UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 
 THE SLOSS COLLECTION ()K THE SEMITIC LIBKAKV 
 OF THE UXIVEKSITV OF CALIFORMA. 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 LOUIS SLOSS. 
 
 February. 1897. 
 
 Accession A^o.V^S'^^^. Cla$s No. 
 
 
 
 
c^^ 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/expositionofisaiOOschirich 
 
nay h'DU^' n:n 
 
 AN 
 
 EXPOSITION 
 
 OF 
 
 ISAIAH LII 13 14 15 and LIII 
 
 DELIVEJIED BEFORE THE COUNCIL OF THE SENATE 
 
 LAW SCHOOL 
 OJ^ FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1882, 
 
 or TH? 
 
 UNiVERSrT 
 
 BY 
 
 S. M. SCHILLER-SZINESSY, M.A., Ph.D., 
 
 READER IN RABBINIC AND TALMUDIC LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY Ot 
 
 CAMBRIDGE; FORMERLY PROFESSOR PUBLICUS EXTRAORDINARIUS OF 
 
 HEBREW AND ARCHEOLOGY IN THE LUTHERAN COLLEGE OF 
 
 EPERJES, AND SUBSEQUENTLY RABBI OF THE UNITED 
 
 CONGREGATION OF MANCHESTER. 
 
 PRINTED BY REQUEST. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE : 
 
 DEIGHTON, BELL, AND CO. 
 
 LONDON: GEOBGE BELL AND SONS. 
 
 1882. 
 
AN 
 
 EXPOSITION 
 
 OF 
 
 ISAIAH LII 13 14 15 and LIII 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE COUNCIL OF THE SENATE 
 
 IN THE 
 
 LAW SCHOOL 
 OJSr FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1882, 
 
 BY 
 
 S. M. SCHILLER-SZINESSY, M.A., Ph.D., 
 
 n 
 READER IN RABBINIC AND TALMUDIC LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 CAMBRIDGE; FORMERLY PROFESSOR PUBLICUS EXTRAORDINARIUS OF 
 
 HEBREW AND ARCHEOLOGY IN THE LUTHERAN COLLEGE OF 
 
 EPERJES, AND SUBSEQUENTLY RABBI OF THE UNITED 
 
 CONGREGATION OF MANCHESTER. 
 
 PRINTED BY REQUEST. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE : 
 
 DEIGHTON, BELL, AND CO. 
 
 LONDON: GEOEGE BELL AND SONS. 
 
 1882. 
 
^<;l^'^ 
 
 f^^^ 
 
 -itj'N nn nv-i^ p : ^2^6 nrh) v^th nt jriDi nn^Dvni m^^ini pxn 
 
J 
 
 TO THE EIGHT WORSHIPFUL 
 THE VICE-CHANCELLOR 
 
 THE REVEREND JAMES PORTER, D.D., 
 
 MASTER OF PETERHOUSE, 
 
 THE COLLEGE WHICH BEARS THE NAME OF 
 
 THE GREAT APOSTLE TO THE HEBREWS, 
 
 THIS DISSERTATION ON THE MOST GLORIOUS HEBREW PROPHECY 
 
 IS BY PERMISSION DEDICATED 
 
 WITH RESPECT AND GRATITUDE 
 
 BY A HEBREW OF THE HEBREWS. 
 
 158982 
 
Mr Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen, 
 
 The prophet, one of whose predictions I am to expound to 
 you this day, is, in a certain sense, the greatest of all the seers 
 of Israel. If 'there arose not a prophet since in Israel like 
 unto Moses, whom the Eternal knew face to face^' as the 
 Hebrew Scriptures have it, we must not forget that the selfsame 
 Scriptures immediately add the qualifying words : 'as regards 
 all the signs and the wonders which the Eternal had sent him to 
 do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and 
 to all his land, and as regards all that mighty hand and all the 
 great terror which Moses wrought in the sight of all Israel I' 
 Moses was, indeed, the greatest prophet that arose in Israel /or 
 Israel ; but Isaiah, although he also arose in Israel for Israel, 
 did not arise for Israel exclusively. For this is what he says 
 of himself and his mission : and He (God) said : ' It is a light 
 matter that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes 
 of Jacob, and to bring back the captives of Israel : I will also 
 give thee for a light unto the nations, to become my salvation 
 to the end of the earth ^.' If Isaiah did not, and indeed could 
 not, say anything opposed, or even unknown, to Moses, seeing 
 that ' Moses was faithful in the whole house of God*,' he could, 
 and, in fact did, bring out more plainly that which was 
 well known to, and by insertion in the Pentateuch officially 
 sanctioned although not further dilated on by, Moses: that 
 there should one day a star come forth from Jacob and a 
 
 1 Deut. xxxiv. 10. 2 Deut. xxxiv. 11, 12. 
 
 2 Isaiah xlix. 6. * Numb. xii. 7. 
 
2 
 
 c 
 
 sceptre rise from Israel, that would smite the nobles of Moab 
 and violently shake all the children of Sheth\ that is, that would 
 move all heathendom to its foundations. But if Moses, of un- 
 circumcised lips^ had to teach for the first time, to his people 
 that God was not only omnipotent and perfectly wise, but also 
 eternal and above all holi/, and that Israel, because of his being 
 His firstborn, must also be holy^, — a truth without which aU 
 virtue and morality can only be sporadic — Isaiah, whose lips 
 had, as it were, become circumcised, by the touch of the holy 
 fire from the altar*, was cbosen to make known the thrice-holy 
 God ^ to his own people and by that people to the Gentiles. He 
 was chosen to teach these Gentiles, that they indeed could enter 
 Jerusalem the holy, in the midst of which the thrice-holy God 
 dwelt, but not as long as they were uncircumcised, that is, 
 unclean, in hearth He had to teach them that they must be 
 sanctified first before they could claim communion with God's 
 own saints. If Moses, in the name of God, had to proclaim to 
 Israel, as a duty : ' and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests 
 and a holy nation V Isaiah had the privilege of proclaiming as a 
 promise : ' and ye shall be called priests of the Eternal, ye shall 
 be named ministers of our Godl' Isaiah had the privilege of 
 addressing to his people the soul-stirring words : 'Arise ! shine ! 
 for thy light hath come and the glory of the Eternal hath risen 
 upon thee. For, behold, darkness covereth the earth and thick 
 darkness the nations, whilst upon thee is risen the Eternal and 
 His glory is seen upon thee. But nations shall walk by thy 
 light and kings by the splendour of thy shining^! ' And again : 
 ' Many nations shall go and say. Come and let us go up to the 
 mountain of the Eternal, to the house of the God of Jacob, that 
 He may teach us some^^ of His ways, that we may walk in His 
 highways"!' Now, no doubt, there is one in Israel greater than 
 Moses and greater than Isaiah ; one whose office it is to proclaim 
 this priestship of Israel, and this sanctification of the Gentiles 
 not only as a duty and not only as a promise, but as a fact — he 
 
