ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1838, by ALBERT BARNES, In the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 6-8-32 Lurg It is admitted, on all hands, that the second part of Isaiah, comprising the prophecies which commence at the fortieth chapter, and which continue to the end of the book, is to be regarded as the most sublime, and to us the most important, part of the Old Testament. No writings contain passages of greater elegance and of higher sublimity, than this portion of Isaiah. In the previous portions of his prophecies, there was much that was local and temporary. Indeed all, or nearly all, that occurs from ch. i. to ch. xxxix. had direct and immediate reference to the times in which the prophet lived, or was suggested by the events which occurred in those times. Not unfrequently, indeed, there were prophecies respecting the Messiah's coming, (ch. ii. iv. vii. ix. xi. xxxv.), but the primary reference was to events that were then occurring, or which were soon to occur, and which were local in their character. There the prophet dwells much on the character of the nation, as e. g. ch. i. iii.; on the invasion of the land by the united armies of Syria and Samaria, ch. vii.; on the invasion by Sennacherib, ch. viii., x., &c.; on the condition of Damascus, Tyre, Egypt, Babylon, Moab, &c. And though the mind of the prophet is carried forward by the laws of prophetic suggestion (see Introduction 7, 5), and he describes the times of the Messiah, yet the immediate and primary reference of those prophecies is to events which were then occurring, or soon to occur; and to Judea, or to the kingdoms and countries in the vicinity of Judea, with which the Jews were in various ways connected. In this portion of the prophecy, however, there is little that is local and temporary. It is wholly occupied with a description of events which were to occur long after the time of the prophet; and which should be of interest not only to the Jewish nation, but to the whole human family. It is a beautiful and glowing description of occurrences in which men of these times, and of all subsequent times, will have as deep an interest as they who have lived at any former period. Indeed it is not improbable that as the world advances in age, the interest in this portion of Isaiah will increase; and that as the gospel is carried around the globe, and the earth comes under its influence, the beauty and accuracy of these descriptions will be more clearly seen and more highly appreciated; and that nations will yet derive their highest consolations, and see the clearest proof of the inspiration of the sacred volume, from the entire correspondence between this portion of Isaiah and the future events which are yet to gladden the world. There is no portion of the Old Testament where there is so graphic and clear a description of the times of the Messiah. None of the other prophets linger so long, and with such apparent delight, on the promised coming of the Prince of Peace; on his character and work; on the nature of his instructions, and the manner of his reception; on the trials of his life, and the painful circumstances of his death; on the dignity of his nature, and on his lowly and huinble manner of life; on the prevalence of his religion, and on its transforming and happy effects; on the consolations which he would furnish, and on the fact that his religion would bear light and joy around the world. Lowth supposes that this prophecy was uttered in the latter part of the reign of Hezekiah. A more probable supposition is that of Hengstenberg, that it was uttered in the times of Manasseh, I have endeavored to show (Intro. 2) that Isaiah lived some time during the reign of Manasseh. According to this supposition, there was probably an interval of some twelve or fourteen years between the close of the predictions in the first part, and those which occupy this portion of the book. Manasseh was a cruel prince; and his reign was a cruel reign. (See Intro. §3.) It was a time of the prevalence of idolatry and sin. In this state of things, it is probable that Isaiah, who was then of great age, withdrew almost or quite entirely from the public functions of the prophetic work, and sought personal consolation, and endeavored to furnish consolation for the pious portion of the nation, in the contemplation of future times. In this period, I suppose, this portion of the prophecy was conceived and penned. Isaiah, in the close of the previous part of the prophecies (ch. xxxix. 7), had distinctly announced that the nation should be carried to Babylon. He saw that this was inevitable, and that the crimes of the monarch and of the nation were such as would certainly hasten this result. He had retired from the public functions of the prophetic office, and given himself up to the contemplation of happier and purer times. He, therefore, devoted himself to the task of furnishing consolation for the pious portion of the nation, and especially of recording prophetic descriptions which should comfort the Jews when they should be held in their long captivity in Babylon. We have seen (notes on ch. xiii. and xiv.) that Isaiah had before this laid the foundation for these consolations by the assurance that Babylon and its mighty power should be entirely destroyed, and, of course, that the Jewish people could not be held always in bondage there. In this part of the prophecy (ch. xl-lxvi.) his object is to give more full and specific consolations. He therefore places himself, in vi sion (sce Intro. 7, 4), in the midst of the future scenes which he describes, and states distinctly and fully the grounds of consolation. These topics of consolation would arise from two sources-both of which he presents at great length and with great beauty. The first is, that the nation should be delivered from its long and painful captivity. This was the primary thing to be done, and this was needful in order to furnish to them consolation. He places himself in that future time. He sees his own nation borne to a distant land, according to his own predictions; sees them sighing in their hard bondage; sees the city and the temple where they once worshipped the God of their fathers laid in ruins, and all their pleasant things laid waste (ch. lxiv. 11); and the people dispirited and sad in their long and painful captivity. He predicts the close of that captivity, and speaks of it as present to his view. He consoles the people by the assurance that it was coming to an end; names the monarch-Cyrus-by whom their oppressors were to be punished, and by whom they were to be restored to their own land; and describes in the most beautiful and glowing imagery their certain return. The second source of consolation is that which relates to the coming of a far more important deliverer than Cyrus, and to a far more important deliverance than that from the captivity at Babylon. By the laws of prophetic suggestion, and in accordance with the usual manner of Isaiah, his mind is carried forward to much more momentous events. His thoughts glide easily to the Messiah; and any event which bears a resemblance to his coming suggests his work, his character, and the benefit of his advent, and the descriptions of the prophet insensibly change from the immediate subject under contemplation to the far more important events connected with his work. This was the common rule by which the mind of Isaiah acted; and it is no wonder, therefore, that an event so strikingly resembling the deliverance of man from the bondage of sin by the Messiah as was the deliverance from the captivity of Babylon, should have been suggested by that, and that his thoughts should pass rapidly from one to the other, and the one be forgotten in the other. The eye of the prophet, therefore, glances rapidly from the object more immediately in view in the future, to the object more remote ; and he regards the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity as introductory to a far more important deliverance. In the contemplation of that more distant event, therefore, he becomes wholly absorbed; and from this he derives his main topics of consolation. He sees the future coming of the Messiah; he sees his forerunner; he sees the author of redemption in various scenes—now as a sufferer, humble, poor, and persecuted; and now the more distant glories of the Messiah's kingdom rises to view. He sees him raised up from the dead; he sees his empire extend and spread among the Gentiles; he sees kings and princes from all lands coming to lay their offerings at his feet; he sees the distant tribes of men come bending |