"Make a highway for him that rideth through the deserts: Psal. lxviii. 4. 7. Let us now see how Isaiah treats the subject of the return of the people from Babylon: they were to march through the wilderness with JEHOVAH at their head, who was to lead them, to smooth the way before them, and to supply them with water in the thirsty desert; with perpetual allusion to the Exodus: "Come ye forth from Babylon, flee ye from the land of the Chaldeans with the voice of joy : Publish ye this, and make it heard; utter it forth even to the end of the earth: Say ye, JEHOVAH hath redeemed his servant Jacob: They thirsted not in the deserts, through which he made them go; Waters from the rock he caused to flow for them; Yea he clave the rock, and forth gushed the waters." "Remember not the former things; And the things of ancient times regard not:" (That is, the deliverance from Egypt:) "Behold, I make a new thing; Even now it shall spring forth.; will ye not regard it? In the desert streams of water." "But he that trusteth in me shall inherit the land, And shall possess my holy mountain. Chap. xlviii. 20, 21. Chap. xliii. 18, 19. Then will I say: Cast up, cast up the causeway; make clear the way; "How beautiful appear on the mountains The feet of the joyful messenger, of him that announceth peace; Of the joyful messenger of good tidings, of him that announceth salvation; Of him that saith. to Sion, Thy God reigneth! All thy watchmen lift up their voice, they shout together; For face to face shall they see, when JEHOVAH returneth to Sion. Verily not in haste shall ye go forth; And not by flight shall ye march along : For JEHOVAH shall march in your front; And the God of Israel shall bring up your rear." Chap. lii. 7, 8. 12. Babylon was separated from Judea by an immense tract of country, which was one continued desert; that large part of Arabia called very properly Deserta. It is mentioned in history as a remarkable occurrence, that Nebuchadnezzar, having received the news of the death of his father, in order to make the utmost expedition in bis journey to Babylon from Egypt and Phoenicia, set out with a few attendants and passed through this desert. Berosus, apud Joseph. Antiq. x. 11. This was the nearest way homeward for the Jews; and whether they actually returned by this way or not, the first thing that would occur on the proposal or thought of their return, would be the difficulty of this almost impracticable passage. Accordingly the proclamation for the preparation of the way is the most natural idea, and the most obvious circumstance, by which the prophet could have opened his subject. These things considered, I have not the least doubt that the return of the Jews from the captivity of Babylon is the first, though not the principal, thing in the prophet's view. The redemption from Babylon is clearly foretold; and at the same time is employed as an image to shadow out a redemption of au infinitely higher and more important nature. I should not have thought it necessary to employ so many words in endeavouring to establish what is called the literal sense of this prophecy, which I think cannot be rightly understood without it, had I not observed, that many interpreters of the first authority, in particular the very learned Vitringa, have excluded it entirely. Yet obvious and plain as I think this literal sense is, nevertheless the irrefragable authority of John the Baptist, and of our blessed Saviour himself, as recorded by all the Evangelists, for explaining this exordium of the prophecy of the opening of the gospel by the preaching of John, and of the introducing of the kingdom of Messiah; who was to effect a much greater deliverance of the people of God, Gentiles as well as Jews, from the captivity of sin and the dominion of death. And this we shall find to be the case in many subsequent parts also of this prophecy, where passages manifestly relating to the deliverance of the Jewish nation, effected by Cyrus, are with good reason, and upon undoubted authority, to be understood of the redemption wrought for mankind by Christ. If the literal sense of this prophecy, as above explained, cannot be questioned, much less surely can the spiritual; which, I think, is allowed on all hands, even by Grotius himself. If both are to be admitted, here is a plain example of the mystical allegory, or double sense, as it is commonly called, of prophecy; which the sacred writers of the New Testament clearly suppose, and according to which they frequently frame their interpretation of passages of the Old Testament. Of the foundation and properties of this sort of allegory, see de S. Poes. Hebr. Prælect. xi. 2. Blessings double to the punishment] It does not seem reconcileable to our notions of the divine justice, which always punishes less than our iniquities deserve, to suppose, that God had punished the sins of the Jews in double proportion: and it is more agreeable to the tenor of this consolatory message, to understand it as a promise of ample recompense for the effects of past displeasure, on the reconciliation of God to his returning people. To express this sense of the passage, which the words of the original will very well bear, it was necessary to add a word or two in the version to supply the elliptical expression of the Hebrew. Compare chap. Ixi. 7. Job xlii. 10. Zech. ix. 12. NO signifies punishment for sin, Lam. iii. 39. Zech. xiv. 19. 