Chapter 40

with the ancestors; Deut. iv. 31; Lev. xxvi. 42 (the covenant of Jacob, the covenant of Isaac, &c.) According to _Knobel_: "the true theocrats are to become a covenant of the people, the restorers of the Israelitish Theocracy, they themselves having connection and unity by faithfully holding fast by Jehovah, and by representing His cause." This explanation, [Pg 223] also, is opposed to the _usus loquendi_, according to which "covenant of the people" can have the sense only of "covenant with the people," not a covenant among the people. And, _farther_, the parallel passage in chap. xlix. 8 is opposed to this interpretation also, inasmuch as, in that passage, the Servant of the Lord is called [Hebrew: brit eM], not on account of what He is in himself, but on account of the influence which He exercises upon others, upon the whole of the people: "That thou mayest raise up the land, distribute desolate heritages, that thou mayest say to the prisoners: Go forth," &c. In that passage the land, the desolate heritages, the prisoners, &c., evidently correspond to the people. _Finally_--A covenant is a relation between two parties standing opposite one another. "The word is used," says _Gesenius_, "of a covenant formed between nations, between private persons, _e.g._, David and Jonathan, between Jehovah and the people of Israel." But here no parties are mentioned to be united by the covenant.

Ver. 7. "_That thou mayest open blind eyes, bring out them that are bound from the prison, and from the house of confinement them that sit in darkness._"

On account of the connection with the "for the Light of the Gentiles," which would stand too much isolated, if, in the words immediately following, Israel alone were again the subject of discourse, the activity of God here mentioned refers, in the first instance, to the _Gentiles_; and the words: "them that sit in darkness," moreover, evidently point back to "for the Light of the Gentiles." But from chap. xlix. 9, and also from ver. 16 of the chapter before us, where the blindness of Israel is mentioned, it appears that Israel too must not be excluded. Hence, we shall say: It is here more particularly described how the Servant of God _proves_ himself as the Covenant of the people and the Light of the Gentiles, how He puts an end to the misery under which both equally groan. It will be better to understand _blindness_, in connection with imprisonment, sitting in darkness, as a designation of the need of salvation, than as a designation of spiritual blindness, of the want of the light of knowledge. That is also suggested by the preceding: "for the Light of the Gentiles," which, according to the common _usus loquendi_, and according to chap.