§ 4. ON THE STYLE .lND DrcTION or THE "Boox or Isu.lH." It is generally allowed that Isaiah, as a writer, tl'anscends all the other Hebrew prophets. " In Isaiah," says Ewa.Id, "we see prophetic authorship· reaching- its culminating point. Everything conspired to raise him to an elevation to which no prophet, either before or after, could e.s writer attain. Among the other prophets, each of the more important ones is distingaishe~ by some one particular excellence, and some one peculiar ta.lent; in Isaiah, all kinds of talent and all beauties of prophetic discourse meet together, so e.s mutually to temper and qualify each other; it is not so much any single £ea.tare that distinguishes him, as the symmetry and perfection of .the whole." 1 A lofty and majestic calmness, a grandeur and dignity of expre3sfon, is perhaps his first, most patent characteristic. However strong the feelings that move him, however exciting the circumstances under which be writes, he always succeeds in maintaining a perfect self-control, and a command over his la.ngaage which prevents it from ever becoming extravagant or inappropriate. While the strain rises and falls in accordance with the variety of the subject-matter, and the language at times becomes higlili, poetic, figurative, and out of the common, there seems always to preside over the composition a calm spirit of self-restraint; which checks hyperbol~, bridles passion, and renders the progress and development of the discourse majestic, and, in a. certain sense, equable. As Ewald observes, "we note in him an overflowing, swelling fnlness of thought, which might readily lose itself in the vast and indefinite, but which always at the right time, with tight rein, collects and tempers its exuberance, to the bottom exhausting the thought and completing the utterance, and yet never' too diffuse. This severe self-control is the most admirably seen in those shorter utterances, which, by briefly sketched images and thoughts, give us the vague apprehension of something infinite, while neverth~less they stand before as complete in themselves and clearly delineated." Next to this lofty and majestic calmness, the energy and liveliness c,i. Isaiah's style seem to demand notice. This energy and liveliness are pro- duced, primarily, by the profuse employment of striking images; seconcily, by dramatic representation; thirdly, by the large employment ~f ptiint~d 1 • Propheten dea .Alten Bundea,' p, 166, THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. xiii
antithesis; fourthly, by frequent play upon words; fifthly, by the strength of the expressions used; sixthly, by vivid descriptions; and seventhly, by the amplification and elaboration of occasional points. I. The profuse employment of striking images mast be evident to every reader. Not a paragraph, scarcely a verse, is withont some simile or metaphor, which gives a poetical turn to the form of expression, and elevates the language above that of ordinary life. And the variety and force of the metaphors are most remarkable. Assyria is a. swarm of bees (eh. vii. 18), a raging stream (eh. viii. 7, 8), a razor (eh. vii. 20), a lion (eh. v. 29), a rod (eh. x. 5), an axe (eh. x. 15), etc. Jehovah is a potter (eh. x:x:ix. 16; xlv. 9, etc.), a shepherd (eh. xl. 11), a man of war (eh. xiii. 15), a stone of stumbling and rock of offence (eh. viii. 14), a gin and a snare (eh. viii. 14), e. purger of met.a.ls (eh. i. 25), a lion (eh. xxxi. 4), birds flying (eh. xxxi. 5), a strong fortress guarded by moats and streams (eh. xxxiii. 21), a rock (eh. xvii. 10), a shadow (eh. xxv. 4), a crown of glory (eh. n:viii. 5). Zion is a cottage in a vineyard (eh. i. 8), a lodge in a garden of cucumbers (eh. i. 8), the mountain of the Lord (eh. ii. 3), a captive sitting in the dust (eh. Iii. 2), a woman in travail (eh. lxvi. 8). Israel generally is a diseased body (eh. i. 5, 6), an oak whose leaf fadeth (eh. i. 30), an unproductive vineyard (eh. v. 7), a bulging wall that is about to burst (eh. xxx. 13). Messiah is "a root of Jesse" ( eh. xi. 10), "a rod" ( eh. ri. 1), "a branch " (eh. xi. 1), "a tender plant" (eh. liii. 2), "a servant" (eh. xlii. 1), "a man of sorrows" (ch. liii. 3), "a lamb brought to the slaoghter" (ch. liii. 7), "a sheep dumb before her shearers" (eh. liii. 7). The degenerate are described as those "whose silver has become dross, whose wine is mixed with water " ( eh. i. 22) ; the persistently wicked as those who " d.ra w ini- quity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart-rope " ( eh. v. 18). Boasters "conceive chaff, and bring forth stubble" ( eh. xxxiii. 11); nations a.re in God's' sight "as a drop from a bucket, and as small dnst upon a balance" (eh. xl. 15); humanity in general is as "grass that withereth," and as "the flower that fadeth." Among specially beautiful metaphors may be cited: "His heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind" ( eh. vii. 2) ; "The people which walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined" ( eh. ix. 2) ; "The earth shall be full of. the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" ( eh. xi. 9); "Wlth joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation" ( eh.' xii. 3) ; "A man shall be . . . as the shadow of a great rock in cs weary land" (eh. xxxii. 2). To do full justice, however, to this branch of.the subject, we should have to quote from every chapter, almost from every paragraph, since the beauty of which we are speaking pervades the entire composition, even entering into the historical chapters ( eh. xxxvii. 3, 22, 25, 27, 29; xxxviii. 12, 14, 18, etc.), where it was scarcely to be expected. 2. Dramatic represent.ation is, comparatively speaking, infrequent, hub etill occurs sufficiently often to be characteristic, and to have Ml appreciable xiv INTRODUCTION TO
effect npon the liveliness of the composition. The most remarkable instance of it is tbe dialogue at the beginning of eh. lxiii.- " Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that ia glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his ktrength?" • 1 that speak in righteousness, mighty to save." Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth In the wiue-fe.t? n ' "I have trodden the wine-press alone; and of the people there was no man· wiih me," etc.