Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions. Vol. 2

by Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg

The change in the irrational creation described in the preceding verses is a consequence of the removal of sin in the rational creation; this removal the Prophet now proceeds to describe.

Ver. 9. "They shall not do evil, and shall not sin in all my holy mountain, for the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters covering the sea."

The subject are the dwellers in the Holy Mountain. The Holy Mountain can, according to the usus loquendi, be Mount Zion only, and not, as was last maintained by Hofmann, the whole land of Canaan, which is never designated in that manner; comp. chap. xxvii. 13, and my Commentary on Ps. lxxviii. 54. The second part of the verse, connected with the first by means of for, agrees with the first only in the event that Mount Zion is viewed as the spiritual dwelling place of the inhabitants of the earth, just as, under the Old Testament dispensation, it was the ideal dwelling place of all the Israelites, even of those who outwardly had not their residence at Jerusalem; on the spiritual dwelling of the servants of the Lord with Him in the temple, compare remarks on Ps. xxvii. 4, xxxvi. 9, lxv. 5, lxxxiv. 3, and other passages. In chap. ii. 2-4, lxvi. 23, the Holy Mountain, too, appears as the centre of the whole earth in the Messianic time. From chap. xix. 20, 21, where, in the midst of converted Egypt, an altar is built, and sacrifices are offered up, it appears that it is this in an ideal sense only, that under its image the Church is meant. The designation, "my Holy Mountain," intimates that the state of things hitherto, when unholiness prevailed in the Kingdom of the Holy God, is an unnatural one; that at some future period the idea necessarily must manifest its power and right in opposition to the reality.--In the second clause, the ground and fountain of this sinlessness is stated. In Zion, in the Church of God, there will then be no more any sins; for the earth is then full of the knowledge of the Lord, by which the sins are done away with. The general outpouring of the Holy Ghost forms one of the characteristics of the Messianic time; and the consequence of this outpouring is, according to ver. 2, the knowledge of the Lord,--so that the clause may be thus paraphrased: For, in consequence of the Spirit poured out, in the first instance, upon Him, the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord; comp. chap. xxxii. 15: "Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high;"

liv. 13; Joel iii. 1; ii. 28; Jer. xxxi. 34, That הארץ is here not the "land," or "country," but the "earth" is sufficiently evident from the antithesis of the sea: as the sea is full of water, so the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord. To this reason it may still be added that in vers. 6-8 changes are spoken of, which concern the whole territory of the earthly creation, the παλιγγενεσία of the whole earth. As the relation of these changes to that which is stated here is that of cause and effect, here, too, the whole earth can only be thought of Finally,--The following verse too supposes the spreading of salvation over the whole earth. The entire relation of the first section to the second and third makes it obvious that by הארץ the whole earth is to be understood. The passage under consideration is alluded to in Hab. ii. 14: "For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters covering the sea." In that passage, the enforced knowledge of the Divine glory which manifests itself in punitive justice, forms the subject of discourse; but that enforced knowledge forms the necessary condition of the knowledge which is voluntary and saving.

Ver. 10. "And it shall come to pass in that day, the root of Jesse which standeth for an ensign to the people, it shall the Gentiles seek, and His rest is glory."

The words, "and it shall come to pass," introduce a new section; so that the interval in the Hebrew manuscripts is here quite in its place. With ver. 11 again, a new section begins. In ver. 1-9 we have the appearance of the Messiah in relation to the whole earth; then, in the second section, the way in which he becomes a centre to the whole Gentile world; and in ver. 11 ff., what He grants to the old covenant-people, for whom the Prophet was, in the first instance, prophesying, and whose future he therefore describes more in detail. Why His relation to the Gentile world is first spoken of appears from ver. 12; the Gentiles gathered to the Lord are the medium of His salvation to the old covenant-people.--The root designates here (and likewise in chap. liii. 2), and in the passages founded upon this, viz., in Rev. v. 5, xxii. 16, the product of the root, that whereby the root manifests itself, the shoot from the root; just as "seed" so very often occurs for "product of the seed." This appears from a comparison with ver. 1, where, more fully, the Messiah is called a twig from Jesse's roots. Bengel has already directed attention to the antithesis of the root and ensign, in his Commentary on Rom. xv. 12: "A sweet antithesis: the root is undermost, the ensign rises uppermost; so that even the nations farthest off may behold it."--דרש with ל, אל, and את, has the signification "to apply to the true God, or some imaginary god, in order to seek protection, help, counsel, advice, disclosures regarding the future;" comp. Is. viii. 19; Deut. xii. 4, 5, and other passages in Gesenius' Thesaurus. The Gentiles feel that they cannot do without the Redeemer; they see, at the same time, His riches and their poverty; and this knowledge urges them on to seek Him, that from him they may obtain light (chap. xlii. 6), that He may communicate to them His law (chap. xlii. 4), that he may teach them of His ways, and that they may walk in His paths (chap. ii. 3), &c. St. Paul, in Rom. xv. 12, following the LXX., has ἐπ αὐτῷ ἔθνη ἐλπιοῦσι, which, as regards the sense, fully agrees with the original. The beginning of the seeking took place when the representatives of the Gentile world, the Maji from the East, came to Jerusalem, saying: "Where is He that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and are come to worship Him," Matt. ii. 2. The historical foundation and the type are the homage which, from the Gentile world, was offered to Solomon, 1 Kings x.--מנוחה "resting place," "dwelling place," "habitation;" comp. Ps. cxxxii. 13, 14: "For the Lord hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His habitation. This is my rest (מנוחתי) for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it." The glory of the King passes over to His residence to which the Gentile world are flowing together, in order to do homage to Him; Comp. Ps. lxxii. 10: "The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts." The comparison of this passage alone is sufficient to refute the absurd interpretation, according to which עמים and גוים are referred to the Israelitish tribes,--an interpretation which has been tried with as little success in the fundamental passage (Gen. xlix. 10), according to which the עמים are to adhere to Shiloh; compare Vol. i. p. 62.

