without the slightest violence to usage, by supposing that Jehovah here assumes the conduct of his people, as their righteousness or justifier. (See Jer. 23: 6. 33: 16; and compare Isaiah 54: 17.) The parallel term glory may then be understood as denoting the manifested glory of Jehovah, or Jehovah himself in glorious epiphany; just as his presence with his people in the wilderness was manifested by the pillar of cloud and of fire, which sometimes went before them and at other times brought up their rear. (See above, on ch. 52: 12.) This grand reiteration of a glorious promise is gratuitously weakened and belittled by restricting it to the return of the exiled Jews from Babylon; which, although one remarkable example of the thing described, has no more claim to be regarded as the whole of it, than the deliverance of Paul or Peter from imprisonment exhausted Christ's engagement to be with his servants always even to the end of the world.

V. 9. Then shalt thou call and Jehovah will answer, thou shalt cry and he will say, Behold me (here I am), if thou wilt put away from the midst of thee the yoke, the pointing of the finger, and the speaking of vanity. The may either be connected with what goes before or correspond to in the other clause, like then, when, in English. That may thus be used as a particle of time, will be seen by comparing ch. 4:4. 24:13. The conditional form of the promise implies that it was not so with them now, of which indeed they are themselves represented as complaining in v. 3. The idea of this verse might be expressed in the occidental idiom by saying, when thou callest, Jehovah will answer; when thou criest, he will say, Behold me. (See above, on ch. 50: 2.)—The yoke is again mentioned as the symbol of oppression. (See v. 6.) De Wette needlessly resolves it into subjugation (Unterjochung), Hendewerk still more boldly into slavery. The pointing of the finger is a gesture of derision. Hence the middle finger is called by Persius digitus infamis; Martial says, rideto multum, and in the same connexion, digitum porrigito medium; Plautus, in reference to an object of derision, intende digitum in hunc. The Arabs have a verb derived from finger and denoting scornful ridicule. The object of contempt in this case is supposed by Grotius to be the pious; by Hitzig, the Prophet or Jehovah himself; by Knobel, the unfortunate, who are afterwards described as objects of sympathy.-Words of vanity in Zech. 10: 2 mean falsehood, which is here retained by J. D. Michaelis, while Dathe gives it the specific sense of slander, and Paulus that of secret and malignant machination. Vitringa understands it as relating to censorious and unnecessary fault-finding; Kimchi, Ewald, and Gesenius, to strife and bickerings. All these may be included in the general sense of evil speech or wicked words. The Targum has, words of oppression, or as Gesenius explains it, violence.

thy לחמך Lowth reads נפשן For

V. 10. And (if) thou wilt let out thy soul to the hungry, and the afflicted soul wilt satisfy, then shall thy light arise in the darkness, and thy gloom as the (double light or) noon. bread, in which he is supported by eight manuscripts. The Septuagint version he considers as combining the two readings. But Vitringa understands ex us as denoting the cordiality of a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9: 7. Rom. 12:8). Luzzatto, by means of a curious etymological analogy, makes synonymous with the 7 of Lev. 9: 12, 13, 18, and translates the whole phrase, if thou wilt present thy person.' Gesenius takes

in the sense of appetite or hunger, here put for the thing desired or enjoyed (deinen Bissen). Hitzig and Ewald, with the same view of the writer's meaning, retain the more exact sense of desire in their translations. Hendewerk's explanation, if thou wilt turn thy heart to the hungry,' is near akin to Luther's, if thou let the hungry find thy heart,' which seems to rest upon the same interpretation of the verb that has been quoted from Luzzatto. By a distressed soul Hitzig here understands one suffering from want and craving sustenance. (See ch. 29: 8.) The figure in the last clause is a common one for happiness succeeding sorrow. (See Judg. 5:31. Ps. 112: 4. Job 11: 17.) Vitringa asserts roundly (aio rotunde) that this prophecy was not fulfilled until after the Reformation, when so many German, French, Italian, and Hungarian Protestants were forced to seek refuge in other countries. The true sense of the passage he has given without knowing it, in these words: "Post tot beneficia et stricturas lucis ecclesiae inductas, restat meridies quem expectat."

