Franz Delitzsch
Translated from the Manuscript
by Samuel Ives Curtiss
(1880)
(Hebrew Scripture taken from Jewish Publication Society, 1917 edition and
Apostolic Scripture from the King James version)
CHAPTER XI
Messianic Prophecy in the Second Royal Period.27. Prophets of the second Epoch after the Division of the Kingdom
The division of the kingdom formed an epoch in the first period. At the very beginning of the second period,* which extends from the contemporaneous reigns of Jehoshaphat and Ahab to the contemporaneous reigns of Amaziah and Jeroboam II. (914-811 B.C.), stand the new spiritual flight of Judah in the time of Jehoshaphat, and the Phoenician heathenism of Israel under Ahab. Here also the historical sources make us acquainted with the prophets of both kingdoms only so far as they interfere by promises and threatenings in the history of their own age. Most prominent among these were Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, and Micaiah, the son of Imlah, whose prophetic words (1 Kings 22:17, 19-23) belong to those prophecies which have been preserved in their original form. That even then the range of view was not confined to the present, is indicated by the psalms, which sprang from the wonderful victory, without a battle, which Jahaziel, the Asaphite, announces (2 Chron 20:14-17). The Korahitic psalms 46-48 look forth upon the conversion of the heathen world and a kingdom of everlasting peace. And that even then ideal Messianic hopes were connected with the kingdom is evident from the forty-fifth psalm, which appears to have been originally an epithalamium (bridal poem) upon the marriage of Joram and Athaliah.
*The commencement of section 27 is misleading because the word "period" is used instead of epoch. Prof. Delitzsch distinguishes four epochs in the fifth period of Israelitish history (975-588 B.C.):(1) from the contemporaneous reigns of Rehoboam and Jeroboam to the contemporaneous reigns of Asa and Ahab (975-915 B.C.);1 Kings 22:17, 19-23 — 17 And he said: 'I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd; and the LORD said: These have no master; let them return every man to his house in peace.'...19 And he said: 'Therefore hear thou the word of the LORD. I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right hand and on his left. 20 And the LORD said: Who shall entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead. And one said: On this manner; and another said: On that manner. 21 And there came forth the spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said: I will entice him. 22 And the LORD said unto him: Wherewith? And he said: I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And He said: Thou shalt entice him, and shalt prevail also; go forth, and do so. 23 Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets; and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.'(2) from the contemporaneous reigns of Jehoshaphat and Ahab to those of Amaziah and Jeroboam II (914-811 B.C.);
(3) from the contemporaneous reigns of Uzziah and Jeroboam II to the fall of the kingdom of Israel (810-722 B.C.);
(4) from the fall of the kingdom of Israel to that of Judah (721-588 B. C.). The first two sentences in 27 should accordingly read: The first epoch was formed by the division of the kingdom. At the very beginning of the second epoch etc.
2 Chronicles 20:14-17 Then upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, the Levite, of the sons of Asaph, came the spirit of the LORD in the midst of the congregation; and he said: 'Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat: thus saith the LORD unto you: Fear not ye, neither be dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's. To-morrow go ye down against them; behold, they come up by the ascent of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the valley, before the wilderness of Jeruel. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle; set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you, O Judah and Jerusalem; fear not, nor be dismayed; to-morrow go out against them; for the LORD is with you.'
Psalm 46 For the Leader; [a Psalm] of the sons of Korah; upon Alamoth. A Song.
God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
Therefore will we not fear, though the earth do change,
And though the mountains be moved into the heart of the seas;
Though the waters thereof roar and foam,
Though the mountains shake at the swelling thereof. Selah
There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God,
The holiest dwelling-place of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved;
God shall help her, at the approach of morning.
Nations were in tumult, kingdoms were moved;
He uttered His voice, the earth melted.
The LORD of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our high tower. Selah
Come, behold the works of the LORD,
Who hath made desolations in the earth.
He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth;
He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder;
He burneth the chariots in the fire.
'Let be, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.'
The LORD of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our high tower. SelahPsalm 47 For the Leader; a Psalm for the sons of Korah.
O clap your hands, all ye peoples;
Shout unto God with the voice of triumph.
For the LORD is most high, awful;
A great King over all the earth.
He subdueth peoples under us,
And nations under our feet.
He chooseth our inheritance for us,
The pride of Jacob whom He loveth. Selah
God is gone up amidst shouting,
The LORD amidst the sound of the horn.
Sing praises to God, sing praises;
Sing praises unto our King, sing praises.
For God is the King of all the earth;
Sing ye praises in a skilful song.
God reigneth over the nations;
God sitteth upon His holy throne.
The princes of the peoples are gathered together,
The people of the God of Abraham;
For unto God belong the shields of the earth;
He is greatly exalted.Psalm 48 A Song; a Psalm of the sons of Korah.
Great is the LORD, and highly to be praised,
In the city of our God, His holy mountain,
Fair in situation, the joy of the whole earth;
Even mount Zion, the uttermost parts of the north,
The city of the great King.
God in her palaces
Hath made Himself known for a stronghold.
For, lo, the kings assembled themselves,
They came onward together.
They saw, straightway they were amazed;
They were affrighted, they hasted away.
Trembling took hold of them there,
Pangs, as of a woman in travail.
With the east wind
Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish.
As we have heard, so have we seen
In the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God--
God establish it for ever. Selah
We have thought on Thy lovingkindness, O God,
In the midst of Thy temple.
As is Thy name, O God,
So is Thy praise unto the ends of the earth;
Thy right hand is full of righteousness.
Let mount Zion be glad,
Let the daughters of Judah rejoice,
Because of Thy judgments.
Walk about Zion, and go round about her;
Count the towers thereof.
Mark ye well her ramparts,
Traverse her palaces;
That ye may tell it to the generation following.
For such is God, our God, for ever and ever;
He will guide us eternally.Psalm 45 For the Leader; upon Shoshannim; [a Psalm] of the sons of Korah. Maschil. A Song of loves.
My heart overfloweth with a goodly matter;
I say: 'My work is concerning a king';
My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
Thou art fairer than the children of men;
Grace is poured upon thy lips;
Therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.
Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O mighty one,
Thy glory and thy majesty.
And in thy majesty prosper, ride on,
In behalf of truth and meekness and righteousness;
And let thy right hand teach thee tremendous things.
Thine arrows are sharp--
The peoples fall under thee--
[They sink] into the heart of the king's enemies.
Thy throne given of God is for ever and ever;
A sceptre of equity is the sceptre of thy kingdom.
Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated wickedness;
Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee
With the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
Myrrh, and aloes, and cassia are all thy garments;
Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made thee glad.
Kings' daughters are among thy favourites;
At thy right hand doth stand the queen in gold of Ophir.
'Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear;
Forget also thine own people, and thy father's house;
So shall the king desire thy beauty;
For he is thy lord; and do homage unto him.
And, O daughter of Tyre, the richest of the people
Shall entreat thy favour with a gift.'
All glorious is the king's daughter within the palace;
Her raiment is of chequer work inwrought with gold.
She shall be led unto the king on richly woven stuff;
The virgins her companions in her train being brought unto thee.
They shall be led with gladness and rejoicing;
They shall enter into the king's palace.
Instead of thy fathers shall be thy sons,
Whom thou shalt make princes in all the land.
I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations;
Therefore shall the peoples praise thee for ever and ever.
28. The Multitude of Prophets in the Northern Kingdom. Under the house of Ahab there were in Israel two camps of the false prophets. The first was of those at Dan and Bethel who prophesied in the name of Jehovah, while they worshipped Him in the form of a steer, whom Ahab gathered together to the number of about four hundred, when he enquired of the Lord whether he should go up against Ramoth-gilead (1 Kings 22). The second was that of the prophets who were addicted to the Phoenician worship of Baal and Astarte, which was introduced by Jezebel; according to Elijah's enumeration there were four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and four hundred of Astarte (1 Kings 18:19). But even the true prophets were much more numerous than in the kingdom of Judah. Obadiah concealed one hundred of them by fifties in two caves (1 Kings 18:4). Most of them were probably sons of the prophets (בְּנֵי נְבִיאִים [benei nevi'im]), for in the Ephraimitic country was the seat of the prophetic schools. Prophecy was there the only institution which kept the kingdom from an entire rupture with the God of revelation; and in accordance with a law of redemptive history, the gifts (χαρισματα [charismata]) of the Spirit were multiplied in like degree as the power of the father of lies was developed. The activity of the prophets was mostly confined to practical preaching, for the difference between the prophet and preacher consists only in the immediateness of the impulse from the Holy Ghost. Not all the prophets were elevated, like Elijah and Elisha, to a height which since Moses and Samuel had remained unattainable. Nevertheless Elijah and Elisha had no integral position in the history of the announcement of salvation. They were however instrumental in enabling the kingdom of the twelve tribes still to live on through a long period, which was rich in noble spiritual fruits. In Elijah the prophetic schools secured a second Samuel as their head, and entered again into the foreground of the history. The prophetic activity which was here instituted and tended, was not only an oratorical but also historiographical.
29. The Rudimentary Character of Obadiah's Prophecy. The literature of the proper prophetic writings began in this second period with Obadiah's brief prediction against Edom. This prophecy of Obadiah is distinguished from that of Ahijah and others, in its having to do, not with one person but with an entire people. However through the external, sensuous character of that which is beheld as future it appears as only the rudimentary commencement of prophecy. The Israel of the two houses (Jacob and Joseph) becomes a much greater people than ever before, since a holy remnant (פְּלֵיטׇה [peleitah]) which survives the judgment on the nations is strengthened by the return of the captives גׇלוּת [galut] (ver. 21):
"And saviours [מוֹשִׁיעִים (moshi'im)] shall go up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau and the kingdom [הַמְּלוּכׇה (hamelukah)] shall be Jehovah's."These saviours are men, who like the heroes of the time of the Judges, take vengeance on the enemies of their people, and the kingdom of Jehovah breaks its way by means of victorious conquest and subjugation. The religious side of the calling of Israel, as well as the spiritual character of the kingdom of God, remains unexpressed, and the concentration of the national hope upon one person, the Messiah, is not yet accomplished.Remark. According to Graf, Der Prophet Jeremia, Leipzig 1862, p. 558 etc., the prophecy of Obadiah is divided into two parts: (1) an older portion (vs. 1-9), which, as Caspari, Der Prophet Obadia, Leipzig 1842, has proved, Jeremiah (49:7 etc.) reproduces; (2) a later portion (vs. 10-21) which arose at the time of the exile, as an enlargement of the original part. We are convinced that even the second part may be explained by the circumstances and consequences of the catastrophe of Jerusalem, which is described in 2 Chronicles 21:17-19, and to which Joel 4:1-8 and Amos 1:6-10 refer.
30. Organism of Joel. Joram, under whom Obadiah prophesied, was followed by Ahaziah, and then by the dreadful sway of Athaliah. Only Joash the son of Ahaziah escaped the assassins which had been hired by his grandmother. Jehoiada the high priest brought up the prince in the temple and raised him at the age of seven years to the throne. In the first thirty years of Joash's reign, during which, under the leadership of Jehoiada, he served the God of Israel, and cultivated the true worship of Jehovah, Joel appeared. The organism of the book excludes the allegorical interpretation of the locusts, for a quaternion of promises, introduced by the intermediate remark 2:18b-19a, corresponds to the plague of the locusts 1:2-2:17. The promise of the destruction of the locusts (2:19b-20) forms the antithesis to the devastation caused by them, and the promise of the early and late rain (2:21-27) forms the antithesis to the drought. But the prophet raises himself from these promises, with the prophecy "And it shall come to pass afterward" (3:1 וְהׇיׇה אַחַרֵי-כִן [vehaya acharei-chen]), to higher predictions in the realm of the more remote future. The outpouring of the Spirit 3:1 etc. forms the antitype to the outpouring of rain, and the destruction of the hostile nations in the valley of Jehoshaphat (3:3-4:21) the antitype to the destruction of the locusts. In response to its humiliation the people receive these great promises through the prophet, whom God had sent to them as an instructor in righteousness (מוֹרֶה לִצְדׇקׇה [moreh litzedekah] 2:23) that is, in accordance with the way of salvation. But the highest which Joel's prophetic gift accomplished was in his prophecy respecting the outpouring of the Divine Spirit upon all flesh. That the phrase כׇּל-בׇּשׇֹר (kol-basar/all flesh) cannot be limited to the Israelites, although they are immediately referred to in the expression "your sons" (בְּנֵיכֶם [b'neichem]) and that which follows, appears from 3:5b, where he cites Obadiah (ver. 17) and at the same time supplements him by extending the divine call (κλησις [klesis]) to a remnant of the heathen world. From Obadiah to Joel there is a perceptible progress in the spiritualizing of the expected salvation, but we miss in Joel as well as in Obadiah the concentration of the work of salvation in one human mediator.
31. The Missionary Book of Jonah. If we now turn to the kingdom of Israel, which Obadiah mentions only once and Joel not at all, we meet with Jonah, who according to a not improbable tradition, was one of the sons of the prophets belonging to Elisha's school. The book of Jonah also contains no Messianic prophecy, but it is both actually as well as didactically a prelude to the New Testament in the midst of the Old. What Jonah is required to proclaim to Nineveh is no irreversible oracle (מַשׇֹא [masa]) but a preaching designed to produce repentance (קְרִיאׇה [qeri'ah], κηρυγμα [kerygma]) hence the prophet flees and is sulky when his preaching has wrought upon the people. It is precisely the same narrow spirit which was active among the Jews of Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:45-48), and from which even Peter had to be freed by a heavenly vision (Acts 10). The book of Jonah is a divine anticipation of the breaking down of the barriers in the announcement of salvation. It is a foreign missionary book in the midst of the Old Testament. All parts of the book are animated and shaped by the idea that the heathen are included in the divine decree of salvation and are the objects of convicting and converting grace. There is in Jonah's flight and sulkiness an indication of a clear, prophetic view of the future, for he sees that in God's acceptance of the heathen Israel loses his sonship. After Jesus, who was Jonah's antitype, by means of his burial in the grave for three days, had passed through the heart of the earth, he really turned from Israel to the heathen, and the times of the gentiles (καιροι εϑνων [kairoi ethnon] Luke 21:24) began.
Acts 13:45-48 But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.Remark. Whether one believes the miracle of Jonah's preservation in the belly of the fish or not, he must admit, that this book with respect to the age, in which it arose is itself a miracle of the Divine Spirit and that the historical miracle, which is therein related, does not lack the chief criterion of credibility, which consists in its connection with an important end in the history of redemption.Acts 10 There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. And when the angel which spake unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants, and a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually; And when he had declared all these things unto them, he sent them to Joppa. On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven. Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made enquiry for Simon's house, and stood before the gate, And called, and asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, were lodged there. While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee. Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them. Then Peter went down to the men which were sent unto him from Cornelius; and said, Behold, I am he whom ye seek: what is the cause wherefore ye are come? And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words of thee. Then called he them in, and lodged them. And on the morrow Peter went away with them, and certain brethren from Joppa accompanied him. And the morrow after they entered into Caesarea. And Cornelius waited for them, and had called together his kinsmen and near friends. And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him. But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man. And as he talked with him, he went in, and found many that were come together. And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for: I ask therefore for what intent ye have sent for me? And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God. Send therefore to Joppa, and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter; he is lodged in the house of one Simon a tanner by the sea side: who, when he cometh, shall speak unto thee. Immediately therefore I sent to thee; and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God. Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree: Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly; Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.
