ix. 1 (2) is not to be referred to the spiritual illumination

especially, [Pg 224] but to the bestowal of salvation. To this view we are likewise led by a comparison of ver. 16: "And I will lead the blind by a way that they knew not, I will lead them in paths that they have not known, I will change the darkness before them into light, the crooked things into straightness." The _blind_ in this verse are those who do not know what to do, and how to help themselves, those who cannot find the way of salvation, the miserable; they are to be led by the Lord on the ways of salvation, which are unknown to them. In a similar sense and connection, the blind are, elsewhere also, spoken of, comp. Remarks on Ps. cxlv. 8.--On the words: "Bring out them that are bound from the prison," _Knobel_ remarks: "The citizens of Judah were, to a great extent, imprisoned; the Prophet hopes for their deliverance by the theocratic portion of the people." A strange hope! By this coarsely literal interpretation, the connection with "for the Light of the Gentiles" is broken up; and this is the less admissible that the words at the close of the verse: "those that sit in darkness," so clearly refer to it. _Imprisonment_ is a figurative designation of the _miserable condition_, not less than, the _darkness_, which, on account of the light contrasted with it, and on account of chap. ix. 1 (2), cannot be understood otherwise than figuratively. Under the image of men bound in dark prisons, the miserable and afflicted appear also in Ps. cvii. 10-16; Job xxxvi. 8, where the words, "bound in fetters," are explained by the parallel "holden in the cords of misery." When David, in Ps. cxlii. 8, prays: "Bring my soul out of the prison," he himself explains this in Ps. cxliii. 11 by the parallel: "Thou wilt bring my soul out of _trouble_;" comp. also Ps. xxv. 17: "O bring thou me out of my _distresses_." If we here understand the prison literally, we might, with the same propriety in other passages, also, _e.g._, in Ps. lxvi. 11, understand _literally_ the net, the snare, the trap.

Ver. 8: "_I the Lord, that is my name, and my honour I will not give to another, nor my glory to idols._ Ver. 9. _The former_ (things), _behold, they came to pass, and new_ (things) _do I declare; before they spring forth, I cause you to hear._"

We have here the solemn close and exhortation. At the close of chap. xli. it had been pointed out, how the prediction of the _Conqueror from the East_ serves for the glory of Jehovah, [Pg 225] who thereby proves himself to be the only true God. Here the zeal of God for His glory is indicated as the reason which has brought forth the prediction of the _Servant of God_ and His glorious work,--a prediction which cannot be accounted for from natural causes. It is thus the object of the prophecy which is here, in the first instance, stated. It is intended to manifest the true God as such, as a God who is zealously bent on His glory. But the same attribute of God which called forth the prophecy, calls forth also the events prophesied, viz., the appearance of the Servant of God, and the victory over the idols accomplished thereby, the bringing forth of the law of God over the whole earth through Him, and the full realization of the covenant with Israel. The thought is this:--that a God who does not manifest and prove himself as such, who is contented with the honour granted to Him without His interference, cannot be a God; that the true God must of necessity be filled with the desire of absolute, exclusive dominion, and cannot but manifest and prove this desire. From this thought, the prophecy and that which it promises flow with a like necessity.--According to _Stier_, [Hebrew: rawnvt], "the former (things)" means "the redemption of the exiled by Cyrus," which in chaps. xli. xlviii. forms the historico-typical foreground, whose coming is here anticipated by the Prophet. But the parallel passages, chaps. xli. 22, xliii. 9, xlviii. 3, are conclusive against this view; for, according to these passages, it is only the former already fulfilled predictions of the Prophet and his colleagues, from the beginnings of the people, which can be designated by "the former (things)." By "the new (things)" therefore, is to be understood the aggregate of the events which are predicted in the second part, to which belongs the prophecy of the Servant of God which immediately precedes, and which the Prophet has here as pre-eminently in view (_Michaelis_: _et nova, imprimis de Messia_), as, in the parallel passage chap. xli. 22, the announcement of the conqueror from the East. Both of these verses seem to round off our prophecy, by indicating that such disclosures regarding the Future are not by any means intended to serve for the gratification of idle curiosity, but to advance the same object to which the events prophesied are also subservient, viz., the promotion of God's glory. The [Pg 226] modern view of Prophetism is irreconcileable with the verses under consideration, which evidently shew, that the prophets themselves were filled with a different consciousness of their mission and position And in like manner it follows from them, that there is no reason to put, by means of a forced interpretation, the prophecy within the horizon of the Prophet's time, seeing that the Prophet himself shows himself to be thoroughly penetrated by its altogether supernatural character.

[Footnote 1: This embarrassment becomes still more obvious in the explanation of _Vatke_, who understands by the Servant of God, "the harmless ideal abstract of the people;" and that of _Beck_, who understands thereby "the notion of the people."]

[Footnote 2: The Hebrew word is [Hebrew: mwpT], which means "judgment," "right," "law." Dr. _Hengstenberg_ has translated it by _Recht_, which is, as nearly as possible, expressed by the English word "right," (_jus_,) as including "law" and "statutes."--_Tr._]