TT

V. 11. And Jehovah will guide thee ever, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and thy bones shall he invigorate, and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters shall not fail. The promise of guidance had already been given in ch. 57: 18. (Compare Ps. 73: 24, 78: 14.) Jerome's translation (requiem tibi dabit) derives the verb from , not . Driessen and some others make in mean with clear or bright waters; but the sense of glistening, dazzling, which belongs to the Arabic root, is equally applicable to the burning sands of a desert. Ewald translates it fever-heat. The common version, drought, which Lowth changes to severest drought, in order to express the intensive meaning of the plural form, agrees well with the verb to satisfy, referring to thirst, as v. 10 does to hunger. The common version of the next clause (and make fat thy bones) is sanctioned by the Septuagint and Kimchi, who appeals to the analogy of Prov. 15:30. The Vulgate version (ossa liberabit) seems both arbitrary and unmeaning. The Peshito and Saadias translate the verb will strengthen, which is adopted by most modern writers. Secker's emendation (2), which Lowth adopts (renew

thy strength), derives some countenance not only from the Targum, but from the analogy of ch. 40: 31 and 41: 1, and is only inadmissible because it is gratuitous. Similar allusions to the bones as the seat of strength, occur in Ps. 51: 10 and Job 21: 24. The figure in the last clause is the converse of that in ch. 1: 30. There is here a climax. Not content with the image of a well-watered garden, he substitutes that of the stream, or rather of the spring itself. The general idea is a favourite with Isaiah. (See above, ch. 30: 25. 33: 21. 35: 5, 7. 41: 17. 43 20. 44: 4. 48 21. 49 10.) On the deceiving of the waters, see Jer. 15: 18, and compare the analogous expressions of Hosea with respect to wine, and of Habakkuk with respect to oil. (Hos. 5: 2. Hab. 3: 17.) Hitzig and Knobel understand what is here said of heat and drought in literal application to the journey of the exiles through the wilderness, while all the analogous expressions in the context are regarded as strong figures. The truth is, that the exodus from Egypt had already made these images familiar and appropriate to any great deliverance.

V. 12. And they shall build from thee the ruins of antiquity (or perpetuity), foundations of age and age (i. e. of ages) shalt thou raise up ; and it shall be called to thee (or thou shalt be called) Repairer of the breach, Restorer of paths for dwelling. Ewald reads, they shall be built by thee; but this passive form does not occur elsewhere, and is here sustained by no external evidence. Kimchi understands as referring not to persons, but effects (opera), which is very unnatural. Hitzig retains the old interpretation of the clause as referring to children or descendants; and the latter writer gives it a specific application to the younger race of exiles, whom he supposes to be the Servant of Jehovah in these Later Prophecies. Gesenius denies the reference to children, and explains as meaning those belonging to thee, or, as he paraphrases it, thy people. The simplest supposition is that of some rabbinical writers, who supply as the subject of the verb its correlative noun, builders. But as properly means from thee, it denotes something more than mere connexion, and, unless forbidden by something in the context, must be taken to signify a going forth from Israel into other lands. Thus understood, the clause agrees exactly with the work assigned to Israel in ch. 42: 14 and 57: 11, viz. that of reclaiming the apostate nations, and building the wastes of a desolated world. As obviously refers to past time, this is the only natural interpretation of the corresponding phrase, ; although Luther and others understand the latter as referring to foundations which shall last for ever. Gesenius understands by foundations, buildings razed to their foundations (Ps. 1377); and Hitzig supposes it to have the secondary sense of ruins, like, in ch. 16: 7. The sense will then be, if referred to past

time, foundations which have lain bare, or buildings whose foundations have lain bare, for ages. For the metaphor, compare Am. 9: 11; for that of a highway, ch. 19: 23. 35: 8; and for that of the breach, Ez. 13: 5. 22:30. The addition of the last phrase, ?, has perplexed interpreters. Cocceius understands it to mean that the paths themselves shall be inhabited. Gesenius arbitrarily translates it, in the inhabited land. Knobel no less gratuitously gives to paths the sense of beaten or frequented regions. Jerome and Grotius make the word a derivative from , and translate it in quietem, or ad quiescendum. The most satisfactory hypotheses are those of Hitzig and Maurer, the former of whom makes the phrase mean ad habitandum sc. terram, that the land may be inhabited. The latter understands the paths to be described as leading not to ruins and to deserts as before, but to inhabited regions. Of these the former seems entitled to the preference. It will be sufficient to record the fact, that Vitringa finds in this verse an allusion to fundamental doctrines, canons, formulas, etc. etc.