Luke 21:24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
32. The comforting Conclusion of Amos. The prophet Jonah still stands in the midst of the second epoch at a time when the Assyrians had to suffer a threatening crisis. The book of Amos conducts us from the second epoch to the third (from the contemporaneous reigns of Uzziah and Jeroboam II until the destruction of Israel in the sixth year of Hezekiah) at a time, when the northern kingdom, after it had become great and mighty through Jeroboam II, was already beginning to sink while Assyria was attaining a new elevation, and Judah was still in a state of decay, into which under Amaziah it had been brought by Jehoash (compare Amos 6:11, 9:11 with 2 Kings 14:13). The book of this prophet consists of seven parts: the round of judgments upon the nations (1-2), and two trilogies of castigatory and minatory discourses (3, 4, 5-6, 7, 8, 9). The final discourse, which goes out from the vision of the destruction of Bethel is distinguished in this from all the preceding that it ends in a promise, so that the threatening book closes with reconciliation. The eschatological prophecy is even here as in Obadiah and Joel not yet properly Messianic, for nothing is said about the person of the Messiah. It is prophesied (9:11), that the tabernacle of David which is fallen shall be raised up from its ruins. This in its primary signification merely indicates the re-elevation of the decaying dynasty of David, which indeed finds its ultimate fulfilment in Messiah, the son of David. The prediction is applied in this sense by James (Acts 15:16 etc.), who follows the LXX; and also the old Synagogue (Sanhedrin 96b) gave the Messiah from this prophecy the emblematical name בר נפלי (Bar-Nafli) [son of the fallen].
Amos 6:11 For, behold, the LORD commandeth,Remark. The indirect Messianic passage of the book (9:11) is as follows: "In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David which is fallen and wall up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and build it as in the days of old." — The house of David is here called סֻכַּה (sukkah), not בֵּית (beit) or אֹהֵל ('ohel) (Isa 15:5), because it no longer had the glory of a king's house, and this hut is fallen (נֹפֶלֶת [nofeleth]), that is, is in a ruinous condition. Between Amaziah's victory over Edom and Uzziah's elevation to the throne falls the disgraceful chastisement, which Amaziah received through Jehoash king of Israel (2 Kings 14:11-14), and in which the threatening parable was fulfilled: "And there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon and trode down the thistle." Jehoash marched with the defeated king in triumph into Jerusalem, and, after he had broken down a part of city wall, plundered the town (2 Kings 14; 2 Chron 25). The prophet beholds in the future the re-elevation of the house of David, and what he prophesies is fulfilled by Uzziah but receives its final fulfilment in Christ, after the house of David had sunk still deeper than through Jehoash.
And the great house shall be smitten into splinters,
And the little house into chips.Amos 9:11 In that day will I raise up
The tabernacle of David that is fallen,
And close up the breaches thereof,
And I will raise up his ruins,
And I will build it as in the days of old;2 Kings 14:13 And Jehoash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Jehoash the son of Ahaziah, at Beth-shemesh, and came to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim unto the corner gate, four hundred cubits.
Acts 15:16 After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:
R. Nahman said to R. Isaac: 'Have you heard when Bar Nafle35 will come?' 'Who is Bar Nafle?' he asked. 'Messiah,' he answered, 'Do you call Messiah Bar Nafle?' — 'Even so,' he rejoined, 'as it is written, in that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David ha-nofeleth [that is fallen].'1 He replied, 'Thus hath R. Johanan said: in the generation when the son of David [i.e., Messiah] will come, scholars will be few in number, and as for the rest, their eyes will fail through sorrow and grief. Multitudes of trouble and evil decrees will be promulgated anew, each new evil coming with haste before the other has ended.'35. [Lit., 'son of the fallen.' Bar Nafle is generally assumed to represent the Greek [G], the 'son of the clouds;' cf. Dan. VII, 13, there came with the clouds of heaven one like a son of man, which R. Nahman gave a Hebrew connotation.]1. Amos 9:11
2 Kings 14:11-14 But Amaziah would not hear. So Jehoash king of Israel went up; and he and Amaziah king of Judah looked one another in the face at Beth-shemesh, which belongeth to Judah. And Judah was put to the worse before Israel; and they fled every man to his tent. And Jehoash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Jehoash the son of Ahaziah, at Beth-shemesh, and came to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim unto the corner gate, four hundred cubits. And he took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house, the hostages also, and returned to Samaria.
33. Progress of Messianic Prophecy in Hosea. The three prophets of the kingdom of Israel, Jonah, Amos and Hosea belong to the beginning, the middle, and the end of the reign of Jeroboam II. Hosea appeared during, the last years of this king and through his prophetic preaching accompanied the kingdom of Israel not only with funereal music, but also with the promise of a resurrection. He attaches himself in the arrangement and contents of his book to Amos, whom he quotes (7:12 compare Amos 9:2) and twice undeniably copies (8:14 compare Amos 2:5, 4:15 compare Amos 5:5); but in the prophecy of the future salvation he goes far beyond him. It is through him that the prospect of Israel's restoration receives from his time the stereotyped form of the hope of another David, that is of a king who is the descendant and Antitype of David. The interpretation of the second marriage into which the prophet is commanded to enter is as follows (3:4):
"For many days shall the children of Israel dwell without king and prince, and without sacrifice and statue (מַצֵּבׇה [matzevah]), and without ephod and teraphim. Afterwards shall the children of Israel convert [יׇשֻׁבוּ (yashuvu)] and seek Jehovah, their God, and David their king and shall turn with fear to the Lord and to His goodness in the last days" [בְּאַחֲרִית הַיׇּמִים (be'acharit hayamim)]Hosea 7:12 Even as they go, I will spread My net upon them;"The many days" is the long period of the exile, the condition in which the Jewish people is even now. It is still a people, but not a state with a king; it is still a worshipping congregation but without sacrifices; it is so radically estranged from polytheism, that it regards itself, with even too much self-appreciation, as the pillar of monotheism. Thus living in exile it shall at length be seized with a repentant desire for Jehovah, and David its king, that is, as the Targum translates, for the Messiah the son of David, for the king David of the final period is the future Christ (Jer 30:9; Eze 34:23-31, 37:24-28). Hosea is in this designation of the Messiah the predecessor of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Jehovah and the second David stand side by side as the heavenly and the historical king, in whom the heavenly king reveals Himself. The entire Old Testament can exhibit no brighter prophecy respecting the conversion of Israel than this companion-piece to Romans 11:25, but it must be admitted that it receives its full and spiritual signification first in the light of the New. The return of the children of Israel to their king David implies in its primary meaning only the political return which is connected with the religious. That which makes Israel inwardly blessed comes from Jehovah, and that which renders it outwardly happy comes from the second David. The Christ is not yet Jesus, that is, he is not yet the one who saves his people from their sins.
I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven;
I will chastise them, as their congregation hath been made to hear.Amos 9:2 Though they dig into the nether-world,
Thence shall My hand take them;
And though they climb up to heaven,
Thence will I bring them down.Hosea 8:14 For Israel hath forgotten his Maker,
And builded palaces,
And Judah hath multiplied fortified cities;
But I will send a fire upon his cities,
And it shall devour the castles thereof.Amos 2:5 So will I send a fire upon Judah,
And it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.Hosea 4:15 Though thou, Israel, play the harlot,
Yet let not Judah become guilty;
And come not ye unto Gilgal,
Neither go ye up to Beth-aven,
Nor swear: 'As the LORD liveth.'Amost 5:5 But seek not Beth-el,
Nor enter into Gilgal,
And pass not to Beer-sheba;
For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity,
And Beth-el shall come to nought.Jer 30:9 But they shall serve the LORD their God,Remark. All the prophets recognize that the northern kingdom exists lawfully (jure divino) they see in the division of the kingdom a punitive decree of God respecting the house of David, although not one that is to last forever. Yet Hosea is indeed the first, who gives definite expression to the hope that the Israel of the final period will be one people. But Duhm errs, Theologie der Propheten, Bonn 1875, p. 128, when he says, that Hosea is the first, who declares that the existence of a royal house in Israel is illegal or rather sinful and who categorically demands the relinquishement of independency and the return to David. He does not demand it as duty of the present, but he foretells it as a fact which is to be divinely realized in the future.
And David their king,
Whom I will raise up unto them.Eze 34:23-31 And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even My servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the LORD will be their God, and My servant David prince among them; I the LORD have spoken. And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause evil beasts to cease out of the land; and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in its season; there shall be showers of blessing. And the tree of the field shall yield its fruit, and the earth shall yield her produce, and they shall be safe in their land; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bars of their yoke, and have delivered them out of the hand of those that made bondmen of them. And they shall no more be a prey to the nations, neither shall the beast of the earth devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid. And I will raise up unto them a plantation for renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the nations any more. And they shall know that I the LORD their God am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are My people, saith the Lord GOD. And ye My sheep, the sheep of My pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord GOD.'
Eze 37:24-28 And My servant David shall be king over them, and they all shall have one shepherd; they shall also walk in Mine ordinances, and observe My statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob My servant, wherein your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, they, and their children, and their children's children, for ever; and David My servant shall be their prince for ever. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them—it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will establish them, and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in the midst of them for ever. My dwelling-place also shall be over them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And the nations shall know that I am the LORD that sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for ever.'
Romans 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
34. The typical Prophecies of Hosea. Hosea also prophesies typically, but this is only recognizable from the standpoint of the history of fulfilment. The typical meaning, which Matthew 2:15 finds in Hosea 11:1 lies beyond the consciousness of the prophet. The truth of this typical meaning has its justification in this, that in the history of Christ the history of Israel is recapitulated in its main features; hence 6:1, 2 is on the same principle as 11:1 a typical prediction. The prophet hears during the punishement of Israel repentant cries. Israel recognizes in its deathlike condition the divine decree, and musters courage to return to the One who is not less gracious than just:
"Come and let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn and he will heal us: he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: on the third day he will raise as up, and we shall live before him.Matthew 2:15 And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.The three days mentioned here are just as typical as the three days of Jonah in the belly of the fish. The difference between the act of "making alive" (ζωοποιησις [zoopoiesis]) and that of the "resurrection" (εγερσις [egersis]) is here distinguished in the same way as when Christ burst the bars of death; but the prophecy as such refers to the people, after the second day of whose death a resurrection day follows (Rom 11:15). The two days of their death are, in the history of fulfilment, the Assyrian and Babylonian exile and the Roman, in which the Jewish people still is.Hosea 11:1 When Israel was a child, then I loved him,
And out of Egypt I called My son.Romans 11:15 For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?Remark 1. The Lord truly died and therefore entered into the condition of Hades. But his resurrection was preceded by his libei ation from this condition, for as ζωοποιηϑεις (zoopoietheis/making alive) he manifested himself to the spirits in prison as a victor 1 Peter 3:18-19.1 Peter 3:18-19 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;Remark 2. In 13:14 it is said that Ephraim must descend to death and to the realm of departed spirits before punitive wrath is transformed into redemptive love. In order to punish Ephraim in accordance with his deserts, and as far as possible for his salvation, Jehovah summons Death and Hades to serve Him with their fatal powers, and to rush upon Ephraim:"From the hand of Sheol will I free them, from death will I ransom them. Where are thy plagues. Death, where is thy pestilence, Sheol? Pity shall hide itself before my eyes!"Paul quotes this remark in 1 Corinthians 15:55, but the application which he makes of the double που [pou/where] (in the Hebrew אֱהִי ['ehi/where] is dialectically equivalent to אַיֵּה ['ayeh/where]) corresponds neither to the original text nor to the LXX, for in both the words are not an exultant cry over death and Sheol, but a judicial summons to both as executioners of the divine sentence. The apostle however requires no justification through a violent alteration of the meaning of Hosea's words, since he does not mean when he says (1 Cor 15:54), "then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written," that the expression "oh death, where is thy" etc. will then be fulfilled as a predictive word, but that then that will occur, which these words of the Old Testament, understood as a paean, express.1 Corinthians 15:55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
35. The pre-Assyrian Period of Isaiah. Uzziah reigned contemporaneously with Jeroboam II whom he survived about twenty years. In the year that Uzziah died (758 B. C., or perhaps rather later) Isaiah was called, with whom Micah, his slightly younger contemporary, goes hand in hand. The book of Micah is a complete unity, which was written at one sitting, while the Isaianic collection of prophecies leaves the single predictions which have arisen at different periods independent of each other. In 1-5 we have the summary of the proclamation which was delivered to Isaiah in chapter 6. The world-power, which becomes the instrument of divine punishment, appears at first (5:26-30) to his prophetic eye only as a shadowy form, without a definite outline (compare Deut 28:49). The judicial punishment of the exile is first indicated in as general expressions as possible (6:12, compare 5:13).
Isaiah 5:26-30 And He will lift up an ensign to the nations from far,The salvation, for which judgment breaks the way, does not in the first chapter go beyond the moderate limit of a restoration of the better past. The remnant, which later is called שְֹאֵרִית [she'erit/remnant] (37:32, 46:3), and פְּלֵיטׇה [peleitah/escaped remnant] (37:32), and which finds in the name of Isaiah's son, שְׁאׇר יׇשׁוּב [she'ar yashuv/Shear-Jashub (a remnant shall return)] (7:3), a living emblem, appears here (6:13) first only in the enigmatical image of the sprouting stump, and the Messianic prediction in 4:2 is so sketchy, that the question whether צֶמַח יהוה (tzemach YHVH/ the branch of God) is intended as indicating a person or a thing remains all the while doubtful (4:2):
And will hiss unto them from the end of the earth;
And, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly;
None shall be weary nor stumble among them;
None shall slumber nor sleep;
Neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed,
Nor the latchet of their shoes be broken;
Whose arrows are sharp,
And all their bows bent;
Their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint,
And their wheels like a whirlwind;
Their roaring shall be like a lion,
They shall roar like young lions, yea, they shall roar,
And lay hold of the prey, and carry it away safe,
And there shall be none to deliver.
And they shall roar against them in that day
Like the roaring of the sea;
And if one look unto the land,
Behold darkness and distress,
And the light is darkened in the skies thereof.Deut 28:49 The LORD will bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as the vulture swoopeth down; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;
Isaiah 6:12 And the LORD have removed men far away,
And the forsaken places be many in the midst of the land.Isaiah 5:13 Therefore My people are gone into captivity,
For want of knowledge;
And their honourable men are famished,
And their multitude are parched with thirst."In that day shall the branch of Jehovah become an ornament and a glory, and the fruit of the land shall become a pride and a boast for the escaped of Israel."The superlative expression of the antithesis to the prostrate, false glory and to the worldly pride indicates the right interpretation clearly enough. The branch of Jehovah (צֶמַח יהוה) is neither the new and better generation of the people, which itself is the remnant (פְּלֵיטׇה), nor the blessing of the fields which is never indicated with this solemn name, צֶמַח יהוה, although צֶמַח indeed sometimes occurs in a collective signification. Therefore we must understand that the Messiah is intended. He alone like Jehovah (28:5) can be called the glory and the pride of the future Israel. We have here the first Isaianic outlines of the Messiah's image as the continuation of the prophecies shows (Jer 23:5, 33:15; Zech 3:8, 6:12). According to this פְּרִי הׇאׇרֶץ [peri ha'aretz] (the fruit of the earth, not פְּרִי הׇאֲדׇמׇה [peri ha'adamah] fruit of the ground) with which 11:1 and Ezekiel 17:5 זֶרַע הׇאׇרֶץ [zera' ha'aretz] (the seed of the earth) are to be compared is a designation of the Messiah. The former name (פְּרִי הׇאׇרֶץ) indicates Him as divine and supernatural, the latter (זֶרַע הׇאׇרֶץ) exhibits the human and natural side of His incarnation.Isaiah 28:5 In that day shall the LORD of hosts be
For a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty,
Unto the residue of His people;Jeremiah 23:5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD,
That I will raise unto David a righteous shoot,
And he shall reign as king and prosper,
And shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.Jeremiah 33:15 In those days, and at that time,
Will I cause a shoot of righteousness to grow up unto David;
And he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.Zechariah 3:8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee; for they are men that are a sign; for, behold, I will bring forth My servant the Shoot.
Zechariah 6:12 ...and speak unto him, saying: Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying: Behold, a man whose name is the Shoot, and who shall shoot up out of his place, and build the temple of the LORD;
Isaiah 11:1 And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse,
And a twig shall grow forth out of his roots.Ezekiel 17:5 He took also of the seed of the land,
And planted it in a fruitful soil;
He placed it beside many waters,
He set it as a slip.
