good tidings--only partially applying to the return from Babylon. Fully, and antitypically, the Gospel ([Lu 2:10], ), "beginning at Jerusalem" ([Lu 24:47]), "the city of the great King" ([Mt 5:35]), where Messiah shall, at the final restoration of Israel, "reign" as peculiarly Zion's God ("Thy God reigneth"; compare [Psa 2:6]).
8. watchmen--set on towers separated by intervals to give the earliest notice of the approach of any messenger with tidings (compare [Is 21:6-8]). The Hebrew is more forcible than English Version, "The voice of thy watchmen" (exclamatory as in [So 2:8]). "They lift up their voice! together they sing."
eye to eye--that is, close at hand, and so clearly [Gesenius]; [Nu 14:14], "face to face"; [Nu 12:8], "mouth to mouth." Compare [1Co 13:12]; [Re 22:4], of which Simeon's sight of the Saviour was a prefiguration ([Lu 2:30]). The watchmen, spiritually, are ministers and others who pray for the peace of Jerusalem ([Is 62:6], ),
bring again--that is, restore. Or else, "return to" [Maurer].
9. ([Is 14:7], ; ).
redeemed--spiritually and nationally ([Is 48:20]).
10. made bare ... arm--metaphor from warriors who bare their arm for battle ([Eze 4:7]).
all ... earth ... see ... salvation of ... God--The deliverance wrought by God for Israel will cause all nations to acknowledge the Lord ([Is 66:18-20]). The partial fulfilment ([Lu 3:6]) is a forerunner of the future complete fulfilment.
11. ([Is 48:20]; [Zec 2:6], ). Long residence in Babylon made many loath to leave it: so as to mystical Babylon ([Re 18:4]).
ye ... that bear ... vessels of the Lord--the priests and Levites, whose office it was to carry the vessels of the temple ([Jr 27:18]). Nebuchadnezzar had carried them to Babylon ([2Ch 36:18]). Cyrus restored them ([Ezr 1:7-11]).
be ... clean--by separating yourselves wholly from Babylonian idolaters, mystical and literal.
12. not ... with haste--as when ye left Egypt ([Ex 12:33], ; [De 16:3]; compare Note, see on [Is 28:16]). Ye shall have time to cleanse yourselves and make deliberate preparation for departure.
Lord--Jehovah, as your Leader in front ([Is 40:3]; [Ex 23:20]; [Mi 2:13]).
rereward--literally, "gather up," that is, to bring up the rear of your host. The transition is frequent from the glory of Messiah in His advent to reign, to His humiliation in His advent to suffer. Indeed, so are both advents accounted one, that He is not said, in His second coming, to be about to return, but to come.
13. Here the fifty-third chapter ought to begin, and the fifty-second chapter end with [Is 52:12]. This section, from here to end of the fifty-third chapter settles the controversy with the Jews, if Messiah be the person meant; and with infidels, if written by Isaiah, or at any time before Christ. The correspondence with the life and death of Jesus Christ is so minute, that it could not have resulted from conjecture or accident. An impostor could not have shaped the course of events so as to have made his character and life appear to be a fulfilment of it. The writing is, moreover, declaredly prophetic. The quotations of it in the New Testament show: (1) that it was, before the time of Jesus, a recognized part of the Old Testament; (2) that it refers to Messiah ([Mt 8:17]; [Mr 15:28]; [Lu 22:37]; [Joh 12:38]; [Ac 8:28-35]; [Ro 10:16]; [1Pe 2:21-25]). The indirect allusions to it still more clearly prove the Messianic interpretation; so universal was that interpretation, that it is simply referred to in connection with the atoning virtue of His death, without being formally quoted ([Mr 9:12]; [Ro 4:25]; [1Co 15:3]; [2Co 5:21]; [1Pe 1:19]; 2:21-25; [1Jo 3:5]). The genuineness of the passage is certain; for the Jews would not have forged it, since it is opposed to their notion of Messiah, as a triumphant temporal prince. The Christians could not have forged it; for the Jews, the enemies of Christianity, are "our librarians" [Paley]. The Jews try to evade its force by the figment of two Messiahs, one a suffering Messiah (Ben Joseph), the other a triumphant Messiah (Ben David). Hillel maintained that Messiah has already come in the person of Hezekiah. Buxtorf states that many of the modern