CONTINUED FROM PAGE 232, No. 2, OF THIS VOLUME.

Strange to say, though the Jewish controversialists assert that this verse does not refer to the Messiah,* they are still obliged to confess once in the year at least, even on the Day of Atonement, that it does refer, and is applicable only to him. There is a very remarkable passage in the prayers for that solemn day, which proves, beyond all contradiction, that the ancient Israelites who compiled the following prayer, understood the son of Amoz to speak in this verse of the despised Nazarene. It is used in the form of a melancholly Hymn :

Messiah, our Righteousness has departed from us,
Horror has seized us, and we have none to justify us.
With our wickedness and misdeeds He was burdened,
And He was wounded for our transgressions;

Bearing on the shoulder our sins;

In order to find an atonement for our iniquities.
By His stripes we were healed.†

With what consistency, then, can any Israelite assert that this prophecy refers to any one else? It is certainly very dishonest, in prayer to God to apply this passage to the Messiah, and in controversy with men to deny and dispute this application. Here we have more than enough to sustain the position which we have laid down, viz. that in their non-controversial writings, and their solemn and public prayers to a heart-searching God, the Israelites apply this important prophecy to the Messiah only.

In the following verse, we have a full description of our state of helplessness and our relation to the Messiah;-a description of the miserable condition of mankind, which induced the Glorious

*Many Jewish commentators follow Aben Ezra, and apply this verse to the sufferings of the Israelites in their present exile and dispersion. +Vide book of common prayers used on the feast of atonement.

Messiah to travel in the greatness of His strength, in order to effect
a reconciliation between rebellious man and his offended Maker:
All we, like sheep, have gone astray;
Each of us turned to his own way;
But the Lord caused to meet in Him
The iniquity of us all. *

7 This is a common, but very graphic and significant metaphor, teaching the folly, diversity and universality of sin. This figure presents two considerations; 1st. The general disposi tion of the species to wander from the fold, as also its defencelessness and entire dependence upon its keeper for protection as well as support; and 2d. its meek and harmless disposition. The 1st represents the sinful creature; the 2d a type of the Righteous Creator. With reference to the 1st, we have several very beautiful allusions in the Sacred Scriptures. Thus, Michaiah describes the destitute condition of Israel as a flock scattered upon the hills,

* 9533

n. mas. sing. with suff. 1st. pers. pl. pron. ab 35 the whole or

all, taken collectively; ab 33 to complete, to perfect.

sheep, Exod. xxi. 37. (Eng.
as the objects of God's
Psal. lxxx. 2. (Eng. verse.
kal pret. 1st pers. pl. ab
moraliy.

kal pret. 1st pers. pl. ab

TT

to wander, to go astray, to err,

to turn, turn oneself; to turn one

self away from God, and follow his own heart's devices.
Hiph. pret. 3d pers. sing. mas. aby to strike upon, or against,
whether violently or lightly; hence to rush on any one with hos-
tile violence; to fall, or let fall upon any one, 'in a hostile sense.'
'In a good sense,' it means to assail with petitions, i. e. to urge,
entreat, &c.

n. mas. sing. const. of 7 sin; (in this instance it is to be un-
derstood only in reference to its effects;) iniquity, guilt; punish-
ment, as the penalty of sin: aby to bend, twist, distort; to
act perversely, to sin.

as sheep (1) that have no shepherd; 1 Kings, xxii.17. Zachariah prophesied, that when the Good Shepherd should be smitten and removed from His flock, the sheep (7) should be scattered; Zach. xiii. 7. David acknowledges that he did go astray, like a lost sheep, (5) and earnestly prays that God may seek His servant; Psal. cxix. 176. And here Isaiah, using a similar language, depicts fully the dangerous and awful condition of the entire species:

"All we, like sheep, have gone astray;"
"Each of us turned to his own way;" 59

including the whole family of man without any exception. Both Jews and Gentiles have wandered like a wandering flock, a flock which had no shepherd; "for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Rom. iii. 23. But the Lord, rather than suffer His people to be crushed under the weight of this accumulated transgressions, and thus perish forever, hath caused to meet in Him, i. e. Messiah, "the iniquity of us all;" i. e. the Messiah became the subject on which all the rays, collected on the focal point, fell. These fiery rays, says Dr. A. Clarke, which would have fallen on all mankind, diverged from divine justice to the east, west, north, and south, were deflected from them, and converged in Him. So the Lord hath caused to meet in Him the "punishment" due to the iniquity of all.

This is a repetition of the all important general Scriptural Truth; viz, that we cannot possibly be reconciled to Jehovah, unless we are very deeply interested in the efficient expiatory atonement, wrought out by the Messiah's sufferings and death": for, unless He had taken the heavy burden of our sins upon Himself, we should have been lost to all eternity.

In the following verse, we have a beautiful and graphic description of the covenant between the Eternal Father and His Eternal Son, for the redemption of mankind. The whole verse seems as the master key to the ark which contains the title deeds of our Christian redemption:

He was rigorously demanded to pay the debt,
And He submitted Himself,

And did not open His mouth.

