[224] But they do not tell us, whether they were totally exempted from suffering by the Servant's pains, or whether they also suffered with him the consequence of their misdeeds. For that question is not now present to their minds. Whether they also suffer or not (and other chapters in the prophecy emphasize the people's bearing of the consequences of their misdeeds), they know that it was not their own, but the Servant's suffering, which was alone the factor in their redemption.
[225] _Mystery of Pain_, by James Hinton, p. 27.
[226] Psalm cvi. 23; _cf._ also ver. 32, where the other side of the solidarity between Moses and the people comes out. _They angered Him also at the waters of Strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes ... he spake unadvisedly with his lips._
[227] See p. 352.
[228] Isa. xlvi. 3, 4. See pp. 179, 180 of this volume.
[229] Ch. xlii. 25.
[230] If we remember this we shall also feel more reason than ever against perceiving the Nation, or any aspect of the Nation, in the Sufferer of ch. liii. For he suffers, as the individual suffers, sickness and legal wrong. Tyrants do not put whole nations through a form of law and judgement. Of course, it is open to those, who hold that the Servant is still an aspect of the Nation, to reply, that all this is simply evidence of how far the prophet has pushed his personification. A whole nation has been called "The Sick Man" even in our prosaic days. But see pp. 268-76.
[231] Jer. li. 4.
[232] xl. 39; xlii. 13; xliv. 29; xlvi. 20.
[233] 1 Sam. vi. 13.
[234] _Cf._ Wellhausen's _Prolegomena_, ch. ii., 2.
[235] There is no exegete but agrees to this. There may be differences of opinion about the syntax,--whether the verse should run, _though Thou makest his soul guilt_, or _a guilt-offering_; or, _though his soul make a guilt-offering_; or (reading ישים for תשים), _while he makes his soul a guilt-offering_,--but all agree to the fact that by himself or by God the Servant's life is offered an expiation for sin, a satisfaction to the law of God.
[236] _Cf._ Baldensperger (_Das Selbstbewusstsein Jesu_, p. 119 ff.) on the genuineness of Christ's predictions and explanations of His sufferings.
[237] _Cf._ p. 330.