Rabbins believe that He has been come a good while, but will not manifest Himself because of the sins of the Jews. But the ancient Jews, as the Chaldee paraphrast, Jonathan, refer it to Messiah; so the Medrasch Tauchuma (a commentary on the Pentateuch); also Rabbi Moses Haddarschan (see Hengstenberg, Christology of the Old Testament). Some explain it of the Jewish people, either in the Babylonish exile, or in their present sufferings and dispersion. Others, the pious portion of the nation taken collectively, whose sufferings made a vicarious satisfaction for the ungodly. Others, Isaiah, or Jeremiah [Gesenius], the prophets collectively. But an individual is plainly described: he suffers voluntarily, innocently, patiently, and as the efficient cause of the righteousness of His people, which holds good of none other but Messiah ([Is 53:4-6, 9], ; contrast [Jr 20:7]; [15:10-21]; [Psa 137:8], ). [Is 53:9] can hold good of none other. The objection that the sufferings ([Is 53:1-10]) referred to are represented as past, the glorification alone as future (Is 52:13-15; 53:[11, 12]) arises from not seeing that the prophet takes his stand in the midst of the scenes which he describes as future. The greater nearness of the first advent, and the interval between it and the second, are implied by the use of the past tense as to the first, the future as to the second.
Behold--awakening attention to the striking picture of Messiah that follows (compare [Joh 19:5], ).
my servant--Messiah ([Is 42:1]).
deal prudently--rather, "prosper" [Gesenius] as the parallel clause favors ([Is 53:10]). Or, uniting both meanings, "shall reign well" [Hengstenberg]. This verse sets forth in the beginning the ultimate issue of His sufferings, the description of which follows: the conclusion ([Is 53:12]) corresponds; the section ([Is 52:13]; ) begins as it ends with His final glory.
extolled--elevated ([Mr 16:19]; [Ep 1:20-22]; [1Pe 3:22]).
14-15. Summary of Messiah's history, which is set forth more in detail in the fifty-third chapter. "Just as many were astonished (accompanied with aversion, [Jr 18:16]; ), &c.; his visage, &c.; so shall He sprinkle," &c.; Israel in this answers to its antitype Messiah, now "an astonishment and byword" ([De 28:37]), hereafter about to be a blessing and means of salvation to many nations ([Is 2:2], ; [Mi 5:7]).
thee; his--Such changes of persons are common in Hebrew poetry.
marred--Hebrew, "disfigurement"; abstract for concrete; not only disfigured, but disfigurement itself.
more than man--Castalio translates, "so that it was no longer that of a man" (compare [Psa 22:6]). The more perfect we may suppose the "body prepared" ([He 10:5]) for Him by God, the sadder by contrast was the "marring" of His visage and form.
Chapter 53
Is 53:1-12. Man's Unbelief: Messiah's Vicarious Sufferings, and Final Triumph for Man
The speaker, according to Horsley, personates the repenting Jews in the latter ages of the world coming over to the faith of the Redeemer; the whole is their penitent confession. This view suits the context ([Is 52:7-9]), which is not to be fully realized until Israel is restored. However, primarily, it is the abrupt exclamation of the prophet: "Who hath believed our report," that of Isaiah and the other prophets, as to Messiah? The infidel's objection from the unbelief of the Jews is anticipated and hereby answered: that unbelief and the cause of it (Messiah's humiliation, whereas they looked for One coming to reign) were foreseen and foretold.
1. report--literally, "the thing heard," referring to which sense Paul says, "So, then, faith cometh by hearing" ([Ro 10:16], ).
arm--power ([Is 40:10]); exercised in miracles and in saving men ([Ro 1:16]; [1Co 1:18]). The prophet, as if present during Messiah's ministry on earth, is deeply moved to see how few believed on Him ([Is 49:4]; [Mr 6:6]; ; [Ac 1:15]). Two reasons are given why all ought to have believed: (1) The "report" of the "ancient prophets." (2) "The arm of Jehovah" exhibited in Messiah while on earth. In Horsley's view, this will be the penitent confession of the Jews, "How few of our nation, in Messiah's days, believed in Him!"
