"The way" is the way of salvation which God opens up to His people in the wilderness of misery; comp. chap. xliii. 19: "I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert;" Ps. cvii. 4: "They wandered in the wilderness, in the desert without ways," where the pathless wilderness is the image of misery; Ps. xxv. 4; xxvii. 11, where the ways of God are the ways of salvation which He reveals to His people, that they may walk in them. The way is holy (comp. remarks on chap. iv. 3), because inaccessible to the profane world, to the unclean, who are not allowed to disturb the righteous walking on it; comp. ver. 9, which shows how entirely out of place is the remark that "the author, in his national hatred, will not allow any Gentiles to walk along with the covenant-people." It is only as converted, as fellows and companions of the saints, that the Gentiles are allowed to enter on the way, and not as unclean and their enemies. The circumstance that even the foolish cannot miss the way, indicates the abundant fulness of the salvation, in consequence of which it is so easily accessible; and no human effort, skill, or excellence, is required to attain the possession of it.
Ver. 9. "No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast go up thereon, it shall not be found there; and the redeemed walk on it."
By the lion, the ravenous beast, heathenish wickedness and tyranny, the world's power pernicious to the Kingdom of God, is designated; comp. remarks on chap. xi. 7. The Lord declared that the fulfilment had taken place, when He said: Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
Ver. 10. "And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. Joy and gladness they shall obtain, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."
[GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON CHAPTERS XL.-LXVI.]
The historical section, chap. xxxvi.-xxxix., forms the transition from the first to the second part of the prophecies of Isaiah. Its close is formed by the announcement of Judah's being carried away to Babylon, an announcement which Isaiah uttered to Hezekiah after the impending danger from the Assyrians had been successfully warded off, as had been mentioned in the preceding chapter. In chap. xxxix. 6, 7, it is said: "Behold days are coming, and all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon, and nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And of thy sons shall they take away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." In this announcement, we have at the same time the concentration of the rebuking and threatening mission of the Prophet, and the point from which proceeds the comforting mission which, in the second part, is pre-eminently attended to. This second part at once begins with the words: "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people," which stand in closest connection with the preceding announcement of a great calamity, yea, even necessarily demand this. It is just for this reason that the historical chapters cannot be a later addition and interpolation, but must be an original element of the collection written by the Prophet himself.[1]
The contents of the second part are stated at once, and generally, in the introductory words, chap. xl. 1, 2: "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she receives of the Lord's hand double for all her sins." The comfort must, accordingly, form the fundamental character of the second part. But since, for the people of God, there does not exist any purely external salvation; since, for them, salvation is indissolubly connected with repentance,--exhortation must necessarily go hand ill hand with the announcement of salvation. This second feature and element concealed behind the first, is, moreover, expressly brought forward in what immediately follows, inasmuch as by it the "Comfort ye" does not receive any addition, but is only commented upon and enlarged. The servants of the Lord (the whole chorus of the messengers of the divine salvation is addressed in vers. 3, 5), complying with His command, announce the impending salvation, designating it as a manifestation of the Lord's glory, and exhort to a worthy preparation for it. Vers. 3 and 4 treat of preparing in the desert a high-way for the Lord, who is to manifest himself gloriously. The way is prepared by repentance; the desert symbolizes the condition of bodily and spiritual misery. It is from this miserable condition that the Lord is to deliver and redeem His people; but in order that He may perform His part, they must, previously, have performed theirs. In ver. 5, this manifestation itself is described, with which is connected the fulness of salvation for the covenant-people. The servants of God are to announce the approach of salvation to mourning Jerusalem, in which the covenant-people appears to the Prophet as personified. (Jerusalem does not stand for "the carried away Zionites;" it is an ideal person, the afflicted and bowed down widow sitting on the ground in sackcloth; the distressed and mourning mother of the children partly carried away, and partly killed,--compare chap. iii. 26, where Jerusalem, desolate and emptied, sits upon the ground.) But this salvation can be granted to those only whose hearts are prepared to receive it. Thus the announcement of salvation is preceded by the μετανοεῖτε, by the call to remove all the obstacles which render impassable the path through the desert into the land of promise; which render impossible the transition from misery to salvation; which prevent the Lord from coming to His people in their misery, and leading them out from it. Then, to those who have complied with the exhortation, the manifestation of the glory of the Lord is promised--He comes to them, in a glorious manifestation, in the way which, in the power of His Spirit, they have prepared and opened up to Him--and in, and with it, all the glorious things which, according to ver. 2, the servants of the Lord were to promise regarding the Future.
