The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 135

tive ages. (For R specimen of the contrast, who "came into the worl,! thnt he should eee • Aids to Faith,' Essay vi. pp. 275, 276.) bear witness of the truth" (John xviii. 372· Let them bring forth their witneaaes. Wit- These are the two witnesses by whom Gods nesses that the prophecies were really truth is mnintnined in a worhl of falsehood delivered before the events happened, or and delusion. That ye may know. 'l'he that the o.ccounts of past times are such ~,ubject i~ ch~~ged. " ~o" here poiuts to as have reallv come down to them from the nations, or mnnkmd nt large. I am 1heir nn~esto~. Or let them hee.r and say, he (comp. eh. xii. 4). llefore me there was It is truth. It is un~crtaiu whether we no God formed. All other gods beside me ought to transle.te the initial oou here by are "formed" gods-invented, fashioned, "and" or by "or." If the former, the sense made by men. None of them was ever is, "And then let them (i.e. the witnessrs) made before me. give ear to the assertions made, and declare Ver. 11.-lleside me there is no saviour. them true;" if the latter, we may render, Nono but God can snve men. Man cannot with Dr. Kay, "Or, if they have no wit- make atonement for his fellows ; " for it nesses, let them listen to the sacred records, cost more to redeem their souls, so that he and confess them to be the trut.h." must let that alone for ever" (Ps. xlix. Yer. 10.-Ye are my witnesses, saith the 8, Prayer-book Version). The human Lord; i.e. "Ye, Israel, a.re the witnesses that "_saviours" whom God raises up to deliver I cite "-ye ~an prove the antiquity of the his people out of the hand of their enemies historical books of Scripture by the ordinary (Judg. iii. 9; 2 Kings xiii. 5; Neh. ix. 27, modes by which antiquity is proved, and etc.), ore "saviours" in quite e. secondary nlso the exact dates of the prophetical ones. and inferior sense. Ye can show what clear and unambig-uous Ver. 12.-I have deolared, etc. Translate, prophecies have been delivered centuries I announced, and delivered, and proclaimed before the event, as the destruction of J eru- (the deliverance), when there wa, no strange salem by a nation in whom none can fail god among you; i.e. I did whAt the idol-gods to recognize the Romans (Deut. xxviii. cannot do-announced deliverance, and 49-57), prophesied by Moses; the demoli- e_ffected _it, and fur~her proclaimed (or pub- tion of the altar e.t Bethel by a king of the lished) 1t, at the time when you Israelites house of Da,id, Jos'ah by name, prophesied had no idnlatry among you. The allusion by a man of God in the reign of Jeroboam is to the deliverance of Jerusalem from (l Kings xiii. 2); tLe Jnng continurrnce of Sennacherib, which God announced bv the Dand's progeny npoct the throne of Judah, mouth of Isaiah ( eh. xxxvii. 33-35), effected prophesied by Nathan in David's time (2 by the hand of his angel ( eh. xxxvii. 36), Sam. 'l"ii. 11-16); the fairly long con- and then caused to be published by Isaiah, tinuance of the house of Jehn on the throne who wrote the two accounts of the deliver- of Israel, prophesied to Jehn himsc!f (2 ance-both that in liis own prophecy, and Kin,!!'B x. 30); and the like. Israel has been t 1,at in the Second Book of Kings (xix, e.t all times, and still is. one of the most im- 20-35). At that time there was no (open) portant witnesses for God tl,at nists in the idolatry in Judah, since Hezekiah had de- world. Like the Church. Israel is the stroyed the idols (2 Kings xviii. 4). There- " witness and keeper" of a krge portion of fore ye are my witnesses . . , that I am God; "Holy Writ." Her paEt history witnesses literally, and ye are my witnesse~, and 1 am for God. Her continued existence and God. Ye can bear witness of tho truth of present condition constitute adrlitiune.l what I have asserted in the previous portion testimony. And my Servant whom 1 l:.ave of the verse, and your witness to this effect chosen. To explain this as meaning "and proves me to be God. ye are also my servant, whom I have chosen" Ver. 13.-Yea, before the day was I am (Nii.gelsbach, Cheyne, Delitzsch ), is to he. So the LXX., Jerome, and Stier; but empty it of all its force. Manifeslly, a most modcrns translate, "Yee., from this further witness is addueed, "Ye are my time forlh I am he" (comp. Ezek. xlviii. 35). witnesses; and so is my Servant," etc. The Kay, however, thinks thnt the translation of "Servant" intended can only be the ane the Authorized Version m~v stand. Who true Servant of eh. xiii. 1-7, since faithful shall let it 1 literally, os in eh. xiv. 27, who Israel is already among the witne~ses. The shall turn it baclc 1 i.e. "reverse it, undo it." prophet rises above the consideration of the Surely no one. immediately present, or of the single trial- Vera. 14-21.-A DECLARATION AGAINST scene which he is s,tting before us, and has BABYLON, AND A PnomsE OF lsRAEL'S in mind the great controversy ever going on RESTOIIATION, Having wound up the pre- between those who are for God and those ceding "controversy" with n reference to who are against him. He sees, on the side of God (1) faithful Israel; and (2) Christ, his own power to work great results (ver. the "Faithful Witness" (Rev. i. 5; iii. 14), 13), Jehovah now brings forward two ex- en. xLm. 1-28.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 13:J