The other word is '^^.V.^.. The Vulgate Latin seems to look to the active use of the word, " to answer," and therefore renders it "voluit," " he would," — he willingly submitted to it, or he undertook to do that which was exacted ; and much may be said for this interpretation from the use of the word in Scripture. And then the sense will be, " It was exacted of him, or our punishment was required of him, and he undertook it with willingness and patience." So it denotes the will of Christ in undergoing the penalty due to our sins; which he express- eth, Ps. xl. 8, Heb. x. 6, 7. Take it in the sense wherein it is most commonly used, and it denotes the event of the exacting the penalty of our sins of him : " He was afflicted." In what sense this may possibly be applied to Jeremiah, I leave to the annotator 's friends to find out.
2. The next words, " He openeth not his mouth," he applies unto the patience of Jeremiah, who did neither speak nor do any thing angrily when he was cast into prison. Of that honour which we owe to all the saints departed, and in an especial manner to the great builders of the church of God, the prophets and apostles, this is no small part, that we deliver them from under the burden of having that ascribed to them who are members which is peculiar to their Head. I say, then, the perfect submission and patience expressed in these Avords were not found in holy Jeremiah, who in his affliction and trial opened his mouth and cursed the day wherein he was boi-n; and when he says that himself was as a lamb, and as an ox appointed to the slaughter, in the same place, and at the same time, he prays for vengeance on his adversaries, Jer. xi. 20; in those words not denoting his patience, but his being exposed to their cruelty.
474 VINDICIiE EVANGELIC^.
Yerse 8, " He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken."
TJie person speaking is here changed, as is manifest from the close of the verse, " For the transgression of my people," who were the speakers before. These, then, are the words of God by the prophet; and they are not without their difficulties, concerning which the reader may consult commentators at large. Grotius thus: —
" De carcere et de judicio ablatus est. Id est, liberatus tandem. Judicium vocat hoc, quia specie judicii ipsi hsec mala imposita fue- runt. Vide Jer. xxxii. 8, liberatus autem per Babylonios.
" Geuerationem ejus quis enarrabit'} Quis numerare poterit dies vitse ejus? Id est, erit valde longsevus.
" Quia abscissus est de terra viventium, nempe, cum actus fuit primum in carcerem, deinde in lacum ilium ccenosum, et rursum in carcerem."
" ' He was taken from jjiison and judgment.' That is, he was at length delivered. He calls it 'judgment,' because these evils were im- posed on him with a pretence of judgment. But he was freed by the Babylonians.
" ' Who shall declare his generation ?' Who shall be able to number the days of his life? That is, he shall live very long.
" ' For he was cut off out of the land of the living,' namely, when he was thrown into the prison, and then into the miry pit, and then into prison again,"
He adds, " 'Propter scelus 'populi mei 2J6rcussi eum.' In Heb. est, plaga ipsi, supple evenit, populi summo errore ac crimine, ut et ante dictum est;" — " ' For the wickedness of my people I have stricken him.' In the Hebrew it is, ' Stroke on him,' that is, befell him, through the great error and fault of the people, as is before said." So far he.
The sense of these words being a little tried out, their application will be manifest. 1. The first words are not without their difficulty: "iVyP, "from prison," say we. The word is from ""^'V? "prohibere," "co- ercere," to " forbid," to " restrain," and is nowhere used for a prison directly. The LXX. have rendered it, 'Ef rfi ravuvusau i] xpiaig avrou ^pSri, — " In his humility (or humiliation), his judgment (or sentence) was taken away," referring one of the words to one thing, and another to another. The Vulgar Latin, "angustia ;" Arias Montanus, " clau- sura;" Junius, "per coarctationem," rendering the preposition " by," not "from." The word is rendered by us " oppression," Ps. cvii. 39. It is, at the utmost, in reference to a prison, " claustrum," a place where any may be shut up, but may as well be rendered " angustia" with the Vulgar Latin, better " coarctation" with Junius, being taken for any kind of strait and restraint. And, indeed, properly our Saviour was
DIGRESSION CONCERNING GROTIUS ON ISAIAH LIII. 475
not cast into a prison, though he was all night under restraint. If the intendment of the words be about what he was delivered from, under which he was, and not what he was delivered from that he should not undergo it, t^Siti'l^pi^ and " from judgment," there is no difficulty in the world. Only, whose judgment it is that he was taken from is worth inquiry, whether that of God or man. ^\^^, "he was taken;" "ablatus est," the Vulgar Latia, "he was taken up." ^\p is " capere, accipere, ferre, tollere," a word of very large use, both in a good and in a bad sense ; — " to be taken up," it will scarcely be found to signify; " to be taken away," very often.