3. A voice crieth: In the wilderness-] The idea is taken from the practice of eastern monarchs, who, whenever they entered upon an expedition, or took a journey, especially through desert and unpractised countries, sent harbingers before them to prepare all things for their passage, and pioneers to open the passes, to level the ways, and to remove all impediments. The officers appointed to superintend such preparations the Latins call Stratores. Ipse (Johannes Baptista) se stratorem vocat Messiæ, cujus esset alta et elata voce homines in desertis locis habitantes ad itinera et vias Regi mox venturo sternendas et reficiendas hortari." Mosheim, Instituta Majora, p. 96. Diodorus's account of Semiramis's marches into Media and Persia, will give us a clear notion of the preparation of the way for a royal expedition: "In her march to Ecbatane she came to the Zarcean mountain; which extending many furlongs, and being full of craggy precipices and deep hollows, could not be passed without taking a great compass about. Being therefore desirous of leaving an everlasting memorial of herself, as well as of shortening the way, she ordered the precipices to be digged down, and the hollows to be filled up; and at a great expense she made a shorter and more expeditious road, which to this day is called from her the road of Semiramis. Afterward she went into Persia, and all the other countries of Asia subject to her dominion; and wherever she went, she ordered the mountains and precipices to be levelled, raised causeways in the plain country, and at a great expense made their ways passable." Diod. Sic. lib. ii. The writer of the apocryphal book called Baruch, expresses the same subject by the same images ; either taking them from this place of Isaiah, or from the common notions of his countrymen : "For God hath appointed, that every high hill, and banks of long continuance, should be cast down, and valleys filled up, to make even the ground, that Israel may go safely in the glory of God." Chap. v. 7. The Jewish church, to which John was sent to announce the coming of Messiah, was at that time in a barren and desert condition, unfit without reformation for the reception of her king. It was in this desert country, destitute at that time of all religious cultivation, in true piety and good works unfruitful, that John was sent to prepare the way of the Lord by preaching repentance. I have distinguished the parts of the sentence according to the punctuation of the Masoretes, which agrees best both with the literal and the spiritual sense; which the construction and parallelism of the distich in the Hebrew plainly favours; and of which the Greek of the LXX and of the Evangelists is equally susceptible. John was born in the desert of Judea, and passed his whole life in it, till the time of his being manifested to Israel. He preached in the same desert: it was a mountainous country; however not entirely and properly a desert, for, though less cultivated than other parts of Judea, yet it was not uninhabited; Joshua (chap. xv. 61, 62.) reckons six cities in it. We are so prepossessed with the idea of John's living and preaching in the desert, that we are apt to consider this particular scene of his preaching as a very important and essential part of his history: whereas I apprehend this circumstance to be no otherwise important, than as giving us a strong idea of the rough character of the man, which was answerable to the place of his education; and as affording a proper emblem of the rude state of the Jewish church at that time; which was the true wilderness meant by the prophet, in which John was to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. 4. The word py is very generally rendered crooked: but this sense of the word seems not to be supported by any good authority. Ludolphus, Comment. ad Hist. Æthiop. p. 206. says, that in the Ethiopic language it signifies clivus, locus editus: and so the Syriac version renders it in this place: N, Heb. y, tumultus, acervus. Thus the parallelism would be more perfect: "the hilly country shall be made level, and the precipices a smooth plain." 5.-the salvation of our God] These words are added here by LXX: ,as it is in the parallel place את ישועת אלהינו ,To curyptov Tov Otov chap. lii. 10. The sentence is abrupt without it, the verb wanting its object; and I think it is genuine. Our English translation has supplied the word it, which is equivalent to this addition from LXX. This omission in the Hebrew text is ancient, being prior to the Chaldee, Syriac, and Vulgate versions: but the words stand in all the copies of the LXX; and they are acknowledged by Luke, iii. 6. 6. its glory-] For 170, read 177; LXX, and Vulg. and 1 Pet. i. 24. 