Ver. 11: "And it shall come to pass in that day, the Lord shall continue a second time with His hand to ransom the remnant of His people which has remained from Asshur and from Egypt, from Patros and from Cush, from Elam and from Shinar, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea."

From the Gentiles, the Prophet now turns to Israel. The reception of the Gentiles into the Messianic Kingdom is not by any means to take place at the expense of the old covenant-people; even they shall be brought back again, and shall be received into the Kingdom of God. יוסיף must be connected with לקנות, comp. 2 Sam. xxiv. 1: "And the Lord continued to kill," להרג. It is unnecessary and arbitrary to supply לשלח. ידו is Accusative, "as to His hand," equivalent to "with His hand;" comp. Ps. iii. 5, xvii. 10, 11, 13, 14. Just the hand of God, which here comes into consideration as the instrument of doing, is repeatedly mentioned in the account of the deliverance from Egypt; comp. Exod. iii. 20, vii. 4, xiii. 9. The expression: "He shall continue," in general, points out the idea that it is not a new beginning which is here concerned, but the continuation of former acting, by which believing was rendered so much the more easy. The expression, "a second time," points more distinctly to the type of the deliverance from Egypt with which the redemption to be effected by Christ is frequently paralleled; comp. vers. 15, 16; Vol. i. p. 218, 219. "From Asshur," &c., must not be connected with לקנות, but with ישאר, comp. v. 16, those who have remained from Asshur, &c., i.e., those whom Asshur and the other places of punishment, with their hostile influences, have left, who have been preserved in them. The fact that destructive influences may proceed from those nations also which do not properly belong to the number of the kingdoms of the world, is plainly shown by the history of the Jews after Christ. It would be against the accents, both here and in ver. 6, to connect it with לקנות; the words "which shall remain" would, in that case, appear to be redundant; and, farther, it is opposed by Exod. x. 3: "And eats the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail," equivalent to; which the hail has left to you. Similar to this is 2 Chron. xxx. 6, where Hezekiah exhorts the children of Israel: "Turn again unto the Lord.... in order that He may again return to the remnant which has been left to you from the hand of the kings of Asshur." A question here arises, viz., whether the dispersion of Israel which is here described, had already taken place at the time of the Prophet, or whether the Prophet, transferring himself in the Spirit into the distant future, describes the dispersion which took place at a later period, after the carrying away of the ten tribes into the Assyrian exile had preceded, viz., that which took place when Judah was carried away into the Babylonish exile, and especially after the destruction of Jerusalem. The latter view is the correct one. The whole tenor of the Prophet's words shows that he supposes a comprehensive dispersion of the people. It is true that, at the time when the prophecy was written, the ten tribes had already been carried away into captivity; but the kingdom of Judah, the subjects of which, according to ver. 12, likewise appear as being in the dispersion, had not yet suffered any important desolation. The few inhabitants of Judah who, according to Joel iv. 6, (iii. 6), and Amos i. 6, 9, had been sold as slaves by the Philistines and Phœnicians, and others, who, it may be, in hard times had spontaneously fled from their native country, cannot here come into consideration. Just as here, so by Hosea too, the future carrying away of the inhabitants of Judah is anticipated; comp. vol. i., p. 219, 220. The fundamental passage is in Deut. xxx. 3, 4, where the gathering of Israel is promised "from all the nations whither the Lord thy God has scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out into the utmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will He fetch thee." This passage shows with what clearness the future scattering lay before the eyes of the holy men, even at the first beginnings of the people of God. In vers. 11 and 12 we have the summary of the whole of the second part of Isaiah, in which the announcement of Israel's being gathered and brought back is constantly repeated; and it is quite incomprehensible how some grant the genuineness of the prophecy before us, and yet bring forward, against this second part of Isaiah, the argument that the Prophet could not supposee the scattering, that it must really have taken place, since he simply announces their being brought back.--As regards the redemption from the scattering, all that which in history is realised in a series of events, is here united in one view. There is no reason for excluding the deliverance under Zerubbabel; for it, too, was already granted for the sake of Christ, whose incarnation the Prophet anticipates in faith; comp. remarks on chaps. vii., ix. This redemption, however, in which those who have been brought back remain servants in the land of the Lord, can be considered as only a prelude to the true one; comp. vol. i., p. 220 f. 448. The true fulfilment began with the appearance of Christ, and is still going on towards its completion, which can take place even without Israel's returning to Canaan, comp. vol. i., p. 222. Asshur opens the list, and occupies the principal place, because it was through him who, under the very eyes of the Prophet, had carried away the ten tribes, that the dispersion began. But the Prophet does not limit himself to that which was obvious,--did not expect, from the Messiah, only the healing of already existing hurts.--With Asshur, Egypt is connected in one pair. Egypt is the African world's power struggling for dominion with the Asiatic. Its land serves not only as a refuge to those oppressed by the Asiatic world's power (comp. Jer. xlii. ff.), but, in that struggle with the Asiatic power, itself invades and oppresses the land; comp. chap. vii. 18; 2 Kings xxiii. 29 ff.: "In his days Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria." In a similar connection, Asshur and Egypt, the kingdoms on the Euphrates and the Nile, appear in chap. xxvii. 13: "And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great trumpet is blown, and they come, the perishing ones in the land of Asshur, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem;" Micah vii. 12; Jer. ii. 18; Lam. v. 6. As annexed to Egypt, the second pair presents itself, representing the uttermost South; compare the expression, "from the four comers of the earth," in ver. 12. Pathros, in Jer. xliv. 1, 15, also appears as a dependency of Egypt; and Cush, Ethiopia, was, at the Prophet's time, the ally of Egypt, chap. xxxvii. 9, xviii., xx. 3-6. Gesenius remarks on chap. xx. 4: "Egypt and Ethiopia are, in the oracles of this time, always connected, just as the close political alliance of these two countries requires."--From the uttermost South, the Prophet turns to the uttermost East. "Elam is," as Gesenius in his Commentary on chap. xxi. 2 remarks, "in the pre-exilic writers, used for Persia in general, for which afterwards פרס becomes the ordinary name;" and according to Dan. viii. 2, the Persian Metropolis Shushan is situated in Elam. It appears in chap. xxii. 6 as the representative of the world's power which in future will oppress Judah, and we hence expect that it will appear in an Elamitic phase also.--Shinar, the ancient name for Babylon, is that world's power which, according to chaps. xiii., xiv., xxxix., and other passages, is to follow after the Assyrian, and is to carry away Judah into exile. Elam and Madai appear in chap. xxi. 2 as the destroyers of the Babylonian world's power; hence the Elamitic phase of it can follow after the Babylonish only. The geographical arrangement only can be the reason why it is here placed first.--The last of the four pairs of countries is formed by Hamath, representing Syria, (comp. 1 Maccab. xii. 25, according to which passage Jonathan the Maccabee marches into the land of Hamath against the army of Demetrius,) and the islands of the sea, the islands and the countries on the shores of the Mediterranean in the uttermost West. As early as in the prophecy of Balaam, in Numb. xxiv. 24: "And ships come from the side of Chittim and afflict Asshur, and afflict Eber, and he also perisheth," we find the announcement that, at some future time, the Asiatic kingdoms shall be conquered by a power which comes from the West in ships, by European nations--an announcement which was realised in history by the dominion of the Greeks and Romans in Asia.

