The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 288

for those of bis generntion, which of them It" pleased him," moreover, that they should oonsidered that he was cut off," etc. ? He be undergone, for he saw with satiAfaction was out oft'; i.e. taken away before hie time, the Son's self-sacrifice, and he witnessed out down like a flower (comp. Job xiv. 2; with joy man's redemption and deliverance Lam. iii. 54; Ezek. x.xxvii. JI). The land effected thereby. He bath put him to grief; of the living, 'fhe prese11t world, the earth rather, he dealt gru'!lously-11. sort of hendi (see eh. xxxviii. 11; and comp. Job xxviii. adye. "He bruised him with a grievous 13; Ps. :x.xvii. 13; Iii. 5; cxvi. 9; cxlii. 2; bruising." When thou shalt make his soul J er. xi. 19). For the transgression of my an offering for sin. It is proposed (Ewa.Id, people was he stricken. The sentiment is Cheyne), by the alteration of a letter, to the same as in ver. 5, but witl1 the differ- make the passag-e run tb us : "When he she.II ence that there it was suffering only, here make hie soul I\Tl offering," etc., and argued it is death itself, which the Servant endures that •• he who offers the Servant's life e.s a for man. "My people" may be either sacrifice must be the Servant himself, and "God's people" or "the prophet's people," not Jehovah" (Cheyne). No doubt the arcording e.s the speaker is regarded e.s Servant did offer his own life (see Matt. xx. Isaiah or Jehovah. Jehovah certainly be- 28, '' He gave his soul a ransom for many"); comes the Rpeaker in vers. 11, 12. but that fact does pot preclude the possi- Ver. 0.-And he made bis grave with the bility of the Father having also offered it. wicked; rather, they assigned him his gra'!le "Bclievest thou not," said our Lord to u,ith the wicked. The verb is used im person- Philip, "that I am in the Father, and the ally. Those who condemned Obrist to be Father in me? The words that 1 speak crucified with two malefactors on the com- uuto you I speak not of myself: but the mon execution-ground-" the place of e. Father that dwelleth in me, be doeth the skull "-meant his grave to be "with the works" (John xiv. 10). This perienchoresis, wicked," with whom it would naturally as the ancient theologians ea.I Ied it, makes have been but for the interference of Joseph it possible to predicate of the Father almost of Arimathme.. Crucified persons were buried nil the actions which can be predieate,l of with their crosses near the scene of their the Son-all, in fa.et, excepting those which crucifixion by the Romans. And with the belong to the Sou's humanity, or which in- rich in bis death; or, and (he was) with a volve obedience and subordination. As the rich one after his death. In the p1·eceding Father had "le.id on Christ the iniquity of ole.uae, the word translated "the wicked" us e.11" (ver. 6), as he had "bruised. him is plural, but in the present, the word traus- and put him to grief," so be might Le said lated " the rich" is singular. The expres- to have "made his soul an offering for sin." sion translated" in his death" means "when All wo.s settled in the Divine counsels from he was dead,"" after death" (comp. 1 Kings all eternity, and when the ideal became the xiii. 31 ; Pa. vi. 5). The words have a actual, God the Father wrought with God singulnrly exact fulfilment in the interment the Son to effectuLLte it. "OffPrings for of our Lord (Matt. xxvii. 57-60). Beoe.use. sin," or "guilt offerings," were distinct The preposition user! may mean either " be- from "sin offerings." The object of the enuse" or •• although." The ambiguity is, former was "satisfaction," of the latter perhaps, intentional. He had done no vio- "expiation." The Servant of Jeho'l'Rh was, lence; or, no wrong (see Gen. xvi. 5; 1 however, to be both. "As in ver. 5 the Ubron. xii. 17; Job xix. 7; Pa. xxxv. 11 Divine Servant is represented as a Sin Offer- (margin); Prov. xxvi. 6). The LXX. give ing, his death being an expiation, so here a:voµ.la., while St. Peter renders the word he is described as a Guilt Offering, bis deuth used by a:µ.ap-rla (1 Pet. ii. 22). The sin- being a satisfaction" (Orwick,• The Servant lessness of Christ is asserted by himself of Jehovah,' p. 151). Re sha.11 see his seed. (John viii. 46), and forms the main Hrgu- The "seed" of a teacher of religion are his ment in the Epistle to the Hebrews for the diBciples. St. Paul speaks of Onesimus us superiority of the new covenant over the old one whom he had " begotten in hiB bonds " (Heb. vii. 26-28; ix. 14). It is also wit- (Philem. 10). He co.llB himself by implica- nessed to by St. Peter (1 Pet. ii. 22), by St. tion the "father " of his Corinthian converts Paul (2 Cor. v. 21), and by St. John (l John (1 Cor. iv. 15). Both he and St. John ad- iii. 5). As no other man was ever without dress their disciples as "little children" sin, it follows tho.t the Servant of the pre- (Ge.I. iv. 19; 1 John ii. 1, 18, 25; iii. 7. 18; sent chapter must be Jesus. iv. 4; v. 21). It h11d long previouslv been Ver. 10.-Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise promised that "a 1tie<l should serve" M, s- him (see the comment on ver. 6, ad fin.). siah (Pe. xxii. 30). Our Lord himself occe.- The sufforings of Christ, proceeding from sionully called his disciples his "children" the "determinate counsel and foreknow- (Mark x. 24; John xxi. 4). He has always ledge of God" (Acts ii. 23), and being per- " seen hie seed" in his true followers. He witted by him, were in some sort his doing. shall prolong his da.ye. A eeeming contro.-  298 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH, [oH. LIII. 1-12.