Chapter 36

fulfilment, that Jehovah alone is God,--the like of which no Gentile nation can show of their idols. The argumentation is followed by the call to all the Gentiles to be converted to this God, and thus to become partakers of His salvation--a call resting on the striking force of this argumentation--and with this call is, in ver. 23-25, connected the solemn declaration of God, that, at some future time, this shall take place; that, at some future time, there shall be one shepherd and one flock. How would these high, solemn, words have been spoken in vain, if "the great unknown" had spoken them! In ver. 19 [Pg 186] it is said: "I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I said not unto the seed of Jacob: Seek ye me in vain; I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare rectitude." The Lord here says, first, in reference to His prophecies, those namely which He gave through our Prophet, that _they were made known publicly_, that, hence, there could not be any doubt of their genuineness,--altogether different from what is the case with the prophecies of idolatrous nations which make their appearance _post eventum_ only, _no one knowing whence_. Every one might convince himself of their truth and divinity. This is expressed by the words: "I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth." Then he says that the Lord had not deceived His people, like the idols who leave their servants without disclosures regarding: the Future; but that, by the prophecies granted to our Prophet, He had met the longings of his people for revelations of the Future. While the gods of the world leave them in the lurch, just when their help is required, and never answer when they are asked, the Lord, in reference to prophecies, as well as in every other respect, has not spoken: "Seek ye me in vain," but rather: When ye seek, ye shall find me. And, finally, he says that his prophecies are true and right; that the heathenish prophets commit an _unrighteousness_ by performing something else than that which they promised to perform. To declare _righteousness_ is to declare that which is righteous, which does not conceal internal emptiness and rottenness under a fair outside. The words: "I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare rectitude," could not but have died on the lips of the "great unknown."--In chap. xlvi. 8-13 the apostates in Israel are addressed. They are exhorted to return to the true God, and to be mindful, 1. of the nothingness of idols, ver. 8; 2. of the proofs of His sole divinity which the Lord had given throughout the whole of the past history; 3. of the new manifestation of it in announcing and sending Koresh (Cyrus), ver. 10, 11; "Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying: My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. Calling from the East an eagle, from a far country the man of His counsel; I have spoken it, and will also bring it to pass; I have formed it, and will also do it." To the [Hebrew: rawnvt], the former [Pg 187] events, the fulfilled prophecies from former times (comp.