places; and He hath made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody". When the LORD commands (chap. xl. 3), "Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God," they were no mere material mountains that Israel had to level, or valleys to raise up, in order that the LORD might return to His Zion. The obstructions that they had to help in removing in the way of the LORD's return to Zion were the lofty mountains of pride they had to bring down and all that exalted itself against their God; everything that was mean and debased had to be raised up, the crooked to be made straight: in short, as the figurative expressions of the prophet: "Prepare ye the way of the LORD," that the King may return to His people, were translated into plain prose by John the Baptist: "Repent [prepare ye the way of the LORD by a change of heart], for the kingdom of God is at hand".

3. Another common mistake necessary to be corrected is confounding Zion with the people of Israel, as meaning sometimes the whole mass of Israel; at others, the better or believing portion. Zion, as Dr. Hengstenberg has shown, never means the exiled Zionites, or mere inhabitants of Jerusalem, but is always the ideal site of God's holy city, or the mother of His children. This error has been corrected in the Revised Version, as will be seen in examining chap. xl. 9, where Jerusalem, who had been wandering as a desolate widow, around God's Holy Temple, is represented as being called upon to go up and announce the coming of the LORD on Mount Zion.1

1 Zion evidently is regarded as now" in the latter days (chap. ii. 2) established in the top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills" when "all nations shall flow into it. And many peoples shall go and say, Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD. for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem": N.B.-" Zion " must not be confounded with "Mount Zion," the latter being always the Temple Mount (Moriah).

Keeping these preliminary observations in view, the reader, it is hoped, will now be prepared to follow the consolatory arguments and proofs which the prophet places before Israel, that God will make the difficulties and severe sufferings, of which they are so much afraid, the very means of learning three great lessons necessary in order to fulfil the mission for which they were chosen by God; namely, to be a kingdom of priests unto the LORD-a holy nation" (Exod. xix. 6).

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These three lessons or objects were, as we have already

seen:

I. They had to "accomplish a warfare" against idolatry ; II. They had to "accept of the punishment of their iniquity";

III. They had to receive double for all their sins.

To each of these objects, successively, in the first trilogy (xl. 12 to xlii.), a separate chapter is devoted: To the first, chap. xl. 12-31; to the second, chap. xli.; to the third, chap. xlii.; and in each the argument is taken from regard to God's prescient wisdom, and predisposing power displayed in His character or works :

1

In the 1st (chap. xl. 12-31)--as the Author of Creation. In the 2nd (chap. xli.)—as the Author of Providence. In the 3rd (chap. xlii.)—as the Author of Redemption. The necessity for clearing away the numerous misleading prepossessions with which the rationalistic critics have succeeded in mystifying the minds of even our best orthodox interpreters must be our excuse for the length of these preliminary observations. And now that it is hoped the Biblical student may be, in some degree, prepared for following, without prejudice, the course of the argument, as stated by the prophet, let us inquire what is the import of each of the three topics of consolation which he places before his countrymen.

1 Besides the fuller exposition of each in the central trilogy of each of the three Books: xliii. to xlv. ; lii. to liv. ; lxi. to lxiii.

I. The first and indispensable purpose of God's disciplinary training for Israel, before any further progress could be made, is that their y tsūv’á, “warfare" must be "accomplished". This word has generally been interpreted to mean nothing more than the "long period of hardship," or the "hard service," which Israel was to endure at Babylon. This is very far from expressing the true meaning of the term. It forms, as we might expect, the keynote of the whole prophecy, comprehending the whole work and mission of Israel, as the "servant of the LORD". What, then, is the meaning of the word? On turning to the first three chapters of the Book of Numbers, we find that it is applied to military service, or the service which Israel as "God's soldier," or champion (Gesenius' Lexicon) has to render to Him as His warriors in conquering the idolatrous Canaanites, and taking possession of their land which He had promised to Abraham and his seed for their inheritance. (See Numb. i. 20, 22-24, &c., "all that were able to go forth to war [service]". Cf. Numb. xxxi. 14; Josh. xxii. 12; and 1 Sam. xxviii. 1.)

But in Numb. iv. 23: "All that enter in to wait upon the service, to do the work in the tent of meeting"; and in viii. 25, the same words, both verb and noun, are applied to the tabernacle-service.