 1 Numb. xxiv. 17. ^ Exod. vi. 30. ^ Lev. xix. 2. 
 
 4 Isaiah vi. 6, 7. ^ Isaiah vi. 3. ^ Isaiah lii. 1. 
 
 7 Exod. xix. 6. 8 Isaiah Ixi. 6. ^ Isaiah Ix. 1, 2, 3. 
 
 10 VD"<1» ; comp. Acts xv. 20, 29. ^^ Isaiah ii. 3. 
 
is none other than Messiah the son of David, the Anointed of 
 the Lord. But of him anon. Let me conclude this comparison 
 between Moses and Isaiah by adding one more touch to the 
 picture. Moses, like other prophets, as, for instance, Jonah and 
 Jeremiah^, went forth in God's service, but only reluctantly^; 
 he had to be forced by the Spirit to do his duty : Isaiah, on the 
 other hand, went willingly and prepared for all sacrifices. When 
 he heard the voice of the Eternal : ' whom shall I send and who 
 wiU go for us ?' he, at once, exclaimed : ' Here am I, send me'!* 
 And again : * The Lord God hath given me an instructive 
 tongue, understanding the teaching of the word to the weary ; 
 morning by morning He wakeneth mine ear to hear according 
 to the instructions. The Lord God hath opened mine ear and 
 ^ I was not rebellious, I turned not back. I gave my back to 
 the smiters and my cheeks to them that pluck oflf the hair. I 
 hid not my face from shame and spitting. But the Lord God 
 will help me ; therefore, shall I not become confounded : there- 
 fore have I s6t my face like a flint and I know that I shall not 
 be ashamed*.' But if Isaiah excelled in some points even 
 ' the father of wisdom and the father of the prophets ' as 
 Moses is called ^ shall we hesitate to say that he excelled in 
 more points still 'the teacher of the prophets^' as Samuel is 
 called ? Who has ever compared these two without ascribing, 
 indeed, disinterestedness, patriotism and some miraculous acts 
 to Samuel, but breadth of view, fervour of sentiment, beauty of 
 diction and a noble self-sacrifice to Isaiah? And if he be 
 in some points greater than Moses, and even in more points 
 greater than Samuel — the two men placed on a level by the 
 Psalmist'' — shall we hesitate to award to Isaiah the palm of 
 excellency over all the other prophets of Israel ? It is, in- 
 deed, a true characteristic of all Israelite prophets that they 
 were pre-eminently men who jeopardised their personal safety 
 for their prophetic office, that they vehemently denounced 
 sin wherever they discovered it, whether in the humble hut 
 
 1 Jonah i. 3 ; iii. 3. Jerem. i. 6 ; xx. 9. 
 
 2 Exod. iv. 1, 10 ; vi. 12. ^ Isaiah vi. 8. ^ Isaiah 1. 4-7. 
 
 5 Tanna debe EUyyahu, Babbah, cap. vi. ^ Midrash Shemuel, cap. xxiv. 
 
 7 Psalm xcix. 6; T. B. Ta'anith o''. 
 
 1—2 
 
of the peasant, or in the proud palace of the king. But if they 
 were fearless, Isaiah was fearlessness itself And as regards their 
 prophecies : the conceptions of all of them are grand and the 
 execution of these conceptions is lofty; but if their thoughts 
 and their diction are noble, Isaiah's are simply sublime ! 
 Isaiah ! What would Israel, what would Christendom (if the 
 existence of Christianity could be imagined without Isaiah) 
 what would the world have been without him ? Certainly 
 not Messianic. True, Isaiah is not the only, nor the earliest 
 Messianic prophet : the Messianic idea goes on from Moses the 
 first, to Malachi the last, prophet. It is the golden thread which 
 runs through all the books of the Bible. But Isaiah is the" 
 best, the clearest, the most enlightened and the most enthusi- 
 astic of its expounders. The Messiah, in whom other prophets 
 saw a mere mighty ruler of Israel, or, from a higher point of 
 view, a righteous king of his people, or, from a still higher point 
 of view, a righteous conqueror of the nations of the world, whose 
 wickedness he would neutralise by his material might, Isaiah 
 conceived and proclaimed to be a king glorious in the spirit, 
 whose simple word, without any outward force, was to guide the 
 nations to, and in, the way of righteousness ; a king in whose 
 kingdom no person and ' no thing that maketh a lie ' can exist ; 
 a kingdom on earth, indeed, but of heaven ; a kingdom of love ; 
 a kingdom, in which no passion, no persecution, no war, no vice, 
 no 'sin, the wages of which is death V would exist. A glorious 
 prophet, indeed, is our Isaiah ! 
 
 Now, Mr Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen, of this glorious 
 prophet's glorious prophecies I will read and expound to you 
 the most glorious ; a prophecy well known to all of you in- 
 asmuch as on it, in a measure, your Christian faith rests : and 
 yet a prophecy that has not found to this day an expositor. 
 Not that there are no commentaries on it to be found ; on the 
 contrary, the reader labours under an embarras de richesses^. 
 But no commentator, either Jewish or Christian, accessible to 
 
 1 Ezek. xviii. 20. 
 
 2 See Neubauer, Driver and Pusey, The Fifty-third Chapter of Isaiah, 
 Oxford, 1876. 8vo. 
 
me\ has as yet consistently carried the reader through the 
 whole prophecy. There is none who hath done in this 
 respect well, no, not one ; for not one has satisfactorily 
 answered the old, but simple and important question of the 
 treasurer of the Queen of Ethiopia : ' Of whom speaJceth the 
 prophet this^?' Whilst well-known words and phrases have been 
 expatiated upon ad nauseam, real difficulties have been got over, 
 not by being removed through explanation, but simply by being 
 either slurred over or sublimely ignored. Nor are even the 
 general applications of this prophecy, ten in number, more true 
 than new, or more new than true. The "servant of God" 
 here mentioned has been identified: 1st, with Israel; 2ndly, 
 with the pious in his midst ; 3rdly, with the Messiah ; 4thly, 
 with the prophets in general; 5thly, with Isaiah himself; 
 6thly, with Jeremiah ; 7thly, with king Uzziah ; 8thly, with 
 Hezekiah ; 9thly, with Josiah ; and lOthly (risum teneatis 
 amid !) with Satan-tormented Job ! These applications and 
 explanations, if not true, are nevertheless not entirely without 
 value to us. For, although the modern commentaries on this 
 prophecy are mere rechauffes as regards application and expla- 
 nations, any nine of them successfully show the absurdities 
 of the tenth theory ; and thus, although disagreeing among them- 
 selves as to what the real application and explanation should 
 be, they agree with one another as to what these should not be. 
 And yet there must have been a time when the import of this 
 prophecy was well known. If the Jews for the last eighteen 
 hundred years, out of bias against Christianity, have favoured, 
 as is asserted, any one of the nine theories rather than the 
 Messianic — such surely could not have been the case in pre- 
 
 1 A friend of mine remarked to me, that he thought that an exposition 
 similar to mine had been given by Dr Delitzsch, whose work I had not had an 
 opportunity of seeing when I wrote the above. I have since examined his com- 
 mentary (Delitzsch and Hahn, Berlin, 1857, 8vo.), and I find that, except in the 
 rendering of isolated words and phrases, we differ toto caelo. As my friend 
 Professor Delitzsch and I had the advantage of going through a similar course 
 of studies it would have been strange if there had not been points of agreement 
 between us; nevertheless: D''5<^n: '•3K^ pxi D^&<^3J HDd'? ^h^V ^HN p3:iD 
 nnx |i::bl- D'-XajriD (T. B. Synhedrin 89»). 
 
