husband, who can never cast off the wife of his youth (54°*),
6. The instrument employed by Jahweh for the deliverance of His people and the further accom- plishment of His saving purpose, is Cyrus, of whom and of whose Divine mission the prophet speaks in such honourable terms that it has been suggested that he actually saw in him the Messiah promised by the earlier prophets. Jahweh Himself speaks of Cyrus as His ‘shepherd’ (44%), nay as His ‘anointed,’ whom He has taken by the right hand that He may cast down peoples before him, whom for Israel’s sake He has called by name (45!*-), for whom He will make all his ways plain (45%), as the man of His counsel (46), whom He loves (48).
If the victorious career of Cyrus is to be thus interpreted, Israel has no more occasion for anxious fears, but may with full complacency look for the manifestation of the glory of Jahweh (40° 411%), God ensures to the exiles a secure return; He gathers them from all quarters (43°), and outdoes even His own former mighty acts when He brought His people forth from Egypt (43'**). He fashions for them in the desert a road well constructed and free from danger (40° 42'° 43? 491%), makes abundant provision of water and noble trees (41'** 43188 4821), and Himself leads them like a loving shepherd (404 52). All nature accompanies these redemptive acts with a song of jubilation (421% 4423 4918 5512). The returned exiles shall be as a bridal ornament to Zion, the seemingly forsaken and sorely troubled, who shall now be astonished at the multitude of her children, and scarcely find yoom for them all (49!8# 54"), For along with Jacob (Judah) shall return also ‘those who have been preserved of Israel’ (49°). Jahweh, more- over, shall once more reign as king over Zion (527), and all His gracious promises to David, the witness of His glory and the ruler of nations, shall be fulfilled to the whole people, who also shall draw to them foreign peoples—nay, peoples as yet unknown to them (55). All these other nations are brought to recognize that Jahweh has called Cyrus, and crowned him with victory, and to give the glory to the God of Israel (41'*). As for Israel itself, the outpouring of the spirit of God, which seals the truth that every individual is His special property (44%), and makes them all true disciples of Jahweh (54°), brings about a wondrous renewing of the nation’s youth (40). Moreover, the duration of this renewed ‘covenant’ is to be unlimited ; the brief period of God’s anger is to be followed by a time of eternal favour and blessing (4517 547%),
In the above orderly summary of the ideas of Deutero-Isaiah, which appear in the book itself, for the most part, in a scattered detached fashion, we have purposely passed over two state- ments, because they can in no way be brought into harmony with the other expectations of the prophet, and must accord- ingly be regarded as later additions—
a) According to 415%, Israel is to become a new, sharp, many-toothed threshing-waggon, which goes so thoroughly to work that it crushes the very mountains and hills. This figure, of course, refers to the destruction of Israel’s foes. Now, it is true that our prophet has a threat against Babylon (471#:) ; she, the oppressor of Israel, has now in turn to take the ‘intoxicat- ing cup’ which J erusalem had formerly to drink (6122f), But there is no indication of anything except that Cyrus is to execute the judgment on Babylon, while the other peoples are
called to share in Israel’s salvation. Thus 4115f belongs to quite a different sphere of ideas—that, namely, of Ezk 38f. and Mic 41 lft.
(b) In 4922t-, instead of the return of the exiles through the wilderness under the leadership of Jahweh, we have a bringing of them back by the Gentiles acting under J: ahweh’s orders. It may be said that these two representations are not mutually exclusive. But in the statement that kings shall be the guardians of Israel and queens her nurses, nay, that they shall in humble obeisance lick the dust of her feet (4923), we have the expres- sion of expectations that belong, not to Deutero-Isaiah but toa considerably later phase of Judaism.
7. But all this does not exhaust the ideas con- tained in this unique book. The most wonderful
RELIGION OF ISRAEL 707
thing in it is the idea of Israel as the ‘Servant of Jahweh,’ who, in accordance with His eternal purpose, which transcends all human comprehen- sion, is destined to expiate, by his penal sufferings, not only Israel’s own guilt, but also that of the heathen world, and then to exercise a great mis- sionary vocation on the world of nations, that ‘all ends of the earth may see the salvation of the God of Israel’ (521°).
Ever since Biblical study began, it has been felt to be a very difficult problem how the statements in which the Servant of Jahweh (mn 73y) is un- doubtedly to be understood of the people of Israel (418% 4219 4310 44if 21 454 480, cf. also the ‘servants of Jahweh’ in 54") are to be reconciled with those which, to all appearance, have an individual in view (thus in the so-called “Hbed Jahweh Songs: 42)-4 [according to others, 4217], 49'°, 50*® [with v.1°], and 52-53). Countless are the attempts which have been made to solve the problem in question.