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[his own conduct.

whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.

2 Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.

3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.

4 The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.

5 The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.

6 I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the

EXPOSITION.

(Y) The Messiah_being rejected by the Jews, his Mission is directed to the Gentiles. -"Hitherto (says Bp. Lowth) the subject of the prophecy has been chiefly confined to the redemption from the captivity of Babylon, with strong intimations of a more important deliverance sometimes thrown in; to the refutation of idolatry, and the demonstration of the infinite power, wisdom and foreknowledge of God. The character and office of the Messiah was exhibited in general terms at the beginning of chap. xlii., but here he is introduced in person, declaring the full extent of his commission; which is not only to restore the Israelites, and reconcile them to their Lord and Father, from whom they had so often revolted; but to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, to call them to the knowledge and obedience of the true God, and to bring them to be one church together with

the Israelites, to partake with them of the same common salvation, procured for all by the great Redeemer and reconciler of man to God."

The Prophet then glancing towards the happy though distant period of these events, makes a beautiful apostrophe to heaven and earth, to shout forth the praises of God on the opening prospect. The tender mercies of God to his people, with the prosperity of his church in general, and the overthrow of all its enemies, make the subject of the remaining part of the chapter." Some of the images in this chapter are tender and pathetic in the highest degree. A whole volume could not express the love which God bears to his people, so well as the affecting image in the 15th verse. Can a woman forget her sucking child,' &c. It is the same to the fainting soul, that a spring of water is to the weary traveller in the parched desert." Dr. J. Smith.

NOTES.

CHAP. L. Ver. 1. When I came- that is, into the public court. See Ruth iv. 1—4,

Ver. 7. Is my hand shortened?-See Num. xi. 23.

I make the rivers a wilderness-that is, dry as a desert.Their fish stinketh. See Exod. vii, 21.

Ver. 4. The Lord hath given me-that is, Messin' whose office it was to address the weary, Matt. He wakeneth, &c. this seems an al the manner of prophetic inspiration. See l 4-10.

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hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.

[to trust in Messiah,

and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow. (Z)

CHAP. LI.

7 For the Lord GoD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be HEARKEN to me, ye that follow

ashamed.

8 He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.

9 Behold, the Lord God will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.

10 Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.

11 Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire,

CHAP. L.

after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.

2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.

3 For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody,

4 Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I

EXPOSITION.

(Z) God justifies his own conduct: Messiah predicts his own sufferings.-Jewish husbands, through moroseness or levity of temper, often sent bills of divorcement to their wives on slight occasions, as they were permitted to do by the law of Moses. (Deut. xxiv. 1.) And fathers, being oppressed with debt, often sold their children; which they might do till the year of release. (Exod. xxi. 7.) That this was frequently practised appears from many passages of scripture. The widow (2 Kings iv. 1) complains, that the creditor was come to take her two sons to be bondmen. And in the parable (Matt. xviii. 25), the Lord, forasmuch as his servant had not to pay, commands him to be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment

to be made. "But this (saith God) cannot be my case;" I am not governed by any such motives, nor urged by any such necessity : your captivity therefore and your afflictions are to be imputed to yourselves, and to your own folly and wickedness! Thus God justifies himself against the murmurs aud repinings of bis ungrateful people.

At ver. 4. the Messiah is evidently introduced, and some of his bitterest sufferings predicted, according to the interpretation of St. Matthew (ch. xxvi. 67. xxvii. 26.) But he appeals to the Almighty Father as his protector, so far as was consistent with the great object of his incarnation. (See Matt. xxvi. 39, 53, 54.) The two last verses coutain an exhortation to faith and confidence in God, with a warning to those who trusted in their own strength and righteousness.

NOTES-Chap. L. Con.

Ver. 6. Plucked off the hair-one of the greatest possible indignities that could be offered to a Jew. Neh. xiii. 25. From shame and spitting. See Notes on Num. xii. 14; Deut. xxv. 9. But in this case, it cannot be doubted that the insult was carried to its utmost extent. See Matt. xxvi. 67; Mark xiv. 65.-xv. 19.

Ver. 7. I set my face as a flint-Compare Ezek. iii. 8,9.

