The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 96

"that 11re at ~lrife with thee; " "that are the kind described are still in use in Syria in CM>jl-irl with thee; " " that are at war (Thomson, • The Land ancl the Dook/ p. wit.h thee." The order is one of climax. 539) and Asia Minor (Fellows,• Asia Minor,' Similarly, with each augmentation of the p. 70). The oorn is spread out on the hostility there is an augmentntion of the ground, and the machine, which is some• sentenoe of punishment-" shall be covered times armed with sharp stones, some• with shame;" "shall perish;" "sl1all not times with saws, is dragged over it. The be found;" "shall become as nothingness." Arabic no.me is still noreg, a modilicatiou Ver. 13.-I the Lord thy God will hold thy of the Hebrew moreg. Thou ehalt threoh right hand. God himself will be their the mountains . . . the hills; i.e. "thou Strength, will personnlly interfere on their shnlt subdue proud and mighty foes" behalf, taking them as it were by their right (Dclitzsch). hand. Saying unto thee; rather, I who say Vers. 17-20.-The crowning promise is l.o thee. that of spiritual support and refreshment v,,r. H.-Thou worm J'aoob. Though through tbe dull and dree.ry time of the in thyself 1he weakest of the weak, grovel- Uaptil'ity, during which Israel dwells as it ling in tlic dust, a mere worm (Job xxv. 6; were in e. desert, without water, or shade, or Ps. x:i:ii. 6), yet thou hast i::o cause to fear, the relief to the eye which is furnished by sinoo God sustains thee. Ye men of Israel; the greenery of trocs and shrubs. God was mther, ye handful, Israel (Delitzsch). The able to make of this " wilderness n. standing term used is one of disparagement, corre- water, nud wator-si,rings of the dry ground" sponding to the " worm " of the parallel (Ps. cvii. 35), an,l he promises to do so clause. Few and weak though they be, (ver. 18). The soul the.t longs for him, God's people need not fear. Thy Redeemer. that thirsts after him, feeling that it dwells Tbe word goel, here used for the first time "in a barren and dry land, where no wo.ter by Isaiah, is frequent throughout the later is" (Ps. !xiii. 1), •shall be relieved ·and chapters (xliii. 14; xliv. 6, 24; xlvii. satisfied by a revelation of God's presence, 4; xh·iii. 17; xlix. 7, 26; liv. 5, 8; !ix. 20; and an outpouring of his grace unusually Ix. 16; b:iii. 16). It is used for the" nearest copious o.nd abundant. God's grace is of kin," and "avenger of blood," in the shadowed out under the two similitudes ol Levitical Law, hnt has a sense similar to water and verdure, as in eh. xxxv. 7, e.nd, tl,at of the present passage in Job xix. 25; to some extent, in eh. xxx. 23-25. Ps. xix. 14; lxxviii 35; ciii. 4; Prov. xxiii. Ver. 17.-The poor and needy; i.e. pri- 11: and Jer. 1. 34, Tbe sense "redeem'' marily, Israel in captivity; but secondarily, belongs to the verb of which goel is the also, the "poor in spirit," and those that participle, iu Exod. vi. 6; xv. 13; Lev. xxv. feel the need of God's grace, everywhere 25, 33, 48, 49 ; xxvii 13, 19, 21, etc. The and at all times. Roly One of Israel Isaiah's favourite Ver. 18.-I will open rivers in high plaoes designation of the Almighty in his cove- (comp. eh. xxx. 25). If even the "high nant relationship to Israel, used eleven times plaoos" ho.cl water, much more would the in the earlier chapters (i.-xxxv.), once in low ground-the valleys-be abundantly the middle or historical portion, e.nd thirteen supplied. The abundance is indicated by times in the later chapters (xl.-lxvi.); only the fourfold designation of the wator-supply, used elsewhere in Ps. lxxi. 22; lxxviii. 41; ns coming from (I) rivers; (2) fountains (or lx=ix. 18; Jer. L 29; e.nd Ii. 5 (see Urwick, wells); (3) pools; and (4) springs (comp. • Servant of Jehovah,' pp. 36, 37). vers. 11, 12). Ver. 15.-I will make thee a new sharp Ver. 19.-I will pla.nt in the wildemeos threshing-instrument. Israel is to be the cedar, etc. 'fhe "glory of Lebanon,'' more the.n snste.ined. Strength is to be the "excellency of Cal'mel and Sharon" given her to take the aggressive, e.nd to ( eh. xxxv. 2), shall be given to the "wilder- subdue her enemies under her. She is to ness," wherein Israel dwells. The trees " thresh them" and "beat them small," as named a.re the choicest of Syria. and Pales- with a threshing-instrument (comp. 2 Kings tine, viz. the cedar (erez), the greo.t glory of xiii. 7; Amos i. 3; Micah iv. 13). In the Libanus; the aca.cia (,hittah), abundant in literal ~ense, no earlier accomplishment of the Jordan valley; the myrtle (hadas), which this prophecy can be pointed out than the grew on the bills a.bout Jerusalem (Neb. time of the Me.ccabean war. Metaphorically, viii. 15); the olive, cultirnted over tho it may be eaid that Israel began to conquer whole country; the fir (blroslt), or juniper, the world when her literature became known a product of Lebanon (2 Chron. ii. 8); the to the Greeks through the expedition of plane (tidlu'ir), a. tree far from uncommon in Alexander the Great, and completed her Crele-syrie., sometimes growing to o. great conquest when the Roman empire suc- size; a.nd the sherbin (ttassltur), a sort of cumbed to the teaching of JeSllS of Nazareth. cedar, remarkable for the upwuru tendency Ra'ring teeth. Threshing-instrument.a of of its branches. The list of namer eilows o. ou. n1. 1-29.J 'l'HE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 99