 2 Acts viii. 34. 
 
Christian times. Is there nothing left in Jewish literature to 
 tell us to whom the Jews applied this chapter nineteen hundred 
 years ago ? I think there is ; and I will at once tell you that 
 the Targum, or Chaldaic paraphrase, on this prophet, now in 
 our hands, is that piece of literature. This Targum, as it now 
 stands, is certainly not free from omissions, alterations^ and 
 interpolations^;' but it is, on the whole, the work not of a 
 Babylonian Rabbi of the 4th century post Christum natum, 
 as one-sided criticism has tried to establish, but of a Palestinian 
 paraphrast of the years 30 to 10 ante Christum natum. From 
 what is left of this Targum the true critic recognises that in 
 pre-Christian times there were already three applications made 
 of this prophecy, which, however, in reality amounted only to 
 one. They were : 
 
 (1) The people of Iskael, 
 
 (2) As represented by the pious in his midst, 
 
 (3) Culminating in the Messiah, 
 
 figuratively representing a ladder set up on the earth with 
 the top of it reaching to heaven, the angels of God ascending 
 and descending on it ; but God standing above it ^. 
 
 Three questions, I imagine, you may be inclined to ask. 
 The first will be one personal to me : " Dost thou deem thy- 
 self wiser than Daniel" that thou presumest to know what 
 nobody else knoweth about the prophet Isaiah and his pro- 
 phecies ? Know then, that "as for me, this secret is not 
 revealed unto me for any wisdom that I have more than any 
 living " ; but that it is the simple result of honest and long 
 and affectionate study of this prophet. I am now 61 years of 
 age, and I so loved the Hebrew Bible in my youth that I 
 knew the whole of it by heart before I was ten years old*. 
 But, although the whole Bible has ever been dear to me, my 
 favourite prophet has always been Isaiah. Him I studied 
 
 1 That '»31'» and "IDDTT'i^ (liii. 5) could not have stood originally is plain from 
 i»nn^&<T yet left. 
 
 2 See further on, p. 7, note 3. 
 
 3 Qen^ xxviii. 12, 13 ; 1 Corinth, xv. 28. 
 
 ^ See Jakrbuchfur 5640—1880, Budapest, 8vo., p. 6. 
 
under Jews, Rabbanites and Quaraites ; him I studied under 
 Christians, Roman Catholics and Protestants. Re has ever 
 been my thought in the day, my dream in the night; my 
 comfort in trouble, my exultation in happiness. He is my 
 prophet as he is, probably, nobody else's. And you know the 
 import of the beautiful lines of the German poet : 
 
 „ SCBer ten JE)id(>ter tottt serfiel^en 
 aJlup in $£)id(>ter8 Sanic gel^en." 
 
 Your next question will be : What are your proofs of the high 
 age of the Targum ? To this my answer is : I have proofs both 
 negative and positive : 
 
 (1) Not only does Rab Joseph^ who lived in the III — IVth. 
 century post Christum natum, who is generally considered to 
 be the author of this Targum, quote it and speak of it as one 
 speaks of a book of great authority ^ which in the Talmud is 
 equivalent to high age, but 
 
 (2) the Talmud itself distinctly ascribes it to the oldest dis- 
 ciple of HilleP (30 to 10 years ante Christum natum) ; and 
 
 (3) that the Founder of Christianity himself has, apparently, 
 quoted its peculiar phraseology on chap. liii. 7, as you will see 
 when we arrive there. Your third question will, of course, be 
 about the contents of this Targum, both of the portions which 
 are now missing and of those which still exist. This question 
 shall be duly, if not fully ^, answered in the course of the 
 following 
 
 Dissertation. 
 
 The last three verses of what is now called the fifty-second and 
 the whole of the fifty-third chapter form one prophecy, and were, 
 no doubt, in olden times, used as one undivided 'Haphtarah' 
 or 'prophetic portion,' even as the preceding and succeeding 
 chapters are used to this day. Why the Jews should ever have 
 withdrawn such a sublime piece of prophecy from the public 
 reading in the Synagogue is easily explained, whilst its existence 
 
 1 T. B. Megillah S\ 2 t, g, Megillah 3^ 
 
 3 I am now preparing an Essay, in which I shall show the places where the 
 omissions, alterations and interpolations occur. 
 
in the Scriptures to this day is, at the same time, a triumphant 
 refutation of the statement made by more than one speaker 
 in this place, this very week : that the Jews have neglected, 
 or have even tampered with, the Scriptures. The truth is, the 
 Scriptures themselves and, so to say, every line, every letter, 
 every iota of them, have been held in too high a veneration by 
 the Jews for them to do such a thing. No sacrilege would 
 equal in the eye of the Jew that of removing anything from, 
 or altering, the Scriptures, as the faithful preservation to this 
 day of the written (^^HD) in spite of the authority of the read 
 (^^p) word, or letter of Scripture will amply shew. To avoid 
 the influence upon the less learned of Scriptural controversy 
 carried on by adversaries, whom they thought justly or un- 
 justly, either ignorant or dishonest, or both, the Kabbis, not 
 without considerable pain and misgiving, but openly and 
 avowedly, withdrew some of the most hallowed pieces of Scrip- 
 ture from the public reading in the Synagogue, as, for instance, 
 the very Decalogue^ on which the whole Mosaic Law rests. And 
 so they did, no doubt, with this prophecy, which, although 
 Israel, as represented by the pious in his midst, culminating in 
 the Messiah, was in itself a glorious Israelite idea, had become 
 dangerous ground since the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth saw 
 in their Master Israel's hope, the true Messiah. In accordance, 
 then, with the oldest application I will explain to you this 
 prophecy lexically, grammatically, syntactically, and historically. 
 The Dramatis Personae are three : 
 
 (1) God who speaks in the Exordium in verses 13, 14 and 
 15 of chap. 52 and in the Epilogue in verses 11 and 12 of 
 chap. 53 ; 
 
 (2) the Gentile nations and their kings, who speak in the 
 first Section in verses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of chap. 53 ; and 
 
 (3) the prophet Isaiah, who speaks in his own person, in 
 the second Section in verses 7, 8, 9 and 10. The Lord, as 
 everywhere else, Alpha and Omega, is here also the first and 
 the last. 
 
 1 T. B. Berakhoth, 12* ; comp. Lumby Acts i-xiv. in the Cambridge Bible for 
 Schools, p. 173, and the Publications of the Palaeographical Society, plate No. xci. 
 
Lii. 13. 7^^^^ nilin Behold^ he shall prosper. Although no one 
 
 can have a higher opinion of the men of the Authorised 
 Version than I, both as regards their honest and pains- 
 taking labours, and their genius and learning, I must say, 
 that in the very second word of the very first verse of 
 this prophecy, there is a mistake in that version. 7^^^^ 
 occurs three times in the Bible besides here, and in none 
 of these places does it mean : he shall, or he will, or he 
 does, deal prudently. It means: to be successful, to 
 prosper, and so also the Targum renders it ph^\ I there- 
 fore translate 
 
 7^2^^ he shall prosper. 
 