36. The decisive Moment under Ahaz. In the midst of the period of Ahaz, into which the second cycle of prophecies (7-12) conducts us, everything is changed; chapters 6 and 7 are intentionally joined together. In 1-5 we followed the genesis of the destiny which was decreed in 6, but in 7 we see it hastening on to completion. The scene is one of the most momentous turning-points in the history of both the kingdoms of Israel. The complication with Assyria effected by Ahaz lays the foundation for the enslavement of Israel through the world-empire. The world-empire beginning with Assyria becomes the inheritance at one time of this, at another time of that dominant people, finally of the Romans. But its character and Israel's destiny remain similar. While Ahaz's behaviour could not make God's decree of no effect, yet it could not remain without unfortunate consequences. The salvation is realized, as announced in chapters 7-12 in the following complicated manner:
(1) The Syria, of which Damascus was the capital, and the northern kingdom are conquered by Assyria, through an event, which externally considered was brought about by Ahaz's politics, but which was really foreknown by God and adopted into his plan.
(2) Then however Assyria turns against the Israel of both kingdoms. The land is overrun and desolated by the armies of Assyria and Egypt, the two great rival powers. In this period of distress, caused by the fault of Ahaz, the youth of the Messiah falls, the miraculous son of the virgin, whose name is Immanuel.
(3) The war of Assyria against the people of God is finally frustrated in Jerusalem, and upon the ruins of the world-empire arises the peaceful kingdom of the true son of David, ruling the world, and uniting in itself Israel gathered from all parts of the earth.
37. The Son of the Virgin. The image of the Messiah, which was hitherto without a definite outline, here becomes a richly colored painting of a clearly defined person, and the ideal king of the future who was previously described as purely human has not only a supernatural but a super-human side. His entrance into earthly existence is a sign, and according to the connection something extraordinary. When therefore the prophet says (7:14): "Behold a virgin is (shall be) with child, and bears a son and calls his name Immanuel," it cannot mean that his wife, or the wife of Ahaz, or any virgin which he happened to see should be with child, for pregnancy and delivery in the natural way is no sign. One might argue with Reuss and Duhm that the sign was not in the pregnancy, but in the child itself as a token of the Assyrian tribulations which were connected with its growth. But this interpretation is refuted by 9:5-7, 11:1-10.
Isaiah 9:5-7 For a child is born unto us,The progress, which we see in these passages, from conception to birth, and to the beginning of the dominion is strikingly evident. If 9:5 and 11:1 are Messianic predictions, then 7:14, as the first link in this chain, is also a Messianic prediction. A comparison confirms this, for "God with us" (עִמׇּנוּאֵל ['imanu'el/Immanuel]) corresponds to the name "mighty God" (אֵל גִּבּוֹר [el gibbor] 9:5), which is given to the new-born child as the embodied presence of God among his people; and that אוֹת ['ot/sign] is really a miraculous sign is confirmed by the name "Wonderful" (פִּלֶא miraculum), which there opens the series of names. The word הׇעַלְמׇה [ha'almah/the virgin] however has the article, because the prophet has a virgin in view, whom the Spirit of prophecy places before his eyes. The word in itself signifies only a marriageable maiden, from עׇלַם pubescere, to attain the age of puberty, as בְּתוּלׇה (betulah/virgin) the one who is still unmarried from בׇּתַל separare, so that therefore the translation η νεανις (e neanis/young woman) (Aquila Symmachus Theodotion) is etymologically more exact than η παρϑενος [e parthenos/virgin) (LXX). But both names usually indicate a virgin, as e. g. Rebekah (Gen 24:43) and Miriam (Exo 2:8). That the thought of a man is distant in this connection is indicated in the form of the expression, since the mother is to give the child his name; the prophecy in this respect is a mystery of no private interpretation ουκ ιδιος επιλυσεως (ouk idias epilyseos) 2 Peter 1:20, 21.
A son is given unto us;
And the government is upon his shoulder;
And his name is called Pele-joez-el-gibbor-Abi-ad-sar-shalom;
That the government may be increased,
And of peace there be no end,
Upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom,
To establish it, and to uphold it
Through justice and through righteousness
From henceforth even for ever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts doth perform this.
The Lord sent a word into Jacob,
And it hath lighted upon Israel.Isaiah 11:1-10 And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse,
And a twig shall grow forth out of his roots.
And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The spirit of counsel and might,
The spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD;
And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes,
Neither decide after the hearing of his ears;
But with righteousness shall he judge the poor,
And decide with equity for the meek of the land;
And he shall smite the land with the rod of his mouth,
And with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins,
And faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
And the cow and the bear feed;
Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp,
And the weaned child shall put his hand on the basilisk's den.
They shall not hurt nor destroy
In all My holy mountain;
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD,
As the waters cover the sea.
And it shall come to pass in that day,
That the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples,
Unto him shall the nations seek;
And his resting-place shall be glorious.Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: behold, the young woman shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.From the substance of the sign we must further discriminate the prophecy which is connected with it. The sign consists in the divinity of the child and, as is indicated, in the wonderful manner of his birth. The prophecy which follows is not the miracle itself, and since it makes the miraculous child its object, it comes under the law of foreshortening in perspective, to which every prophetic view is subject. Isaiah beheld the ripening youth of Immanuel together with the Assyrian tribulations. The truth of the prophecy consists in this, that Immanuel, whose birth is a sign, will grow up at a time when the house of David and the Holy Land under the oppression of the world-power have sunk to the lowest depth, and that he will raise his kingdom upon the ruins of the world-power. Hence the prophecy presents two aspects. The terrible side of the prophecy is only for the unbelieving king, who has conjured up the complication of Israel with the world-empires, while the believers, who view the other side, find it full of comfort.Genesis 24:43 ...behold, I stand by the fountain of water; and let it come to pass, that the maiden that cometh forth to draw, to whom I shall say: Give me, I pray thee, a little water from thy pitcher to drink
Exodus 2:8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her: 'Go.' And the maiden went and called the child's mother.
2 Peter 1:20, 21 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
38. Birth of the Royal Child. The prophecy respecting the son of the virgin represents him as living in the time of the Assyrian oppression. In 9:5-6 the prophecy recedes a step behind the first (7:14) in order to overtake it from that point. The prophet rejoices as if by the cradle of the royal child; he recognizes in him the victorious and glorious heir of the Davidic throne, and is jubilant at the future which awaits him, as if it were an accomplished fact (verse 5):
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and they shall call his name Wonderful, Counsellor, mighty God, everlasting Father. Prince of Peace."After the phrase "they shall call his name" follow five predicative accusatives which are dependent upon וַיִּקְרׇא (vayikra'). The first name פֶּלֶא (pele'/wonderful) indicates him as a wonder, that is, as an extraordinary appearance beyond the range of human comprehension and of natural events. The second name יוֹעֵץ (yo'etz) Counsellor names him as the king (Micah 4:9) who in every condition of his people knows how to find and secure counsel, for he possesses the Spirit of counsel (11:2).Micah 4:9 Now why dost thou cry out aloud?The third name אֵל גִּבּוֹר (el gibbor/mighty God) is, Deuteronomy 10:17 and elsewhere, the name of God: deus fortis. The Messiah receives this name as the human self-representation of the God who is able and willing to help, just as he is called Immanuel as the embodied presence of God among his people. The fourth name אֲבִי-עַד (avi-'ad) signifies eternal Father (pater aeternitatis, which is equivalent to pater aeternus compare עד in the genitive relation 45:17, 57:15); He is called Father according to 22:21 as a ruler who has a fatherly heart, and that too eternally. The fifth name is שַֹר-שׇׁלוֹם (sar shalom) Prince of Peace. He is the Antitype of Solomon. This name stands last significantly, as the three blessings of the Aaronitic benediction end in שׇׁלוֹם (Num 6:24-26). Peace שׇׁלוֹם is the seventh word of the third benediction for seven is the number of the sabbath, and of completeness. Peace is the end and the fruit of his dominion. The five names are emblematical expressions of the being of the person, and of the work of the future One, whose Parousia is indicated (ver 6), as the result of Jehovah's zeal in His love for His people, and in His wrath against their enemies.
Is there no King in thee,
Is thy Counsellor perished,
That pangs have taken hold of thee as of a woman in travail?Isaiah 11:2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The spirit of counsel and might,
The spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.Deuteronomy 10:17 For the LORD your God, He is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awful, who regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward.Remark 1. Schultz, Alttestamentliche Theologie, Frankfort on the Main 1878, 2nd ed., p. 727, explains the fourth name, in agreement with Hitzig, Knobel, and Kuenen, as "father of booty," that is, as one who secures a victory rich in spoil for his people. It is true that this interpretation is consistent with the context, since the father of booty is fittingly followed by the prince of peace: per bellum ad pacem. Moreover Isaiah uses the word עַד in the signification of booty 33:23. But where עַד is the second member of the construct state it has the attributive sense of aeternus (eternal).Isaiah 45:17 O Israel, that art saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation;
Ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.Isaiah 57:15 For thus saith the High and Lofty One
That inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy:
I dwell in the high and holy place,
With him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit,
To revive the spirit of the humble,
And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.Isaiah 22:21 And I will clothe him with thy robe,
And bind him with thy girdle,
And I will commit thy government into his hand;
And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.Numbers 6:24-26 The LORD bless thee, and keep thee;
The LORD make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee;
The LORD lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.Isaiah 9:6 That the government may be increased,
And of peace there be no end,
Upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom,
To establish it, and to uphold it
Through justice and through righteousness
From henceforth even for ever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts doth perform this.Isaiah 33:23 Thy tacklings are loosed;Remark 2. It is admitted by Kuenen, as also by Anger and others, that אֵל גִּבּוֹר (el gibbor) signifies mighty God, but with the remark, that he is not so named as a supernatural personality, but as one eminent among men like a powerful God, so that here we must understand the preposition of similarity (כְּ [like]), which stands in Zechariah 12:8 (וּבֵית דׇּוִיד כֵּאלֹהִים [ubeit David k'elohim/and the house of David shall be as a godlike being]). But the primitive history bears witness to an angel of God, who himself also is called God (Gen 22:11-12; Exo 3:2,4,6,14), and who speaks as if he were God (Gen 31:11,13), in whom therefore God is immanent. Why should not then the Old Testament faith have hoped for a Messiah, as a man, in whom God dwells after a unique manner?
They do not hold the stand of their mast,
They do not spread the sail;
Then is the prey of a great spoil divided;
The lame take the prey.Zechariah 12:8 In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
And he that stumbleth among them at that day shall be as David;
And the house of David shall be as a godlike being,
As the angel of the LORD before them.Genesis 22:11-12 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said: 'Abraham, Abraham.' And he said: 'Here am I.' And he said: 'Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him; for now I know that thou art a God-fearing man, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me.'
Exodus 3:2,4,6,14 — 2 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed...4 And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said: 'Moses, Moses.' And he said: 'Here am I.'...6 Moreover He said: 'I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God...14 And God said unto Moses: 'I AM THAT I AM'; and He said: 'Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel: I AM hath sent me unto you.'
Genesis 31:11,13 — 11 And the angel of God said unto me in the dream: Jacob; and I said: Here am I...13 I am the God of Beth-el, where thou didst anoint a pillar, where thou didst vow a vow unto Me. Now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy nativity.'
39. The Shoot from the Stem of Jesse. The third part of the great Messianic trilogy 11:1-10 is the counterpart to the fall of Assyria. The prophet sees immediately after this the glory of the final period arising:
"And there shall go forth a rod from the stump of Jesse, and a sprout from his root shall produce fruit."While Assyria, which is compared to the forest of Lebanon, is cut down with the axe of divine justice, a fresh and strong sprout (נֵצֶר) shoots forth from the stump of Jesse, which is an image of the Bethlehemitic house in its sunken and lowly condition, and becomes a fruitful tree. All the seven spirits of God (Rev 1:4, 4:5, 5:6) that is, the Holy Ghost in the entire fullness of His being and working, rest charismatically upon the second David. In these seven gifts of the Spirit we have the application of the emblem contained in the holy candlestick (Exo 25:37, compare Zech 4:2).Rev 1:4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;He does not judge — as he is further described — according to the outward appearance, but according to the relation of the heart to God. His righteous government concerns especially the poor and the meek. He secures them justice, and on the contrary "smites the earth with the rod of his mouth, and slays the wicked with the breath of his lips." If we compare with this passage Deuteronomy 32:42; Psalm 68:22, 110:6; Habakkuk 3:13, 14, together with 2 Thessalonians 2:8, we have an indication that the apostasy of the earth will finally culminate in the Antichrist. The continuation of the description, among the other virtues of the second David, emphasizes together with his righteousness especially his faithfulness (אְֶמוּנׇה). He is "the true and faithful witness" and the fruit of his righteous, gentle, and promised reign will be peace which extends to the animal world.Rev 4:5 And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.
Rev 5:6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
Exodus 25:37 And thou shalt make the lamps thereof, seven; and they shall light the lamps thereof, to give light over against it.
Zechariah 4:2 And he said unto me: 'What seest thou?' And I said: 'I have seen, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and its seven lamps thereon; there are seven pipes, yea, seven, to the lamps, which are upon the top thereof;
Deuteronomy 32:42 I will make Mine arrows drunk with blood,We must here discriminate between the truth and its pictorial form. Moreover we must consider, in order to appreciate this idyllic picture, that in the Old Testament prophecy the paradisaically renewed Holy Land and the glorified new world flow together, as if in the continuation of time. The prophet describes, without being able to discriminate the temporal from the eternal, the endless end in which human history terminates. The root of David (Rev 5:5, 22:16) will than be the banner to which the gentiles turn, and around which the diaspora of Israel gathers. The earth will be full of the knowledge of the Divine revelation as the waters which cover the sea, and the end will be peace between Judah and Israel, peace between Israel and the nations, peace of the natural world in itself and with men. Yet the prophet (in vs. 13, 14) does not get farther than the warlike images which the contrast to the present furnishes.
And My sword shall devour flesh;
With the blood of the slain and the captives,
From the long-haired heads of the enemy.'Psalm 68:22 Surely God will smite through the head of His enemies,
The hairy scalp of him that goeth about in his guiltiness.Psalm 110:6 He will judge among the nations;
He filleth it with the dead bodies,
He crusheth the head over a wide land.Habakkuk 3:13, 14 Thou art come forth for the deliverance of Thy people,
For the deliverance of Thine anointed;
Thou woundest the head out of the house of the wicked,
Uncovering the foundation even unto the neck. Selah.
