Chapter 55

is constant in him." Ps. lxxxix. 2, 50: "Lord, where are thy former mercies which thou swarest unto David in thy truth?" likewise suggest that, by David, not simply Christ is to be understood, but the Davidic family. The constant mercies of David are, accordingly, the mercies which have been sworn to the Davidic house as _constant_, which, therefore, can never rest until Christ has appeared with His everlasting Kingdom, in which they find their true and full realization. In the expectation of the Messiah from the house of David, the prophecy under consideration goes hand in hand with chap. xi. 1, where the Messiah appears as a twig which proceeds from the cut-down tree of Jesse; and with chap. ix. 6, according to which He sits on the throne of David. This passage alone is fully sufficient against those (_Ewald_, _Umbreit_, and others) who advance the strange assertion, that the Prophet had altogether given up the idea of a Messiah from the house of David, and had distributed His property between Cyrus and the prophetic order, [Pg 348] or the pious portion of the people. It is of the greatest importance for the explanation of those passages which treat of the Servant of God, and forms a point of union for the Messianic passages of the first and second part. The passage before us is quoted in Acts xiii. 34: [Greek: hoti de anestêsen auton ek nekrôn, mêketi mellonta hupostrephein eis diaphthoran houtôs, eirêken. hoti dôsô humin ta hosia Dabid ta pista]. [Greek: hOsia Dabid], _sancta Davidis_, are the sacred, inviolable, inalienably guaranteed mercies and blessings which have been promised to the house of David. As certainly as these must be granted, so certainly Christ, who was to bring them, could not remain in the power of death.

Ver. 4. "_Behold, I give him for a witness to the people, for a prince and lawgiver of the people._"

Here, and in ver. 5, we have the expansion of the mercies of David. Their greatness and glory appear from the circumstance that, around his scion, the whole heathen world, which hitherto was hostile and pernicious to the Church of God, will gather. The Suffix in [Hebrew: nttiv] can refer only to David, or the family of David. From the connection with chap. liii., it appears that it is in his descendant, the righteous One, to whom the heathen and their kings do homage, that David will attain to the dignity here announced. [Hebrew: ed] has no other signification than "witness." Every true doctrine bears the character of a witness. The teacher sent by God does not teach on his own authority, [Greek: a mê eôraken embateuôn], but only witnesses what he has seen and heard. With a reference to, and in explanation of the passage before us, Christ says to Pilate, in John xviii. 37: "For this end was I born, and for this cause I came into the world, that I should bear _witness_ unto the truth." And the passages, Rev. i. 5: "And from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness," and Rev. iii. 14: "These things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness," likewise point back to the passage before us; compare farther, John iii. 11, 32, 33. In John xviii. 37, Rev. i. 5, His being a witness is, just as in the passage before us, connected with His being a King; so that the reference to this passage cannot be at all doubtful. It is intentionally that [Hebrew: ed] is put at the head. It is intended to intimate that the future dominion of the Davidic dynasty over the heathen world shall be essentially different from that which, in former times, it exercised [Pg 349] over some neighbouring people. It is not based upon the power of arms, but upon the power of truth. He in whom the Davidic dynasty is to centre shall connect the prophetic with the regal office; just as already, in the prophecy of the Shiloh, in Gen. xlix. 10, the prophetic office is concealed behind the royal. The contrast to the first David can the less be doubtful, that, while [Hebrew: ed] is never applied to him, it is just the subsequent [Hebrew: ngid] which, in a series of passages, is ascribed to him. In 2 Sam. vi. 21, David himself says that the Lord appointed him to be _ruler_ over the people of the Lord, over Israel; in 2 Sam. vii. 8, Nathan says: "I took thee from the sheep-cot to be _ruler_ over my people, over Israel;" comp. 1 Sam. xxv. 30; 2 Sam. v. 5. In those passages, however, David is always spoken of as a ruler over Israel; so that even as regards the [Hebrew: ngid], the second David, the prince of the _people_, is not only placed on a level with the first David, but is elevate d above him. For the dominion by force which David exercised over some heathen nations, [Hebrew: ngid] was the less appropriate designation, inasmuch as it designates the ruler as the chief of his people.

Ver. 5. "_Behold, thou shall call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee, because of the Lord thy God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for He adorneth thee._"

The words here are addressed to the true Israel, to the exclusion of those souls who are cut off from among their people, compare Ps.