Though the words of this verse are most important, yet having at large before insisted on the latter words of it, I shall be brief in my animadversions on the signal depravation of them by the learned annotator. Therefore, —
1. Why is this confession of sins restrained to the times of Ma- oiasseh, and not afterward? The expression is universal, ^^|3, "all of us," and a man to his own way. And if these words may be allowed to respect Jesus Christ at all, they will not bear any such restriction. But this is the Tpurov ^J^sudos of this interpretation, that these are the words of the Jews after the destruction of Jerusalem, which are the words of the converted Jews and Gentiles after the suffering of Jesus Christ.
2. Why is the sin confessed restrained to idolatry ? Men's " own ways," which they walk in when they turn from the ways of God, and know not the ways of peace, comprehend all the evils of every kind that their hearts and lives are infected withal.
3. The last words are .unworthy a person of much less learning and judgment than the annotator; for, —
(1.) The word J?"'?^'!' (of which before) is interpreted, without pre- tence, warrant, or colour, " permisit," — God permitted. But of that word sufiiciently before.
(2.) By " his suffering unworthy things through our fault " he un- derstands not the meritorious cause of his suffering, but the means whereby he suffered, even the unbelief and cruelty of the Jews; which is most remote from the sense of the place.
(3.) He mentions here distinctly the faidt of them that speak, and his suffering that is spoken of, " Permisit Deus ut ille nostro gravi
472 VINDICI^ EVANGELICVE.
crimine indignissima pateretur," when in tlie text the fault of tbem that speak is the suffering of him that is spoken of: " Our iniquities were laid on him," — that is, the punishment due to them.
(4.) His suffering in the text is God's act ; in the Annotations, the Jews' only.
(5.) There is neither sense nor coherence in this interpretation of the words, " We have all sinned and followed idols, and God hath suffered him to be evilly entreated by us ; " when the whole context evidently gives an account of our deserving, and the way whereby we are delivered, and therein a reason of the low and abject condi- tion of the Messiah in this world. But of this at large elsewhere.
Verse 7, " He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth : he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth."
" Oblatus est quia ipse voluit, et non aperuit os suum. In Heb., 'Oppressus et afflictus fuit, et non aperuit os suum." Sensum bene exprimunt LXX. Ka/ ahrog bia, to xsxaxciodai oux avoiyn rh OTo'/xa ah-o\J. Etiam tunc cum in carcerem ageretur, et in locum lutosum, nihil fecit dixit ve iracunde.
" 8icut ovis, Ovis mitissimum animal,
" Ut quasi agnus, cum quo ipse Jeremias se comparat, cap. xi, ver. 19."
'" He was offered because he would, and he opened not his mouth.' In the Hebrew, ' He was oppressed and afflicted.' The LXX. have well expressed the sense, * Because of affliction he opened not his mouth." Even then when he was thrown into the prison and mire, he neither did nor spake any thing angrily.
" ' As a sheep,' a most mild creature,
" ' And as a lamb," wherewith Jeremiah compares himself, chap, xi. verse 19."
The process of the words is to give an account of the same matter formerly insisted on, concerning one's suffering for the sins of others. That the words are spoken of the Lord Jesus, the Holy Ghost hath long since put it out of question. Acts viii. 32. And though there be some difficulty and variety in the interpretation of the first words, yet his patient suffering as the Lamb of God, typed out by all the sacrifices of the Jews, under the punishment due to our sins, shines through the whole.
1. For the words themselves, they are i^.^V.^ ^li^^ tJ*3?, which are va- riously rendered: Ka/ ahrhi dia rb xexaxuadai, LXX; — "And he for (or because of) affliction." "Oblatus est quia ipse voluit," Vulg. Lat; — "He was offered because he would." " Oppressus est et ipse afflictus est," Arias Montanus. " Exigitur et ipse afifligitur," Junius ; — "It was exacted, and he was afflicted." Others, " It was exacted, and he an- swered," which seems most to agree with the letter, ^^^ is sometimes
DIGRESSION CONCERNING GROTIUS ON ISAIAH LIII. 473
written with the point on the right corner of ti*, and then it signifies "to approach, to draw nigh;" and in the matter of sacrifice it signifies "to offer," because men drew nigh to the Lord in offer ino^. So Amos v. 25, V Q^'^'Sn, " Have ye made to draw nigh your offerings and sacri- fices?" or, " Have ye offered?" Thus the Vulgar Latin read the word, and rendered it " Oblatus est," — " He was offered." With the point on the left corner, it is " to exact, to require, to afflict, to oppress." To exact and require at the hands of any is the most common sense of the word. So 2 Kings xxiii. S5, " Jehoiakim exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land." Thence is ^.^i^ "an exactor," one that requires what is imposed on men, Zech. ix. 8, x. 4. Being used here in a passive sense, it is, " It was exacted and required of him," — that is, the punishment due to our sins was required of Jesus Christ, having imdertaken to be a sponsor; and so Junius hath supplied the words, " Exigitur poena," — " Punishment was exacted." And this is more proper than what we read, " He was oppressed," though that also be significant of the same thing. How the punishment of our sins was exacted or required of Jeremiah the annotator declares not.