Thou hast stricken through with his own rods the head of his rulers,
That come as a whirlwind to scatter me;
Whose rejoicing is as to devour the poor secretly.2 Thessalonians 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
Rev 5:5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.Remark. The great prophecy (9:5, Sept. ver. 6) remains unapplied in the New Testament. In its form as given in the Septuagint translation it could not be applied by the New Testament writers. The ordinary text of the Septuagint offers as the name of the Messiah only μεγαλης βουλης αγγελος (megales boules aggelos/angel of great council) as the translation of פֵּלֶא יוֹעֵץ אֵל (pele' yo'etz 'el/wonderful counsellor of God). Another rendering is that of the Codex Alexandrinus, which translates אֵל גִּבּוֹר (el gibbor/mighty God) with ισχυρος εξουσιαστης (ischuros exousiastes/mighty ruler) and has retained the αγγελος from the received text as the designation of the one giving the name. But from the prophecy in chapter 11 are derived in the New Testament: (1) the designation of Christ as ο μαρτυς ο πιστος και αληϑινος (ho martus ho pistos kai alethinos/the faithful and true witness) in the Revelation, whereas the Amen (ο αμην) is to he compared with "the faithful God" (אְֶלֹהֵי אׇמֵן [Elohai Amen] Isa 65:16), and is attested by Jesus' formula of asseveration αμην λεγω υμιν (amen lego umin/amen I say to you) which in the fourth Gospel is αμην αμην λεγω υμιν (2) η ριζα Δαυειδ [h riza Daueid/the root of David] (Rev 5:5, 22:16); (3) the metaphor of the staff of his mouth which is embodied in Revelation 1:16, compare 2 Thessalonians 2:8; (4) from the expression concerning the sevenfold Spirit which rests upon the Son of David have arisen the επτα πνευματα (hepta pneumata/seven spirits) (Rev 1:4) which appear as seven lamps before God's throne (4:5), and as the seven eyes of the Lamb (5:6).Rev 22:16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
Isaiah 11:13, 14 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart,
And they that harass Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
And Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
And they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines on the west;
Together shall they spoil the children of the east;
They shall put forth their hand upon Edom and Moab;
And the children of Ammon shall obey them.Isaiah 9:5 For a child is born unto us,
A son is given unto us;
And the government is upon his shoulder;
And his name is called Pele-joez-el-gibbor-Abi-ad-sar-shalom;Isaiah 65:16 So that he who blesseth himself in the earth
Shall bless himself by the God of truth;
And he that sweareth in the earth
Shall swear by the God of truth;
Because the former troubles are forgotten,
And because they are hid from Mine eyes.Revelation 5:5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
Revelation 22:16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
Revelation 1:16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
2 Thessalonians 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
Revelation 1:4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;
40. The King in Zion as the Son of God. The anonymous second psalm, which harmonizes in spirit and circumstances with Isaiah 7-12 is a companion-piece to Isaiah 9:5. The poet living at a time when the throne of David totters, is here, for the comfort of himself and his contemporaries, transported into the future, where the nations of the world rise together against the Lord and His Anointed, but without being able to effect anything against God's immovable order. The One who is seated on Zion says in verse 7 of this dramatically arranged psalm:
"I will make proclamation concerning a decree, Jehovah hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee."We can translate יְלִדְתִּיךׇ (yelidticha) either as "begotten" (γεγεννηκα σε [gegenneka se], LXX) or as "born" (ετεκον [etekon], Aquila). A supernatural exertion of power is here intended, through which God has transferred him to the divine glory. The phrase "this day" is equivalent to the σημερον (semeron) of the New Covenant, and is according to Acts 13:33, compare Romans 1:4 the resurrection day (dies regalis), for the resurrection was the translation of Christ from the life in the form of a servant to the life of glory. The poet calls to the earthly potentates "Kiss the Son." The indeterminate form בַּר (bar/son) (ver. 12) indicates him as a son in a unique manner. From this psalm has arisen the figure of the shepherd of the nations with an iron sceptre (Rev 19:15, 12:5), and the name of the Son of God as a designation of the Christ has here received, on the basis of the promise in 2 Samuel 7, an enduring stamp.Psalm 2 Why are the nations in an uproar?Remark. The words נַשְׁקוּ-בַר (nashku-bar) are not to be translated otherwise than "kiss the son" (osculamini filium) as appears from the following considerations: (1) Jehovah has just solemnly declared that the anointed is His Son; (2) the word נִשֵׁק (nishek) indicates an act of homage (1 Sam 10:1); the kissing of the feet is in the old Babylonian and Assyrian inscriptions uncommonly frequent as indicating homage; (3) other translations are linguistically impossible. The old Latin version (Itala) and the Vulgate, that is, the revised edition of the Itala by Jerome translate the phrase: apprehendite disciplinam. The translation in the Psalterium Romanum, which became a portion of the Missal, and in the Psalterium Gallicanum, which became a part of the Breviary and of the Vulgate, is the same. Hitzig's rendering is similar: "Fugt euch der Pflicht." In order to justify this translation we would need to read בּוֹר, which however neither signifies disciplina, nor Pflicht, but merely purity. Jerome in his independent translation from the original renders the words by adorate pure, but there is no authority in the Old Testament for this adverbial meaning of בַּר as pure, nor does נִשֵׁק signify adorare. Hence Hupfeld translates the words: "Fuget euch aufrichtig," but granting that the Kal נׇשַׁק (nashaq/kiss) can have this signification "to submit oneself (sich fugen)," yet it is impossible that the Piel נִשֵׁק should have this meaning, since it signifies only to press mouth upon mouth, hence to kiss.
And why do the peoples mutter in vain?
The kings of the earth stand up,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the LORD, and against His anointed:
'Let us break their bands asunder,
And cast away their cords from us.'
He that sitteth in heaven laugheth,
The Lord hath them in derision.
Then will He speak unto them in His wrath,
And affright them in His sore displeasure:
'Truly it is I that have established My king
Upon Zion, My holy mountain.'
I will tell of the decree:
The LORD said unto me: 'Thou art My son,
This day have I begotten thee.
Ask of Me, and I will give the nations for thine inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for thy possession.
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron;
Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.'
Now therefore, O ye kings, be wise;
Be admonished, ye judges of the earth.
Serve the LORD with fear,
And rejoice with trembling.
Do homage in purity, lest He be angry, and ye perish in the way,
When suddenly His wrath is kindled.
Happy are all they that take refuge in Him.Isaiah 9:5 For a child is born unto us,
A son is given unto us;
And the government is upon his shoulder;
And his name is called Pele-joez-el-gibbor-Abi-ad-sar-shalom;Acts 13:33 God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
Romas 1:4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
Revelation 19:15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
Revelation 12:5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
2 Samuel 7:12-17 When thy days are fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, that shall proceed out of thy body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be to him for a father, and he shall be to Me for a son; if he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men; but My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thy house and thy kingdom shall be made sure for ever before thee; thy throne shall be established for ever.' According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.
1 Samuel 10:1 Then Samuel took the vial of oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed him, and said: 'Is it not that the LORD hath anointed thee to be prince over His inheritance?
41. The Messianic Element in Isaiah's Book upon the Nations. In the Isaianic cycle of predictions respecting the nations (13-23), prophecies from the Assyrian period threatening judgments against the nations are intermingled in a systematic way with those from the Babylonian period, the genuineness of which is disputed as well as that of the second half of the oracle concerning Egypt (מַשׇֹא מִצְרַיִם [masa' Mitzrayim/burden of Egypt] 19:16 etc.). If we take this cycle of predictions as the production of one Spirit, without entering into any critical analysis, we shall find the following fundamental thoughts, which here have a manifold expression:
(1) Assyria goes to pieces in its attack upon Zion, for Jehovah's city and land when they hold fast to Him are unconquerable.
(2) Babylon's fall will be the restoration of Israel, for the salvation and glory which are promised the people of God are fulfilled in spite of the exile and of all divine chastisements.
(3) The peoples which have freed themselves from the Davidic dominion, and in general the nations which are now hostile to Israel will be subject to the God of Israel.
In the passage, where the prophet proclaims the resuscitation of the house of David he gives intimations of the future king (16:5), whose emblem is the winged serpent (שׇֹרׇף [saraph] 14:29), but the Messianic prophecies take a lower flight after the death of Ahaz (14:28). On the other hand the view of the entrance of the nations into Jehovah's kingdom reaches a higher point. The Ethiopians are to be brought as a consecrated offering to God who is throned upon Zion (18:7). The two great powers, which now contend for the dominion of the world , and by which Israel is alternately abused and enslaved, Egypt and Assyria, shall unite with Israel in the service of the God of revelation. The Old Testament prophecy does its utmost in 19:24-25. In the truly humane words of Solomon (1 Kings 8:43) Israel always remains in distinction from other peoples the people of God, but here the name of God's people has lost its exclusiveness, and in spite of the national dress, which even in this passage prophecy has not put off, it raises itself above the narrow boundaries which separate it from other peoples, and presents the prospect of the time when the barriers which exist between the nations and the people of the revealed religion shall be broken down.
Isaiah 16:5 And a throne is established through mercy,Remark 1. In 14:29 Philistia is threatened:
And there sitteth thereon in truth, in the tent of David,
One that judgeth, and seeketh justice, and is ready in righteousness.Isaiah 14:29 Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of thee,
Because the rod that smote thee is broken:
For out of the serpent's root shall come forth a basilisk,
And his fruit shall be a flying serpent.Isaiah 14:28 In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.
Isaiah 18:7 In that time shall a present be brought unto the LORD of hosts of a people tall and of glossy skin, and from a people terrible from their beginning onward; a nation that is sturdy and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion.
Isaiah 19:24-25 In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth; for that the LORD of hosts hath blessed him, saying: 'Blessed be Egypt My people and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel Mine inheritance.'
1 Kings 8:43 ...hear Thou in heaven Thy dwelling-place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to Thee for; that all the peoples of the earth may know Thy name, to fear Thee, as doth Thy people Israel, and that they may know that Thy name is called upon this house which I have built.
"Rejoice not so entirely, Philistia, because the rod that smote thee is broken, for out of the serpent's root shall go forth a basilisk, and his fruit is a flying serpent [draco volans]."The serpent which is cut off, from which only a stump remains is the decayed house of David. The basilisk is Hezekiah, and the flying serpent is the Messiah, or perhaps in general the Davidic kingdom of the ultimate future.Remark 2. The Moabites, anxious in respect to the invasion from Assyria, appear at the fords of the Arnon and present a petition to the house of David for protection, for which they assign the reason in 16:5:
"A throne is established in mercy: and there sits upon it in truth, in the tabernacle of David, One who judges and seeks judgment and is eager for justice."These words without any doubt indicate that the Messianic age has dawned; for grace and truth are the insignia, and, as it were, the Genii of this period.Remark 3. The unique passage Isaiah 19:24-25, with which perhaps Psalm 47:10 (The princes of the people are gathered together as a people of the God of Abraham, for the shields of the land are God's, lie manifests Himself as greatly exalted) may be compared, is as follows:
"In that day shall Israel be the third part with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth [compare Gen 12:2-3], since the Lord of Hosts blesses it, saying: Blessed is my people Egypt, and the work of my hands Assyria, and my inheritance Israel."Egypt and Assyria will be united in Jehovah, and Israel will be the third in the covenant. Israel is then no longer God's only people, creation and inheritance, but Egypt and Assyria stand on equal terms with Israel.Genesis 12:2-3 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.'
42. The Finale of Isaiah's Book upon the Nations. The conclusion (24-27) of the book respecting the nations belongs no less to the noblest performances of Old Testament prophecy than the passage 19:24-25. The form in which the prophecy in 24-27 clothes itself is both epic and lyric. The prophet utters his predictions mostly in songs from the heart of the redeemed congregation, and the mimetic and musical sound, together with the hymnological formation are the incomparable dress of incomparable thoughts. All that is apparently historical in these chapters is emblematic, and affords as in Zechariah 9-14 only the colors to eschatological pictures. The kingdom of God triumphs over the world-empire and all the world. The church purified through judgment will, as she is holy, be also glorious. The God of Revelation will from that time on be feared by all nations. The dead will arise. Death and sin will cease forever. It is the entire New Testament Apocalypse, which we here have before us, in a compendium. That nothing is ever said in this place concerning the person of the Messiah is explainable from the fact, that the future son of David who is solely set forth as a king is not adapted to be the mediator of such an internal and radical redemption. The one-sided royal image of the Messiah needs to be supplemented, and thereby to be transposed into the sphere of the universally human, spiritual, and divine elements, in order to be conformed to the redemption which is so universal, and so profoundly conceived.
43. Isaiah's Prophecy concerning the Precious Corner-Stone. In Isaiah 28-33 we find ourselves again upon historic ground. Chapters 28-32 arose in the first six years of Hezekiah, for chapter 28 begins like the book of Micah with the proclamation of the fall of Samaria. At that time the effort was made to restore that which the politics of Ahaz had destroyed, but if Ahaz sought the aid of Assyria in the war against Syria and Ephraim, the attempt was now made to shake off the yoke of Assyria with the help of Egypt. Isaiah follows this projected alliance through all its stages with annihilating criticism, and, since he prophesies the confounding of their self-made hope, he affords in 28:16 a better ground of confidence:
"Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold it is I, who have laid in Zion a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone of a well grounded foundation — the believer will not flee."The fundamental thought of this group of predictions is that Egypt will not help, but the only pledge that the house and people of David will not go down is the word of Jehovah alone, who is the unshaken supporter and protector of His people, and who exercises an energy which indeed is invisible, but which is recognized and found true by the eye of faith. The adverb "therefore" (לׇכֵן [laken] 28:16) is aimed just as threateningly as in 7:14 against the despisers of the help of Jehovah. The stone laid by Him in Zion, which is praised in such high and superlative terms, upon which and through which Zion is firmly established (compare 14:32) cannot be any one else than the real son of David. The retrospective perfect יִסַּד (yisad/support) is to be explained in accordance with Micah 5:1b. He, the stone, is the emblem of that which in 7-12 is called Immanuel as the refuge of His people. But first the people of God must go down before they arise through Him. In chapter 33 when Sennacherib was already raging in Judah and the best of the people with Hezekiah at their head penitently cried to Jehovah for help, reproof and threatening suddenly turn against Assyria, and the prophet calls to the true people of God, to whom the divine promise belongs (33:17):"The king in his beauty shall thine eyes behold, they shall see a land stretching far away."Is this the same king whom Micah beholds as the counterpart to the one smitten on the cheek, or does the promise refer to Hezekiah? In the presence of this pious king the image of the Messiah does not shine so brightly as in the presence of an Ahaz, but in connection with 28:16, 11:1, compare Psalm 45:3 it is probable that no less a person than the second David can be intended.Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: behold, the young woman shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.Isaiah 14:32 What then shall one answer the messengers of the nation?
That the LORD hath founded Zion,
And in her shall the afflicted of His people take refuge.Micah 5:1 But thou, Beth-lehem Ephrathah,
Which art little to be among the thousands of Judah,
Out of thee shall one come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel;
Whose goings forth are from of old, from ancient days.Isaiah 28:16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD:
Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone,
A tried stone, a costly corner-stone of sure foundation;
He that believeth shall not make haste.Isaiah 11:1 And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse,
And a twig shall grow forth out of his roots.Psalm 45:3 Thou art fairer than the children of men;
Grace is poured upon thy lips;
Therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.
44. Progress of Messianic Prophecy in Micah. Turning now from Isaiah, who was called in the year that Uzziah died and whose public activity continued until nearly the end of the reign of Hezekiah, to Micah we go back about a decade for the book of Micah is an abridgment of his preaching from the time of Jotham until towards the sixth year of Hezekiah (1:1, compare ver 6; Jer 26:18 19). If now we look at Micah in relation to Isaiah, leaving out of account the controverted prophecies, we shall find in him a mass of prophetic knowledge going far beyond that in Isaiah; for
(1) he predicts not only the Babylonian exile, but also the deliverance from it;
(2) although he calls the world-empire by the historical name as known in his age, Assyria (5:4), yet in his view Zion and Babylon are opposite poles (4:10). He considers Babylon as the metropolis of the world, as the centre of the land of Nimrod (5:5), the enemy of Israel (7:8-10);
Micah 5:4 And this shall be peace:(3) while Isaiah beholds the rise of Messiah's kingdom in connection with the fall of Assyria, Micah sees the kingdom of the Messiah (4 and 5, compare 2:12, 13) established after the Babylonian exile.
When the Assyrian shall come into our land,
And when he shall tread in our palaces,
Then shall we raise against him seven shepherds,
And eight princes among men.Micah 4:10 Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion,
Like a woman in travail;
For now shalt thou go forth out of the city,
And shalt dwell in the field,
And shalt come even unto Babylon;
There shalt thou be rescued;
There shall the LORD redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.Micah 5:5 And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword,
And the land of Nimrod with the keen-edged sword;
And he shall deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land,
And when he treadeth within our border.Micah 7:8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy;
Though I am fallen, I shall arise;
Though I sit in darkness, the LORD is a light unto me.Micah 7:10 Then mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her;
Who said unto me: Where is the LORD thy God?
Mine eyes shall gaze upon her;
Now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.'Micah 1:1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.Micah 1:6 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the field,
A place for the planting of vineyards;
And I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley,
And I will uncover the foundations thereof.Jeremiah 26:18-19 'Micah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying: Thus saith the LORD of hosts:
Zion shall be plowed as a field,
And Jerusalem shall become heaps,
And the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? did he not fear the LORD, and entreat the favour of the LORD, and the LORD repented Him of the evil which He had pronounced against them? Thus might we procure great evil against our own souls.'
