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

by Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg

Ver. 3. "Strengthen ye the slack hands, and confirm ye the tottering knees." The words are addressed to all the members of the people of God; they are to strengthen and confirm one another by pointing to the future revelation of the glory of the Lord.

Ver. 4. "Say to them that are of a fearful heart: Be strong, fear not; behold, your God will come for vengeance, for a gift of God: He will come and save you."

"To them that are of a fearful heart,"--literally of a "hasty heart," who allow themselves to be carried away by the Present, and are unmindful of the respice finem.--נקם and גמול are Accusatives, used in the same manner as in verbs of motion, to designate the object of the motion.--On גמול, "gift," comp. remarks on Ps. vii. 5. "The gift of God" forms a contrast to the poor gifts, such as men offer. He comes for vengeance upon His enemies, and for bestowing the most glorious divine gifts upon His people. The words: "He will come and save you," are an explanation of "the gift of God." It is in Christ that the words: "He will come and save you," found their true fulfilment,--a fulfilment to which every lower blessing pointed, and which is still going on, and constantly advancing.--That which, in the subsequent verses, is said of the concomitant circumstances of this salvation, is by far too high to admit of the fulfilment being sought in any other than Christ. All these forced explanations, such as: "In their joy they feel as if they were healed" (Knobel, after the example of Gesenius), only serve to show this more clearly. They are overthrown even by the parallel announcement of the impending resurrection of the dead in chap. xxv. 8; xxvi. 19.

Ver. 5. "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped."

The blind and deaf are the individualizing designations of the wretched; in Luke xiv. 13-21, the blind are named along with the poor, lame, and maimed as an individualizing designation of the whole genus of personae miserabiles; comp. John v. 3. But this individualizing designation must be carefully distinguished from the image. The blind and deaf are mentioned as the most perspicuous species in the genus; but they themselves are, in the first instance, meant, and that which has been said must, in the first instance, be fulfilled upon them. Farther--as blind and deaf are, without farther remark and qualification, spoken of, we shall, in the first instance, be obliged to think of the bodily blind and deaf, inasmuch as they, according to the common usus loquendi, are thus designated. But a collateral reference to the spiritually blind and deaf must so much the rather be assumed, that they, too, form a portion of the genus here represented by the blind and deaf; and the more so that it is just Isaiah who so frequently speaks of spiritual blindness and deafness; comp. chap. xxix. 18: "And in that day (in the time of the future salvation, when the Lord of the Church shall have put to shame the pusillanimity and timidity of His people), the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind see out of obscurity and darkness;" xlii. 18: "Hear ye deaf, and look ye blind and see;" xliii. 8: "Bring forth the blind people, that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears;" lvi. 10; vi. 10; Matth. xv. 14; John ix. 39; Ephes. i. 18; 2 Pet. i. 9. Spiritual blindness and deafness are specially seen in the relation of the people to the leadings of the Church, and to the promises of Scripture. The blind cannot understand the complicated ways of God; the deaf have, especially in the time of misery, no ear for His promises. Besides the natural and spiritual blindness, Scripture knows of still a third; it designates as blind those who cannot see the way of salvation, the helpless and drooping; compare my Commentary on Ps. cxlvi. 8; Zeph. i. 17; Isa. xlii. 7. Now, it is blindness and deafness of every kind which, along with all other misery, shall find a remedy at the time of salvation.--If we ask for the fulfilment, our eye is, in the first instance, attracted by Matt. xi. 5, where, with an evident reference to the passage before us, the Lord gives to the question of John: "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another," the matter-of-fact answer, that the blind receive their sight, the deaf hear, the lame walk: comp. Matth. xv. 31: ὥστε τοὺς ὄχλους θαυμάσαι βλέποντας κωφοὺς λαλοῦτας, κυλλοὺς ὑγιεῖς, χωλοὺς περιπατοῦντας καὶ τυφλοὺς βλέποντας; xxi. 14; καὶ προσῆλθον αὐτῷ τυφλοὶ καὶ χωλοὶ ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ καὶ ἐθεράπευσεν αὐτούς; Mark vii. 37, where after the healing of the deaf and dumb, the people say: καλῶς πάντα πεποίηκε· καὶ τοὺς κωφοὺς ποιεῖ ἀκούειν, καὶ τοὺς ἀλάλους λαλεῖν. Yet shall we not be able to see, in these facts, the complete fulfilment of the prophecy, in so far as it refers to the healing of the bodily blind and deaf--inasmuch as it promises the healing of all, not of some only--but only a pledge of the complete fulfilment of it; just as Christ's raising some from the dead only prefigures what He shall do in the end of the days. The complete fulfilment belongs to the time of the resurrection of the just, of which it is said: Whatever is here afflicted, groans, prays, shall then go on brightly and gloriously. More comprehensive was the fulfilment which the prophecy received, in reference to spiritual blindness and deafness, immediately at the first appearance of Christ, who declared that He had come into the world, that they which see not, might see (John ix. 39). But even here the completion as certainly belongs to the future world, as βλέπομεν ἄρτι δι’ ἐσόπτρου ἐν αἰνίγματι.

