CHAPTER XXVI _This chapter, like the foregoing, is a song of praise, in_ _which thanksgivings for temporal and spiritual mercies are_ _beautifully mingled, though the latter still predominate. Even_ _the sublime and evangelical doctrine of the resurrection seems_ _here to be hinted at, and made... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 26:2. _THE RIGHTEOUS NATION_] The converted Gentiles shall have the _gates opened_ - a full entrance into all the glories and privileges of the Gospel; being fellow heirs with the converted Jews. The Jewish peculiarity is destroyed, for the middle wall of partition is broken down. _THE... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 26:3. _IN PERFECT PEACE_] שלום שלום _shalom, shalom_, "peace, peace," i.e., peace upon peace - all kinds of _prosperity_ - happiness in this world and in the world to come. _BECAUSE HE TRUSTETH IN THEE_ - "Because they have trusted in thee"] So the _Chaldee_, בטחו betacho. The _Syriac_... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 26:4. _IN THE LORD JEHOVAH_ - "In JEHOVAH"] In JAH JEHOVAH, Heb.; but see _Houbigant_, and Isaiah 12:2. _EVERLASTING STRENGTH_] צור עולמים _tsur olamim_, "the rock of ages;" or, according to Rab. _Maimon_, - the _eternal Fountain, Source_, or _Spring_. Does not this refer to the lastin... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 26:8. _HAVE WE WAITED FOR THEE _- "We have placed our confidence in thy name"] The _Septuagint, Syriac_, and _Chaldee_ read קוינו _kavinu_, without the pronoun annexed.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 26:9. _HAVE I DESIRED THEE_] _Forty-one_ MSS. of Dr. _Kennicott's_ and many of _De Rossi's_, (nine ancient,) and _five_ editions read אויתיך _ivvithicha_. It is proper to note this; because the second _yod_ being omitted in the text, the _Vulgate_ and many others have rendered it in the... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 26:16. _LORD, IN TROUBLE HAVE THEY VISITED THEE_ - "O JEHOVAH, in affliction we have sought thee"] So the _Septuagint_ and two MSS. have פקדנוך _pekadnucha_, in the first person plural. And so perhaps it should be צקנו _tsaknu_, in the first person; but how the _Septuagint_ read this wo... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 26:18. _WE HAVE - BROUGHT FORTH WIND_] The learned Professor _Michaelis_ explains this image in the following manner: "Rariorem morbum describi, empneumatosin, aut ventosam molam, dictum; quo quae laborant diu et sibi et peritis medicis gravidae videntur,tandemque post omnes verae grav... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 26:19. _MY DEAD BODY_ - "My deceased"] All the ancient Versions render it in the plural; they read נבלותי _niblothai_, my _dead_ _bodies_. The _Syriac_ and _Chaldee_ read נבלותיהם _niblotheyhem,_ their _dead bodies_. No MS. yet found confirms this reading. _THE DEW OF HERBS_ - "The dew... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 26:20. _COME, MY PEOPLE, ENTER THOU INTO THY CHAMBERS_] An exhortation to patience and resignation under oppression, with a confident expectation of deliverance by the power of God manifestly to be exerted in the destruction of the oppressor. It seems to be an allusion to the command of... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 26:21. _THE EARTH ALSO SHALL DISCLOSE HER BLOOD_] Crimes of cruelty and oppression, which have passed away from the eyes of men, God will bring into judgment, and exact punishment for them. O what a reckoning will the kingdoms of the earth have with God, for the torrents of blood which... [ Continue Reading ]