45. Connection of the Messianic Hope with Bethlehem. Even in 2:13 Micah indicates the Messiah as the One who breaks the bonds of Israel, who leads it as a reunited people to victory, but the prediction becomes much more definite, when the picture of the redemption which the second David brings to his people is contrasted with the deepest humiliation which Jerusalem must experience with its present king (5:1):
"And thou Bethlehem Ephratah, too small to be reckoned among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall he go forth to me, who is to be ruler over Israel, and his goings out are from old from the days of remote antiquity."As Micah in 4:8 addresses the tower of the flock, so here he addresses Bethlehem. He loves to place himself with reference to the objects of which he treats in the dramatic relation of "I" and "thou." He names Bethlehem particularly in order to make the appropriation of the promise more definite, solemn, and documentary (as Christ Matt 16:17, adresses Peter by his full name Simon Bar-jona). He could have said Bethlehem Judah, for thus it is distinguished from Bethlehem in the tribe of Zebulon; but he says Bethlehem Ephratah, because the name Ephratah awakens so many reminiscences from the primitive history of Israel (Gen 35:16) and the Davidic kingdom (Ruth 4:11). The reason why he sets אַתׇּה ('atah/you) for אַתּ is perhaps because from the outset he considers Bethlehem as an אֶלֶף (eleph), that is, as a subordinate division of the tribe of Judah, but he says that properly it should not be counted under the thousands of Judah (אַלְפֵי יְהוּדׇה) because it is too small, nevertheless it is destined to become the tribal house of the great king rather than the royal city of Jerusalem; for when he enters into existence, the continuity of the Davidic kingdom will have suffered a violent humiliation and interruption. But from the lowliness of this small, ancestral place that kingdom will be rejuvenated. He who will go forth from Bethlehem is the One who was intended from the beginning of the promise respecting royal dominion. He is the One who was in the process of coming ever since the patriarchal promise, that kings would arise from the seed of Abraham. The words from the old time etc. do not indicate a time before the creation of the world (compare Prov 8:22) but as 7:14 and 20 show an age in the primitive period of the people's history is intended. In verse 2 a retrospective conclusion is drawn from the fact that the great king will be of such lowly origin:"Therefore he will then give them up until the time that she that travaileth hath brought forth, and the remnant of his brethren shall return with the children of Israel."The brethren of the great king are from Judah, who returning to their native land again, shall form one people with Israel, but they will first be given up into the hand of the world-power, and this resignation will last until the time when she that travaileth, namely the decreed mother of the Messiah, shall have borne. The prophet here and in what follows beholds the work of the Messiah as it really will be in its completion, yet does not discriminate between the Parousia in humility and the Parousia in glory. The Messiah is the future king who rules over the restored Israel of both kingdoms from Zion (4:8) even to the ends of the earth.Matthew 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.Remark. The promise 2:13 is as follows:Genesis 35:16 And they journeyed from Beth-el; and there was still some way to come to Ephrath; and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour.
Ruth 4:11 And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said: 'We are witnesses. The LORD make the woman that is come into thy house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel; and do thou worthily in Ephrath, and be famous in Beth-lehem;
Prov 8:22 The LORD made me as the beginning of His way, The first of His works of old.
Micah 4:8 And thou, Migdal-eder, the hill of the daughter of Zion,
Unto thee shall it come;
Yea, the former dominion shall come,
The kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem."The Breaker goes up before them, they break through, and pass over through the gate [Isa 62:10], and have gone out by it, and their king goes over before them, and Jehovah at their head."The פֹּרֵץ (poretz/breaker) is Messiah as the one who breaks through the prison, in which the people are confined. The Synagogue is fond of calling the Messiah, as the descendant of Perez son of Judah, בֶּן-פֶּרֶץ (ben Peretz/son of Peretz), since this name at the same time alludes to this prediction of Micah (compare the synagogical name of the Messiah בַּר-נַפְלִי [bar naphli/son of the fallen] from Amos 9:11 and עֲנׇנֵי ['ananei/the clouds] Dan 7:13).Isaiah 62:10 Go through, go through the gates,
Clear ye the way of the people;
Cast up, cast up the highway,
Gather out the stones;
Lift up an ensign over the peoples.Amos 9:11 In that day will I raise up
The tabernacle of David that is fallen,
And close up the breaches thereof,
And I will raise up his ruins,
And I will build it as in the days of old;Daniel 7:13 I saw in the night visions,
And, behold, there came with the clouds of heaven
One like unto a son of man,
And he came even to the Ancient of days,
And he was brought near before Him.
46. Habakkuk's Theodicy. The prophets have the Spirit of God by measure (εκ μετρου [ek metrou]). Micah is on a small scale after the same pattern as the great Isaiah. Nahum's prophecy has only a limited theme. It is a majestic conclusion to the prophetic writings directed against Assyria. Habakkuk of the kingdom of Judah, who is paired with Nahum of the kingdom of Israel, belongs like him to the prophets of the Isaianic type. Nahum prophesies at the end of Hezekiah's reign or at the beginning of Manasseh's, Habakkuk prophesies under Josiah or even under Manasseh. The fundamental thoughts of his book are as follows:
(1) There are two kingdoms in conflict: the kingdom of this world, whose ruler is the king of Chaldea, and the kingdom of God whose ruler is God's anointed.
(2) The Parousia of Jehovah helps God's Anointed to the victory.
(3) The believers (2:3) long for this completion of God's work in the course of history, when the period previously determined (מוֹעֵד [moed/appointed time]) has come.
Habakkuk 2:3 For the vision is yet for the appointed time,(4) It is faith, which in this conflict of the world against the kingdom of God escapes the danger of destruction and which in the midst of death participates in life. — The book of Habakkuk is an oracle (מַשׇֹּא [masa']) respecting Babylon for the comfort of believers and in so far a theodicy, a dialogue between the prophet and God. Twice the human question is repeated (1:2-4, 12-17), and twice the divine answer (1:5-10, 2). These four (2 + 2) parts are followed by a psalm as a fifth, proceeding from the first and second answer. Here in verse 13 God's Anointed is named, as in Zechariah 9:9 as the one for whom Jehovah secures salvation, or victory. But the question arises, whether the Messiah of the final period is intended. The Septuagint makes the Messiah the subject in 2:3b:
And it declareth of the end, and doth not lie;
Though it tarry, wait for it;
Because it will surely come, it will not delay.Though it tarry, wait for it;and the passage in Hebrews 10:37 follows this version. But according to the meaning of the words and the connection the subject is properly neither Jehovah, nor His Christ, but the חׇזוֹן (chazon/vision), nevertheless the vision according to its concrete contents is intended.
Because it will surely come, it will not delay.Habakkuk 1:2-4 How long, O LORD, shall I cry,
And Thou wilt not hear?
I cry out unto Thee of violence,
And Thou wilt not save.
Why dost Thou show me iniquity,
And beholdest mischief?
And why are spoiling and violence before me?
So that there is strife, and contention ariseth.
Therefore the law is slacked,
And right doth never go forth;
For the wicked doth beset the righteous;
Therefore right goeth forth perverted.Habakkuk 1:12-17 Art not Thou from everlasting,
O LORD my God, my Holy One?
We shall not die.
O LORD, Thou hast ordained them for judgment,
And Thou, O Rock, hast established them for correction.
Thou that art of eyes too pure to behold evil,
And that canst not look on mischief,
Wherefore lookest Thou, when they deal treacherously,
And holdest Thy peace, when the wicked swalloweth up
The man that is more righteous than he;
And makest men as the fishes of the sea,
As the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
They take up all of them with the angle,
They catch them in their net,
And gather them in their drag;
Therefore they rejoice and exult.
Therefore they sacrifice unto their net,
And offer unto their drag;
Because by them their portion is fat,
And their food plenteous.
Shall they therefore empty their net,
And not spare to slay the nations continually?Habakkuk 1:5-10 Look ye among the nations, and behold,
And wonder marvellously;
For, behold, a work shall be wrought in your days,
Which ye will not believe though it be told you.
For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans,
That bitter and impetuous nation,
That march through the breadth of the earth,
To possess dwelling-places that are not theirs.
They are terrible and dreadful;
Their law and their majesty proceed from themselves.
Their horses also are swifter than leopards,
And are more fierce than the wolves of the desert;
And their horsemen spread themselves;
Yea, their horsemen come from far,
They fly as a vulture that hasteth to devour.
They come all of them for violence;
Their faces are set eagerly as the east wind;
And they gather captives as the sand.
And they scoff at kings,
And princes are a derision unto them;
They deride every stronghold,
For they heap up earth, and take it.Habakkuk 3:13 Thou art come forth for the deliverance of Thy people,
For the deliverance of Thine anointed;
Thou woundest the head out of the house of the wicked,
Uncovering the foundation even unto the neck. Selah.Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion,
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem;
Behold, thy king cometh unto thee,
He is triumphant, and victorious,
Lowly, and riding upon an ass,
Even upon a colt the foal of an ass.Hebrews 10:37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
47. Zephaniah's Compendium of Isaianic Prophecy. If Habakkuk was one of the prophets under Manasseh (2 Kings 21:10-15) who foretold the inevitable catastrophe which was to befall Jerusalem, so likewise Zephaniah was one of the prophets under Josiah, whose minatory prediction (2 Kings 23:26-27) is made the dreadful conclusion of the pious king's history. He appeared after the eighteenth year of Josiah, the year of the reformation in worship, and since he proclaims the fall of Nineveh, before the year 606 B. C. His book is the conclusion of the Isaianic type of prophecy, which is here once more reduced to a compendium. After chastisement comes mercy, for which it prepares the way. When the cup of wrath is drained, love is poured forth. Its turning-point is fixed by אׇז ('az/at that time) (3:9). In the description of the restoration of Israel the prophet excells himself in the tenderest expressions, and discourses concerning God in the anthropomorphisms of human love; but the person of the Messiah does not once appear, the divine king recedes before God the King (3:15):
"Jehovah hath removed thy judgments, He hath cast out thine enemy. The King of Israel, Jehovah is in the midst of thee, thou shalt not see evil any more."For so long as the Messiah is not yet recognized as the mediator of salvation the Messianic hope necessarily recedes before the hope of the appearance of Jehovah, the God of salvation.2 Kings 21:10-15 And the LORD spoke by His servants the prophets, saying: 'Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, that were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols; therefore thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel: Behold, I bring such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. And I will cast off the remnant of Mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies; because they have done that which is evil in My sight, and have provoked Me, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day.'Remark. The prophet begins 3:9 with a confirmatory כִי (ki/for then): while Jehovah punishes the nations, He has their salvation in view.2 Kings 23:26-27 Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of His great wrath, wherewith His anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations wherewith Manasseh had provoked Him. And the LORD said: 'I will remove Judah also out of My sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city which I have chosen, even Jerusalem, and the house of which I said: My name shall be there.'
"For then will I turn to the nations a pure lip, that they may all call upon the name of Jehovah, to serve Him with one consent."The promise immediately follows 3:10 that the converted heathen will accompany the diaspora of Israel back into the Holy Land:"From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia they shall bring my suppliants, the daughter of my dispersed, as my offering."Here without doubt verse 10a is derived from Isaiah 18:7, and verse 10b is like an abbreviation of Isaiah 66:18-20, where we read in verse 20:"And they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations, for an offering unto Jehovah .... to my holy mountain Jerusalem saith Jehovah, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of Jehovah. "
48. The Vocation and first Address of Jeremiah. It is the prophecy of the Isaianic type, which is concentrated in Zephaniah as in a mosaic picture. Jeremiah is, in the time of his appearance, older than Zephaniah, but his activity extends far beyond the time of Josiah. The history of his call in the thirteenth year of Josiah is in all directions a prognostic of his official doing and suffering. He is the prophet of the nations; we find him, like none of his predecessors, in immediate communication with them. In him as in no other tenderness and variety of feeling are interpenetrated with great and enduring strength. His calling is directed rather to tearing down than to building up. In this sad office one suffering after another as a confessor befalls him. He represents more than any of his predecessors and followers, especially in the kingdom of Judah, the martyrdom of the prophets. Even the first address is characteristic. It is like a variation of the three first verses of Isaiah. Deep pain on account of rejected love is its fundamental feature. The book of Jeremiah could not receive a better motto than the mournful words of Jesus: "ye would not" (Luke 13:34), or "now they are hid from thine eyes" (Luke 19:42).
49. Jeremiah's Prediction concerning the Righteous Shoot. But Jeremiah affords only two utterances for the proper Messianic prophecy. The first is found in the lamentation respecting the shepherds (23:1-8), which belongs to the time after the deportation of Jehoiachin (vs 3). The prophet announces (vss 5-6):
"Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will raise unto David a righteous Shoot [צֶמַח צַדִּיק (tzemach tzadik)], and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the land. In his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is the name with which they will call him, Jehovah Our Righteousness."This prediction is repeated (33:14-16), in the midst of the promise of Israel's future restoration, which Jeremiah, when he was imprisoned in the tenth year of Zedekiah by the princes of Judah, received as a divine consolation. The naming of the Messiah as צֶמַח צַדִּיק (tzemach tzadik) points back to 2 Samuel 23:3; Isaiah 4:2; and his name יהוה צִדְקֵנוּ (YHVH tzidkeinu/The Lord Our Righteousness) is designed to indicate, that Jehovah as just and the one who justifies dwells in him, and reveals Himself through him; for in 33:16 the new Jerusalem receives this name as the city in which Jehovah as the source of justice to Israel will have His dwelling (compare Eze 48:35). The notion of justice (צֶדֶק [tzedek] or צְדׇקׇה [tzedakah]) has two sides, a legal and an evangelical. It is therefore called either the justice, which rewards men according to their works (justitia recompensativa or punitiva), or the justice, which exactly follows the decree and order of salvation (justitia justificans, compare Rom 1:17, 3:26). The one side can be called the side of fire and the other the side of light. In the expression: "Jehovah our justice" the justice is meant as the manifestation of the light. In this sense therefore we translate the phrase יהוה צִדְקֵנוּ (YHVH tzidkeinu) "Jehovah our righteousness."Jeremiah 33:14-16 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah. In those days, and at that time,Will I cause a shoot of righteousness to grow up unto David;
And he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
In those days shall Judah be saved,
And Jerusalem shall dwell safely;
And this is the name whereby she shall be called,
The LORD is our righteousness.2 Samuel 23:3 The God of Israel said,
The Rock of Israel spoke to me:
'Ruler over men shall be
The righteous, even he that ruleth in the fear of God,Isaiah 4:2 In that day shall the growth of the LORD be beautiful and glorious,
And the fruit of the land excellent and comely
For them that are escaped of Israel.Jeremiah 33:16 In those days shall Judah be saved,
And Jerusalem shall dwell safely;
And this is the name whereby she shall be called,
The LORD is our righteousness.Ezekiel 48:35 It shall be eighteen thousand reeds round about. And the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there.'
Romans 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
Romans 3:26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
50. Jeremiah's Consolatory Promises in 30, 31. After Jerusalem had fallen, Jeremiah was compelled in the midst of the rest of the exiles, and in fetters to migrate with them to Ramah, there however his fortune took a more favorable turn. The decision being left to him, he preferred to remain in the country and betook himself to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam (26:24), as is related more briefly in chapter 39, and more fully in 40. In the first verse of this chapter the word of Jehovah is introduced, which at that time came to Jeremiah in Ramah, but the prediction does not follow. Without doubt this word of Jehovah is that which is introduced with the same formula in chapters 30 and 31 consisting of the comforting predictions which the prophet wrote down by the special command of God: respecting Israel's future restoration, the second David, Rachel's lamentation in Ramah because of her departing children, the promise of their future return, and regarding the new covenant resting upon the forgiveness of sins. We notice here:
(1) That according to 30:21 compare 33:17 Israel from this time has holy and glorious princes, who enjoy special privileges as priests, but who are all far surpassed by the "second David";
Jeremiah 30:21 And their prince shall be of themselves,(2) That in chapter 31:22: נְקֵבׇה תְּסוֹבֵב גׇּבֶר (neqevah tesovev gaver/a woman shall compass a man) the paradox is expressed, that the protection (indicated by סוֹבֵב Deut 32:10; Psa 32:10) of the men will henceforth be effected by a woman, since a woman will bear the second David and in Him the victorious Defender of His people;
And their ruler shall proceed from the midst of them;
And I will cause him to draw near,
And he shall approach unto Me;
For who is he that hath pledged his heart
To approach unto Me? saith the LORD.Jeremiah 33:17 For thus saith the LORD: There shall not be cut off unto David a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel;
Deut 32:10 He found him in a desert land,(3) That Jeremiah is the first prophet, who comprehends the future renewal of the covenant under the conception and the name בְּרִית חֲדׇשׇׁה (brit chadashah/new covenant) (31:31), and who in general makes the covenant the centre of his prophecy as a religious relation founded in love, which excludes wrath (10:24, 30:11; 46:28, where מִשְׁפׇּט [mishpat/judgment] signifies the federal right) — a relation through which Jehovah binds Himself legally to Israel and binds Israel legally to Him.