Ver. 8. He that is near justifieth me.-See 1 Tim. iii. 16. Who is mine adversary? - Heb. "The master of my cause?" i. e. the accuser. See John xiv. 30, Rom. viii. 33-35.

Ver. 11. All ye that kindle.-Vitringa thinks this may refer particularly to those seditions Jews, who, by exciting the indignation of the Romans, brought destruction both on themselves and their city.

CHAP. LI. Ver. 4. My people.... my nationLowth, as supposing this addressed to the Gentiles, reads, " Ye peoples,.... ye nations;" but we sce no necessity for alteration, and we are averse to it without. I will make my judgment to rest-rather, "to break forth "- So Gataker and Lowth.

Jews und Gentiles directed]

CHAP. LI.

will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.

5 My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.

6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like. a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.

7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.

8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worin shall eat them like wool but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.

9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?

10 Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?

11 Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.

12 I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of

[to trust in Messiah.

the son of man which shall be made as grass;

13 And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor.

14 The captive exile hasteneth tha he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.

15 But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts is his name.

16 And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.

17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.

18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up.

19 These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee?

20 Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net; they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God.

NOTES.

Ver. 5. Mine arm shall judge—that is, my power shall avenge the people.

Ver. 6. Shall die in like manner that is, shall wear out like every object around them; but Bp., Lowth (changing the Heb point) reads, "Like the vilest insect," See Exod. vii. 17.

Ver 9. Cut Rahab-that is, Egypt; and wounded the dragon-that is, the crocodile, which is its emblem. See Ps. lxxxix. 10. This refers to their deliverance from Egypt, as appears by the verse fol. lowing.

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Ver. 10. Art theu not it, &c. - Compare chap.

Ver. 14. The captive exile, &c.-Boothroyd, "He hasteneth on who shall set free the captive; that he should not die in the prison, and that his bread may not fail." In the first and literal sense, this evidently refers to Cyrus; but secondly and principally to Messiah, So Lowth.

Ver. 16. That I may plant the heavens. original term rendered plant. Gesening ren the word is used for pitching or plant. Dan. xi. 45. it may therefore be consude synonymous with spreading, the word and which Lowth thinks was originally Ver. 19. These two things.-Compare

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21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine :

22 Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again.

23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over. (A)

CHAP. LII.

AWAKE, awake; put on thy strength,

O Zion; put on thy beautiful garmente, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no mote come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.

2 Shake thyself from the dust; arise and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thy

CHAP. LI.

[from her stupor

self from the bands of thy neck, O cap tive daughter of Zion.

3 For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.

4 For thus saith the Lord God, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.

5 Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my people is taken away for nought? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed.

6 Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: Behold, it is I.

7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! 8 Thy watchmen shall lift up

EXPOSITION.

(A) Jews and Gentiles directed to put their trust in the Messiah.-In the opening of this chapter the Jews are considered as living stones dug out of the rock of human nature, and from the quarry of the Chaldees and the object of thus referring them to their humble origin is to remind them, that they, like their early ancestors, were barren as the rock itself, aud indebted to the great God their Creator, for all they were, and all they had. Hereby they are at once excited to gratitude in the reflection on past mercies, and to confidence in the fulfilment of God's promise of future blessings, especially under the dispensation of the Messiah. They are then directed to turn their eyes to the nations round, who, under the new and everlasting dispensation here spoken of, were to be admitted to communion with them, and be made partakers of the same redemption.

the

The faithful then with exaltation and joy lift their voices, reminding God of his wondrous works of old, which encourage them to look now for the like glorious display of his power and goodness.“ Awake, awake, O arm of the Lord!" &c. In answer to this, God is introduced comforting his people under their trials, and telling them (ver 14.) that the deliverer (He that hasteneth to set the captive free) was already on his way to save them. (See Note.) On this the Prophet turns to Jerusalem to comfort and congratulate her on so happy a prospect. She is represented by a bold image, as a woman lying in the streets with her children round her, under the intoxicating effects of the cup of the divine wrath; destitute of every assistance, and trodden under the feet of her enemies till an avenging God takes pity on her, raises and recovers her.

NOTES.

