parum feliciter explicant, quomodo, Judæis Babylone reversis, completa esset eorum militia. Quot enim et quanta mala postea experti sunt, tum premente eos Antiocho, tum populo Romano eos sub jugum mittente? Neque etiam dici potest Judæorum, cum Babylone redierunt, expiatam fuisse iniquitatem; siquidem Deus de illis, per Romanos, alteras pœnas erat sumpturus." Houbigant ad locum.

Verse 2." The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness" "Nimirum, Joannes Baptista. Neque hæc ad Babylone reditum aptari possunt. Nam paratur via Domini, non Judæorum. Neque etiam Judæi Babylone redeuntes per desertum tantùm iter fecere." Houbigant ad locum.

"the

Verse 4." the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain;" rather, I think, rough shall become smooth, and the hard rocks a cleft;" i. e. an open passage shall be cleared through the rocks. See Parkhurst in

Verse 7." the people;" rather, "this people." Houbigant and Bishop Lowth.

Verse 10." "his work;" rather, "the recompense of his work." Bishop Lowth and Houbigant. Where observe, however, that by his reward and the recompense of his work, is meant the reward and

the recompense which he hath in readiness to bestow upon his servants." Quisque videt verba in hunc esse accipienda sensum, Deum Jehovam, in mundo constabiliturum regnum suum, et hostes suos vindicaturum, paratum in manibus habere mercedem et operæ pretium quod repensurus sit ministris suis omnibus," &c. Vitringa ad locum, vol. ii, p. 366, c. 2.

-"Non

Verse 12. "Who hath measured," &c. deserit inceptam rem propheta; imo describit, qualis sit ille, qui modo pastor nominatus est, et de quo urbibus Judæ dicit, en Deus vester;' ne Judæi comminiscantur hominem redemptorem, sed hominem Deum. Nam idem, qui modo ut homo descriptus est, nunc ut Deus exhibetur." Houbigant ad locum.

Verse 21. "Have ye not known? have ye not heard?" rather, with Houbigant and Bishop Lowth, in the future, "Will ye not know? will ye not hear?"

21 Will ye not know? will ye not hear of?

Hath he not been declared unto you from the beginning? Have ye never considered the foundations of the earth? [i. e. how the foundations were laid, or the act of laying them.]

22 Him that sitteth, &c.

Him that extendeth, &c.

23 That bringeth, &c.

That maketh, &c.

are all accusa הנותן הניטה הישב מיסדות The words

tives after the verbs know, hear of, considered, &c. The style is vehement, which accounts for the anticipated introduction of the clause "Hath he not been declared," &c.

Verse 26." by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, supplying abundantly their strength, and confirming their force, not one of them is missing, or goeth astray." Or rather, "by reason of abundance of force and firmness of strength, not one of them is driven astray." The prophet speaks of the sufficiency of the physical forces with which the Creator has endowed the great bodies of the universe, to prevent all disorder and irregularity in its motions. And so I find Vitringa understood him. "Nullum eorum deficere plane id significat, stellas in cælorum orbe sive fornice fixas, æquè ac erraticas, locum, statumque et ordinem suum constanter tueri, &c. unde vero ipsis hic status, ordo, leges motus, veri vel apparentis, et præcipuè status stabilitas?

מרב אונים,Ait vates

ואמיץ לח

Vox notat interiorem cujusque rei vim, naturalium virium essentiam et vooraan, earumque affluentiam et sufficientiam. Vox N hic est accipienda ut nomen substantivum." Vitringa in Is. vol. ii, p. 383, c. 2.

See my notes on Hosea.

Verse 31." they shall mount up with wings as "they shall tower on strong pinion like

eagles ;"

eagles."

seems to be used adverbially, not as a

יעלי noun the object of

CHAP. XLI.

In this chapter, the miraculous propagation of the true religion is alleged as a proof, in the prediction and in the event, of the exclusive deity of the God of Israel, in opposition to the pretensions of the heathen idols.

Verse 1. "Keep silence before me"- For read, with the LXX, . "Let the distant nations repair to me with new force of mind." Bishop Lowth; and see the Bishop's excellent note. But when did the nations repair to God with new force of mind? Never certainly till the gospel was preached to them. This compellation therefore of the

Gentiles marks the season to which this prophecy relates.

"the people." -"the peoples," Bishop Lowth.

Verse 2. "Who raised up the righteous man from the east" rather, "Who raiseth up," who is about. to do this.

"the righteous man." Cyrus was a just prince; and I think in some passages of the prophecies, that respect the liberation of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, we find allusion to the uprightness of his government. But I cannot see how Cyrus merited the great character of the righteous man, which in scripture signifies much more than a man of moral probity. It always denotes a man righteous in the religious sense of the word, a man attached to the service of the One true God, and justified in his sight. The character of Cyrus is, that though he was supported, and raised to the empire by the providence of God, yet he knew not God, Is. xlv, 4. And the acknowledgement that he makes of the God of heaven and earth, in his edict for the return of the captives (Ezra i, 2) is by no means such evidence of his faith in the sole Deity of Jehovah, as may invalidate this express testimony of his irreligion, and entitle him to the honourable appellation