ing Egypt and Arabia to his ambition, made those countries the ransom of his people. Verse 4." Since"- rather " Inasmuch as" Verse 5." thy seed." -"semen ecclesiæ hic est semen spirituale, per regenerationem mysticam producendum. Huc pertinet in emphasi vox ON, ' adducam.' Non dicit enim propheta ", 'reducam: quâ voce frequentes utuntur prophetæ ubi loquuntur de reditu ex exilio: sed N, venire faciam,' quis in emphasi referendum est ad gentes." Vitringa ad Is. vol. ii, p. 452, 1. -" from the east-from the west." -"Ex Asiâ, quàm latè in orientem extenditur, et ex insulis maris, h. e. Asiâ Minore, Græciâ, Peloponneso, Illyrico, Italiâ, Hispaniâ, Africâ, quæ Hierosolymitani cæli climati sunt ad occidentem." Ibid. Verse 6. " north-south." -"Designatur conversio Scytharum, Celtarum, Germanorum, Gothorum, sub quibus septentrionales gentes complector; tum quoque Arabum, Egyptiorum, Libyum, Æthiopum, quæ gentes Judeæ sunt ad austrum." Ibid. 2. -"from far-from the ends of the earth." "Testes sunt inde Ethiopes, sive Halessini; hinc U4 Gothi et Vandali. Sed tu qui sapientiam divinam sedulò scrutaris, ne neglige hic sensum mysticum. Et in quinquo' et ab extremis terræ' in emphasi dicuntur adolui, qui a communione Dei et ecclesiæ, propter vim ignorantiæ, superstitionis, et idololatriæ et vitiorum longissimè essent remoti." Ibid. 2. Verse 10. "Ye” i. e. " Ye Israelites" Verse 12. -" when there was no strange god among you;" rather," and among you there is no stranger." "Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free." Col. iii, 11. Verse 13. "I will work, and who shall let it?” rather, "I work, and who shall undo it?" To the same effect Bishop Lowth. The Verse 14. "I have sent to Babylon" prophecy respecting times much later than the restoration of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, that deliverance is spoken of in the preterite, and is mentioned only as a pledge of the greater mercies, which are the proper and immediate subject of this discourse. See note on verse 3. To the same purpose the deliverance from the Egyptian bondage, a thing long past when the prophecy was uttered, is And this mentioned in the 16th and 17th verses. interpretation is justified by the prophet himself, verse 18. -"the Chaldeans, whose cry is in their ships." "the Chaldeans exulting in their ships." Bishop Lowth. See the Bishop's learned note about the naval strength of the Babylonian empire under her antient kings, and how it was destroyed by the Persian monarchs. Verse 17." the power." " robustum quemque," Vitringa. "the warrior," Bishop Lowth. Verse 18. "Remember ye not"- Jehovah having mentioned the deliverance from Babylon, and the deliverance from the Egyptian bondage, bids his people "remember not the former things." Evidently the deliverance from Babylon is among those former things, which deserved not to be remembered in comparison with the greater things which this prophecy unfolds. This clearly proves that the prophecy respects times long subsequent to the restoration of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. "Igitur hoc præcipio vobis; ut inter signa mea atque miracula, quibus Babylon urbs potentissima diruta est, et quibus, in mari rubro atque Jordane, populo meo aperta est via; nequaquam memineritis veterum, quum in evangelio multo sum majora facturus, quorum comparatione præterita sileri debeant." Hieronym. ad locum. And to the same effect Vitringa: "Priora hic loci sunt beneficia gratiæ, quæ beneficium temporis Messiæ ante cesserant, aut ante cessura essent: ut sunt clades Sennacheribi, destructio imperii Chaldæorum, liberatio ex exilio Babylonico, Seleucidarum ecclesiæ persecutorum interitis, et restitutio reipublicæ per Maccabæos.Per antiqua-intelliges hic loci redemptionem populi ex Ægypto, introductionem in Cananæam, et liberationem ejus ex variis adversis et servitutibus per judices." Vitringa in Is. vol. ii, p. 462, 2. Verse 19. "I will even make a way in the wilderness." Nequaquam enim ultra in mari ru -- bro, sed in deserto totius mundi aperiam viam. Nec unus fluvius, sine fons, erumpet de petrâ, sed multa flumina, quæ non corpora, ut prius, sed animas sitientis reficiant, et impleatur illud quod supra legimus, bibetis aquas de fontibus salvatoris." " Hieronym. ad locum. To understand this of the safe conduct of the returning captives by the hand of Providence through the Arabian desert, is most ridiculous and absurd; when this making of a way in the wilderness is mentioned as a far greater thing than had yet been done; and yet the history records no miracles wrought in behalf of the liberated captives journeying homeward through the Arabian desert, to be compared with the great works exhibited in their long journey through the wilderness from Egypt. I deny not, that in some prophecies, which immediately relate to the restoration of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, God is poetically represented as marching at the head of his people through a wilderness, as he did of old, when he first led them out of Egypt. But I believe all these prophecies, narrowly examined, will be found to allude at least to a greater deliverance, in which the immediate power of God should be more sensibly displayed in the manner of bringing the thing to pass. In the return from the Babylonian captivity, the agreement of the event with the promise was indeed a demonstration of the power of God, ordering all the affairs of the world, and using the power and the free agency of its greatest princes, as the instru ments of his own purpose. But the thing was ac complished by natural and ordinary means. It is possible that this passage may allude to a miraculous restoration of the Israelites to their former seats in the latter ages of the world, when 5 |