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CHAPTER XLVIII

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.

NOTES ON CHAP. XLVIII

Verse 1. "Are come forth out of the waters of Judah "Ye that flow from the fountain of Judah"" - ymm mimmey, "from the waters. " Perhaps y[mm mimmeey, "from the bowels, "SO many others have conjectured, or hdwhy ynm meni yehudah, or hdwhym meyhudah, "from Judah." - Secker. But see Michaelis in Praelect, not. 22. And we have bq[y y[ eyn yaakob, "the fountain of Jacob, "Deut. xxxiii. 28, and lar�y rwqmm 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 ymym meymey, "from the days; " which makes no good sense.

Verse 6. "Thou hast heard, see all this "Thou didst hear it beforehand; behold, the whole is accomplished"" - For hzj chazeh, see, a MS. has hzh hazzeh, this; thou hast heard the whole of this: the Syriac has tyzjw vechazith, "thou hast heard, and thou hast seen, the whole. " Perhaps it should be hnh hinneh, behold. In order to express the full sense, I have rendered it somewhat paraphrastically.

Verse 9. "And for my praise "And for the sake of my praise"" - I read ytlht [mlw ulemaan tehillathi. The word [ml lemaan, though not absolutely necessary here, for it may be understood as supplied from the preceding member, yet seems to have been removed 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 �ytrjb becharticha, "I have chosen thee, "a MS. has �ytnjb bechanticha, "I have tried thee. " And so perhaps read the Syriac and Chaldee interpreters; they retain the same word �trjb bechartach; but in those languages it signifies, I have tried thee. Pskk kecheseph, quasi argentum, "as silver. " Vulgate.

I cannot think Pskb becheseph, WITH silver, is the true reading. Pskk kecheseph, LIKE silver, as the Vulgate 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, b beth and k caph, might have easily led to the mistake in the first instance; and it has been but too faithfully copied ever since. rwk cur, which we translate furnace, should be rendered crucible, the vessel in which the silver is 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 ym� shemi, my name, is dropped out of the text; it is supplied by a MS. which has ym� shemi; and by the Septuagint, oti to emon onoma bebhloutai. 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 bq[y yaakob, a MS. of Kennicott's, two of De Rossi's, and the two old editions of 1486 and 1488, add the word ydb[ 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.

"I also am the last "I am the last"" - For yna Pa aph ani, "even I," two ancient MSS. and the ancient Versions, read ynaw veani, "and I; " more properly.

Verse 14. "Which among them hath declared these things "Who among you hath predicted these things"" - For �hb 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 �kb 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: �on o kuriov hgaphse poihsei to qelhma 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 �yd�kb bechasdim, and so the Chaldee and Vulgate.

Verse 16. "Come ye near unto me" - After the word wbrq kirbu, "draw near, "a MS. adds �ywg 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, w[m�w vashimu; and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.

"I have not spoken in secret" - The Alexandrine copy of the Septuagint adds here, oude en topw ghv skoteinw, "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 �twyh heyotham, "they began to exist; " and so another had it at first. From the time that the expedition of Cyrus was planned, there was God managing the whole by the economy of his providence.

Verse 16. "There am I "I had decreed it"" - I take �� 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"" - tiv estin o en tw hsaiw legwn, kai nun kuriov apesteile me kai to pneuma autou; en w, amfibolou ontov tou rhtou, poteron o pathr kai to �agion pneuma apesteilan tou ihsoun, h o pathr apesteile ton te criston kai to �agion pneuma� to deuteron estin alhqev. "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 whlch he gives to it, be offered to the reader's judgment, which is wholly excluded in our translation.

Verse 18. "As a river "Like the river"" - That is, the Euphrates.

Verse 19. "Like the gravel thereof "Like that of the bowels thereof"" - �ygdh �hw �yh y[m yaxaxb betseetsaey 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 wm� shemo, "his name, "the Septuagint had in the copy from which they translated �m� shimcha, "thy name."

Verse 20. "Tell this "Make it heard"" - Twenty-seven MSS. of Kennicott's, (ten ancient,) many of De Rossi's, and two ancient, of my own, with the Septuagint, Syriac, Chaldee, and Arabic, and one edition, prefix to the verb the conjunction w vau, w[ym�hw vehashmiu.

Verse 21. "They thirsted not-through the deserts" - Kimchi has a surprising observation upon this place: "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 Ezra, in which he gives an account of their return, no 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 prophecy of Isaiah, which abounds throughout in parabolical images from the beginning ts 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? These and a multitude of the like parabolical or poetical 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.

Poesi, Hebr. Prael. ix.