Before we do this, however, let us devote a chapter to a study of our prophet's use of the word righteousness, for which this seems to be as convenient a place as any other.
[117] Bredenkamp will have it, that the prophet here mentions first Northern Israel and then Judah: _O House of Jacob_, the general term, both _those that are called by the name of Israel, and that have come forth from the waters of Judah_. But this is entirely opposed to the syntax, and I note the opinion simply to show how precarious the arguments are for the existence of pre-exilic elements in Isa. xl.-xlviii. The point, which Bredenkamp makes by his rendering of this verse, is that it could only be a pre-exilic prophet, who would distinguish between Judah and Northern Israel; and that, therefore, it might be Isaiah himself who wrote the verse!
[118] _Former things_ (ri'shonôth). It is impossible to determine whether these mean _predictions_ which Jehovah published long ago, and which have already come to pass, or _former events_ which He foretold long ago, and which have happened as He said they would. The distinction, however, is immaterial.
[119] Literally, _also_. But נם, a cumulative conjunction, when it is introduced to repeat the same thought as preceded it, means _yea, truly_, profecto, imo.
[120] Ch. xxv., which is undoubtedly an authentic prophecy of Jeremiah.
[121] The Hebrew has not the words _My Name_. The LXX. has them.
[122] A second time without article though applied to the whole world.
[123] Giesebrecht takes this as an actual quotation from some former prophet: a specimen of the ancient prophecies which Jehovah sent to Israel, and which were now being fulfilled. At least it is the sum of what Jehovah's prophets had often predicted.
[124] This very difficult verse has been attributed either to Jehovah in the first three clauses and to the Servant in the fourth (Delitzsch); or in the same proportion to Jehovah and the prophet (Cheyne and Bredenkamp); or to the Servant all through (Orelli); or to the prophet all through (Hitzig, Knobel, Giesebrecht. See the latter's _Beiträge zur Kritik Jesaia's_, p. 136). It is a subtle matter. The present expositor thinks it clear that all four clauses must be understood as the voice of one speaker, but sees nothing in them to decide finally whether that speaker is the Servant, the people Israel, in which case _I am there_ would have reference to Israel's consciousness of every deed done by God since the beginning of their history (_cf._ ver. 6_a_); or whether the speaker is the prophet, in which case _I am there_ would mean that he had watched the rise of Cyrus from the first. But _cf._ Zech. ii. 10-11, Eng. Ver., and iv. 9.
[125] Or _like its bowels_, referring to the sea.