Whether the compiler of our Book of Isaiah, or of that portion of it which precedes the fortieth chapter, derived these four chapters from the Book of Kings, or from some other source, it would appear that his object was at once the general one of giving some account of the writer to whom the poems here collected were attributed (for substantially all that has been transmitted from antiquity concerning him is contained in these historical notices), and the more particular one of acquainting the reader with the occasions on which it was said that the two poems here added to the collection were composed. The historical portion has already received our attention in the examination of the Book of Kings.*

The first of the two poetical passages was very probably written by Isaiah, a triumphal ode, after the discomfiture of the Assyrian army before Jerusa lem. It was transmitted to succeeding times; and when tradition had, after a course of generations, done its work, embellishing and misstating the occa sion on which it was written, and converting it from commemoration to prediction, it came (history and ode together), either as a separate fragment, or else as already a part of the Book of Kings, into the possession of the compiler of the Book of Isaiah, and so was installed in the place where it now stands. The poem, in the appropriate spirit of a composition such as I consider it to be, represents the city of God as defying and deriding the threats of its pagan enemy. Canst thou hope, it asks, to harm that which the Holy One of Israel protects ? It is Jehovah himself whom thou hast provoked, when thou hast boasted of thy achievements, as if they were wrought by thine own

* See above, pp. 133-136.

strength. Know that it was only because he ordained for thee this success, and to that end sent weakness and dismay among thine enemies, that thou wert able to attain it.* But now for thine insolence his vengeance has turned upon thee; and the people of this afflicted land, after having been reduced for two years to live on the produce of former cultivation, too much harassed by the invader to sow and reap anew, have on the third year a joyful "sign" of their Almighty Friend's gracious purposes for them, in being again at rest to cultivate their fields, "and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof." Those of Judah, who have seen the end of these cruel wars, shall see an age of unpar alleled glory for their nation. By Jehovah's favor it shall flourish like a thriving tree, which strikes its strong roots downwards, and lifts its abundant growth above. It was Jehovah's own decree that the proud Assyrian should never set foot within his sacred precincts.

"He shall not come into this city,

Nor shoot an arrow into it;

He shall not present a shield before it,

Nor cast up a mound against it.

By the way in which he came, by the same shall he return,

And into this city shall he not come, saith Jehovah.

For I will defend this city, and deliver it,

For mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.” — xxxvii. 33–35.

The second poem, entitled "The writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered from his sickness," might well have been a work of Hezekiah, or of any other man, on the occasion of a restoration to health. It gives rise to no other remark, than that it contains no allusion to the very peculiar circumstances which attended Hezekiah's

sickness, as the historical context describes them. It represents the restored patient as describing, first, the anxiety with which he had regarded the prospect of death, the sufferings and feebleness of his sick ness, and the reflections which it prompted on the brevity of life; * and as expressing, next, the sense which he feels of the great goodness of Jehovah in his restoration, and the obligation which he understands to rest upon him to devote his lengthened life and reinstated strength to the praise and service of his Di vine Benefactor.† Not a word alludes to a miraculous cure, or to the "sign" of a retrogression of the sun's shadow upon the dial. All that it would seem we can say of its occupying the place where it appears is, that it was an interesting elegy of earlier times, known to the compiler of this book as having been attributed to Hezekiah; as such, he considered it a not unsuitable appendage to his collection of writings of that age, and introduced it where the context in the historical passage afforded a convenient opening.

* Is. xxxviii. 10-14.

† xxxviii. 15-20.

LECTURE XLVI.

ISAIAH XL. 1.- LXVI. 24.

QUESTION RESPECTING THE AUTHORSHIP OF THIS PASSAGE. - No ExTERNAL EVIDENCE REFERRING IT TO ISAIAH. - INTERNAL EVIDENCE INDICATING A DIFFERENT AUTHOR. ANALYSIS OF ITS CONTENTS. - PURPOSE OF JEHOVAH TO RESTORE AND DEFEND ISRAEL. HIS GREATNESS AND WISDOM.-CYRUS COMMISSIONED TO BE HIS INSTRUMENT FOR HIS PEOPLE'S REDEMPTION. THE OVERTHROW OF THE BABYLONISH IDOLATRY AND EMPIRE. PAST AND PRESENT DEALINGS OF JEHOVAH WITH HIS PEOPLE.REMONSTRANCES AND ENCOURAGEMENTS. - PRESENT HUMILIATION AND FUTURE GREATNESS OF THE MESSIAH.-PROSPERITY OF THE PEOPLE UNDER HIS GOVERNMENT. - EXTENSION OF THEIR FAITH AND IMMUNITIES TO THE GENTILES. - REBUKE OF PREVAILING IMPIETIES AND HYPOCRISY. DELAY OF PROMISED BLESSINGS ON THEIR ACCOUNT. - DESCRIPTIONS OF THE APPROACHING POWER AND GLORY OF THE NATION. THE MESSIAH'S BLOODY VICTORIES IN IDUMEA. THANKSGIVING FOR PAST MERCIES, AND PRAYER FOR FUTURE. JEHOVAH'S REPROMISE OF A GREAT MORAL REVOLUTION, AND AN EQUITABLE RETRIBUTION TO THE WICKED AND THE GOOD. QUOTATIONS FROM THE BOOK IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.

PLY.

FEW propositions, I conceive, depending on the same kind of evidence, can be considered as better established than these: -1. That the last twenty-nine chapters of the book called by the name of Isaiah were not written by that prophet; and 2. That they were the work of one writer, who lived nearly two hundred years later, towards the close of the Babylonish captivity.

Of external evidence, bearing upon the question, there is none. Passages from this portion of the book are, it is true, quoted in the New Testament under the

name of Isaiah; * but this proves no more than that in New Testament times they were included in the col lection to which his name was attached. Universally, it is the custom to quote a writing by the name by which it is commonly known. Otherwise, the reference would not be understood. And no one is expect ed, in making such a quotation, to enter a caveat respecting the authorship, under pain of being considered as vouching for the authenticity of the words which he cites. No one in our day hesitates to quote the Hymns of Homer by that title, however incredu lous he may be, and may know that his hearers are, respecting their being the productions of a poet of that name. And no Biblical critic would think of maintaining, that to refer to the Book of Psalms by its common title of "The Psalms of David," is to make one's self responsible for the opinion that that monarch was the author of the whole collection. The application of a name in this way to a number of writings does not even prove that the whole of them had been at any time attributed to the writer named. For all the purposes involved in that way of speaking, it is enough to justify that application that the individual named has been understood to be the writer of the princi pal part of the collection.†

* Is. xl. 3, comp. Matt. iii. 3, Luke iii. 4, John i. 23; xlii. 1–4, comp. Matt. xii. 18-21; liii. 1, comp. John xii. 38, Rom. x. 16; liii. 4, comp. Matt. viii. 17; lxv. 1, 2, comp. Rom. x. 20, 21.

† Compare Prov. i. 1, where we have the title of the whole book, with xxx. 1, xxxi. 1. In the list of the Old Testament books in the Talmud (see Vol. I. p. 40), the order of the later prophets is Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the Minor Prophets. But Isaiah was the earliest in time of all the authors of the larger prophetical books. Why, then, was the book which goes by his name placed last? Different unsatisfactory answers have been given to this question. I think the true answer is afforded by the view taken above of the book, as a compilation from two or more authors. The books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel are placed first, as being, throughout, compositions of the