his god: stigmata epigrafomena dia twn strateuomenwn en taiv cersin "Punctural inscriptions made by the soldiers on their hands. " Aetius apud Turnebum Advers. xxiv. 12. Victuris in cute punctis milites scripti et matriculis inserti jurare solent. "The soldiers having indelible inscriptions on their skin, and inserted in the muster-rolls, are accustomed to make oath. " Vigetius, ii. 6. And the Christians seem to have imitated this practice, by what Procopius says on this place of Isaiah: to de th ceiri, dia to stizein iswv pollouv epi karpwn, h bracionwn, h tou staurou shmeion, h thn cristou proshgorian. "Because many marked their wrists, or their arms, with the sign of the cross, or with the name of Christ. " See Rev. xx. 4; Spencer, De Leg. Hebr. lib. ii., cap. 20.

Verse 7. "Let them show unto them "Let them declare unto us."" - For wml lamo, unto them, the Chaldee reads wnl lanu, unto us The Septuagint read µkl lachem, unto you; which is preferable to the reading of the text.

But wml lamo, and wnl lanu, are frequently mistaken one for the other, see chap. x. 29; Psa. lxxx. 7; lxiv. 6.

Verse 8. "Fear ye not" - whrt tirehu never occurs. Perhaps it should be waryt tireu, fear ye. Two MSS. read whryt tirehu, and one of mine wrht taharu.

"Verses 9, 10. That they may be ashamed. Who hath formed a god "That every one may be ashamed, that he hath formed a god"" - The Bodleian MS., one of the first extant for its antiquity and authority, instead of ym mi, at the beginning of the tenth verse, has yk ki, which greatly clears up the construction of a very obscure passage. Doederlein approves of this reading. The Septuagint likewise closely connect in construction the end of ver. 9 with the beginning of ver. 10; and wholly omit the interrogative ym mi, which embarrasses the sentence: aiscunqhsontai oi plassontev qeon, kai glufontev pantev anwfelh "But they shall be confounded that make a god; and they who engrave unprofitable things; " agreeably to the reading of the MS. above mentioned.

Verse 11. "His fellows" - wyrbj chaberaiv: but wydb[ abadaiv, his servants or worshippers, is the reading of one of De Rossi's MSS., and of the Chaldee.

"And the workmen, they are of men "Even the workmen themselves shall blush"" - I do not know that any one has ever yet interpreted these words to any tolerably good sense: µdam hmh µyrjw vecharashim hemmah meadam. The Vulgate and our translators, have rendered them very fairly, as they are written and pointed in the text: Fabri enim sunt ex hominibus.

"And the workmen they are of men. " Out of which the commentators have not been able to extract any thing worthy of the prophet. I have given another explanation of the place; agreeable enough to the context, if it can be deduced from the words themselves. I presume that µda adam, rubuit, may signify erubuit, to be red through shame, as well as from any other cause; though I cannot produce any example of it in that particular sense; and the word in the text I would point µdam meoddam; or if any one should object to the irregularity of the number, I would read µymdam meoddamim. But I rather think that the irregularity of the construction has been the cause of the obscurity, and has given occasion to the mistaken punctuation. The singular is sometimes put for the plural. See Psa. lxviii. 31; and the participle for the future tense, see chap. xl. 11.
- L.

Verse 12. "The smith with the tongs, &c. "The smith cutteth off a portion of iron"" - dx[m meatstsed, Participium Pihel of dx[ atsad, to cut; still used in that sense in the Arabic. See Simonis Lex. Hebrews The Septuagint and Syriac take the word in this form: but they render it sharpeneth the iron. See Castell. Lex. in voce.

The sacred writers are generally large and eloquent upon the subject of idolatry; they treat it with great severity, and set forth the absurdity of it in the strongest light. But this passage of Isaiah, ver. 12-20, far exceeds any thing that ever was written upon the subject, in force of argument, energy of expression, and elegance of composition. One or two of the apocryphal writers have attempted to imitate the prophet, but with very ill success; Wisd. xiii. 11-19; xv. 7, &c.; Baruch vi., especially the latter, who, injudiciously dilating his matter, and introducing a number of minute circumstances, has very much weakened the force and effect of his invective. On the contrary a heathen author, in the ludicrous way, has, in a line or two, given idolatry one of the severest strokes it ever received:-

Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum, Cum faber incertus, scamnum faceretne Priapum, Maluit esse Deum. Deus inde ego. HORAT. Satyr, lib. 1. sat. viii.

"Formerly I was the stump of a fig tree, a useless log; when the carpenter, after hesitating whether to make me a god or a stool, at last determined to make me a god. Thus I became a god!" From the tenth to the seventeenth verse, a most beautiful strain of irony is carried on against idolatry. And we may naturally think that every idolater, who either read or heard it, must have been for ever ashamed of his own devices.
- L.