 ''lyjj My devoted one. The term 'servant' would, applied 
 
 to Israel as represented by the pious in his midst, culmi- 
 nating in the Messiah, present no difficulties ; but it forms 
 the basis of one of the strongest objections, raised on 
 the part of the Jews, for the last 700 years, against 
 the conception of the Christian Messiah, who, they say, 
 ought rather to have been called here 'my son.' And, 
 indeed, so telling was this objection felt to be by Chris- 
 tian controversialists, that they took to lines of defence, 
 which were really no defence at all. I am, in loyalty 
 to true Hebrew scholarship, bound to state that the Jewish 
 objection has no locus standi whatever. The term ^^y 
 means no doubt, a slave, or a hired servant ; but it means 
 also something more, and does by no means exclude the 
 idea of sonship. *72y means one who faithfully does, or at 
 least ought to do, what his master (and in the Jewish idea 
 one's father is also one's master^) requires of him. Hence 
 David, the father and type of the Messiah ; David, who is, 
 according to the undisputed Jewish interpretation, called 
 in the Psalms^ ^^2 my son, is in the same book of 
 Psalms' called i^)^^ *71J^, even as the children of Israel, 
 who are in one place of the Pentateuch (Deut. xiv. 1) 
 called D^^2 children, are in another place (Lev. xxv. 55) 
 
 1 Mai. iii. 17. '-^ ii. 7. ^ xviii. 1 and elsewhere. 
 
c 10 
 
 called dn^J?. This is the true, and ought to be the 
 only, Christian defence. The Septuagint is, therefore, not 
 wrong, as some have thought, in translating ^^^J^ by Trat? 
 fiov, which represents, as in Hebrew, both my servant, and 
 the more affectionate term, my child. Here is something 
 missing in the Targum, and unluckily the chief word ; 
 for ^*7DJ^ was, no doubt, originally rendered boldly, by 
 Xn^^/b ^y7J2, the King, the Messiah (or simply. King 
 Messiah). The translation: 'he shall be exalted and be 
 very high,' answers not badly to the Hebrew. 
 
 D^l^ is a lower degree than ^^y\. The former means, strictly 
 speaking, shall he lifted up to a height, without comparing 
 that height with anything else. It is something like our 
 positive degree, whilst 
 
 ^^^^ means and he lifted up to a height higher than that 
 mentioned before. It is virtually the comparative. Com- 
 pare the word of our prophet in ii. 2 where it is, how- 
 ever, incorrectly translated by 'exalted.' The expression 
 
 nn:)'?^ ^mr\'\ idSd :i:is;b di^i and his king shaii be 
 
 higher than Agag and his kingdom shall be exalted V 
 although kindred, is yet markedly different. 
 
 rl^-^l means in itself simply and shall he high, and becomes 
 
 relatively the Superlative, only by the addition of another 
 
 word ; comp. ' Unh)) tDNIlJll 1)b^ T]"!^ Sj^lb M^i:! ^:). For 
 one higher than a high one regardeth, and there are 
 higher ones than they I' Here this other and qualifying 
 word is 
 
 ni^D very. The application of this verse by the Rabbis to 
 
 the Messiah and their explanation^: 'X^^V.-dHI^X/b hT\* 
 
 tr\^r\ ''^'2'^bl2 n!i:iV..n^;bD, exalted above Abraham... 
 and extolled above Moses... and higher than the ministering 
 angels...' is therefore more than a mere fancy. It is indeed 
 another form for the beautiful phrase to be met with in 
 
 1 Numb. xxiv. 7. ^ EccI. v. 7. 
 
 3 Tanchuma Parashath Toledoth. ^ Some copies read : '•DN7DD. 
 
11 
 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews^ : ' being made so much better 
 than the angels.' 
 
 Lil. 14. *n^*5»53 As introduces the protasis and stands in con- 
 
 nexion with p sOy which introduces the apodosis in the 
 next verse. 
 M^J^I^ shrank back with astonishment. Ut2^ is not to be 
 
 _: T 
 
 astonished pure and simple, it includes the idea of 
 shrinking back in consequence of seeing something extra- 
 ordinary in a bad sense, exempli gratia, desolation in 
 beings whether animate or inanimate ; comp. H vj^ )f2J2^) 
 Uyyi^ ^ as applied to Palestine : ' your enemies when they 
 see its desolation shall be astonished, i.e. horror-stricken;' 
 and many other passages in the Bible. 
 
 *^wy at thee, i. e. thou, my devoted one ! 
 
 D^3*n does not signify here many, but great ones; comp. chap. 
 V. 9 in this prophet : D^^'l D^H!! great houses, where the 
 parallelism is d v*7Jl great ones. The same will be seen 
 in the apodosis in the next verse: U^'^l D^U great 
 nations. ^ 
 
 p of a truth! The prophet chooses this expression of em- 
 phasis, which is otherwise not wanted here, merely to 
 bring out the beauty of the word p in the next verse, 
 which is wanted there. 
 
 nntJ^/b, with the form and pointing of which the commentators 
 
 know not what to do, stands simply for JintJ^X deterio- 
 rated, corrupted, destroyed, the past of the NipKal being 
 used participially here. One single point under the Fatach 
 would change it into a Qamatz magnum^. I ascribe all 
 substantives of this form to the same origin, as p^/b? 
 a dwelling place, Tabernacle from p^^ inhabited, tJ^lpD 
 
 1 i. 4. 
 
 2 Lev. xxvi. 32. 
 
 3 See nnt? 113 on Gen. xviii. 3 (and the interesting remarks of Taylor, 
 Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, Cambridge, 1878. 8vo. Hebrew Part, p. 16, Note 5). 
 
12 
 
 c 
 
 sanctuary, from tJ^^tp^ sanctified. Comp. also the ID prce- 
 formativum in Syriac, not merely in the infinitive, but in 
 the greater number of the participles. 
 
 tJ^^KD the jb here is not a littera comparativa, but privativa, 
 
 and the word signifies unlike man, not human. 
 ^iliC\^ his visage, HXI)^ meaning appearance, features \ 
 
 i^Xn*) and his complexion, ^XD meaning form, colour*. 
 
 ^J3/b does not signify ynore than but unlike, the children of; 
 
 here also the D is a littera privativa. 
 d*T^5 is a lower degree than tJ^^K for man, 
 
 T T 
 
 Be it in reference to Israel because of troubles, or be 
 it in reference to the pious in his midst with a sad 
 countenance because of fasting^, or be it finally in refer- 
 ence to the Messiah because of anxiety and suffering : — 
 what the prophet wishes to express in the name of God 
 is : Even as great persons have shrunk from thee, saying 
 surely his features are not those of a human being, nor is 
 his complexion like that of children of men. 
 
 Lii. 15. p So, introduces the apodosis in this verse, just as 
 ^t^t^^D as, in the verse before, introduced the protasis. 
 
 nr does not come from HO to sprinkle, which term, as is well- 
 known, is never used without a close specification of the 
 fluid for sprinkling (as water, blood, &c.); nor is it the 
 n ^7* equivalent of (H^^ to scatter) as the Targum renders 
 it (ni^''). Both Jewish and Christian translators forget 
 this in their theological bias and zeal to bring out their 
 respective doctrines. Whilst the Jewish commentators 
 think of the revenge Israel would take for the wrongs 
 inflicted on him (a doctrine which is ungodly, for ' ven- 
 geance is mineV saith the Lord), the Christian commen- 
 tators think of baptism, which cannot have been meant, at 
 least here, as the earliest form of baptism consisted not in 
 
 1 Comp. Num. viii. 4. ^ Comp. Lam. iv. 8. 
 
 3 Matthew vi. 16. •* Beut. xxxii. 35. 
 
13 
 
 sprinkling, but in immersion*. The fact is, ilV here comes 
 from the root MT*! to accumulate^ to gather, to attract Comp. 
 the Arabic ^W 
 d)iil nations 
 
 D^S*! great ones, as in the verse before. 
 V /V Over, or at, him 
 ^'^Bp'^ shall close 
 
 Q^]5 //b kings (not the kings) 
 
 dn^^ their mouth (and not their mouths), 
 
 ^3 for 
 
 *^^*^^ that which 
 
 ^h not 
 
 *n3D had been told. This is the past Pu'al, or passive conjuga- 
 tion of the Pi'el *13D : telling briefly. If ^^D is to signify- 
 to relate circumstantially, something has to be added. 
 
 on / unto them ^ 
 
 V T 
 
 1X1 they see, 
 
 1^X5 dnd that which 
 
 xS not 
 
 )]}^^ they had heard, yd^ has three significations : to hear ; 
 
 to understand; to obey. Even if it merely signifies to 
 hear, it means more than a bare relation. But, although 
 seeing is more than hearing, understanding is more than 
 seeing. The climax is therefore : 
 l^^iSrin they understand. 
 
