CHAPTER LI _The prophet exhorts the children of Abraham to trust in the_ _Lord; and briefly, but beautifully, describes the great_ _blessedness which should be the consequence_, 1-3. _Then, turning to the Gentiles, encourages them to look for a_ _portion in the same salvation_, 4, 5; _the ever... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 51:2. _I CALLED HIM ALONE_] As I have made out of one a great nation; so, although ye are brought low and minished, yet I can restore you to happiness, and greatly multiply your number.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 51:4. _MY PEOPLE - O MY NATION_ - "O ye peoples - O ye nations"] For עמי _ammi, my people_, the Bodleian MS. and another read עמים _ammim, ye peoples_; and for לאומי _leumi, my nation_, the Bodleian MS. and _eight_ others, (_two_ of them ancient,) and _four_ of _De_ _Rossi's_, read לאמ... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 51:5. _MY RIGHTEOUSNESS_ IS _NEAR_] The word צדק _tsedek,_ _righteousness_, is used in such a great latitude of signification, for justice, truth, faithfulness, goodness, mercy, deliverance, salvation, c., that it is not easy sometimes to give the precise meaning of it without much circ... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 51:6. _MY SALVATION SHALL BE FOR EVER_] Aben Ezra says, From this verse divines have learnt the immortality of the soul. Men shall perish as the earth does, because they are formed from it; but they who are filled with the salvation of God shall remain for ever. See _Kimchi_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 51:11. _THEY SHALL OBTAIN GLADNESS AND JOY_; AND _SORROW AND_ _MOURNING SHALL FLEE AWAY._] _Nineteen_ MSS. and the _two_ oldest editions have ישגו _yasigu_; and _forty-six_ MSS. of _Kennicott's_ and _ten_ of _De Rossi's_, and the same _two_ editions, and agreeably to them the _Chaldee_... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 51:13. _OF THE OPPRESSOR, AS IF HE, C._] "The כ _caph_ in כאשר _keasher_ seems clearly to have changed its situation from the end of the preceding word to the beginning of this or rather, to have been omitted by mistake there, because it was here. That it was there the _Septuagint_ show... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 51:14. _THE CAPTIVE EXILE HASTENETH THAT HE MAY BE LOOSED _- "He marcheth on with speed, who cometh to set free the captive"] Cyrus, if understood of the temporal redemption from the captivity of Babylon; in the spiritual sense, the Messiah, who comes to open the prison to them that are... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 51:16. _THAT I MAY PLANT THE HEAVENS_ - "To stretch out the heavens"] In the present text it is לנתע _lintoa_, "_to plant_ the heavens:" the phrase is certainly very obscure, and in all probability is a mistake for לנטות _lintoth_. This latter is the word used in Isaiah 51:13 just befo... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 51:17. _THE CUP OF TREMBLING_] כוס התרעלה _cos hattarelah_, "the cup of mortal poison," veneni mortiferi. - MONTAN. This may also allude to the ancient custom of taking off criminals by a cup of poison. Socrates is well known to have been sentenced by the Areopagus to drink a cup of the... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 51:19. _THESE TWO_ THINGS - _DESOLATION, AND DESTRUCTION, AND THE_ _FAMINE, AND THE SWORD_] That is, desolation by famine, and destruction by the sword, taking the terms alternately: of which form of construction see other examples. _De S. Poesi_, Heb. Prael. xix., and Prelim. Dissert.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 51:20. _AS A WILD BULL IN A NET: THEY ARE FULL, C. _- "Like the oryx taken in the toils drenched to the full"] "Perhaps מכמרה מלאים _michmerah meleim_." SECKER. The demonstrative ה _he_, prefixed to מלאים _meleim, full_, seems improper in this place.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 51:21. _DRUNKEN, BUT NOT WITH WINE_] AEschylus has the same expression: - Αοινοις εμμανεις θυμωμασι· Eumen. 863. Intoxicated with passion, not with wine. _Schultens_ thinks that this circumlocution, as he calls it, gradum adfert incomparabiliter majorem; and that it means, not simply... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 51:23. _THEM THAT AFFLICT THEE_ - "Them who oppress thee"] The _Septuagint, Chaldee, Syriac_, and _Vulgate_ appear to have read מוניך _monayich_, as in Isaiah 40:26." - SECKER. _WHICH HAVE SAID TO THY SOUL, BOW DOWN_ - "Who say to thee, Bow down thy body"] A very strong and most expre... [ Continue Reading ]