spiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers: Kings shall see, and arise; princes also shall worship; because of the Lord that is faithful, the Holy One of Israel and he shall choose thee. 8. Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to raise up the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; 9. Saying unto the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness*, Be ye discovered. They shall feed by the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. 10. They shall not hunger, nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them. 11. And I will make åll my mountains a way, and my high ways shall be exalted. 12. Behold, these shall come from far; and lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.

13. Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted. 14. But Zion said, The

Saying to them that are in darkness, Be ye discovered.] I think that the lost ten tribes are here intended.

seems to be parallel to one already considered.

66

The passage

"They, that

were lost in the land of Assyria, shall come."

xxvii. 13.

Isaiah

VOL. I.

R

Lord

Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. 15. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget; yet will I not forget thee. 16. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. 17. Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers, and they that made thee waste, shall go forth of thee *. 18. Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all as with an ornament, and bind them on thee like a bride. 19. Though thou hast had only waste and desolate places and a land of destruction, yet now thou shalt be straitened for room by reason of thy inhabitants; and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. 20. As yet the children, of whom thou hast been bereaved, shall say in thine ears; The place is too strait for me; come close unto me, that I may have room to dwell. 21. Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these †, seeing I have lost my children,

* Bp. Lowth translates this verse, They, that destroyed thee, shall soon become thy builders; and they, that laid' thee waste, shall become thine offspring. I do not see much necessity for altering the common version. In a subsequent passage however a ought undoubtedly to be rendered thy builders, not thy sons.

↑ Who hath begotten me these?] The surprize of Judah at being reunited with Ephraim is probably here described--

Judah

4

and am desolate, migrating from one country to another, and turning aside out of the way; and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone: these, where have they been? 22. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles; and set up my banner unto the nations and they shall bring thy sons in their *, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. 23. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers": they shall bow down to thee † with their face toward the earth, and shall lick up the dust of thy feet: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord, and they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.

arms

24. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or shall the captive of the terrible the delivered? 25. But thus saith the Lord, Even the captive of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. 26. And I will

Judah is to be first restored, partly in a converted state by the great maritime power, and partly in an unconverted state by Antichrist; and afterwards Ephraim, by the continental powers of the east and the north.

* They shall bring thy sons in their arms.] The restoration of Ephraim seems here to be peculiarly meant. Compare this passage

with Isaiah lxvi. 19, 20.

+ They shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth.] Compare Isaiah ii. 2, 3.

The terrible.] For par read pay. For reasons and authorities see Bp. Lowth in loc.

cause them that oppress thee to eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunken with their own blood as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know, that I the Lord am thy Saviour and Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

COMMENTARY.

In the beginning of this prophecy, Christ, having complained that he hath laboured in vain in the conversion of Israel, declareth nevertheless, that it is his office to bring Jacob back again to the Lord, and that Israel shall surely be gathered unto him; nor yet Israel alone, but all the far distant tribes of the Gentiles. Despised as the Redeemer was at his first advent, kings shall see and worship him in a manner yet more extensive and glorious than the world hath ever yet beheld. He shall cause the Jews again to inherit their desolate heritage. He shall speak the word, and the prisoners shall go forth at his bidding. He shall call aloud to the ten tribes, that have been so long shrouded in darkness and have so long eluded every inquiry; and they shall forthwith be discovered. He that hath mercy on them will lead them; every obstacle to their return will be removed; and they shall come from the north, and from the west, and from the land of the Sinim*. Long as the Lord hath

* By these Sinim some have understood the Chinese or · Sinenses; but Bochart objects to the notion, on the ground that

hath seemed to forget Zion, he hath still kept his eye upon her, and will in due time destroy her destroyers and make her the glory of the whole earth. Her younger sisters, the churches of the Gentiles, shall flock unto her; the land of her desolation shall be too narrow for the multitude of her children; and they that devoured her shall be driven far away. Even she herself shall marvel at the number of her offspring, she who hath so long been a wanderer over the face of the whole earth, when she beholds Ephraim joined to Judah and the remnant of Israel to the house of David. Obedient to the command of the Lord, the Gentiles shall bring her children from afar: kings shall be her nursing fathers: and, if her fall hath been the riches of the world, if her diminishing hath been the riches of the Gentiles, how much more her fulness!

Here the prophet, as usual, calls our attention to the fall of Antichrist, which he almost invariably connects with the restoration of the Jews. He asks, whether the prey shall surely be delivered from that mighty tyrant, and whether his captives shall be rescued from him? To this the Lord so

that the Chinese were then unknown in the more western parts of the world. He himself supposes them to be the inhabitants of Sin or Pelusium in Egypt; and undoubtedly there are some prophecies which speak of the return of the Jews out of that country, at the era of the restoration. See Bochart Phaleg. L. IV. C. 27. p. 275. and Mr. Lowth in loc.