 1 See, however, Exod. xxiv. 8, where the verb used is pit- 
 
14 
 
 c 
 
 Here the Exordium ends and may be translated as follows : 
 
 Lli. 18. Behold, my devoted one shall prosper, 
 
 He shall be exalted and lifted up and be very high. 
 
 14. Even as great ones recoiled from thee (saying) : 
 Of a truth, not like those of a human being are his 
 
 features, 
 Nor is his complexion like that of the children of men. 
 
 15. So shall he attract great nations, 
 
 At (the sight of) him shall kings close their mouth. 
 For that which had not been told to them they shall see. 
 And that which they had not (even) heard of shall they 
 understand. 
 
 Lili. 1. ^]b Who 
 
 pJbKn would believe. It is so incredible ! 
 
 ^^nj^^^7 our report, i.e. the one which is spread by us ? Comp. 
 
 ''^bf^ ^)il nnX thou art my king (Ps. XLiv. 5), which 
 means the king who rules over me, whilst O/lb ^Jl^D^ ^^X1 
 and I have anointed my king (Ps. ii. 7) means the king 
 made by me. Here also I^HJ?^^/ means the report which 
 is spread by us. 
 
 }IT\]) for the arm of 
 
 nin^ the Eternal 
 
 T ; 
 
 7j^ upon 
 
 ^jb whom, such a low and despised person. 
 
 nn /^^ hath it been revealed ? 
 
 LIU. 2. 7j^*5 For he grew up, 
 p^i*5 05 a weakly shoot 
 
 V^Si? before Him, referring to Min*, mentioned in the verse 
 before. 
 
15 
 
 t^^i2^y\ And like unto a root. Transpose and read : V^S / v)}'^) 
 
 ^^^y\ p^V^- For he grew up before Him like a weakly 
 plant and a root. This construction is often to be met 
 with in classic literature (as, novi enim moderationem 
 animi tui, et aequitatem^). 
 
 V^Xto From (the) ground 
 
 n*^ dry, parched. (This word is, in reality, an abstract noun.) 
 
 ihnot 
 
 *^^<h form, colour, complexion, i.e. a beautiful one. 
 
 )y unto him (as the Latin mihi est). 
 
 ii/) and not 
 
 yiil comeliness, or goodliness. The p which stands after *^^J^ 
 
 refers also to I^H- This word has the second strongest 
 dividing accent ; (H-^HX) ; nevertheless 
 
 ^nX^il must be translated in connexion with it : That we should 
 
 have looked upon him. For, although I ascribe a higher 
 age to the Accents^ than is generally done, I ascribe a still 
 higher age to one of the chief rules of Hebrew poetry : 
 parallelism. I read, therefore, without hesitation inX^^I 
 
 with ^nn. 
 
 iih) Nor 
 
 nX*n^ an appearance, i.e. a goodly one; and here we must 
 
 again supply the word y? from the phrase 17 'IXM ^7 
 as if there stood : p HXI/b xSl and he had no goodly 
 appearance. 
 
 ^nnpn^l That we should have desired him. 
 
 Liii. 3 : HD^ Se was despised 
 7"Fri1 and the lowest (the dregs) of 
 
 1 Cicero De Senectute in initio. * Journal of Philology, ix. p. 222. 
 
16 
 
 c 
 
 D^^'^i^ men; 
 t^**^ a man of 
 
 nii&<!)^ pains 
 
 J^n^l and intimate with 
 
 ^7h is, strictly speaking, sickness, but is well translated by 
 'grief,' as it is, of course, a mere figure ; comp. ^7n HT *li^ 
 this is a grief^. Jeremiah did not mean that he was sick 
 when he uttered this sentence, as the context shows. By 
 this evidence one of the objections of Jewish commentators, 
 that Jesus of Nazareth is reported nowhere to have been 
 sick, falls to the ground. 
 
 ^^Ipp^^ And as if there were a hiding of 
 
 D03 the Countenance, i.e. of God. Q^^^ ninDH if not further 
 
 specified, means always the hiding of the Divine counte- 
 nance, the withdrawal of God's mercy; so also the Targum: 
 i^r\::i^ '^i^ ^phDJ2 r\)ni K;b:)1 and as if there had been 
 a withdrawal of the countenance of the concentration (of 
 the Divine omnipresence^). 
 
 ^5^p From him. The Targum has KJj;^. In any case it refers 
 
 to Israel, as represented hy the pious in his midst, culmi- 
 nating in the Messiah. 
 
 MDi He was despised 
 
 iih) and as nought. Comp. D^^lf]b^ xSf and thou wilt find 
 them as nought ; a rendering which is there required by 
 parallelism and here by the climax. For how could any- 
 body say : so and so is despised by me and I esteem him 
 not? 
 
 ^n^^t^n We counted him. 
 
 1 Jer. X. 19. 2 Comp. Isaiah lix. 2. 
 
 ' Isaiah xli. 12. 
 
17 
 
 Liii. 4. pt< But, of a truth, 
 ^yhr\ our griefs 
 
 "tt: 
 
 H^n he 
 
 i<^^ hath borne 
 
 T T 
 
 ^i^]3K5^^ a7id our sorrows 
 th^O he carried them, 
 
 T T : 
 
 ^^n^Kl although we 
 
 ^n^^^Yi did esteem him, (i. e. did take him to be) 
 
 J^^Jl^ stricken of (God). Although this word is pointed as if it 
 
 were in the status absolutus it is in the status constructus. 
 T\^l2 smitten of 
 
 D'^liSx God 
 
 niJj;/!:^ and afflicted of {God). This word is, like j;Ui in 
 the status constructus, although in consequence of their 
 position, the one before, and the other after, D\"l /i< HlJ/b, 
 ■^ they are pointed as if they were in the status absolutus. 
 
 LIU. 5. i^)tl) Whilst he was 
 
 /iT\0 transfixed, pierced through; comp. 77n a corpse, chiefly 
 as having become so by being bored through, i.e. slain 
 with a sharp iron instrument, as a sword, or a lance, &c. 
 
 ^yytJ'^D By our transgressions (i.e. heavy sins) 
 
 K5*lD he was crushed, or tightly held down 
 
 l^^nUiy^ by our iniquities, i.e. the lighter sins ; 
 
 1D^!D the chastisement of 
 
 ^ydw^ our peace 
 
 y7^ is upon him, 
 
 S,. 2 
 
. 18 
 
 in^ini!!!^ and hy Ms being wounded. This word is kindred to, 
 
 but not identical with, nil^in. 
 XiS*!^ There is healing given 
 
 ^j7 unto us. 
 