The comfort oftentimes moves in general terms, and consists in pointing to a Future full of salvation and grace. But, in other passages, the announcement of salvation is more individualised, becomes more special. These special announcements refer to a twofold object, First--The Prophet comforts his people by announcing the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity. This deliverance he describes by the most lovely images, frequently taken from the deliverance of the people from Egypt. But it is to be well observed that even those prophecies which pre-eminently refer to the lower object, have something exuberant and overflowing; so that, even after having been fulfilled, they cannot be looked upon as antiquated. He states the name of the ruler, Koresh, the king from the rising of the sun, who, sent by the Lord, shall punish the oppressors of Zion, and bring back the people to their land. The second object is the deliverance and salvation by the Servant of God, the Messiah, who, after having passed through humiliation, suffering, and death, and having thereby effected redemption, will remove from the glorified Kingdom of God all the evil occasioned by sin. Of this higher salvation the soul of the Prophet is so full, that the references to it are constantly pressing forward, even where, in the first instance, he has to do with the lower salvation. In the description of the higher salvation, the relation of time is not observed. Now, the Prophet beholds its Author in His humiliation and suffering; then, the most distant Future of the Kingdom of Christ presents itself to his enraptured eye,--the time in which the Gentile world, alienated from God, shall have returned to Him; when all that is opposed to God shall have been destroyed; when inward and outward peace shall prevail, and all the evil caused by sin shall have been removed. Elevated above time and space, from the height in which the Holy Spirit has placed him, he surveys the whole development of the Messianic Kingdom, from its small beginnings to its glorious end.
While the first part, containing the predictions which the Prophet uttered for the present generation during the time of his ministry, consists mainly of single prophecies which, separated by time and occasion, were first made publicly known singly, and afterwards united in a collected whole, having been marked out as different prophecies, either by inscriptions, or in any other distinguishable way,--the second part, destined as a legacy for posterity, forms a continuous, collected whole. The fact, first observed by Fr. Rückert, that it is divided into three sections or books, is, in the first instance, indicated by the circumstance that, at the close of chap. xlviii. and chap. lvii., the same thought recurs in the same words: "There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked;" and that the same thought, viz. the exclusion of the wicked from the promised salvation, is found also a third time at the close of the whole, although there in another form. Yet, if nothing else could be advanced in favour of this tri-partition, we might perhaps be permitted to speak of an accident as Knobel indeed does. But a closer consideration shows that the three sections are, inwardly and essentially, distinguished from one another. Beyond chap. xlviii. 22, there is no farther mention of Babel, which in the first book is mentioned four times (chap. xliii. 14, xlvii. 1, xlviii. 14, 20); nor of the Chaldeans, which occur there five times (chap. xliii. 14, xlvii. 1, 5, xlviii. 14, 20); nor any farther mention of Koresh, neither of his name (chap. xliv. 28, xlv. 1), nor of his person, which in chap. xl.-xlviii. is so prominently brought before us (chap. xli. 2, 25, xlvi. 11, xlviii. 14, 15, i.e. immediately at the beginning, after the introduction contained in chap. xl., at the close, and several times in the middle); nor of Bel and Nebo. Farther--The whole first book is pervaded with the argumentation by which the God of Israel is proved to be the true God, from His having foretold the deliverance to be effected by Koresh. This argumentation we meet with in chap. xli., immediately after the introductory chap. xl., and so still in the last chap. xlviii.; but never again afterwards. With the end of the first book, this arguing and proving from prophecy, that the Lord is the true God, as well as the reference to Koresh, the subject of this prophecy, altogether disappear. But, in like manner, the announcement of a personal Messiah is wanting in the first book, the sole exception being chap. xlii. 1-9, where, after the first announcement of the author of the lower salvation, the Author of the higher salvation is, by way of anticipation, contrasted with him. To give a more minute and finished description of the Author of the higher salvation is the object of the second book. In the third book, the person