The service, therefore, which Israel has to render to Jehovah was a double service. First, a war-service, to fight the battles of the LORD, a warfare against idols, idolatry, and idolators, and all the enemies of Jehovah, as their King; and secondly, a tabernacle-service, paying ever the worship due to Him as their God.

But both of these, it will be observed, are exactly the service and calling prescribed to Israel from their first establishment as a people (Exod. xix. 6): "Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation,” a kingdom and nation, themselves giving entire submission to Jehovah as their King, and leading all others into submission to Him;

"priests and holy," ministering in holiness unto the LORD, and persuading others to join in His service; for the promise to their forefather Abraham was: In thy seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed".

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Such was the double "service" which Israel was called to render to Jehovah ;-hence so often styled the "servant of the LORD" (xli. 8, 9; xlii. 19; xliii. 10; xliv. 1, 2, 21, &c.). II. The second topic of comfort is that Israel accept of the punishment of her iniquity.

To ascertain the meaning of this expression we have to turn to Levit. xxvi. 41-43, the only other passage in which it occurs, and from which it is evidently taken. There, as here in Isaiah, in view of the severe judgments denounced against the sin of Israel, a hope of their reversal is held out, and the condition is stated on which it would be granted: “If their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity "1 (Levit. xxvi. 41, and verse 43 is to the same effect). The view which this gives us of the expression, as employed in Isaiah, makes it

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1 That avón (Heb. i) has the meaning of "punishment of iniquity" (as rendered in both the Authorized and Revised Versions), or, more correctly, "penalty due to iniquity," whether paid or not, guilt-debt or "indebtedness" (Germ. Schuld), we gather from its first occurrence in the Bible in Gen. iv. 13, where it is much more in accordance with Cain's frame of mind to translate as in both versions: "My punishment is greater than I can bear," than in the margin: "Mine iniquity is greater than can be forgiven"; as indeed his own words in verse 14 (arising more from fear of consequences, than from true repentance) prove.

T

The usual meaning of rātsāh, when employed as here in reference to sin, is to accept an offering or sacrifice as a compensation for it; as in Levit. i. 4: "And it [the burnt-offering] shall be accepted for him, to make atonement for him". See Levit. vii. 18; xxii. 23, 25, 27; Micah vi. 7: "Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams?' Cf. Malachi i. 10. In Levit. xxvi. 41, 43, the meaning therefore is: "If they then accept of their penalty as the just compensation for their iniquity". And even the other use of it in verse 43, "The land shall enjoy her Sabbaths," is but another instance of the same figure = the land shall accept of her Sabbaths, by lying desolate as a compensation for those withheld from her.

include more than what is generally assigned to it. The acceptance of the punishment is usually explained exclusively of God, whereas in Leviticus it is clearly an act required also of Israel. The manifest reference to Leviticus determines this to be the leading thought, though as in the first topic the double meaning is, I believe, designed by the prophet, since both are most distinctly brought out in chap. liii., the central chapter of the central trilogy of the second book, the purport of which is to expand and illustrate this. the second or central topic of consolation. The meaning therefore of the expression, "That the punishment of her iniquity is accepted," is that it is accepted by both parties as a fit compensation, first by God, as an adequate atonement paid by the Messiah, who, on Israel's refusing to take this second step (after being six times called upon to "hear" [or "hearken"], in chap. xlviii. 1, 6, 8, 12, 14, 16), at last comes forward and takes Israel's place as the LORD's servant in verse 6, with the words: And now the LORD GOD hath sent me and His Spirit".

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This, it will be evident, makes a much more severe demand on the part of Israel than the first service. To accomplish the warfare against idolatry called more for an intellectual than moral effort, as is evident from the case of the Mahomedans. But to "accept of the punishment of iniquity" as the justly merited compensation for our sin, requires a humbling acknowledgment and confession of our guilt, against which the pride of human nature revolts, and which, as we shall afterwards see, Israel refused to make till it had first been rendered and exemplified by Messiah's taking their place (chap. xlviii. 16) as the servant of the LORD, and submitting voluntarily (chap. liii. 7) to the LORD'S "laying upon Him the punishment of the iniquity of us all" (liii. 6). Then, and then only, through the strength given to us by the Saviour, can the members of Christ's Israel accept of this difficult part of their required service.

III. The third purpose of God's disciplinary training