2. tender plant--Messiah grew silently and insensibly, as a sucker from an ancient stock, seemingly dead (namely, the house of David, then in a decayed state) (see on [Is 11:1]).
shall grow ... hath--rather, "grew up ... had."
before him--before Jehovah. Though unknown to the world ([Joh 1:11]), Messiah was observed by God, who ordered the most minute circumstances attending His growth.
root--that is, sprout from a root.
form--beautiful form: sorrow had marred His once beautiful form.
and when we shall see--rather, joined with the previous words, "Nor comeliness (attractiveness) that we should look (with delight) on Him."
there is--rather, "was." The studied reticence of the New Testament as to His form, stature, color, &c., was designed to prevent our dwelling on the bodily, rather than on His moral beauty, holiness, love, &c., also a providential protest against the making and veneration of images of Him. The letter of P. Lentulus to the emperor Tiberius, describing His person, is spurious; so also the story of His sending His portrait to Abgar, king of Edessa; and the alleged impression of His countenance on the handkerchief of Veronica. The former part of this verse refers to His birth and childhood; the latter to His first public appearance [Vitringa].
3. rejected--"forsaken of men" [Gesenius]. "Most abject of men." Literally, "He who ceases from men," that is, is no longer regarded as a man [Hengstenberg]. (See on [Is 52:14]; [Is 49:7]).
man of sorrows--that is, whose distinguishing characteristic was sorrows.
acquainted with--familiar by constant contact with.
grief--literally, "disease"; figuratively for all kinds of calamity ([Jr 6:14]); leprosy especially represented this, being a direct judgment from God. It is remarkable Jesus is not mentioned as having ever suffered under sickness.
and we hid ... faces--rather, as one who causes men to hide their faces from Him (in aversion) [Maurer]. Or, "He was as an hiding of the face before it," that is, as a thing before which a man covers his face in disgust [Hengstenberg]. Or, "as one before whom is the covering of the face"; before whom one covers the face in disgust [Gesenius].
we--the prophet identifying himself with the Jews. See Horsley's view (see on [Is 53:1]).
esteemed ... not--negative contempt; the previous words express positive.
4. Surely ... our griefs--literally, "But yet He hath taken (or borne) our sicknesses," that is, they who despised Him because of His human infirmities ought rather to have esteemed Him on account of them; for thereby "Himself took OUR infirmities" (bodily diseases). So [Mt 8:17] quotes it. In the Hebrew for "borne," or took, there is probably the double notion, He took on Himself vicariously (so [Is 53:5], [6, 8], ), and so He took away; His perfect humanity whereby He was bodily afflicted for us, and in all our afflictions ([Is 63:9]; [He 4:15]) was the ground on which He cured the sick; so that Matthew's quotation is not a mere accommodation. See Note 42 of Archbishop Magee, Atonement. The Hebrew there may mean to overwhelm with darkness; Messiah's time of darkness was temporary ([Mt 27:45]), answering to the bruising of His heel; Satan's is to be eternal, answering to the bruising of his head (compare [Is 50:10]).
carried ... sorrows--The notion of substitution strictly. "Carried," namely, as a burden. "Sorrows," that is, pains of the mind; as "griefs" refer to pains of the body ([Psa 32:10]; ). [Mt 8:17] might seem to oppose this: "And bare our sicknesses." But he uses "sicknesses" figuratively for sins, the cause of them. Christ took on Himself all man's "infirmities;" so as to remove them; the bodily by direct miracle, grounded on His participation in human infirmities; those of the soul by His vicarious suffering, which did away with the source of both. Sin and sickness are ethically connected as cause and effect ([Is 33:24]; [Psa 103:3]; [Mt 9:2]; [Joh 5:14]; [Jas 5:15]).
we did esteem him stricken--judicially [Lowth], namely, for His sins; whereas it was for ours. "We thought Him to be a leper" [Jerome, Vulgate], leprosy being the direct divine judgment for guilt ([Le 13:1-59]; [Nu 12:10], ; [2Ch 26:18-21]).