And so Hezekiah lost the Messiahship for want of a song ! And these are good masters in the interpretation of prophecies concern- ing Christ. I wholly assent to the conjecture of the learned anno- tator about this business: "Non incredibile est," says he, "quod unus scriba properans commiserat, id, alios superstitiose imitates;" — "One began this writing by negligence, and others followed him Avith superstition." The conjectures of some Christians from hence are with me of no more weight than those of the Jews: as, that by this 77iem clausum is signified the birth of Christ of a vii-gin; and whereas in number it signifies six hundred, it denotes the space of time at the end whereof Christ was to be born, which was so many years from the fourth of Ahaz, wherein this prophecy, as is supposed, was given.
I have not insisted on these things as though they were of any importance, or in themselves worthy to be repeated, when men are dealing seriously about the things of God, but only to show what little cause Grotius had to follow the modern rabbins in their ex- position of this place, whose conceits upon it are so foolish and ridi- culous.
Return we to the Annotations. The first passage he fixes on is, " And the government shall be upon his shoulder." Saith he, " Id est, erit '7rop<pvpo'yivrjrog, ah ipsis cunis purpuram feret regiani, ut in regnum natus. Confer Ezech. xxviii. 1.3;" — "He shall be born to purple; from his very cradle he shall wear the kingly purple, beincr born to the kino-dom."
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1. But this is nothing peculiar to Hezekiah. His son Manasseh was all this as well as he ; and how this, being in itself a light and trivial thing, common to all other kings' sons with him, should be thus pro- phesied of as an eminent honour and glory, none can see any cause. 2. But is this indeed the meaning of these words, " Hezekiah, when he is a boy, shall wear a purple coat?" which the prophet, when he gave forth this prophecy, perhaps saw him playing in every day. Cer- tainly it is a sad thing to be forsaken of God, and to be given up to a man's own understanding in the exposition of the Scripture. That the government, the principality here mentioned, which is said to be upon the shoulder of him concerning whom the words are spoken, — that is, committed to him as a weighty thing, — is the whole rule and government of the church of God, committed to the management of the Lord Jesus Christ, the mediator, to the inconceivable benefit and consolation of his people, the reader may find evinced in all exposi- tors on the place (unless some one or other of late, persons of note, who, to appear somebodies, have ventured to follow Grotius) ; it is not my business to insist on particulars.
His next note is on these words, " His name shall be called." " In Hebraso est vocabit ; supple quisque. Etiam Chaldpeus vocahitur transtulit. Notum autem Hebrseis did sic vel sic vocari aliquem cui tales tituli aut Ivikra conveniunt." I delight not to contend at all, nor shall do it without great cause. For the sense of these words, I am content that we take up thus much : The titles following are his names, and they agree to him ; that is, he is, or shall be, such an one as answers the description in them given of him. But here our great doctors, whom this great man follows, are divided. Some of them not seeing how it is possible that the names following should be as- cribed to Hezekiah, some of them directly terming him " God," they pervert the words, and read them thus: "The wonderful Counsellor, the mighty God, etc, shall call his name The Prince of Peace;" so ascribing the last name only to Hezekiah, all the former to God. The advantage they take is from the want of variation by cases in the Hebrew. And this way go all the present rabbins, being set into it by Solomon Jarchi on the place. But as this is expressly contrary to the judgment of the old doctors,^ as hath been abun- dantly proved out of their Targum and Talmud, where Hezekiah is called the " lord of eight names," and is opposed to Sennacherib, who they say had eight names also, so it is contrary to all their own rules of grammar to place the name of him who calls after the verb calling, of which there is not one instance to be given, Grotius, therefore, takes in with them who apply all these names to Heze- kiah, shift with them afterward as well as he can. So he proceeds: —
*' Wonderful." "Ob summas quae in eo erunt virtutes;" — "For the » Vide Pet. Gal. lib. iii. cap. xix. ; Rnymun. Martin, iii. p. dist. 1, cap. ix.
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excellent virtues that shall be in him." But, I pray, why more than David or Josiah? " This is his name, ' Wonderful;' that is, he shall be very virtuous, and men shall admire him." How much better this name agrees to Him, and how much more proper it is, whose person is so great a mystery, 1 Tim. iii. 16, and whose name is so abstruse, Prov. XXX. 4, and that upon the wonderful conjunction of two natures in one person, here mentioned (lie who is " The mighty God" being also "a child given" unto us), is evident to all.