Ver. 6. "Then shall the lame leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall shout; for in the wilderness shall waters be opened, and streams in the desert."

The leaping and shouting imply that they have obtained deliverance from their bodily defects,--at this deliverance the preceding verse stopped--and proceed from the natural delight at the appearance of this salvation, personal as well as general, of which these are an emanation. On the first words especially. Acts iii. 8 is to be compared, where it is said of the lame man to whom Peter, in the name of Jesus spoke. Arise and walk: καὶ ἐξαλλόμενος ἔστη καὶ περιεπάτει, καὶ εἰσῆλθε σὺν αὐτοῖς εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν, περιπατῶν καὶ ἀλλόμενος καὶ αἰνῶν τὸν θεόν; farther. Acts viii. 7: πολλοὶ δὲ παραλελυμένοι καὶ χωλοὶ ἐθεραπεύθησαν; xiv. 8; John v. 9. Of spiritual lameness, Heb. xii. 13 is spoken. It appears especially in dark times of affliction, as Vitringa says: "In the time of wild persecution, and when the Church languishes, not a few men begin to halt, to vacillate in their views, to suspend their opinions," &c. On the words: "the tongue of the dumb shall shout," compare Matt. xii. 22: τότε προσηνέχθη αὐτῷ δαιμονζόμενος, τυφλὸς καὶ κωφός· καὶ ἐθεράπευσεν αὐτόν, ὥστε τὸν τυφλὸν καὶ κωφὸν καὶ λαλεῖν καὶ βλέπειν. Spiritual dumbness is the incapacity for the praise of God which, in the time when salvation is withheld, so easily creeps in, and which is removed by the bestowal of salvation. The words: "For in the wilderness," &c., state the ground of the leaping and shouting, point to the bestowal of salvation, which forms the cause. The waters are the waters of salvation, compare remarks on chap. xii. 3. The words contain, moreover, an allusion to Exod. xvii. 3 ff.; Numb. xx. 11, where, during the journey through the wilderness, salvation is represented by the bestowal of water. The desert here is an image of misery.

Ver. 7. "And the scorching heat of the sun becomes a pool, and the thirsty land, springs of water; in the habitation of dragons shall be their couching place, grass where formerly reeds and rushes."

"The scorching heat of the sun," stands for "places scorched by the heat" ("parched ground," English version). The passage chap. xlix. 10, forbids us to explain it by mirage, the appearance of water. The suffix in רבצה refers to Zion. Dragons like to make their abode especially in the waterless wilderness. The circumstance that Zion has there her couching place, supposes that it has been changed into a garden of God; while, on the contrary, in chap. xxxiv. 13, it is said of the world that "it becomes an habitation of dragons." Besides the dry land, the moor-land which bears nothing but barren reeds, shall undergo a change; nourishing grass is to take its place; חציר has no other signification than this.

Ver. 8. "And a high-way shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the holy way; an unclean shall not pass over it; and it shall be for them, that they may walk on it, that fools also may not err."