 T 
 
 There is throughout this verse a double but inverted 
 climax: the heavier our sins the more heavily is he 
 visited ; and the less our happiness the less he had to 
 suffer. For not only has sin to be atoned for ; but even 
 happiness as such, being an adumbration and foretaste of 
 heaven, cannot be enjoyed on earth without some un- 
 earthly equivalent, i.e. a heavenly act of resignation. 
 
 Liii. 6. ^y^^ all of us (i. e. not one excepted) 
 }X5^3 Like unto the sheep (i. e. without understanding) 
 ^yyM We erred helplessly and aimlessly about. 
 ^^Ji5 Every one 
 
 )2^i? to his own way. The nations had not even one and the 
 
 same kind of error, or idolatry ; but each one had its own ; 
 and even that they continually changed. 
 
 ^y^S We turned ; 
 
 • T 
 
 ni/T'l hut the Eternal, 
 
 T 
 
 y-^lfin hr ought. The Hiph'il of J^JlS means to cause to touch; 
 
 hence, to intercede, or to bring home to. 
 iSl On, or into, or in, him. 
 
 riX marks here simply the accusative. (It occasionally marks 
 also the preposition with, as in verses 8, 9 and 12 below.) 
 
 py The iniquity of. The expression pj^ for lighter sin, is 
 
 purposely chosen as being here the more comprehensive ; 
 for every sin, even the heaviest, is, at least, a light one, 
 
19 
 
 but not vice versa. The man who hath committed a ^\^^, 
 or a ^^T\, may be safely charged with having committed 
 an py. 
 ^:h'^ All of us. 
 
 Here the speech of the nations and kings of heathen- 
 dom ends. Converted, they all acknowledge that they 
 had been mistaken in thinking that the troubles which 
 had come upon Israel, as represented hy the pious in his 
 midsty culminating in the Messiah, were on account of his 
 own sins. No doubt there were and there are sinners of 
 < the stock of Israel; but if any of the stock of Israel sin, 
 they, surely, sin by their non-Israelite, their heathenish, 
 acts : such sinners, however, never were, and never are, the 
 sufferers. It is the righteous Israelite only, culminating in 
 the Messiah, that has suffered both outwardly and inwardly : 
 outwardly because he conformed not to the heathen ma- 
 jority, and inwardly because he, the first-born of God, the 
 ever and deeply feeling heart of the human race \ deplored 
 the erring of the world, which went after idols various, 
 agreeing only in one thing, the aberration from the true 
 God. The true translation of these six verses will be, 
 according to my humble opinion, the following : 
 
 Liii. 1. Who would believe our report? 
 For the arm of the Eternal upon whom hath it been 
 revealed ? 
 
 2. For he grew up before Him as a weakly shoot and 
 as a root from parched ground. 
 
 He had neither form nor comeliness that we should 
 have looked upon him. 
 
 Nor had he such an appearance that we should have 
 desired him. 
 
 3. He was the despised and lowest of men. 
 A man of pains and intimate with grief 
 
 And there was, as it were, a hiding of God's counte- 
 nance from him. 
 
 He was despised and we counted him for nought. 
 
 ^ Kuzari ii. 35—44. 
 
 2—2 
 
c 20 
 
 4. But, of a truth, our griefs he hath borne. 
 And our sorrows he carried them. 
 
 Although we did esteem him stricken, smitten and 
 afflicted by God. 
 
 5. Whilst he was pierced by our transgressions, crushed 
 by our iniquities ; 
 
 The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by 
 his being wounded healing was given to us. 
 
 6. All of us strayed like unto the sheep, 
 Every one to his own way we turned ; 
 
 But the Eternal laid on him the iniquity of us all. 
 
 Liii. 7. ^^^ he was oppressed ^ 
 
 K^in*! and he was 
 
 r\^p afflicted. Transpose : H^J^^I W^ SJ^Jll The true sense 
 of these three words is admirably given by the 
 Authorised Version. Of these three words, however, 
 I must say something more, as they are most im- 
 portant to us because of their peculiar rendering 
 in the Targum : ^nriD NIHI ^J^^; anglice: he had only 
 to pray and he was answered at once (as if there stood 
 ^21^ ^). This rendering seems to have been in the mind of 
 
 the Founder of Christianity, when he said to 'one of 
 them which were with him : Thinkest thou that I cannot 
 now pray^ to my Father and he shall presently give me 
 more than twelve legions of angels V or in other passages 
 of N. T., as : Ask, and it shall be given to you^ &c. 
 
 N7l yet not 
 
 HM^^ opened he 
 
 Vis his mouth. 
 
 n^3 Like unto the lamb 
 
 1 Comp. 1 Kings xviii. 36 and Bereshith Rabhah, cap. xciii. nPSri/' n'^n 
 
 2 Matth. xxvi. 53, &c. s Matth. vii. 7. 
 
21 
 
 tl^ts? to the slaughter 
 7!}^ he is brought, 
 7)11^^ and like a ewe 
 0^7 before 
 n^TTil her shearers 
 
 TV: 
 
 n^ /X^ is dumb 
 
 T T v: V 
 
 ^)(:and not 
 
 n^l^^ will he open 
 
 VS) his mouth. Here are two questions to be answered : 
 
 (1) Why is Israel, as represented by the pious in his 
 midst, culminating in the Messiah, here compared first with 
 a male lamb and then with a female sheep ? 
 
 (2) Where is the climax ^frorn slaughter' to 'before 
 her shearers/ seeing that to be merely divested of the wool 
 is nothing compared to being deprived of life itself ? 
 
 Well : ethnology teaches us, that, even as individuals 
 have physical, so whole nations have moral character- 
 istics of sex. There are male nations, i.e. such as have a 
 masculine, and there are female nations, i.e. such as have 
 a feminine, character. The Jewish nation will be readily 
 recognised as having feminine^ characteristics with all their 
 drawbacks and all their advantages. For what can be 
 compared to Jewish jealousy on the one hand, and Jewish 
 generosity on the other ? What can be compared to Jewish 
 sensitiveness and what to Jewish patience? What to 
 Jewish self-appreciation and what to Jewish gratitude ? 
 The fact is: the Jewish race is a feminine one: a ewe dumb 
 before her shearers. Being brought to the slaughter is, no 
 doubt, a terrible thing; but it is soon over. But to 
 endure the slow process of exaction, the long and slow pro- 
 
 1 Comp. Jellinek, ^tx iufcifc^c etamm, i. Wien, 1869, 8vo., pp. 81—88. 
 
^ 22 
 
 cess of suffering and denial of justice, is worse to the Jew 
 than death \ Compare the pain inflicted by rough usage, 
 in a barbarous country, on an uncultivated person with 
 the exquisite torture inflicted by polite, but not less unjust 
 treatment, in a civilized country, on a finely-organized 
 mind : and you will understand the prophet's climax from 
 the ' lamb brought to slaughter ' to ' the ewe dumb before 
 her shearers.' 
 
 Liil. 8. *1]^J?^ Without rule. The J2 is privativum ^Sktid ^)i)} is to 
 
 restrain, to rule. 
 t^^^}2fy\ And without justice. The D is here similar to that 
 
 before, a littera privativa. 
 np7 Se was taken away, 
 
 D^] and with, t^^) is here the preposition with, preceded by 
 
 a 1 conjunctivum. 
 1li*l His generation 
 ^jb who 
 
 nnib^^ can speak ? i. e. who can argue with them ? 
 ^3 /or 
 
 ^T^i he is being cut off 
 V*)SD from the land of 
 D^*n life, i.e. happiness. 
 J^^BD In consequence of the transgression of 
 
 ••^J^ the nations. *'J2!^ here is not DJ^ people, with the pronomen 
 possessivum, but stands for D^^J^ nations ; comp. 2 Samuel 
 
 Snob '?iD> '•:^x iDK^ ^cj^ nna '^nx ,n^D ••iiain^EJ^ nn^ai smr HaBsUrim 
 
 Eabbah on ii. 7. 
 
