Chapter 42

The Servant of God, with whose person the Prophet had. by way of preparation, already made us acquainted in the first book of the second part, in chap. xlii., is here, at the beginning of the second book, at once introduced as speaking, surprising, as it were, the readers. In ver. 1-3, we have the destination and high calling which the Lord assigned to His Servant; in ver. 4, the contrast and contradiction of the result of this mission; the covenant-people, to whom it is, in the first instance, directed, reward with ingratitude His faithful work. In ver. 5 and 6, we are told what God does in order to maintain the dignity of His Servant; as a compensation for obstinate, rebellious Israel, He gives Him the _Gentiles_ for an inheritance. From ver. 7 the Prophet takes the word. In ver. 7 the original contempt which, according to the preceding verses, the Servant of God meets with, especially in _Israel_, is contrasted with the respectful worship of nations and kings which is to follow after it. Ver. 8 and 9 describe how the Servant of God proves himself to be the embodied covenant of the people, and form the transition to a general description of the enjoyment of salvation, which, in the Messianic times, shall be bestowed upon the Congregation of the Lord. This description goes on to chap. l. 3, and then, in chap. l. 4 ff., the person of the Servant of the Lord is anew brought before us.

The Messianic explanation of our passage is already met with in the New Testament. It is with reference to it that [Pg 227] Simeon, in Luke ii. 30, 31, designates the Saviour as the [Greek: sôtêrion] of God, which He had prepared before the face of all people (comp. ver. 6 of our passage: "That thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth"), as the [Greek: phôs eis apokalupsin ethnôn kai doxan laou sou Israêl]; comp. again ver. 6, according to which the Servant of God is to be at the same time, the light of the Gentiles, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. Ver. 1: "The Lord hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother hath He made mention of my name," is alluded to in Luke ii. 21: [Greek: Kai eklêthê to onoma autou Iêsous, to klêthen hupo tou angelou pro tou sullêphthênai auton en tê koilia] (comp. i. 31: [Greek: sullêpsê en gastri kai texê huion kai kaleseis to onoma autou Iêsoun]) as is sufficiently evident from [Greek: en tê koilia] _sc. matris_, which exactly answers to the [Hebrew: mbTN] in the passage before us. In Acts