7. this people-] So Syr. who perhaps read 6-8. A voice saith, Proclaim-] To understand rightly this passage is a matter of importance; for it seems designed to give us the true key to the remaining part of Isaiah's prophecies: the general subject of which is the restoration of the people and church of God. The prophet opens the subject with great clearness and elegance: he declares at once God's command to his messengers (his prophets, as the Chaldee rightly explains it), to comfort his people in captivity, to impart to them the joyful tidings, that their punishment has now satisfied the divine justice, and the time of reconciliation and favour is at hand. He then introduces a harbinger giving orders to prepare the way for God, leading his people from Babylon, as he did formerly from Egypt, through the wilderness; to remove all obstacles, and to clear the way for their passage. Thus far nothing more appears to be intended than a return from the Babylonish captivity; but the next words seem to intimate something much greater: "And the glory of JEHOVAH shall be revealed; And all flesh shall see together the salvation of our God." He then introduces a voice commanding him to make a solemn proclamation. And what is the import of it? that the people, the flesh, is of a vain temporary nature; that all its glory fadeth, and is soon gone: but that the word of God endureth for ever. What is this, but a plain opposition of the flesh to the spirit; of the carnal Israel to the spiritual; of the temporary Mosaic economy to the eternal Christian dispensation? You may be ready to conclude (the prophet may be supposed to say), by this introduction to my discourse, that my commission is only to comfort you with a promise of the restoration of your religion and polity, of Jerusalem, of the temple, and its services and worship in all its ancient splendour: these are earthly, temporary, shadowy, fading things, which shall soon pass away, and be destroyed for ever; these are not worthy to engage your attention in comparison of the greater blessings, the spiritual redemption, the eternal inheritance, covered under the veil of the former, which I have it in charge to unfold unto you. The law has only a shadow of good things; the substance is the gospel. I promise you a restoration of the former; which, however, is only for a time, and shall be done away, according to God's original appointment: but under that image I give you a view of the latter; which shall never be done away, but shall endure for ever. This I take to be agreeable to St. Peter's interpretation of this passage of the prophet, quoted by him 1 Pet. i. 24, 25. "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." This is the same word of the Lord of which Isaiah speaks, which hath now been preached unto you by the gospel. The law and the gospel are frequently opposed to one another by St. Paul under the images of flesh and spirit: "Having begun in the spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" Gal. iii. 3. 7. When the wind of JEHOVAH], a wind of JEHOVAH, is a Hebraism, meaning no more than a strong wind. It is well known, that a hot wind in the east destroys at once every green thing. Compare Psal. ciii. 16. Two MSS. omit the word T, JEHOVAH, 9. O daughter that bringest glad tidings] That the true construction of the sentence is this, which makes Sion the receiver, not the publisher, of the glad tidings (which latter has been the most prevailing interpretation), will, I think, very clearly appear, if we rightly consider the image itself, and the custom and common practice from which it is taken. I have added the word daughter to express the feminine gender of the Hebrew particle, which I know not how to do otherwise in our language: and this is absolutely necessary in order to ascertain the image. For the office of announcing and celebrating such glad tidings, as are here spoken of, belonged peculiarly to the women. On occasion of any great public success, a signal victory, or any other joyful event, it was usual for the women to gather together, and with music, dances, and songs, to publish and celebrate the happy news. Thus after the passage of the Red Sea, Miriam, and all the women, with timbrels in their hands, formed a chorus, and joined the men in their triumphant song, dancing, and throwing in alternately the refrain or burden of the song: "Sing ye to JEHOVAH, for he is greatly exalted; Exod. xv. 20, 21. The horse and his rider hath he cast into the sea." So Jephthah's daughter collected a chorus of virgins, and with dances and songs came out to meet her father, and to celebrate his victory. Judg. xi. 34. After David's conquest of Goliah," all the women came out of the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music;" and forming themselves into two choruses, they sung alternately : "Saul has slain bis thousands: And David his ten thousands." 1 Sam. xviii. 6, 7. And this gives us the true sense of a passage in the sixty-eighth Psalm, which has frequently been misunderstood: "JEHOVAH gave the word (that is, the joyful news); The women, who published the glad tidings, were a great company; And even the matron, who staid at home, shared the spoil." The word signifying the publisher of glad tidings is the same, and expressed in the same form by the feminine particle, as in this place; and the last distich is the song which they sung. So in this place, JEHOVAH having given the word by his prophet, the joyful tidings of the restoration of Sion, and of God's returning to Jerusalem, (see chap. lii. 8.) the women are exhorted by the prophet to publish the joyful news with a loud voice from eminences, whence they might be best heard all over the country; and the matter and burden of their song was to be, “Behold your God!" 10. —his reward, and the recompense of his work] That is, the reward |