And in the waste, a howling wilderness;
He compassed him about, He cared for him,
He kept him as the apple of His eye.Psa 32:10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked;
But he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy compasseth him about.Jeremiah 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah;(4) That according to the fundamental thought of 31:29-30, 31-34 personality is invested with its rights, since hereafter the individual will be freed from the consequences of the generic connection with which it had hitherto been bound.Jeremiah 10:24 O LORD, correct me, but in measure;
Not in Thine anger, lest Thou diminish me.Jeremiah 30:11 For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee;
For I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have scattered thee,
But I will not make a full end of thee;
For I will correct thee in measure,
And will not utterly destroy thee.Jeremiah 46:28 Fear not thou, O Jacob My servant, saith the LORD,
For I am with thee;
For I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee,
But I will not make a full end of thee;
And I will correct thee in measure,
But will not utterly destroy thee.Jeremiah 31:29-30 In those days they shall say no more:The tone of the comforting adresses is to a certain extent quite Deutero-Isaianic. The reproduced passages however, if they are such, do not stand abruptly, but in close connection. We see in 30:8-10 how the representation of Israel as עֶבֶד יהוה ('eved YHVH/servant of YHVH) has arisen.
'The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
And the children's teeth are set on edge.'But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man that eateth the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.
Jeremiah 31:31-34 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; forasmuch as they broke My covenant, although I was a lord over them, saith the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the LORD, I will put My law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people; and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying: 'Know the LORD'; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.
Jeremiah 30:8-10 And it shall come to pass in that day,
Saith the LORD of hosts,
That I will break his yoke from off thy neck,
And will burst thy bands;
And strangers shall no more make him their bondman;
But they shall serve the LORD their God,
And David their king,
Whom I will raise up unto them.
Therefore fear thou not, O Jacob My servant, saith the LORD;
Neither be dismayed, O Israel;
For, lo, I will save thee from afar,
And thy seed from the land of their captivity;
And Jacob shall again be quiet and at ease,
And none shall make him afraid.
CHAPTER XII. Messianic Prophecy just before the Catastrophe and during the Exile.
Jeremiah entered his prophetic office under Josiah, when the Chaldean catastrophe could no longer be averted. He witnessed it in his own country, and never went to Babylon, but emigrated to Egypt after Gedaliah's assassination with a great company of those who feared the revenge of the Chaldeans. There he delivered his last prophetic addresses (43:8 etc.; 44), and there he disappeared. Ezekiel on the contrary was one of the exiles with Jehoiachin. He experienced the catastrophe with them on the Babylonian Chebar. Five years after the carrying into captivity (594 B. C.) he was called to the prophetic office. Each prophet has, in accordance with the Jewish expression, his own distinguishing mark. In Ezekiel we find characteristics entirely different from those in Jeremiah. His book is far more pictorial than that of any other prophet. It is, so to say, an orbis pictus. Heavenly and earthly things transform themselves to him into plastic pictures, which he not only sketches, but also paints even to the smallest details. His call is unique. The fact that it is God, the judge and omnipotent ruler over the world and in it, who calls him as the prophet of the catastrophe, is established by a vision of unparalleled grandeur. While Isaiah caught up to heaven is called by the One enthroned there who is surrounded by the seraphim, Ezekiel sees the Almighty dwelling in the universe and riding on the wings of the cherubim, who sweeps down to him. What the Psalmist sketches (18:11) is multifariously expanded in the vision of the chariot (מֶרְכׇּבׇה [merkabah], compare 1 Chron 28:18). From the fiery chariot which is Jehovah's throne, the fire will come which is to lay the temple and the holy city in ashes. From it a hand presents a roll to Ezekiel which he is compelled to eat. It is full of woes. But since God assigns him this bitter task, the bitter becomes sweet to him. He is henceforth God's instrument. In this is his duty and at the same time his comfort. The phrase "son of man" (בֶּן-אׇדׇם [ben-'adam]) hereafter becomes the divine designation of the prophet, which not only expresses his distance from God and his dependence upon Him, but also the nobility of his divine relationship, for the One throned upon the chariot has a human form.
Psalm 18:11 And He rode upon a cherub, and did fly;
Yea, He did swoop down upon the wings of the wind.1 Chronicles 28:18 ...and for the altar of incense refined gold by weight; and gold for the pattern of the chariot, even the cherubim, that spread out their wings, and covered the ark of the covenant of the LORD.
52. The Messiah in the Book of Ezekiel. As the mode of the Messianic prediction is determined elsewhere by the law of contrast so also in Ezekiel, where it shines from the dark background of the present. The Messiah is announced in the following terms:
(1) Generally in contrast to the bad shepherds of that time, as the one good shepherd, whom Jehovah raises up, since he gives himself again to his people and concludes a bond of peace with them (34:23). The Messiah is here called עַבְדִּי דׇוִיד ('avdi David/my servant David), but in Jeremiah only דׇּוִד (beloved; uncle) or the sprout raised up to David, or the sprout of righteousness.
Ezekiel 34:23 And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even My servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.(2) In contrast to the partition of Israel into two kingdoms, which, separated like two pieces of wood from each other, will again grow together under one shepherd and king who here also is called עַבְדִּי דׇוִד ('avdi David/David my servant) (37:24).Ezekiel 37:24 And My servant David shall be king over them, and they all shall have one shepherd; they shall also walk in Mine ordinances, and observe My statutes, and do them.(3) In contrast to Jehoiachin and Zedekiah (17). The Messiah here appears as the tender twig which Jehovah plucks from the cedar of the house of David, plants upon Zion, and causes to grow to a high tree exalted above all the trees of the field, under which the birds of heaven build their nests. This occurs after Jehoiachin, the top of the cedar, has been removed by the Chaldean eagle to Babylon, and Zedekiah, the vine, which languished for the Nile water of the Pharonian eagle, has been rooted up and withered. The expression רַךְ (rach/tender) (ver 22b) indicating the insignificant, humble beginning of the Messiah reminds us of Isaiah 11:1 and in the form of the expression still more of Isaiah 53:2, as well as of the parable of the mustard seed (Matt 13:31-32).Ezekiel 17:22 Thus saith the Lord GOD: Moreover I will take, even I, of the lofty top of the cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I will plant it upon a high mountain and eminent;(4) In contrast to Zedekiah in particular (21:31-32). The king of Babylon in chapter 21 is represented as standing where two ways part, one of which leads to Rabbath Ammon, the other to Jerusalem. The lot falls upon Jerusalem, the faithless city, which thinks itself protected by its feudal oath. The prophet then turns to Zedekiah with the following words (ver 30-32):Isaiah 11:1 And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse,
And a twig shall grow forth out of his roots.Isaiah 53:2 For he shot up right forth as a sapling,
And as a root out of a dry ground;
He had no form nor comeliness, that we should look upon him,
Nor beauty that we should delight in him.Matthew 13:31-32 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.
"And thou pierced one [compare Jer 39:7], O blasphemer, O ruler of Israel, whose day has come at the time of the guilt of the end [that is, which summons the final judgment, 7:2], thus saith the Lord Jehovah: The turban [the royal tiara] will be removed, and the crown will be taken away [this is the real crown, instead of which the king usually wore the tiara as a sign of royalty]. This is not this [i. e. the sign of royalty will be hereafter unlike its former self], the low will be exalted, and the exalted will be brought low. [The four infinitives are used as plastic expressions for future events]. Overthrow, overthrow, overthrow [compare Jer 22:29] will I bring upon it [tiara and crown, i. e. the kingdom], it also [namely the crown, as well as the temple, city, prosperity, and possession of the land] shall be destroyed [לֹא הׇיׇה (lo' hayah) as ver 18; Isa 15:6; Job 6:21], until he comes to whom the government belongs [הַמִּשְׁפׇּט (hamishpat/the judgment); like Hosea 5:1], and I give it."The prophet here alludes to Genesis 49:10, since he understands שׁלה (Shiloh) in the sense of שֶׁלֹּה, like most of the old translators, and interprets it exactly like Onkelos and the second Jerusalem Targum. We are not therefore compelled to consider this as the original sense of שׁלה, but there are three things which are evident from this old interpretation: (1) that Ezekiel regarded these words of the blessing of Jacob as a Messianic prophecy; (2) that he did not have the form שׁילה, but שׁלה in his text; (3) that even at a very ancient period this שׁלה was understood in the sense of cujus est (regnum) as a designation of the Messiah.Jeremiah 39:7 Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon.Ezekiel 7:2 'And thou, son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD concerning the land of Israel: An end! the end is come upon the four corners of the land.
Jeremiah 22:29 O land, land, land,
Hear the word of the LORD.Ezekiel 21:18 For there is a trial; and what if it contemn even the rod? It shall be no more, saith the Lord GOD.
Isaiah 15:6 For the Waters of Nimrim shall be desolate;
For the grass is withered away, the herbage faileth,
There is no green thing.Job 6:21 For now ye are become His;
Ye see a terror, and are afraid.Hosea 5:1 Hear this, O ye priests,
And attend, ye house of Israel,
And give ear, O house of the king,
For unto you pertaineth the judgment;
For ye have been a snare on Mizpah,
And a net spread upon Tabor.Genesis 49:10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,
Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
As long as men come to Shiloh;
And unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be.
53. The Idea of the Servant of Jehovah in its Genesis. The mass of Israel fell in the exile into heathenism. There is no greater error than when it is supposed that in the exile all Israel became dead to idolatry. The great mass rather perished in it. Ezekiel testifies to the idolatrous lusts which the exiles had in common with their compatriots from Jerusalem and Judea. The book of Isaiah (40-66) affords us still deeper glimpses into the circumstances of the exile. The national consciousness, and the love springing from it for their fellow-countrymen, was almost entirely extinct among a portion of the exiles; and not only did they adopt heathen customs, especially the despotism over servants (58), but they also prepared a table for Gad, brought libations to Meni (65:11), and joined the heathen processions (66:17). The younger generation did the same things as those which among the older had occasioned the exile. But there were also those who followed Jehovah's way instead of their own and mourned for Zion. They were hated, persecuted, and spurned. Their heathen brethren united with their Babylonian oppressors, and besides their internal sufferings the ill-treatment which they received from their own people did not stop short of prison and martyrdom. Under the form of a servant and the misery of the deepest humiliation this true church of Jehovah carried the salvation of their people and of the heathen upon their hearts. Israel's restoration and the conversion of the nations lay upon their hands, stood and fell with this church. Although they were killed in many of their members yet they were immortal, yea even in dying for Jehovah they proved that they lived. This ecclesia pressa (suppressed church) of the exile is the עֶבֶד יהוה ('eved YHVH/servant of the Lord) in whom all Messianic, all theocratic expectations of the prophets in Isaiah 40-66 are united as the rays of light in a focus.
Isaiah 65:11 But ye that forsake the LORD,Remark. It must be admitted, that until the present time Gad and Meni have not been proved to be Babylonian gods, and in general the images of the heathen worship are not so fresh as one would expect from a prophet living among the exiles.
That forget My holy mountain,
That prepare a table for Fortune,
And that offer mingled wine in full measure unto Destiny,Isaiah 66:17 They that sanctify themselves and purify themselves
To go unto the gardens,
Behind one in the midst,
Eating swine's flesh, and the detestable thing, and the mouse,
Shall be consumed together, saith the LORD.
54. Threefold Nature of the Idea of Jehovah's Servant. There is no Old Testament idea which is so wonderfully developed as this of the Servant of Jehovah. The lowest basis of the עֶבֶד יהוה ('eved YHVH/servant of the Lord) is entire Israel; its middle, internal basis is the church which is faithful to God in its dispersion, the scattered seed of the church of the future which shall grow together from Israel and the heathen; its pyramidal apex is the future Christ. Sometimes these three factors are combined together in this notion of the Servant, sometimes they are separated. At one time it is confined to its lowest basis, and is placed before Israel as a mirror of its unfaithfulness in comparison with Jehovah's faithfulness; at another time it rests on its middle basis, transported beyond the sad reality, and unfolds from itself the sweetest consolations; it then rises higher, becomes personal and prophesies of One, in whom Israel's calling as the people of salvation is completed, and in whom all the sufferings of the church of Jehovah culminate and are recapitulated. This conception through its wonderful elasticity is the source of a fulness of new spiritual cognitions, and these cognitions are not only united with Him, but grow from Him as their root.
55. Completeness of tlie Idea of Jehovah's Servant. In the conception of the Servant of Jehovah (עֶבֶד יהוה) all forms and appearances which hitherto prefigured the salvation are blended together:
(1) the two series, one of which has for its watchword: "Jehovah comes," the other: "thy King comes." The consolatory book (Isa 40-66) begins at once with the announcement of Jehovah's Parousia (Isa 40:5). The joyous shout in view of His coming is (62:11): "Behold thy salvation (יִשְׁעֵךְ) cometh". But Jehovah comes in His servant (50:2, compare 4), who is called to be His Salvation unto the ends of the earth (49:6);
Isaiah 40:5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,(2) the three chief stadia which serve to designate the future bearer of salvation, as seed of the woman, seed of the patriarchs, and seed of David. The idea of the Servant of Jehovah is the recapitulation of the main factors in all these, and points back even to the proto-evangelium (49:1, 65:25).
And all flesh shall see it together;
For the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.'Isaiah 50:2 Wherefore, when I came, was there no man?
When I called, was there none to answer?
Is My hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem?
Or have I no power to deliver?
Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea,
I make the rivers a wilderness;
Their fish become foul, because there is no water,
And die for thirst.Isaiah 50:4 The Lord GOD hath given me
The tongue of them that are taught,
That I should know how to sustain with words him that is weary;
He wakeneth morning by morning,
He wakeneth mine ear
To hear as they that are taught.Isaiah 49:6 Yea, He saith: 'It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be My servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the offspring of Israel;
I will also give thee for a light of the nations,
That My salvation may be unto the end of the earth.'Isaiah 49:1 Listen, O isles, unto me,(3) the manifold official representations of the future Mediator of salvation. The Servant of Jehovah is such in a prophetic, priestly, and kingly manner;
And hearken, ye peoples, from far:
The LORD hath called me from the womb,
From the bowels of my mother hath He made mention of my name;Isaiah 65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox;
And dust shall be the serpent's food.
They shall not hurt nor destroy
In all My holy mountain,
Saith the LORD.(4) the personal types: He is through the threefold glory of his office the fulfilment of the prototypes Moses, Aaron and David;
(5) the type of the sacrifice. Every interpretation of sacrifice has hitherto been limited to its significance as an accompanying symbol of the internal desire for salvation, and of personal consecration. Psalmists and prophets have until now symbolically depreciated the sacrificial worship without deciphering it typically.