Like the Lamb was he led to the slaughter,

But as a sheep before her shearers is dumb,

And did not open His mouth. *

* Niph. pret. 3d pers. sing. mas. ab to impel, urge, exact; used

particularly with regard to a rigorous exactions of debts; to

What a beautiful and graphic description! The very single word-literally rendered,

"He was rigorously demanded to pay the debt,"

fully pictures to our minds the inconceivableness of the malignity

urge a debtor, to demand a debt. Deut. xv. 2, 3. The followlowing is Kimchi's interpretation of the word

:

He was demanded to pay the debt; as (in the following passa ges) 'he exacted the silver,' &c. 2 Kings, xxiii. 35; he shall not exact it (the debt) of his neighbour. Deut. xv. 2. vide Rabbi David Kimchi, in loco.

Personal pron. 3d pers. sing. mas. used here emphatically, with the copulative.

to bestow labor upon; to עָנָן for עָנָה Niph. part. sing. mas. ab נַעֲנֶה

exercise oneself; to be afflicted, oppressed. Reflect. (as used in this verse) to submit oneself to any one, particularly to God. (see Exod. x. 3, Dan. x. 12.

Kal fut. 3d pers. sing. mas. ab to open the mouth, hand,

&c.; to open any one's mouth, i. e. to cause one to speak; to open any one's ear, i. e. to reveal to him; (used of God;) to open one's hand to any one, i. e. to be liberal towards him.

The future here is to be rendered as 'past,' in accordance with the following grammatical rule:

Futures are sometimes placed after a preterite, to denote an action which, although subsequent to that expressed by the preterite, is 'past,' with regard to the time of narration, e. g.

He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, with the robe of righteousness he has covered me.' Is. Ixi. 10. See also Is. xiv. 8, Job iii. 25, Psal. lxvi. 6.

?

Such futures are more frequently connected to the preterite by Į conjunctive, e. g. 187 DNI JE Oh, that when I came from the womb 'I had perished.' Job iii. 11. See also Is. x. 23, liii. 2, lxiii. 3, 5, 6.

In negative propositions, the conjunction is prefixed to the negative particle preceding the verb, e. g.

and

they were not ashamed.' Gen. ii. 25.

did not eat.' 1 Sam. i. 7. and, in our text,

and she and

he 'did not open, his mouth, vide Nordheimer's Heb. Gram.)
n. com. (here mas.) sing. with pref. for as the Lamb.

כְּה

This n. has no pl. the corresponding n. of multitude being

of sin, when the blood of God's own Son was the only channel through which pardon could flow to the sinner; and, the impossibility of escaping eternal death and destruction, unless in Milton's language:

"Some other, able, and as willing, pay

The rigid satisfaction, death for death."*

We are here reminded of the full force of Isaiah's glowing description of the Father's unwillingness that the sinner should die

It means a sheep or a goat. But where the particular species are to be distinguished more accurately, it is said Deut. xiv. 4,

one of the lock of sheep and one of שָׂה בְשָׂבִים וְשֵׂה עזים

טבח

the flock of goats, i. e. a sheep, a goat.
n. mas. sing. with pref. 3 for

to the slaughter, ab to kill,

slay, spoken of animals for eating. See Exod xxi. 37, 2 Sam. xxi. 11, Proverbs ix. 2. Metaph. of men, see Psal. xxxvii. 14. Lam. ii. 21. Ezek xxi. 15, &c.

3 Hoph. fut. 3d pers sing. mas. ab 3 to flow; to run as a sore;

to go, to walk; hiph. to lead, bring forth, Hoph. to be brought, led, carried.

This fut. is to be rendered as 'past,' in accordance with the following grammatical rule:

A future preceded by a preterite, denotes an action which, although subsequent to that expressed by the preterite is 'past' with regard to the time of narration, e. g.

He turned the sea into a dry land, they went through the flood
on foot; there 'did we rejoice' in him. Psal. lxvi. 6. see also
Is. xiv. 8. lxi. 10. Job iii. 25. (vide Nordheimer's Heb. Gram.)
n. fem. sing. with pref. prep. and conjunctive. and as a sheep.
1
A ewe; hence any sheep.

?

Kal part. act. pl. const. with suff. 3d pers. sing. fem. her shearers. ab. TTE to shear, to cut off, hair, wool, &c.

,to bind אָלָם ab נֶאֱלְמָה Niph. pret. 3d pers. sing. fem. for נֶאֱלָמָה

.And He did not open His mouth וְלֹא יִפְתַּח פּיו and יפתח As

specially the tongue, i. e. to be dumb, silent. Niph. to be dumb, mute, silent.

11 are of the mas. gender, they must be referred to the sub.

This clause is a repetition of the first clause. This kind of repetition which is of frequent occurrence, has a peculiar charm; for it adds a peculiar emphasis to the discourse.

*Paradise Lost, Book III. lines 211, 212.