xix. 27 Chastisement

xxi. 11, 12. The Burden of Dumah Night and Morning A Momentous Inquiry

xxi. 15. The Grievousness of War

xxii. 18. The Irresistibleness of God's Judgments

xxii. 24. The Glory of the Messiah

xxiv. 15. Glorifying God in the Fires

xxv. 1. The Grand Appropriation

xxv. 6-8. The Gospel Feast The Blessings of the Gospel

xxv. 8. The Triumphs of Christ A Sorrowless World

xxv. 9. Advent Thoughts and Joys

xxv. 10. The Protecting Hand

xxvi. 1-2. Days of Deliverance

xxvi. 3-4. Perfect Peace Peaceful Keeping

xxvi. 7. The Righteousness of God and His People The Just Man's Security

xxvi. 8. The Way of God's Judgments

xxvi. 8, 9. Trust and Trials

xxvi. 9. Night Longings for God The Necessity and Profitableness of Chastisement

xxvi. 9, 10. The Use and Abuse of the Judgments of God

xxvi. 12. National Peace the Gift of God Holiness Accomplished, Peace Ordained Man's Holiness, God's Workmanship

xxvi. 13, 14. Spiritual Usurpers Renounced

xxvi. 16. Prayer in Trouble

xxvi. 19. National Revival

xxvi. 20. God's Invitation to Shelter Chambers of Safety Religious Retirement

xxvii. 2, 3. God's Goodness to the Church The Song to the Vineyard

xxvii. 4, 5. A Solemn Disclaimer

xxvii. 5. Taking Hold of God's Strength

xxvii. 6. The Future Prosperity of Israel

xxvii. 8. The Day of the East Wind The Storms of Life

xxvii. 7-9. The Afflictions of God's People

xxvii. 9. The Discipline of Sin

xxvii. 10, 11. The Doom of the Incorrigible

xxvii. 13. The Gospel Trumpet The Great Trumpet

xxviii. 1-4. England's Crying Sin

xxviii. 5, 6. The Believer's Dignity and Power

xxviii. 9, 10. Early Religious Training

xxviii. 10. The Power of Littles

xxviii. 12. Rejecters of the Gospel Admonished

xxviii. 16. The Sure Foundation Our Trust and Our Test A Tested Saviour

xxviii. 17. False Refuges

xxviii. 18. False Refuges

xxviii. 20. The Short Bed and the Narrow Covering

xxviii. 22. Irreligious Mockery

xxviii. 24, 25. The Parable of the Husbandman

xxviii. 29. A Feast for Faith

xxix. 1. Ariel

xxix. 7, 8. Dreaming

xxix. 8. Awakened from the Dream The Futility of Fighting against Mount Zion

xxix. 13, 14. Lip-Service Instead of Heart-Worship

xxix. 19. The Joy of the Meek Religious Joy

xxx. 1-3. The Origin and the End of Sin

xxx. 7. Strength in Quietness Some Aspects of Ministerial Duty

xxx. 9-11. Dislike to Ministerial Fidelity

xxx. 15. Christian Quietness

xxx. 15, 16. The Vanity of Earthly Help in Time of Trial, and the Profit of Patient Waiting

xxx. 15-17. Divine Salvation Rejected

xxx. 18. Waiting, Divine and Human Waiting for the Lord

xxx. 19. God's Readiness to Listen to the Needy

xxx. 20, 21. The Bread of Adversity

xxx. 21. The Guiding Voice

xxx. 25, 26. Rivers of Waters

xxx. 26. Growing Light

xxx. 29-33. The Earthly Song and the Heavenly Voice

xxx. 33. Tophet Ordained of Old

xxxi. 1-3. The Only Counsellor

xxxi. 3. The Spirituality of the Divine Nature

xxxi. 6. A Call to the Revolted

xxxi. 9. The Fiery Ordeal of the Church

xxxii. 2. The Preciousness of Christ The Christian's Refuge Rivers of Water in a Dry Place Comfort in Christ

