ERRATA. Page 32, line 18 from the bottom: for "spontaneity " read "spirituality." 130. The outline on this page should follow that concluded on page 122. "" 214. For "Tyth" read 66 » 343, line 25 from the bottom : after "longer," add "to hold intercourse with it." Lyth." 362. For "Magee" read "Magie." 396. For "xxxvi." read "xxxiv." ISAIAH. OF INTRODUCTION. F 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. vii. 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 sixtysix 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 (a), and some admirable observations by Dr. Kay on the title of Isaiah's prophecy, which readers of it will do well to bear in mind throughout (8). (a) 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 peculiar 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 distinguishes him as the symmetry and perfection of the whole. We cannot fail to assume, as the first condition of Isaiah's peculiar 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 from 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. Both 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. 29-32, 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 up 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, xix. 13), as if, with so much power and beauty in the matter within, he did not so much require a painstaking finish in the outside. The structure of the strophe is always easy and beautifully rounded. Still the main point lies here,-that we cannot in the case of Isaiah, as in that of other prophets, specify any particular peculiarity, or any favourite colour as attaching to his general style. He is not the especially lyrical prophet, or the especially elegiacal prophet, or the especially oratorical and hortatory prophet, as we should describe a Joel, a Hosea, a Micah, with whom there is a greater prevalence of some particular colour; but, just as the subject requires, he has readily at command every several kind of style and every several change of delineation; and it is precisely this that, in point of language, establishes his greatness, as well as in general, forms one of his most towering points of excellence. His only fundamental peculiarity is the lofty, majestic calmness of his style, proceeding out of the perfect command which he feels he possesses over his subject-matter. This calmness, however, no way demands that the strain shall not, when occasion requires, be more vehemently excited, and assail the hearer with mightier blows; but even the extremest excitement, which does here and there intervene, is in the main bridled still by the same spirit of calmness, and, not overstepping the limits which that spirit assigns, it soon with lofty self-control returns to its wonted tone of equability (ii. 10-iii. 1, xxviii. 11-23, xxix. 9-14). Neither does this calmness in discourse require that the subject shall always be treated only in a plain level way, without any variation of form; rather, Isaiah shows himself master in just that variety of manner which suits the relation in which his hearers stand to the matter now in hand. If he wishes to bring home to their minds a distant truth which they like not to hear, and to judge them by a sentence pronounced by their own mouth, he retreats into a popular statement of a case drawn from ordinary life (v. 1-6, xxviii. 23-29). If he will draw the attention of the over-wise to some new truth, or to some future prospect, he surprises them by a brief oracle clothed in an enigmatical dress, leaving it to their penetration to discover its solution (vii. 14-16, xxix. 1-8). When the unhappy temper of the people's minds which nothing can amend leads to loud lamentation, his speech becomes for a while the strain of elegy and lament (i. 21-23, xxii. 4, 5). Do the frivolous leaders of the people mock he outdoes them at their own weapons, and crushes them under the fearful earnest of divine mockery (xxviii. 10-13). Even a single ironical word in passing will drop from the lofty prophet (xxvii. 3, glory). Thus his discourse varies into every complexion: it is tender and stern, didactic and threatening, mourning and again exulting in divine joy, mocking and earnest; but ever at the right time it returns to its original elevation and repose, and never loses the clear ground-colour of its divine seriousness.-Ewald, quoted in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, vol. i. pp. 888, 889, article ISAIAH. (8) The title of the book is "The VISION of Isaiah," which suggests these remarks(1.) Being a vision, it will frequently speak of events that are yet future, as if they had already occurred. So in iii. 8: "Jerusalem ruined; Judah is fallen." In v. 13: "Therefore my people are gone into captivity." (2.) What is seen in vision must be subject to the laws of perspective. One who views the snowy Alps from a distance may see two mountain peaks, which really are many miles apart, as one object. The illustration is imperfect; yet it may serve to explain how, to the eye of a seer, a nearer event may be blended with one that is in the same direction, but vastly more remote; the type, for instance, melting into the antitype, or the interval between the first and second advents of the Messiah being indiscernible. (3.) It is, as a whole, The Vision;-ore vision. It consists, indeed, of various parts; yet from the very outset these represent the same vision. Judah is rebellious; is sentenced to exile; is redeemed; is purified. These elements, on a large scale, compose the book as a whole; and, on a smaller scale, they compose the first chapter. The body is made up of portions similar in quality to itself, and to each other. The visions are greatly diversified in size, form, colouring, and other detail; but in essential characteristics it is one vision.-Dr Kay, in The Speaker's Commentary, vol. v. p. 19. THE PROPHET OF THE LORD. i 1. The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. I. The nature of the prophet's endowment: a "vision" into the very heart of things, a power of distinguishing between the seeming and the real. II. The sadness and the joy of the prophet's life: sadness arising from his "vision" of human sin (vers. 2-15); joy arising from his "vision" of the wondrousness of the Divine mercy (ver. 18). Application.-1. In these latter days the prophetic endowment, to a greater or lesser extent, is possessed by all God's people (1 John ii. 20). 2. The Church should pray that it may be possessed to the fullest extent by all who are called to minister in holy things. Prophets of clear and penetrating "vision " are among the greatest gifts which God can confer upon the Church (a). 3. This great endowment must be used not merely for the detection and exposure of human sin, lest we become cynical and inhuman, but also for the discovery of the abounding evidence of the Divine compassion (as in v. 9), that we may be brought into more perfect sympathy with Him who hates sin but desires and seeks to save the sinner. (a) A preacher who is not in some way a seer is not a preacher at all. You can never make people see religious realities by correct definitions. They will not believe in the reality of God on the word of a man who merely demonstrates it to them. You must see such things yourself if you are going to help others to see them. This is the secret of all the preaching that ever was good since preaching began.-Beecher. PROPHECY THE VOICE OF GOD. Thus at the very outset of this book Divine authority is claimed for the utterances contained in it. Three views may be taken of the writings of the Hebrew prophets. 1. They are the writings of men who knew they were uttering that which is false when they claimed to be messengers of the Most High. 2. They are the writings of enthusiasts who mistook the ecsta sies of their excited imaginations for Divine inspirations. 3. They are the writings of holy men who were inspired by the Holy Ghost. Against the first of these views is to be set the fact that the whole influence of the prophets was exerted on behalf of national righteousness and individual virtue; that for these things they suffered; that for these |