CHAP. LII. Ver. 2. Sit down, is a most unhappy translation. Lowth renders it, "Ascend thy lofty seat" meaning, a chair of state, in direct contrast to her lying in the dust, as in the close of the preceding chapter.—The bands of thy neck.-Captives often wore iron collars, like some Negro slaves in the West Indies.

Ver. 4. Without cause- Lowth, "At the last;" literally," in the end."

Ver. 8. They shall see eye to eye.-The same Heb. phrase in Num. xiv. 14, is rendered "face to face," (as by Lowth here) and is explained by the Chalder to mean," with their own eyes;" or, as Ainsworth there explains it, "visibly, apparently, plainly," &c. See Exod. xxxiii. 11; Num. xii. 8.

Ver. 9. Ye waste places-Lowth, "Ye ruins."

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voice; with the voice together shall they sing for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion. 9 Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.

10 The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

11 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.

12 For ye shall not go out with

CHAP. LII.

[of salvation.

haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rere-ward.

13 Behold my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.

14 As many were astonished at thee; his visage was so marred, more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:

15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider. (B)

EXPOSITION.

(B) Zion roused from her stupor by the glad tidings of salvation.-In allusion, perhaps, to the image in the close of the preceding chapter, Jerusalem is represented as fallen asleep in the dust, and in that helpless state bound by her enemies. The Prophet, with all the ardour natural to one who had such joyful news to communicate, bids her Awake, arise, and put on her strength and beauty; and then he delivers the message he had in charge. Awakening from her stupefaction, Jerusalem sees the messenger of these good tidings on the eminence from which he espied the approaching deliverance. She expresses, in beautiful terms, her joy at the news, repeating with peculiar elegance the words of the cryer; "How beautiful," &c. The tidings immediately spread to others on the watch, who all join in the glad acclamation; and, in the ardour of their joy, call to the very ruins of Jerusalem to sing along with them, (ver. 9, 10.) The Prophet then, to complete the deliverance, bids them march, as it were, in triumph out of Babylon: "De

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The last three verses introduce a fresh subject, which is continued throughout the following chapter, and should therefore have been connected with it. The Prophet here drops all inferior topics, and introduces a series of predictions relative to the character and sufferings of Messiah, the most interesting and extraordinary of any throughout the Old Testament. The reader is taken to the foot of the cross, and while he sees the Saviour hanging there, with the blood streaming from "his head, his hands, his feet;" he is told that many nations shall be sprinkled with this bloodthat Kings (the highest rank of society) shall be struck with astonishment, and their subjects leap with surprise and joy, at the effects produced by the circulation of these extraordinary tidings through the world,

NOTES.

Ver. 11. Touch no unclean thing-this is, "Contract no ceremonial pollution, and especially keep yourselves from idols." See 1 John v.21.

Ver. 14. At thee.-The Syriac and Chaldee, with a few ancient MSS, read" at him." The difference in the Hebrew is but half a letter, and the senso is evidently clearer.

Yer. 15 So shall he sprinkle. This word is diflienlt of interpretation. The original idea of the Heb. root seems to be, that of leaping, (or causing to leap) either with surprise or joy; so Schultens explains the cognate verb in Arabic, and from thence seems to be derived its secondary and more common meaning, to spurt out, as from a wound, from a brush or bunch of hyssop, by way of sprinkling. See Levit. ri. 27; 2 Kings ix. 33; Levit. xiv. 6,7, &c. See Parkhurst and Gesenius, in Nazah.

But taking the word in the former sense, "He shall cause many nations to leap with surprise and joy," (i. e. he shall surprise and rejoice many nations) the words may be applied to the effects produced by the propagation of the gospel, (which is no other than the report of his work and sufferings) among both Jews and Gentiles. This agrees with the following clause, Kings (not the kings) shall shut their mouths at him, or be silent with surprise and admiration in his presence; for they shall see such things as they never before heard or thought of. See Job xxix. 9, 10.

If this sprinkling be considered as of wa Asiatic it must yield pleasure as well but we read, Heb. xii. 24, of "the ling," which refers undoubtedly to cacy; and thus, metaphorically, many nations with his blood.

מי

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