xxxii. 8. Christian Liberality

xxxii. 11. A Call to the Careless

xxxii. 13-15. The Essential Condition of Missionary Success

xxxii. 15. The Moral Wilderness Transformed

xxxii. 17. Peace the Work of Righteousness

xxxii. 18. The Peaceful Habitation

xxxii. 20. Spiritual Husbandry The Use of Opportunities

xxxiii. 1. Providence

xxxiii. 2. The Saint's Attitude in the Time of Trouble

xxxiii. 6. The Importance of Religious Knowledge

xxxiii. 7-12. God Avenging His Own Elect

xxxiii. 15-17. A Blessed Life

xxxiii. 15, 16. Nobility and Security

xxxiii. 16. The Blessedness of the Servant of God

xxxiii. 17. The Prospect of the Godly The Beauty of Christ's Character

xxxiii. 20. Characteristics of the Church of Christ

xxxiii. 21. Enriching Rivers

xxxiii. 22. A Controlling Fact The Atonement; or, Salvation Consistent with the Regal and Judicial Character of God

xxxiii. 23. The Disabled Ship

xxxiii. 24. No Sickness There Recovery from Sickness

xxxiv. 8. The Controversy of Zion

xxxiv. 16. A Call to Study The Book That Will Endure Testing

xxxiv. 16, 17. The Certainty of God's Judgments

xxxv. 1, 2, 7. Transformation

xxxv. 3, 4. Encouragement for the Timid

xxxv. 5, 6. The Healer and Joy-Giver The Curse Done Away

xxxv. 7. Beautiful Visions Exchanged for Realities

xxxv. 8-10. The Exiles' Return The Road to the City

xxxv. 10. The Happiness of Heaven The Banishment of Sorrow

xxxvi. 4. Modern Rabshakehs, And Their Attempts to Terrify God's People into a Humble Surrender

xxxvi. 5. In Whom Art Thou Trusting?

xxxvi. 21. Hezekiah's Prudent Silence

xxxvii. 1. A Foolish King and a Wise One

xxxvii. 14. A King in Trouble Spreading the Letter before the Lord

xxxvii. 15-20. A King's Prayer

xxxvii. 20. A Christian Prayer

xxxvii. 31. The Christian Church a Continuation of the Jewish

xxxviii. 1-19. Hezekiah's Prayer

xxxviii. 1. Preparation for Death Duties of the Sick and Dying

xxxviii. 2, 3. Distress in Prospect of Death

xxxviii. 10. The Shortening of Human Life

xxxviii. 14. A Cry for Help The Suretyship of Christ

xxxviii. 15-20. Hezekiah's Resolution

xxxviii. 15. The Restoration of Belief

xxxviii. 17. A Great Deliverance Forgiveness of Sin

xxxviii. 18, 19. The Song of Hezekiah

xxxviii. 19. Praise for Preservation

xxxix. 1, 2. Hezekiah's Strength and Weakness

xxxix. 4. Home Life and Influence

xxxix. 8. Hezekiah Tried Submission Under God's Rebuke

APPENDIX.

- Introduction - Alexander's translation of Isaiah - Delitzsch's translation of Isaiah - Calkins' translation of Isaiah lii. 12-liii. - Urwick's translation of Isaiah lii. 12-liii.

ISAIAH.

INTRODUCTION.

Of Isaiah, "the evangelical prophet," nothing is _known_ beyond what we are told of him in the Scriptures. Various traditions concerning him are current among the Jews, such as that his father Amoz was brother of King Amaziah, and that he himself died a martyr's death, being sawn asunder by order of Manasseh; but all that is _certain_ is, that he was the son of Amoz; that his prophetic ministry commenced in the reign of Uzziah, and closed in that of Hezekiah (ch. i. 1); that his wife was a prophetess (ch. viii. 3), and bare him two sons (ch. vi. 3; viii. 3); and that he was the author of a portion of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah (2 Chron. xxvi. 22).

His name signifies _The Salvation of the Lord,_ and this--_the salvation which God works for His people from their sins and consequent misery_--is the great, though not the exclusive, theme of his prophecy.