of the Redeemer is spoken of briefly only, is, as it were, only hinted at, in order to connect this book with the second; just as, by chap. xlii., the first book is connected with the second. The third book in so far as it is promising, is taken up with the description of the glory of the Kingdom of God, in that new stage upon which it enters by the Redeemer,--a glory, the culminating point of which is the creation of the new heavens and the new earth, chap. lxv. 17, lxvi. 22. A description of the glory of Zion, like that in chap. lxii., is not found in the first and second book. In the third book, however, reproof and exhortation prevail, in contradistinction to the first and second book, in which the direct promise prevails. A transition from this, however, to the reproof and exhortation, is made at the close of the second book. From chap. lv. 1, the preaching of repentance appears first intermingled with the announcement of salvation. Up to that the prevailing tendency of the Prophet had been, throughout, to comfort the godly; but from chap. lv. 1, the other tendency shows itself by the side of it, that of calling sinners to repentance, by which alone they can obtain a participation in the promised salvation. In chap. lvi. 9, lvii. 21, the latter tendency appears distinctly and exclusively. The second book had commenced with the announcement of salvation, and thence to the close had advanced to reproof and threatening. The third book takes the opposite course; and thus the two principal portions of reproof and threatening border upon one another. Yet, the reproof and threatening do not go on without interruption and distinction, so that no boundary line could be recognized between the two books. At the close of the second book, the Prophet has preeminently to do with apostates, while, at the beginning of the third, he has to do with hypocrites; so that thus these two portions of reproof supplement one another, and conjointly form a complete disclosure of the prevailing corruption, according to its two principal tendencies. But the third book is distinguished from the second by this circumstance, that in it reproof and threatening are not limited to the beginning, which corresponds with the close of the second book. At the close of chap. lix. the Prophet returns to the announcement of salvation; but with chap. lxiii. 7, a new preaching of repentance commences, which goes on to the end of chap. lxiv. The Prophet, in the Spirit, transposes himself into the time when the visitation has already taken place, and puts into the mouth of the people the words by which they are, at that time, to supplicate for the mercy of the Lord. This discourse implies what has preceded. In the view of the glorious manifestation of the Lord's mercy and grace which are there exhibited, the Prophet calls here upon the people to repent and be converted, in order that they may become partakers of that mercy. If they, as a people, are anxious to attain that object, they must repeat what the Prophet here pronounces before them. But that up to this time has not been done, and hence that has taken place which is spoken of by St Paul: "The election have obtained it, but the rest have been blinded." In chap. lxv., which contains the Lord's answer to this repenting prayer of the people, and is nothing else than an indirect paraenesis, reproof and threatening likewise prevail, and it is only at the close that the promise appears. The last chapter, too, begins with reproof and threatening. Rightly have the Church Fathers called Isaiah the Evangelist among the prophets. This appears also from the circumstance that the reproof is so thoroughly an appendage of the promise, that it is only at the close, after the whole riches of the promise have been exhibited, that it expands itself It appears, farther, also from the circumstance that, even in the last book, the threatening does not prevail exclusively, but that, even there, it is still interwoven with the most glorious promises which are so exceedingly fitted to allure sinners to repentance.
In the whole of the second part, the Prophet, as a rule, takes his stand in the time which was announced and foretold in the former prophecies, and especially, with the greatest clearness and distinctness, in chap. xxxix., on the threshold of the second part,--the time when Jerusalem is captured by the Chaldeans, the temple destroyed, the country desolated, and the people carried away. It is in this time that he thinks, feels, and acts; it has become present to him; from it he looks out into the Future, yet in such a manner that he does not everywhere consistently maintain this ideal stand-point. He addresses his discourse to the people pining away in captivity and misery. He comforts them by opening up a view into a better Future, and exhorts them to remove by repentance the obstacles to the coming salvation.