V. 13. If thou wilt turn away thy foot from the Sabbath to do thy pleasure on my holy day, and wilt call the Sabbath a delight, (and) the holy (day) of Jehovah honourable, and wilt honour it by not doing thy own ways, by not finding thy pleasure and talking talk. The version of Henderson and others, turn away thy foot on the Sabbath, is inconsistent with the form of the original, as well as with the figure, which is that of something trodden down and trampled, or at least encroached upon. Most interpreters agree with Kimchi in supplying before, a combination which is actually found in one manuscript. Hitzig supposes that the grammatical effect of the first extends to this infinitive. Maurer supplies nothing, and translates ut agas. The modern version of yen (business) is much less natural, even in this connexion, than the old one, thy pleasure, especially as paraphrased by Luther, what thou wilt (was dir gefällt). Hitzig observes a climax in the requisitions of this clause, not unlike that in Prov. 2: 2-4. The mere outward observance was of no avail, unless the institution were regarded with reverence, as of God; nay more, with complacency, as in itself delightful. To call it a delight, is to acknowledge it as such. The before ip appears to interrupt the construction, which has led some interpreters to disregard it altogether, and others to take wp as a verb, or an adjective agreeing with Jehovah-honoured in order to sanctify (or glorify) Jehovah-honoured by the sanctification of Jehovah-honoured for the sake of the Holy One, Jehovah. But the simplest explanation is the one proposed by De Dieu and adopted by Vitringa, which treats the before , and that before p, as correlatives, alike connecting the verb with its object. As the construction of this verb is foreign from our idiom, it may be best explained by a paraphrase: If thou wilt give to the Sab

bath() the name of a delight, and to the holy (p) day or ordinance of Jehovah that of honourable.' But mere acknowledgment is not enough—it must not only be admitted to deserve honour, but in fact receive it. Hence he adds, and if thou wilt honour it thyself, by not doing, literally, away from doing, so as not to do. (On this use of 12, see ch. 5: 6. 49:15.) Here again, to find one's pleasure on the Sabbath is more natural than to find one's business. Doing thy own ways, although not a usual combination, is rendered intelligible by the constant use of way in Hebrew to denote a course of conduct. Speaking speech or talking talk is by some regarded as equivalent to speaking vanity, in v. 9. The Septuagint adds év ogry. The modern writers, for the most part, are in favour of the explanation, speaking mere words, idle talk. (Compare Matt. 12: 36.) The classical parallels adduced by Clericus, Gesenius, and others, are very little to the purpose. As to the importance here attached to the Sabbath, see above, on ch. 56: 2.

V. 14. Then shalt thou be happy in Jehovah, and I will make thee ride upon the heights of the earth, and I will make thee eat the heritage of Jacob thy father, for Jehovah's mouth hath spoken it. The verb on is combined with the divine name elsewhere to express both a duty and a privilege. (Compare Psalm 37: 4 with Job 22: 26. 27: 10.—an does not mean I will raise thee above (Jerome), or I will cause thee to sit (Cocceius), but I will cause thee to ride. The whole phrase is descriptive not of a mere return to Palestine the highest of all lands (Kimchi), nor of mere security from enemies by being placed beyond their reach (Vitringa), but of conquest and triumphant possession, as in Deut. 32: 13, from which the expression is derived by all the later writers who employ it. There is no sufficient ground for Knobel's supposition that ring in this phrase means the fortresses erected upon hills and mountains.-To eat the heritage is to enjoy it and derive subsistence from it. Kimchi correctly says that it is called the heritage of Jacob as distinct from that of Ishmael and Esau, although equally descended from the Father of the Faithful.-The last clause is added to ensure the certainty of the event, as resting not on human but divine authority. See ch. 1: 2.