23 
 
 xxii. 44, as the parallelism in loco, aad the kindred pas- 
 sages in Psalms xviii. 44, also by parallelism, and cxliv. 2 
 by context, clearly shew. 
 
 J^Jl^ There came affliction 
 to? to htm. 
 
 T 
 
 The Christians, in applying this prophecy to Jesus of 
 Nazareth, have been, as was thought hitherto, both by 
 Jews and the Christians themselves, triumphantly refuted 
 through this word {)u?) alone. For, said the semi- 
 grammarians, 1^7 is, surely, the equivalent of DH/ for 
 them, and not of *|7 for him. But what is the truth ? 
 Ps. Iv. 20 we read: ^^^^ hSd Ulp !l^n 0:)^^ Sx V^^'> 
 D\nSK IXn*' ^b) )t:h r\)^hn PX which must be trans- 
 lated : * God will hear and afflict them ; even He who 
 lasteth from Eternity to Eternity ; in Whom there are no 
 changes — for they feared not God.' The same is the case 
 with 1/!3'' /J^, which stands not always necessarily for DH^ /J^, 
 but sometimes for V/J^; comp. Job xxii. 2, pD^ /X/H 
 h':^^f2 )b'h)} pD^ •»:) in:! ' Can a man be profitable to 
 God as he can be profitable to himself, if he be wise ? ' 
 
 Liii. 9. [^1*1 And one gave. This expression is impersonal, like 
 
 the third person of the Latin plural, the French on, the 
 German man, the English one. 
 
 nX With 
 
 V 
 
 D'^y^'l wicked ones 
 il!3p his grave, 
 riX^ and with 
 
 *)^^'j^ (the) proud, y't^y is, strictly speaking, rich. But not 
 
 only are the poor identified in the Bible with the meek, 
 but the rich are identified with the wicked, the proud, the 
 
' 24 
 
 presumptuous, and the avaricious. Comp. the saying of 
 the Founder of Christianity: 'It is easier for a camel to 
 go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to 
 enter the kingdom of God\' There are, of course, people 
 who are rich in substance and yet poor, i.e. meek, in spirit. 
 Comp. the Sermon on the Mount : ' Blessed are the poor 
 in spirit ^' (Such a man was, no doubt, the rich Joseph of 
 Arimathea.) 
 
 Vrifa^ J^n his deaths. This word has given a good deal of 
 
 trouble to Christian commentators, the Jews asking them : 
 How could one man have more than one death ? The 
 truth is, just as D^^M l{fe is to be found only in the plural, 
 because of the many pulsations of life, so is death some- 
 times to be found in the plural, because of the various 
 stages with which it approaches. Comp. Jer. xvi. 4 ; but 
 particularly Ez. xxviii. 8, 10, where a single person is going 
 to die many deaths. 
 
 7J^ Although, or, because 
 
 nS not 
 DJbn violence 
 
 T T 
 
 ilia^y he had wrought, 
 Ky\ and not 
 ilf2ilf2 deceit 
 VM was in his mouth. 
 
 Liii. 10. r])r\^) But God 
 
 T 
 
 VSn is pleased 
 
 )i^^1 in crushing him 
 
 wT]il (and) putting him to grief. 
 
 1 Matth. xix. 24. - Matth. v. 3. 
 
25 
 
 nX Not Comp. Numb. xxiv. 22, pp ^pS n\T C]« ^^3 'the 
 Kenite shall not be wasted '; Pro v. xxvii. 24, ^H/ ^U DX1 
 in^ ' and the crown lasts not for ever.' 
 
 D^^n She (i.e. his soul) mZZ make. The word *1^3^ must be 
 
 supplied from below and read as if there stood : D^^n W^ 
 1^3^ D^X I^Si- (D''^n is here not the second person 
 
 masculine, but the third person feminine.) 
 
 tDSJ^'X An offering for guilt of. Although D^^5 is, in consequence 
 
 of the mental reduplication of 1^^^, pointed as if it were 
 in the status ahsolutus, it is in the status constructus. 
 
 )^p^ His soul. Or 1^*3^ stands here for 1^^^7 on account 
 
 of the two-fold application. The meaning is this : ' he 
 will let his sufferings come upon himself as an offering not 
 for guilt committed by himself, but rather for the guilt of 
 others.' For the last 700 years Jewish commentators have 
 argued against the doctrine of 'Vicarious Atonement' as 
 an invention of Christianity ; but is this really true ? 
 Surely, the whole sacrificial idea, where the innocent 
 victim suffers for the guilty man, who is indeed only then 
 accepted when the victim has been entirely without blemish, 
 speaks volumes against this assertion. In the sacrifice of 
 a man (or a nation) there is added another condition : that 
 it must be T)yi/ with free will, i.e. cheerfully. 
 il^'y He shall see 
 
 y^T seed, 
 
 T'lJ^^ {thsit) will prolong 
 
 D^/b^ days. The misunderstanding of this passage has con- 
 siderably damaged the Christian application and explana- 
 tion, since ^^T seed can only mean actual and material 
 progeny. Now Jesus, they say, had neither bodily children, 
 nor did he live long. But the fact is : d^Jb^ "|nX^ yiT tl^y 
 must not be translated 'he shall see his seed, he shall 
 
c 26 
 
 prolong his days/ since the possessive pronouns are not 
 in the text, but: 'he shall see a seed/ i.e. a generation, 
 'which shall prolong days/ i.e. which shall last long. So 
 long, 'till/ as Saint Paul has it^ ' the Son also be subject 
 unto Him that put all things under him, that God may 
 be all in all/ 
 
 V^ni And the desire of 
 riyn'' the Etemal 
 
 T : 
 
 n^3 in his hand 
 
 t; 
 
 n/5C^ shall prosper. 
 
 Here ends the second Section of the prophecy, in 
 which Isaiah speaks in his own name. It may be trans- 
 lated as follows : 
 
 7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, 
 Yet he opened not his mouth. 
 
 Like unto a lamb to the slaughter he was brought. 
 And like unto a ewe that is dumb before her shearers, 
 So opened not he his mouth. 
 
 8. Without rule and without justice he was taken 
 away, 
 
 And with his generation who can argue ? 
 For he is being cut off from the land of life ; 
 Through the transgression of the peoples affliction 
 came to him. 
 
 9. And one made with the wicked his grave 
 And with the proud he is in his deaths. 
 Although no violence had he wrought 
 
 And no deceit had been in his mouth. 
 
 10. But God was pleased in crushing him and putting 
 him to grief. 
 
 Not that his life shall be a guilt-offering for himself; 
 
 1 1 Corinth, xv. 28. 
 
27 
 
 He shall see a generation that will live long 
 And the desire of the Eternal shall prosper in his 
 hands. 
 
 The Epilogue recapitulates in the last two verses the 
 Exordium, the Confession of the nations and kings of the 
 earth, and the Teaching of the prophet. 
 
