[247] _Cf._ pp. 336 ff.
[248] See pp. 247 ff.
[249] "Das eigentliche Wort 'Liebe' kommt im A. T. von Gott fast gar nicht vor,--und wo es, bei einem späten Schriftsteller, vorkommt, ist es Bezeichnung seiner besondren Bundes-liebe zu Israel, deren natürliche Kehrseite der Hass gegen die feindlichen Völker ist."--Schultz, _A. T. Theologie_, 4th ed., p. 548.
[250] The reserve of this--the limitation of the relation to one of feeling--is remarkable in contrast to the more physical use of the same figure in other religions.
[251] _Egre_, or sudden rush of the tide, or spate, or freshet. The original is assonant: B^eshesseph qesseph.
[252] So literally; LXX. crystals, carbuncles or diamonds.
[253] Cf. _Isaiah i.-xxxix._, pp. 440 ff.
[254] The structure of this difficult passage is this. Ver. 3 states the equation: the everlasting covenant with the people Israel=the sure, unfailing favours bestowed upon the individual David. Vv. 4 and 5 unfold the contents of the equation. Each side of it is introduced by a _Lo_. Lo, on the one side, what I have done to David; Lo, on the other, what I will do to you. As David was a _witness of peoples_, a _prince_ and _commander of peoples_, so shalt thou call to them and make them obey thee. This is clear enough. But who is David? The phrase the _favours_ of _David_ suggests 2 Chron. vi. 42, _remember the mercies of David thy servant_; and those in ver. 5 recall Psalm xviii. 43 f.: _Thou hast made me the head of nations; A people I know not shall serve me; As soon as they hear of me they shall obey me; Strangers shall submit themselves to me._ Yet both Jeremiah and Ezekiel call the coming Messiah David. Jer. xxx. 9: _They shall serve Jehovah their God and David their King._ Ezek. xxxiv. 23: _And I will set up a shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I Jehovah will be their God, and My servant David prince among them._ After these writers, our prophet could hardly help using the name David in its Messianic sense, even though he also quoted (in ver. 5) a few phrases recalling the historical David. But the question does not matter much. The real point is the transference of the favours bestowed upon an individual to the whole people.
[255] English version, _trees of the field_, but the field is the country beyond the bounds of cultivation; and as beasts of the field means _wild beasts_, so this means _wild trees_,--unforced, unaided by man's labour.
[256] Neh. xiii.
[257] The original is _a hand_; a term applied (perhaps because it consisted of tapering stones) to an _index_, or _monument_ of victory, 1 Sam. xv. 12; or to a sepulchral monument, 2 Sam. xviii. 18.