Verse 14. "He heweth him down "He heweth down"" - For trkl lichroth, the Septuagint and Vulgate read trk carath or trky yichroth.

Verse 16. "With part "AND with part"" - Twenty-three MSS., the Septuagint, and Vulgate add the conjunction w vau, and l[w veal.

Verse 17. "He falleth down unto it" - There were four forms of adoration used among the Hebrews:

1. hwjth HISHTACHAVAH, The prostration of the whole body. 2. ddq KADAD, The bowing of the head. 3. [rk CARA, The bending of the upper part of the body down to the knees. 4. ûrb BARACH, Bowing the knee, or kneeling. See on chap. xlix. 23.

Verse 18. "He hath shut their eyes "Their eyes are closed up"" - The Septuagint, Chaldee, and Vulyate, for jf tach, read wjf , tachu. See note on chap. vi. 10.

Verse 20. "He feedeth on ashes" - He feedeth on that which affordeth no nourishment; a proverbial expression for using ineffectual means, and bestowing labour to no purpose. In the same sense Hosea says, "Ephraim feedeth on wind. " Chap. xii. 1.

Verse 22. "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins "I have made thy transgressions vanish away like a cloud, and thy sins like a vapor"" - Longinus admired the sublimity of the sentiment, as well as the harmony of the numbers, in the following sentence of Demosthenes: touto to yhfisma ton tote th polei teristanta kindunon parelqein epoihsen wsper nefov. "This decree made the danger then hanging over the city pass away like a cloud.

" Probably Isaiah alludes here to the smoke rising up from the sin-offering, dispersed speedily by the wind. and rendered invisible. He who offered his sacriflce aright was as sure that the sin for which he offered it was blotted out, as that the smoke of the sacrifice was dispersed by the wind, and was no longer discernible.

Verse 24. "By myself" - Thirteen MSS., six ancient, confirm the reading of the Keri, ytam meittai.

Verse 27. "That saith to the deep, Be dry "Who saith to the deep, Be thou wasted"" - Cyrus took Babylon by laying the bed of the Euphrates dry, and leading his army into the city by night through the empty channel of the river. This remarkable circumstance, in which the event so exactly corresponded with the prophecy, was also noted by Jeremiah, chap. l. 38; li. 36.

"A drought shall be upon her waters, and they shall be dried up:-

I will lay her sea dry And I will scorch up her springs." It is proper here to give some account of the means and method lay which the stratagem of Cyrus was effected.

The Euphrates in the middle of the summer, from the melting of the snows on the mountains of Armenia, like the Nile, overflows the country. In order to diminish the inundation, and to carry off the waters, two canals were made by Nebuchadnezzar a hundred miles above the city; the first on the eastern side called Naharmalca, or the Royal River, by which the Euphrates was let into the Tigris; the other on the western side, called Pallacopas, or Naharaga, ( µga rhn nahar agam, The river of the pool,) by which the redundant waters were carried into a vast lake, forty miles square, contrived, not only to lessen the inundation, but for a reservoir, with sluices, to water the barren country on the Arabian side. Cyrus, by turning the whole river into the lake by the Pallacopas, laid the channel, where it ran through the city, almost dry; so that his army entered it, both above and below, by the bed of the river, the water not reaching above the middle of the thigh. By the great quantity-of water let into the lake, the sluices and dams were destroyed; and being never repaired afterwards, the waters spread over the whole country below, and reduced it to a morass, in which the river is lost. Ingens modo et navigabilis, inde tenuis rivus, despectus emoritur; et nusquam manifesto exitit effluit, ut alii omnes, sed deficit. "And thus a navigable river has been totally lost, it having no exit from this morass. No wonder then that the geographical face of this country is completely changed; " MELA iii. 8; HEROD. i. 186, 190; XENOPHON, Cyrop. vii.; ARRIAN vii.

Verse 28. "That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd "Who saith to Cyrus, Thou art my shepherd"" - Pastor meus es; Vulg. The true reading seems to be hta y[r roi attah; the word hta attah, has probably been dropped out of the text. The same word is lost out of the text, Psa. cxix. 57. It is supplied in the Septuagint by the word ei, thou art.

"Saying to Jerusalem" - For rmalw velemor, the Septuagint and Vulgate read rmwah haomer.

"And to the temple" - lkyhlw uleheychal, as µlwryl lirushalayim, before; the preposition is necessary, and the Vulgate seems to read so.
- Houbigant.

That saith of CYRUS, He is, or thou art, my shepherd-Saving to JERUSALEM, "Thou shalt be built; " and to the TEMPLE, "Thy foundation shall be laid." -There is a remarkable beauty and propriety in this verse.

1. Cyrus is called God's shepherd. Shepherd was an epithet which Cyrus took to himself; and what he gave to all good kings.