The length of his ministry is variously estimated. The lowest estimate would make it comprise forty-nine years, from the last year of Uzziah to the seventeenth of Hezekiah (B.C. 759-710); the highest, sixty-four years, from the fourth year before Uzziah's death to the last year of Hezekiah (B.C. 762-698).

In the following Commentary it is assumed that the whole of the sixty-six chapters of which the Book of Isaiah is composed, were written by one pen. For clear and conclusive refutations of the theory of a second Isaiah, see the introductions to the Commentaries of Alexander, Delitsch, and Kay, and the article ISAIAH in Smith's, Kitto's, and Fairbairn's _Dictionaries of the Bible._

Appended are Ewald's criticisms on Isaiah's style,[1] and some admirable observations by Dr. Kay on the _title_ of Isaiah's prophecy, which readers of it will do to bear in mind throughout.[2]

FOOTNOTES.

[1] In Isaiah we see prophetic authorship reaching its culminating point. Everything conspired to raise him to an elevation which no prophet before or after could as writer attain. Among the other prophets, each of the more important ones is distinguished by some one particular excellence, and some one particular talent. In Isaiah all kinds of talent, and all beauties of prophetic discourse, meet together, so as mutually to temper and qualify each other; it is not so much any single feature that distinguished him as the symmetry and perfection of the whole.

We cannot fail to assume, as the first condition of Isaiah's particular historical greatness, a native power, and a vivacity of spirit which, even among prophets, is seldom to be met with. It is but rarely that we see combined in one and the same spirit the three several characteristics of--first, the most profound prophetic excitement and the purest sentiment; next, the most indefatigable and successful practical activity amidst all perplexities and changes of outward life; and, thirdly, that facility and beauty in representing thought which is the characteristic of the genuine poet; but this threefold combination we find realised in Isaiah as in no other prophet; and form the traces which we can perceive of the unceasing joint-working of these three powers, we must draw our conclusions as to the original greatness of his genius. But as prophet and as author, Isaiah stands upon that calm, sunny height, which in each several branch of ancient literature one eminently favoured spirit at the right time takes possession of; which seems, as it were, to have been waiting for _him;_ and which, when he has come and mounted the ascent, seems to keep and guard him to the last as its own right man. In the sentiments which he expresses, in the topics of his discourses, and in the manner of expression, Isaiah uniformly reveals himself as the kingly prophet.

In reference to the last-named point, it cannot be said that his method of elaborating thought is elaborate and artificial: it rather shows a lofty simplicity and an unconcern about external attractiveness, abandoning itself freely to the leading and requirement of each several thought; but, nevertheless, it always rolls along in a full stream which overpowers all resistance, and never fails at the right place to accomplish at every turn its object without toil or effort.

The progress and development of the discourse is always majestic, achieving much with few words, which, though short, are yet clear and transparent; an overflowing fulness of thought, which might readily lose itself in the vast and indefinite, but which always at the right time with tight rein collects and tempers its exuberance; to the bottom exhausting the thought and completing the utterance, and yet never too diffuse. This severe self-control is the most admirably seen in those shorter utterances which by briefly-sketched images and thoughts give us the vague apprehension of something infinite, whilst, nevertheless, they stand before us complete in themselves and clearly delineated; _e.g._, viii. 6--ix. 6, xiv. 23-32, xviii. 1-7, xxi. 11, 12; while in the long piece, xxviii.-xxxii., if the composition here and there for a moment languishes, it is only to lift itself again afresh with all the greater might. In this rich and thickly-crowded fulness of thought and word it is but seldom that the simile which is employed appears apart, to set forth and complete itself (xxxi. 4, 5); in general, it crowds into the delineation of the object which it is meant to illustrate, and is swallowed up in it,--ay, and frequently simile after simile; and yet the many threads of the discourse, which for a moment appeared ravelled together, soon disentangle themselves into perfect clearness;--a characteristic which belongs to this prophet alone, a freedom of language which with no one else so easily succeeds.

The versification, in like manner, is always full, and yet strongly marked: while, however, this prophet is so little concerned about anxiously weighing out to each verse its proper number of words, not unfrequently he repeats the same word in two members (xxxi. 8, xxxii. 17, xi. 5,