Ver. 12: "And He setteth up an ensign to the Gentiles and assembleth the exiled of Israel, and gathereth together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."

The setting up of the ensign for the Gentiles, around which they are to assemble for the purpose of restoring Israel, took place, in a prelude, under Cyrus; comp. chap. xiv. 2, xlix. 22: "Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the nations, and they bring thy sons on their bosom, and thy daughters are carried upon their shoulders;" where the sons and daughters correspond to the exiled men of Israel, and to the dispersed women of Judah, equivalent to all the exiled and dispersed men and women. As early as in the Song of Solomon, we are taught that in the Messianic time the Gentile nations will take an active part in the restoration of Israel. According to the first part of that Song, the appearance of the heavenly Solomon is connected with the reception of the Gentiles into His Kingdom, and that, through the instrumentality of the old covenant people, as is intimated by the name of the daughters of Jerusalem; comp. my Comment. on Song of Solomon, iii. 9-11. In the second part of that Song we have a description of the reunion of apostate Israel with Christ,--which reunion takes place by the co-operation of the daughters of Jerusalem, the same whom they formerly brought to salvation. According to Is. lxvi. 20, the Gentiles, converted to the Lord in the time of salvation, bring the children of Israel for an offering unto the Lord,--A significant allusion to the passage before us is found in John xi. 52: καὶ οὐχ ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἔθνους μόνον, ἀλλ’ ἵνα καὶ τὰ τέκνα τοῦ Θεοῦ τὰ διεσκορπισμένα συναγάγῃ εἰς ἕν. It is the same mercy seeking that which is lost that manifests itself in the gathering of apostate Israel, and in the gathering of the Gentiles. What is said of the one furnishes, at the same time, the guarantee for the other.