3. We have just described Deutero-Isaiah’s fun- damental notion of a Divine purpose of salvation, which is at present becoming plain—a purpose which includes all nations, and which at the same time solves all the enigmas of Israel’s history. It is primarily under this notion that we must sub- sume all the declarations from which our prophet’s very lofty conception of God may be gathered.
* The following have specially contributed to the elucidation of the controversy regarding Deutero- and Trito-Isaiah : Duhm, in his Commentary on Isaiah in the Kurzer Hdcom., Gottingen, 1892, 2nd ed. 1902 [holds that Trito-Isaiah commences with ch. 56]; Cheyne, Introduction to the Book of Isaiah, London, 1895 [places 561-8 58. 59 under Artaxerxes 1. or It. 3 637-6412 about 350 B.c. ; ch. 66 under Darius Ochus]; H. Gressmann, Ueber die in Jes. cc. 56-66 vorausgesetzten zeitgeschichtlichen Verhdltnisse, Gottingen, 1899 {holds that chs. 56-66 are not a unity, but that they are all post-exilic and emanate from Judea] ; E. Littmann, Ueber die Abfassungszeit des Tritojesaja, Freiburg i. B., 1899 [Trito-Isaiah is held to embrace 56-636 (except 595-8 and perhaps 561-8) as well as chs. 65 and 66 (except 6623), and to emanate wholly from the period between 457 and 445, prior to the arrival of Nehemiah ; on the other hand, 637f- and 64 date from between 538 and 520).
RELIGION OF ISRAEL
An absolutely harmonious plan of the Universe implies the solity of God. Absolute monotheism here reaches its clearest and sharpest expression (431% 446-8 455% 14.18) The continuous fulfilment of the plan presupposes His eternity (414 446), un- changeableness (414 431%), and always equally full power (40°5*-), God’s omnipotence is proved, above all, by His creative work: He alone has stretched forth the heavens and formed the earth (401? 24: °8 42° 44*4 4512-18) in the fulness of His omnipotence and the strength of His might (405); it needed but His call, and these things were there (48%). He is the maker of all families of men from the beginning (414), and controls by His sovereign omnipotence the fortunes even of the greatest (40°°t-)nay, the nations are before Him only as a drop on [the side of] the bucket or a speck of dust on the balance (40!*-), How shall the individual ever contend with Him, the potsherd with the potter (45°)? As in the first Isaiah, so here God is fre- quently called ‘the Holy One of Israel,’ and that, in like manner, in the sense of His absolute eleva- tion above everything creaturely and perishable, and hence, of course, above all stain and dishonour (4114-16 433-14 ete.). The same attribute excludes absolutely any representation of God by images (4018), and, in general, our prophet cannot suffici- ently emphasize the folly and senselessness of idol and image worship (cf. 41°9, and very specially the almost humorous description in 44°# 466), The holiness of God requires also that all His actings should have for their deepest motive the honour of His name (48°). He will not give His honour to another, nor His glory to idols (428), as if they had accomplished what was His work alone.
4. The scanty references to the means whereby God accomplishes His world-plan and saving pur- pose, make mention, above all, of the prophetic word. This has irresistible power (551) and eter- nal validity (408). In the exact pre-announcement of the wonderful events that are passing (the mis- | sion of Cyrus and the impending deliverance of Israel), our prophet sees one of the strongest evi- dences of the solity and omnipotence of the God of Israel (417>%- 499 43108. 447i. 26f. 4522 46108. 4st. 135) : the idols, which are things of nought, can neither explain the past nor predict the future (4121*-),
5. Deutero-Isaiah, like the pre-exilic prophets and the Book of Deuteronomy, traces the pre- ferential treatment of Israel to its election (41°*) ; but this last is ascribed not simply to God’s love for Israel, as might appear from 43%, but to the special purposes which Jahweh wills to accomplish for the benefit of the whole world, by the instru- mentality of Israel, His servant (see below). On this account He has carried them all along from their mother’s womb (463) ; and, when by their sins they provoked His just anger, He gave them, indeed, into the hands of their enemies (42%: 501 517) ; but it was not His intention that Babylon, the instrument of executing His vengeance, should show herself pitiless against Judah (475). All the more on that account God regards the old guilt of the people as atoned for—nay, as doubly expiated (40° 51°), All the same, the coming deliverance is nothing but the outcome of the free favour of God ; it has been brought about neither by sacrifice nor any other merit on the part of Israel, which, on the contrary, has sinned from the time of its first father (Jacob) and deserved destruction in consequence (437%: 481-48). But Jahweh blots out their transgressions as a cloud (4422).
In view of all this, there is the less justification for Zion’s discouragement, and her complaint that she is forsaken and forgotten by God (40% 4914), As little as a mother is forgetful of her sucking child has God forgotten the community of Israel (49°). Nay, He is at once her creator and her
RELIGION OF ISRAEL