(ibid., p. 165), through the district called captives, but naturally deprived them of all Akkad to the Cb&ldea,n oopit&l. Herodotus power. agrees with the monuments in bringing him Ver. 26.-Who he.th deole.red from the to Babylon from the north. Shall he oall beginning1 Which of the idol-gods has upon my Name ; or, ehall he proclaim my announced the coming of e. conqueror? If NaffllJ. (For the aotual proclamation of e.ny, we on Jehovah's side a.re quite willing to Jehovnh's Name by Cyrus, see Ezra i. 3; acknowledge it, and to say, He is righteous; and note especiltlly the phl'L'lc, "He [i.e. or rather, lie i,s riqht. But, in fo.ct, there .Tel,ovah] is the God.") Recent discoveries is none of them ihe.t showeth, none that hRve rciised the suspicion that Cyrus was a deole.reth-no one hlls henrd of e.ny such s~-ncretist, whc was willing to accept the announcement as deliver,-d by e.ny of them. chief god of any nRtion as identiCttl with Ver. 27.-The drat she.II say to Zion, his own Ormuzd. But it is to be borne in :Behold, behold them; ro.ther, the fi,rBf has mind that the document which has pro- said. By "the 6rst" must certainly be duced this impression is one issued by the meant Jehove.h-" the First, e.nd with the priestly authorities of Babylon in their own lust" of ver. 4. He has already announced language, and may have been quite un- to Zion her deliverance (see eh. xl. 9-11; known to the Persian court. Cyrus may xli. 2, etc.). I will give to J' eruse.lem one have been a better Zoroastrian than he is that bringeth good tidings, Perhaps Isaiah represented by the priests of Merodach. himself (Grotius, Stier, Delitzsch). Perhaps The Zoroastrian religion was, as Delitzsch some prophet of the Captivity, as Daniel, obser,es, "nee.rest to the Jewish religion who" knew by books" when the Captivity of all the systems of heathenism" ( see was <Ire.wing to e. close (Dan. ix. 2), e.nd 'Ancient Monarchies,' vol. iii. pp. 93-117; may be supposed to have announced the and comp. Pusey,' Lectures on Daniel,' pp. good tidings to the other exiles. 530-550). He shall come upon princes e.s Ver. 28.-For I beheld. " Jehovah once upon mortar; i.e. he shall tread them under- more looks round to see if any of the idols foot, rnort.ar being commonly mixed with possess an ability to prophesy, but in vain" the feet, as was also clay for bricks e.nd (Cheyne). He finds no 0011D.Sellor, i.e. no pottery (Herod., ii. 36). The chief" princes" prophet, among them. Hence the final whom Cyrus is known to have conquered "outburst of scorn" in ver. 29, which, how- were Ast~·ages of Media, Crresus of Lydia, ever, is directed primarily age.inst the idol. nnd Nabonidus of Babylon. He was stu- worshippers, and, only through them, age.inst diously mild in his treatment of royal the idols.
HOMILETICS. Vers. 14-20.-God's strength ma<ie perfect in weakness. It is when Jacob is brought so low that his only fitting designation is "thou worm," and Israel is so reduced as to be a mere "handful of men," that the promise is made of the triumphant crushing of enemies, and scattering of them "like tbe chaff of the summer threshing-floor." It is when the nation generally feels itself to be" poor and needy'' (ver. 17), when it is as it were at the last gasp, actually perishing of thirst, that it is raised to paradisaical bliss, that it finds itself in a veritable "garden of Eden." Exaltation follows abase- ment, not however by any mere law of alternation, as if men having reached the very bottom of the wheel of fortune must begin to rise, much less by any mere caprice of the power that rules the universe, but by the law of moral fitness. "He that would be great among you let him be your servant." It is when men, chastened by God's afflict- ing rod, abase themselves in the dust, feeling and acknowledging their weakness, and throwing themselves wholly upon God for strength and power, that they are most fit to become his iustruments for the chastisement of others, and to occupy a high position among the nations. His strength is made perfect in their weakness; and this for two principal reasons. J. lT 16 FOB Goo's GLOBY THAT HE SHOULD ASSERT BIS POWER DY WEAK INSTRU- MENTS. The poorer the instrument, the more evident that it is the workman to whom the work is due. Egypt is subdued by plagues of frogs and lice and locusts. Bisera fal.lB by the hand of a woman. The Midianites are smitten by the three hundred who lapped with the tcngue (Judg. vii. 5-22). David slays Goliath of Gath with e. sling and a stone. Great miracles a.re wrought by a rod, a word, some spittle. And so also with the events that revolutionize the world. "Big battalions" do not always carry the day. The host of Zerah is smitten by Asa (2 Chron. xiv. 9-12). Ben-he.dad and on. XLI, 1-20.] THE BOOK Qjj' THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 101