Now for the first time the type of sacrifice, which was previously dumb, begins to speak through the idea of the Servant of Jehovah. He pours out his soul in death, and his soul thus brings a satisfactory offering (אׇשׇׁם ['asham]) which atones and makes reparation for the sins of the people. He takes the guilt of his people's sins upon himself. God willingly allows him to suffer and die for them, for his purpose was directed to the fruit of the passion. He causes His wrath to fall upon His Servant, in order that in him, His beloved, He may make His people a congregation of those who are justified and sanctified. The mystery of the animal sacrifices, which God allowed (Lev 17:11) Israel in accommodation to the heathen forms of worship, finds its explanation here; and the desire of Israel in the exile which is turned towards the suspended ritual is here directed to Him who is the true realization of all sacrifice. The Servant of Jehovah dies and is buried, but not in order to remain in death, but that he may live eternally as the priestly and royal head of a great congregation.
Leviticus 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of the life.Remark. We do not read in Genesis 4 that God commanded sacrifice. Cain and Abel bring their offerings of their own accord. In this narrative it is significant that Cain takes the lead in presenting his sacrifice. The sacrifical ritual has everywhere arisen naturally from the individual peculiarities of the nations. It has proceeded on the one hand from the consciousness, that man is indebted to God for all that he is and has, and from the effort to make a grateful recognition of this feeling; on the other hand it has gone forth from the consciousness, that as he is in his present sinful condition he cannot be pleasing to God and cannot bring Him anything that is acceptable, until his sin has first been blotted out, that is, expiated before the holy God. The complete expression of this idea of sacrifice is the bloody offering, which includes the desire, that God will allow the soul (נֶפֶשׁ [nephesh]) of the animal to serve as an atonement for the sinful and death-deserving soul (נֶפֶשׁ [nephesh]) of man. But although the animal is innocent, yet its innocence has no moral value, and furthermore, which is most important, it suffers involuntarily. Hence the epistle to the Hebrews denies the expiatory character of the animal offering. It expiates not really but only symbolically, or rather typically, for God has allowed it to have this significance in view of the future offering on Golgotha. The expiatory power of Christ's sacrifice does not consist in His death, in itself considered, but in His determination to offer Himself for us. Hence that which has atoning power is precisely the element which is wanting in the animal sacrifice.
56. Important Results from the Idea of Jehovah's Servant. The one-sided image of the king Messiah, which hitherto was only supplemented by the type of David, who reached the throne through humility, is here set aside. The Servant of Jehovah goes through the humiliation of death and the grave to everlasting glory. Both states (status humiliationis and exaltationis) are clearly expressed and described. The connecting line between the prophet and king of the future is drawn. The Servant of Jehovah is not only mediator, but also herald of salvation. Furthermore the redemption of Israel as humanly mediated is now no longer merely a liberation from the yoke of the worldly power, and the enjoyment of victory and peace after a bloody struggle — Jehovah redeems his people, redeems the world in his Servant from all their sins; and the character of the redemption is conceived as a reconciliation, above all as a reconciliation between the divine justice and the divine love. Hence the notion of צֶדֶק (tzedek/righteousness) and צְדׇקׇה (tzedekah/justice) in Isaiah 40-66 is closely related to יֵשַׁע (yesha'/salvation) and יְשׁוּעׇה (yeshu'ah/salvation) (51:5, 56:1). And after the idea of the Messiah is immerged in the idea of Israel as the Servant of Jehovah and subsequently arises from it in personal form, there follows an entirely new and hitherto unheard of relation of the Redeemer to his church. He is even himself called Israel (49:3), for he is the head and the church his body (45:14, 49:23, 60:14). If we consider moreover, that here in a dramatic manner, heretofore unparalleled, the Servant of Jehovah himself speaks, and that there are passages where we may be doubtful, whether the Servant of Jehovah sensu eminentissimo, or the prophet speaks, we here behold a unique spiritual labaratory: Jehovah is in His Servant, the Servant of Jehovah is the contents of the prophet's consciousness, the prophet lives and moves in the future One a threefold immanence with an alternating περιχωρησις (perichoresis/mutual inhabitation), which renders the interpretation of this book a work which is never satisfactory, and which never comes to an end.
Isaiah 51:5 My favour is near,
My salvation is gone forth,
And Mine arms shall judge the peoples;
The isles shall wait for Me,
And on Mine arm shall they trust.Isaiah 56:1 Thus saith the LORD:
Keep ye justice, and do righteousness;
For My salvation is near to come,
And My favour to be revealed.Isaiah 49:3 And He said unto me: 'Thou art My servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.'Isaiah 45:14 Thus saith the LORD:
The labour of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia,
And of the Sabeans, men of stature,
Shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine;
They shall go after thee, in chains they shall come over;
And they shall fall down unto thee,
They shall make supplication unto thee:
Surely God is in thee, and there is none else,
There is no other God.Isaiah 49:23 And kings shall be thy foster-fathers,
And their queens thy nursing mothers;
They shall bow down to thee with their face to the earth,
And lick the dust of thy feet;
And thou shalt know that I am the LORD,
For they shall not be ashamed that wait for Me.Isaiah 60:14 And the sons of them that afflicted thee
Shall come bending unto thee,
And all they that despised thee shall bow down
At the soles of thy feet;
And they shall call thee The city of the LORD,
The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
57. The Prince of Ezekiel's Republic. We now contrast with the Deutero-Isaianic book of consolation the eschatological prophecies of Ezekiel, especially the last nine chapters of his book. After the great vision of Israel's resurrection (32) and the prophecy of Magog's march against Israel, and the destruction of this northern army, — after two sections of an apocalyptic character follows, as the seventh book of the collection dated fourteen years subsequent to the destruction of Jerusalem, a tableau of the divine service and the public life of restored Israel. Who, in this detailed picture of the final period, is the prince (נׇשִֹיא [nasi']), whom it presupposes? Far from being a high priest he is rather a layman. His relation to the priesthood and to the sanctuary is sharply defined, and his chief preeminence only consists in his being able to hold sacrificial meals in the hall of the east door, which remains shut after the glory (כְּבוֹד [kevod], δοξα [doxa]) of Jehovah has passed through it into the temple. The sacrificial duties of the prince are exactly indicated and dynastic excesses are prevented through exact regulations. The successor of the prince is also the universal heir. The prince can make presents from his domain to his other sons, but only to his lawful heirs (Eze 46:16). Presents which he gives to his servants fall to the crown in the year of jubilee (ver 17). In all these details the prince is described as entirely human. Ezekiel foretells (37:24, 34:23) that a second David will be the one Shepherd of the reunited Israel, and it is remarkable that his very last word is (29:21): "In that day will I cause a horn to bud for the house of Israel." Is it not probable that this horn is the future Messiah? How then is the prince (נׇשִֹיא [nasi']), who although a particular member of the church (membrum praecipuum ecclesiae) is still a layman, related to the Messiah?
Ezekiel 46:16 Thus saith the Lord GOD: If the prince give a gift unto any of his sons, it is his inheritance, it shall belong to his sons; it is their possession by inheritance.Ezekiel 46:17 But if he give of his inheritance a gift to one of his servants, it shall be his to the year of liberty; then it shall return to the prince; but as for his inheritance, it shall be for his sons.
Ezekiel 37:24 And My servant David shall be king over them, and they all shall have one shepherd; they shall also walk in Mine ordinances, and observe My statutes, and do them.
Ezekiel 34:23 And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even My servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.
58. Ezekiel's unfulfilled Prophecy. The correct solution of this and of other perplexing questions is found in the fact that this concluding vision of Ezekiel is an unfulfilled prophecy, because the condition of the fulfilment has not been realized. If the Israel of both kingdoms had returned with repentance and with the renewal of their first love from the lands of the exile, then their national and religious commonwealth would have been shaped as Ezekiel here sees it. But since this did not occur, there came meanwhile in the place of this ideal temple and state the spiritual house (οικος πνευματικος [oikos pneumatikos]) of the church of Christ (John 2:19) with its spiritual sacrifices (πνευματικαι ϑυσιαι [pneumatikai thusiai] 1 Peter 2:5), which the new temple of Ezekiel foreshadowed, but did not allegorically symbolize. It is significant for the intermediate character of this picture that the sublime form of the second David disappeared from the prophet in the midst of this vision. The picture is ecclesiastical and political, and we miss the Messianic consecration which we would like to read between the lines.
John 2:19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.1 Peter 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
59. Tendency and Signification of Ezekiel's Tora. We need not be surprised that the New Testament should prepare the way for itself in the Old, but that during the Old Testament period the Old Testament should be transformed into the New is in itself a contradictory throught. The offering which the Servant of Jehovah makes of himself on the one hand, and the offering of rams upon the altar of the new Jerusalem on the other in Deutero-Isaiah are a mutual contradiction which is not removed. The head of the prophet rises to Golgotha, where there is no more sacrifice, but his feet stand on Old Testament ground. This unreconcilable contradiction appears more prominent in Ezekiel than elsewhere because he is the most pictorial among the prophets. Nevertheless the New Testament Spirit announces itself within the bounds of the Old. Even in Isaiah 56, 66:21 we find promises which are contradictory to the Mosaic law. But Ezekiel prophesies like a second Moses, and promulgates a new Tora. In this respect his prophecy in the midst of the Old Testament is a testimony against the immutability of the Tora, and so to speak, is the shattering of its stone letters. But the renewal of the old has nevertheless its prophetic limits. The prophet does not mention any ark of the covenant in the new temple. Instead of the cherubim made with hands are the living cherubs as the bearers of the divine glory, and in the holy place of the temple there is no table with shewbread and no golden candlestick, but only a plain wooden table instead of the golden altar. In general the entire description has a tendency to simplification, which is a step towards the final abrogation of the splendor of the ancient worship and towards the worship of God in spirit and in truth. But Old Testament prophecy is by no means designed to transport us back to the forsaken standpoint of Judaism. In order that we may be able to retain its temporal and national descriptions as Christian hopes, we need a spiritual transubstantiation, such as the history of salvation has itself secured. After the exile the prerequisites for the realization of Ezekiel's temple found no place. Now since the realization of this temple was set aside in the progress of the history of salvation, and thus deprived of its literal externality, and since the stone temple at Jerusalem was for ever abolished through the temple of Christ s body (John 2:19), we must regard our Lord's resurrection in a glorified body as at the same time the erection of a spiritual temple, namely his church, which is the essence of what was abolished in Solomon's temple, and which the prophecy of Ezekiel, deprived of its non-essentials (subtractis subtrahendis), prefigures.
Isaiah 56:1-8 Thus saith the LORD:
Keep ye justice, and do righteousness;
For My salvation is near to come,
And My favour to be revealed.
Happy is the man that doeth this,
And the son of man that holdeth fast by it:
That keepeth the sabbath from profaning it,
And keepeth his hand from doing any evil.
Neither let the alien,
That hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying:
'The LORD will surely separate me from His people';
Neither let the eunuch say:
'Behold, I am a dry tree.'
For thus saith the LORD
Concerning the eunuchs that keep My sabbaths,
And choose the things that please Me,
And hold fast by My covenant:
Even unto them will I give in My house
And within My walls a monument and a memorial
Better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting memorial,
That shall not be cut off.
Also the aliens, that join themselves to the LORD, to minister unto Him,
And to love the name of the LORD,
To be His servants,
Every one that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it,
And holdeth fast by My covenant:
Even them will I bring to My holy mountain,
And make them joyful in My house of prayer;
Their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices
Shall be acceptable upon Mine altar;
For My house shall be called
A house of prayer for all peoples.
Saith the Lord GOD who gathereth the dispersed of Israel:
Yet I will gather others to him, beside those of him that are gathered.Isaiah 66:21 And of them also will I take for the priests and for the Levites, saith the LORD.
John 2:19 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
60. Daniel. In passing on to Daniel we take a step backward and at the same time forward; for on the one hand Daniel is named even in the book of Ezekiel as an example of righteousness (14:14, 20) and of wisdom (28:3), on the other the dates in the book of Daniel bring us down to the third year of Cyrus (555 B. C.), hence long after the time of Ezekiel. Daniel lived through the entire period of the exile. By reason of his fidelity to Jehovah he not only became a confessor and almost a martyr, but also arrived at great honor. He was a royal counsellor during three dynasties and had prophetic gifts without being officially a prophet. We have reason to expect that his political position and the universal view which he would have of history would be recognizable in the character of his prophecy, and since he stands over against heathen soothsayers and astrologers, we need not be surprised when his prophecy in the speciality of its contents resembles the heathen mantic. Nevertheless grave doubts exist about the composition of the book which bears his name in the time of the exile, and we are inclined to think that a man of God about the year 168 B. C. moulded the traditional Babylonian and Persian events, and the traditional prophecies of Daniel into a consolatory book for the contemporary church of confessors and martyrs of the time of Seleucidae. But the mystery of this book is not wholly solved through this assumption, and whenever it may have arisen, on account of its prophetic and especially its christological contents, it finds the most fitting place between Isaiah 40-66 and the post-exilic prophets.
Ezekiel 14:14, 20 — 14 ...though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD...20 though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.Remark. See Delitzsch's article on Daniel in Herzog and Plitt's Real-Encyklopadie fur protestantische Theologie und Kirche, vol. Ill, Leipzig 1878.Ezekiel 28:3 Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel!
There is no secret that they can hide from thee!
61. The Messianic People in Daniel's Visions. In Daniel's interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream concerning the image of the four monarchies (2) a stone that was not cut out with hands rolls upon the feet of the human image, which are partly of iron and partly of clay, breaks the entire colossus, and becomes a great mountain which fills the earth. What does this stone signify? It is according to Daniel's interpretation (2:44) the imperishable kingdom of the final period, hence the Messianic kingdom, as also in Psalm 118:22 the stone is not in its primary signification the Messiah, but Israel as the Messianic people. We can recognize here the after-effect of the new turn which Messianic prophecy took in Isaiah 40-66. Even Daniel beholds the Messiah and Israel as one, since he is the personal concentration of Israel. Israel is the stock, and the Messiah the top of the tree. Israel is the kingdom (מַלְכוּ [malku]) and he is the king Messiah (מֶלֶךְ מְשִׁיחׇא [melek mashiach]).