 Liii. 11. /Jbyi^D Of the travail, i.e. of the sacrifices 
 
 S^b^l of his soul 
 
 nX^^ he shall see, 
 "I * 
 
 J^Sb^^ he shall he satisfied, i.e. for his great sacrifices he shall 
 
 see great results. 
 i)^y*T^ Bi/ his piety. T])J1 and n/bDHj are constantly given 
 
 in the Bible as piety, 
 p^"^^^ He shall justify 
 
 p^*!^ the righteous ; a collective singular as in English. 
 
 n^y My devoted one 
 
 0^3*1 7 for the many ; i. e. my devoted one shall make righteous 
 
 the many, the multitudes, the heathen. 
 
 Dn^ij^l And as for their iniquities, i.e. their light sins (for there 
 
 is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth 
 not^), these 
 
 ^r\ he 
 
 7i3D^ shall hear. 
 
 LIII. 12. I^S Therefore. 
 
 pyHi^ / will give a portion. 
 
 1 Eccl. vii. 20. 
 
28 
 
 p to him 
 
 lD^S*!^ among the great, 
 
 ty^ and with 
 
 D^^^^J^ mighty ones 
 
 p StI^ he shall divide 
 
 77^ rich possession, i.e. among the benefactors of the world 
 
 T T 
 
 whether individuals as Abraham, Moses and others, or 
 entire nations, as the Greeks to whom the world owes art, 
 and the Romans to whom the world is indebted for laws. 
 But his portion shall be even greater than theirs, inasmuch 
 as not only his benefits to the human race, but also his 
 personal risk and sacrifices, are greater. 
 
 nnri For 
 "^^'^^ that 
 
 n^l)^!! he has laid hare, exposed (com p. Lev. xx. 18, 19.) 
 T))^/ unto the death 
 
 V T - 
 
 i^£3^ his life, 
 nXI and with 
 W)J&B transgressors 
 
 n^^^ he was numbered. The commentators, in opposing the 
 
 application of this prophecy to The Prophets, have asked : 
 When were these considered as transgressors ? and some 
 may ask me a somewhat similar question. I answer by a 
 counter- question : When were the good not considered as 
 transgressors ? In the whole history of mankind not a 
 single benefactor of our race has escaped this reproach. 
 Even when the persecutor himself did not believe in his 
 victim's guilt he has always put it forth as the pretext for 
 
29 
 
 persecution. Moses, Elijah, Socrates, Jesus, Luther and 
 others, whose lives were immaculate, are standing ex- 
 amples. 
 
 i^)n] Whilst he 
 Nt^n the sin of 
 d^Sn 7nany 
 
 Nb'J forgave. The word K^^ does not signify here ' bare,' but 
 
 * forgave,' as the parallelism clearly shews. 
 D^y^'£D7*l -4?ic? for the transgressors 
 y^il^^ made he intercession. 
 
 These two verses may be translated as follows : 
 
 Liii. 11. Of the travail of his soul he shall see 
 So that he shall be satisfied. 
 
 By his piety shall my devoted one make truly righteous 
 the many 
 
 And their iniquities he shall bear. 
 
 12. Therefore will I give him a portion among the 
 great 
 
 And with mighty ones he shall divide riches. 
 
 For having exposed his life unto the death 
 
 And for having been numbered among the trans- 
 gressors, 
 
 For having forgiven the sins of many (against him). 
 
 And for having prayed for the transgressors. 
 
 Mr Yice-Chancellor and Gentlemen, I have now ex- 
 plained and translated to you this prophecy, and if you 
 read the Hebrew text and compare it with my translation 
 and explanation, you will see that it at all events may be 
 consistently applied to Israel, as represented hy the pious in 
 Ms midst, culminating in the Messiah. 
 
so 
 
 As for Israel himself : 
 
 Classical heathendom had no doubt some divine ideas : 
 these were, however, sporadic; they had no solid found- 
 ation. For the gods of heathendom were powerful and 
 beautiful, but they were not holy : and without a holy 
 God no virtue can lastingly exist. The noble Founder of 
 Christianity therefore rightly said to the Samaritan semi- 
 heathen woman : ' Salvation is of the JewsM ' 
 
 As for the pious in the midst of Israel : 
 
 I could name hundreds to you of noble thought and 
 moral excellency whose names, if not celebrated in the 
 pages of the world's history, are faithfully recorded for, and 
 venerated by, the reader of Jewish literature. But what 
 need is there to speak of this before you, Christian scholars ? 
 You who surely estimate higher the bloodless achieve- 
 ments of the spirit than the grandest conquests of matter ? 
 who surely esteem more highly a Saint Paul than an 
 Alexander or a Napoleon? a Saint Paul who, if little 
 and weak in his body, was mighty and a giant in spirit ? 
 a Saint Paul who, if he had no sword of iron, had a ' sword 
 of many mouths^' in his hand ? 
 
 And as for the Messiah, the usherer in of the golden 
 age: 
 
 Well ! the heathen had four ages of the world ', and 
 so have we who stand on God's revelation. But, if they 
 commenced with the Golden and finished with the Iron 
 age, we, on the contrary, commenced with the Iron and 
 finish with the Golden age. We commenced with the 
 age of might and we finish with the age of right. We 
 commenced with matter and we finish with the spirit: 
 we commenced with Satan and we finish with God. And 
 as regards the Saviourship of Jesus, what have the Jews 
 to say ? I mean, of course, the thinking, the enlightened 
 Jews, the Jews who have a religion in their heart, the 
 
 1 Job. iv. 22. 2 Psalm cxlix. 6. 
 
 ^ Ovid, Metamorph. i. 89 seqq.; Juvenal, Sat. vi. 1 seqq. 
 
31 
 
 Jews whose religion does not consist in the mere negation 
 of the religion of their neighbours : do these Jews grudge 
 Jesus of Nazareth his Saviourship ? No ! and a thousand 
 times no ! for how could they do so ? Surely every en- 
 lightened and pious Jew must see and freely acknowledge 
 that if Jesus is no Saviour of those who do not believe on 
 him, he is a Saviour of those who do believe on him. For 
 what were the Gentiles before the light of Christianity rose 
 upon them ? Chaste lips cannot repeat what their own 
 great authors write of them and their immorality. No one 
 can read without a burning cheek what Seneca^ says of 
 their married women, what JuvenaP says of their men, 
 what Tacitus* says of their emperors, and what our and 
 your Saint Paul, the Jew and the Christian, says of the 
 moral degradation of the Roman converts previously* to 
 their conversion to moral and glorious Christianity. Of 
 a truth ! Jesus is a Saviour of the Gentile world °, seeing 
 that ye, Gentile Christians, are the seal of his Saviourship 
 in God ! May then Christianity yet bring many thousands 
 and millions of men to Christian worship, to the worship 
 of the God first recognised and taught by Israel to man- 
 kind ! May Christianity make known to the unconverted 
 heathen 'the Unknown God/ the Creator of heaven and 
 earth, Him who desire th His human creatures to be just 
 and righteous, and above all holy, even as He Himself is 
 just, and righteous, and holy ! 
 
 1 De Beneficils iii. 16. ' Sat. ii. ' ^^,j^ passim. 
 
 4 Komans i. 24, 26, 27. 
 
 s See my Harmony and Dis-Harmony between Judaism and Christianity. 
 Two Sermons, &c. Manchester, 1859. 8vo. pp. 5, X5. 
 
 Cambridge: printed by c. j. clay and son, at the university press. 
 
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