Daniel 2:44 And in the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; nor shall the kingdom be left to another people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, but it shall stand for ever.In the vision (7) where he sees the world-empires as four great animals ascending out of the sea he beholds one like the son of man (ver 13 כְֶּבַר אֶנׇשׁ [k'var enash]) brought before the Ancient of days, who gives him the everlasting dominion over all the earth. Even here the interpretation of verse 18 does not expressly indicate the person of the Messiah, but the saints of the most High (קַדִּישֵׁי עֶלְיוֹנִין [kadishei elyonin]), hence the holy people of the future (Isaiah 4:3) or the Messianic church. Nevertheless there is One whom Daniel beholds, both as superhuman, and as still a human being, and this One is doubtless the Christ, who (Mark 14:62 and parallels) with reference to this vision of Daniel calls himself the Son of man (τον υιον του ανϑρωπου [ton uion tou anthropou]). He is however what He is not for Himself alone, but for His church and together with it. But why does Daniel see Him as the Son of man? Sin rules in the world; although it does not distort men diabolically yet it does brutally. Therefore animals are emblems of the world-powers, but the one who overthrows the world-empire and who becomes an everlasting king of an everlasting kingdom is in contrast to the secularized, bestialized human race an ideal, holy man, who in such a superhuman and yet so human way brings the history of mankind to its ideal conclusion. Ezekiel beholds Jehovah as the "appearance of a man" (1:26; כְּמַרְאֶה אׇדׇם [k'mareh adam]), Daniel beholds the coming ruler of the world. What a significant progress! The Messiah is David, He is in a transcendently antitypical character what David was; the Messiah is Israel (Isaiah 49:3), He is in a completed subjectivity what Israel shall be; the Messiah is the Son of man, he is in a perfectly realized ideality what the human race, according to God's decree, is destined to become.Psalm 118:22 The stone which the builders rejected
Is become the chief corner-stone.Isaiah 4:3 And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written unto life in Jerusalem;Remark. The name "Son of man," which the Lord gives himself, certainly does not stand disconnected from Daniel 7:13, but the ruler of the world is not called there the Son of man, but the seer beholds him as a son of man! Moreover בַּר-אְֶנׇשׁ (bar-'enash) was never a name of the Messiah in the Synagogue, and that the notion of the Messiah and of the son of man are not identical, appears from Matthew 16:13-16. The Lord calls himself Son of man (1) as the man of humiliation, in whom all the sufferings of mankind are concentrated, and in whom the history of mankind finds its deepest significance. We see this e. g. from Matthew 8:20 the first passage in the gospel where the Lord gives Himself this name. (2) As the man of glory, in whom the grandeur of mankind culminates, which was lost by sin, but was regained by Him, in whom therefore human history ascends from the lowest depth to the loftiest height, from the depth of sin and bondage of death to the height of righteousness, victory, and eternal life. In this sense the Lord says e. g. that God has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of man (John 5:27). He is on the one hand the Son of man, as the seed of the woman, who suffers the sting in the heel from the serpent, and on the other who conquers, although He falls in the conflict, by crushing the head of the serpent.Mark 14:62 And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Isaiah 49:3 And He said unto me: 'Thou art My servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.'Daniel 7:13 I saw in the night visions,
And, behold, there came with the clouds of heaven
One like unto a son of man,
And he came even to the Ancient of days,
And he was brought near before Him.Matthew 16:13-16 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Matthew 8:20 And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
John 5:27 And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
62. The Mystery of the Seventy Weeks. In the vision of the seventy weeks (9) we see the Messianic prophecy in Daniel, likewise standing on a Deutero-Isaianic ground, still farther developed. We do not urge, that here according to a probable interpretation מׇשִׁיחַ (mashiach/messiah) is the high priest Onias III (murdered 176 B. C.), נׇגִיד (nagid/prince) the Graeco-Roman sovereign of the world, and מׇשִׁיחַ נׇגִיד Christ the high priest and king in one person, but we simply call attention to the description of the future salvation (ver 24):
"Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to put a stop to wickedness, and to cause sins to cease, and to atone for transgression, and to bring about an everlasting righteousness, and to seal [namely through fulfilment] vision and prophecy, and to anoint a holy sanctuary."The goal of the Old Testament hope is here so spiritually conceived with the definiteness of a theological formula, is expressed so entirely after the manner of the apostolic proclamation, and the hope of redemption, reconciliation, and justification is brought in such close connection with the Messianic hope, that we even here see the seed of the new knowledge, which was scattered in Isaiah 40-66 spring up. From this time forward the faith, which has arrived at an understanding of prophecy, not only awaits the Lion of the tribe of Judah, but also the sacrificial Lamb; not only a new covenant but also a mediator between God and man; not only a reconciliation with God, but also a human reconciler.Remark. Auberlen's (Der Prophet Daniel und die Offenbarung Johannis, Ed. II. Basel, 1857) view that the seventy weeks are to be reckoned from 457 B. C. the time of Ezra's return to Jerusalem until 33 A. D. the time of Stephen's martyrdom and the transition of Christianity to the heathen rests upon the untenable traditional view, that 26a refers to the death of Christ. Our version renders the passage in the same manner: "And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be out off, but not for himself," see Keils' commentary on the history of the interpretation of this passage.
CHAPTER XIII.
Messianic Predictions of the post-exilic Prophets.As now after the first years of Cyrus' monarchy (536 B. C.) the people again gathered from a foreign country in their own native land, it soon appeared, that prophecy has not only something divine (ϑειον [theion]), but also something human (ανϑρωπινον [anthropinon]), for the prophet is not merely a man of God, who beholds the ultimate future as it is, but also a human child, who sees it nearer than it is. This long-sightedness which is made possible through the Spirit serves the divine plan of salvation as well as the short-sightedness with which it is admixed. It is entirely in God's order, that the prophets of the exile should behold the final glory in close connection with the end of the exile, and that those who returned hoped to experience that glory. They could base this hope upon the fact that Babylon had fallen under the circumstances prophesied, and that God had moved the heart of Cyrus to release Israel voluntarily and honorably; and it was not contrary to this hope that not the entire people, but only a part returned (שְׁאׇר יׇשׁוּב [she'ar yashuv] the remnant will convert). Therefore the psalms of the period of the restoration are full of enthusiasm, of glory, and of triumph. The author of Psalm 118, which was probably sung at the first feast of tabernacles in Jerusalem, when an altar was first erected on the holy place, exults (ver 22, 23):
"The stone which the builders rejected is become the head stone of the corner. This was from Jehovah; it is marvellous in our eyes."The people of God cast aside by the heathen as useless and now miraculously elevated from deep humiliation has by this means become conscious of as great an importance among the nations, as the corner stone has among the stones of a building. But it was soon evident, that Israel would only be this through hope in Him by whom the world-career of Israel should be completely realized (Matt 21:41-44; Acts 4:11, compare Isa 28:16; Rom 9:33; 1 Peter 2:6).Matthew 21:41-44 They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.Even under Cyrus the people were prohibited from continuing to build the temple. The interdict continued under Cambyses (529-522 B. C.) and Pseudo-Smerdis (522-521 B. C.) But in the second year of Darius Hystaspis (520 B. C.) through the stimulus of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah the building in spite of the interdict was again resumed, and then was approved and favored from Ecbatana.Acts 4:11 This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.
Isaiah 28:16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD:
Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone,
A tried stone, a costly corner-stone of sure foundation;
He that believeth shall not make haste.Romans 9:33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
1 Peter 2:6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
64. Haggai's Prophecy concerning the Glory of the Second Temple. The book of Haggai contains four addresses from the second year of Darius Hystaspis (520 B. C.). The peculiar call of the prophet in the continuation of the Messianic proclamation is conspicuous in the second and fourth addresses. It was given him to prophecy that the fulfilment of salvation was connected with the second temple. In 2:6-9 the prophet reports the oracle of Jehovah Zebaoth:
"Yet once, it is a little while, and I shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land."Once already the God of Israel overthrew Babylon and so broke open the prison of Israel, without securing the entire freedom of His people; yet once again amid mighty natural phenomena He will shake the nations of the world. From this convulsion the Temple will become the sacred centre, and from it the freedom of the world and of Israel as a free people will proceed —"And I will shake all nations and the precious things of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith Jehovah Zebaoth."The shaking is an act of judicial wrath, but at the same time also of awakening grace, which moves all the heathen to bring the precious things, which they possess (חֶמְדַּת כׇל-הַגּוֹיִם [chemdat kol hagoyim]) as a consecrated offering to the God of Israel. The temple now rises under miserable circumstances, but He whose house it is, is the Absolute ruler who knows how to provide for the adornment of his Sanctuary :"Mine is the silver, and mine is the gold saith Jehovah Zebaoth. Greater shall be the glory of this latter house than of the former [that of Solomon], saith Jehovah Zebaoth, and in this place will I give peace, saith Jehovah Zebaoth."The last temple is not contrasted with the first, but the more than Solomonic glory with that of Solomon. God will grant peace in this place. This temple shall be the source and the bond of peace for the nations. This prophecy has been fulfilled in so far as Jerusalem, is the point from which the religion of reconciliation, of the love of man, and so of peace has gone forth.
65. Zerubbabel as the Continuation of the Messianic Line. The last of the four addresses of Haggai crowns Zerubbabel the Jewish governor of Judea under Persia with the promise (2:21, 23):
"I will shake the heavens and the earth, and I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms. ... In that day, saith Jehovah Zebaoth, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel my servant, saith Jehovah, and will put thee on as a signet, for I have chosen thee, saith Jehovah Zebaoth."It was secondly, Haggai's peculiar calling to prophesy that the dominion of the house of David over the world should be connected with the family of Zerubbabel. The line of Jehoiachin, whom Jeremiah contemptuously calls כׇּנְיׇהוּ (kanyahu/Coniah), was rejected (Jer 22:24), but in Zerubbabel the Davidic kingdom blooms anew. The promise, given to him, is the counter-part of Jehovah's dreadful threat: "I will pluck thee up."Jeremiah 22:24 As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon My right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence;Remark. See Delitzsch article "Die zweifache Genealogie des Messias" in the Zeitschrift fur die gesammte lutherische Theologie und Kirche, Leipzig 1860, p. 460-485 where it is shown, that even in the Jewish literature the Messiah is traced back on the one hand to Solomon, the son of David, and on the other to Nathan, the son of David (compare "the house of Nathan," Zech 12:12).Zechariah 12:12 And the land shall mourn, every family apart: The family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; The family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;
66. The two Parts of Zechariah. Zechariah's activity began in the second year of Darius. According to Nehemiah 12 he occupied the position of the head of a family under the high priest Jehoiakim which his grand-father Iddo had held under the high priest Joshua. At the time indicated in chapter 2:4 when he beholds the following vision he is still young. We must neither confound him with the martyr Zechariah the son of Jehoiada (2 Chron 24:20-22), nor with Zechariah the son of Jeberechia (Isa 8:2). If chapters 9-14 of Zechariah are an older work which does not belong to the post-exilic Zechariah, we may conjecture that his older colleague, who has the same name, participated in it. The book of Zechariah is really divided into two parts. The first half (1-8) has grown entirely out of the circumstances of the second and fourth years of Darius, in the second half however pre-exilic conditions and occurrences seem to be mirrored, especially such as are closely connected with the Syrian and Ephraimitic war. But there cannot be any doubt that the first portion of the book which is partly oratorical and partly visionary belongs to the post-exilic Zechariah.
Zechariah 2:4 Then said I: 'What come these to do?' And he spoke, saying: 'These—the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head—these then are come to frighten them, to cast down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.'2 Chronicles 24:20-22 And the spirit of God clothed Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said unto them: 'Thus saith God: Why transgress ye the commandments of the LORD, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the LORD, He hath also forsaken you.' And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD. Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said: 'The LORD look upon it, and require it.'
Isaiah 8:2 ...and I will take unto Me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.'
67. Zechariah's Prediction concerning the Future Zemach. The fourth of Zechariah's night visions (3) is a judicial scene. The angel of Jehovah is the judge. Before him stands Joshua, the high priest, drawn thither to judgment by Satan, who, conscious of his power, stands at his right hand. But his accusation is without effect. Joshua is confirmed by the angel of Jehovah in his office with promises. The first (3:7) assures him of a free admittance to the beings before God's throne; and the second is as follows (ver 8):
"Hear now Joshua, the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee, for they are typical men [אַנְשֵׁי מוֹפֵת הֵמׇּה (anshei mofet hemah)], for behold I will bring my Servant, Zemach."Joshua and the subordinate priests are indicated as אַנְשֵׁי מוֹפֵת viri prodigii, that is, men of typical signification. It is the coming of the Zemach, which they prepare, prefigure, and assure. The name which appears as an appellative in Isaiah 4:2 has become here still more than in Jeremiah 23:5 and 33:15 a proper name of the Messiah. He is thus named as the Sprout of David, who grows from humility to glory, and who spreads about himself holiness and splendor. The consequence of the Parousia of the Zemach is announced in verse 9, as the removal of the guilt of the land in one day. The Zemach is not made the mediator of this blotting out of sin, but he appears as the gift of God's grace, which radically removes the sins of Israel, similarly as in Daniel 9.Zechariah 3:7 'Thus saith the LORD of hosts: If thou wilt walk in My ways, and if thou wilt keep My charge, and wilt also judge My house, and wilt also keep My courts, then I will give thee free access among these that stand by.Isaiah 4:2 In that day shall the growth of the LORD be beautiful and glorious,
And the fruit of the land excellent and comely
For them that are escaped of Israel.Jeremiah 23:5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD,
That I will raise unto David a righteous shoot,
And he shall reign as king and prosper,
And shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.Jeremiah 33:15 In those days, and at that time,
Will I cause a shoot of righteousness to grow up unto David;
And he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.Zechariah 3:9 For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone are seven facets; behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the LORD of hosts: And I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.
68. The two Crowns. By reason of an historical event (6:10 etc.) the prophecy concerning Zemach is repeated with greater elaboration. Three Babylonian exiles come with a gift of silver and gold to Jerusalem. The prophet is to receive it and to set the crowns (עֲתׇרוֹת [atarot]) made from it upon the head of Joshua the high priest, probably a silver crown as the sign of the high priest, and a golden one as the sign of the king, in order to be a type of the future One, who in one person will be a bearer of the double crown (ver 12):
"Behold a man whose name is Zemach, from his ground he will sprout [that is from the native ground of the Holy Land, compare Isa 4:2b where he is called פְּרִי הׇאׇרֶץ (peri ha'aretz/fruit of the earth)] and will build the temple of Jehovah."Since in 4:9 the promise is given to Zerubbabel that his hands shall finish building the temple, another temple must be here intended. Again it is said with וְהוּא (v'hu/and you) in order to distinguish Zemach from Zerubbabel (ver 13):Isaiah 4:2 In that day shall the growth of the LORD be beautiful and glorious,
And the fruit of the land excellent and comely
For them that are escaped of Israel."And he (וְהוּא) shall build the temple of Jehovah [hence the temple of the final period which is indicated in 2 Sam 7:13], and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne, and shall be a priest upon his throne, and a treaty of peace shall be between them both,"namely between the priest and king, since in his person priest and king are united to gether by a covenant of peace. The lyrical prophecy in Psalm 110 is here prophetically continued. The Messiah unites both offices as another Melchizedek.2 Samuel 7:13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.Psalm 110 A Psalm of David.
The LORD saith unto my lord: 'Sit thou at My right hand,
Until I make thine enemies thy footstool.'
The rod of Thy strength the LORD will send out of Zion:
'Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.'
Thy people offer themselves willingly in the day of thy warfare;
In adornments of holiness, from the womb of the dawn,
Thine is the dew of thy youth.
The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent:
'Thou art a priest for ever
After the manner of Melchizedek.'
The Lord at thy right hand
Doth crush kings in the day of His wrath.
He will judge among the nations;
He filleth it with the dead bodies,
He crusheth the head over a wide land.
He will drink of the brook in the way;
Therefore will he lift up the head.
69. The Climax of the Promise in Zechariah 8. In the answer which the prophet Zechariah gives the Bethlehemites who come to question him respecting the memorial days of mourning (Zech 7-8) the promises rise in chapters eight through ten intervals or degrees higher and higher. The person of the Messiah is not indeed taken into account, but the Messianic period is described all the more gloriously. The prophet here paraphrases, so to speak, Micah's and Isaiah's prophecies (Micah 4:2; Isa 2:3). The nations are seized with a powerful desire to go to Jerusalem. Through repentance confession and prayer they prepare the way to the church of Jehovah. They press towards it and wish to be taken into the communion of Israel (vers 23):
"Thus saith Jehovah Zebaoth; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men from all tongues of the nations shall take hold of the skirt of a Jewish man, saying: Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."The Israel of the final period is intended, in whose restoration Jehovah will make Himself known as the God of the world's history and of prophecy, — the believing Israel of the New Testament era.Micah 4:2 And many nations shall go and say:
'Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
And to the house of the God of Jacob;
And He will teach us of His ways,
And we will walk in His paths';
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.Isaiah 2:3 And many peoples shall go and say:
'Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
And He will teach us of His ways,
And we will walk in His paths.'
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
70. The two Burdens in Zechariah 9-11, 12-14. We now turn to the second part of the book of Zechariah, of which chapters 9-11 are assigned by modern critics to a prophet in the time of Uzziah (compare 2 Chron 26:5). Chapters 12-14 on the contrary are attributed to a prophet from the period shortly before the Chaldean catastrophe (Isa 8:2). It is certain that chapters 1-8 and 9-14 do not fit immediately together. In chapters 1-8 the post-exilic age stands all the while before us. In chapters 9-14 on the contrary only two things are posible: either everything has sprung from a pre-exilic situation, or we are surrounded with apocalyptic mysteries in emblematic images, which are taken from pre-exilic circumstances. In chapters 1-8 the language is never contrary to that of a later period, in chapters 9-14 it may be compared with the language of a Joel and an Amos. The two halves resemble each other only in this respect, that both have regard to Israel as well as to Judah; that in both the person of the Messiah stands in a central position, and that in chapter 11 as well as in 6:9 etc. a symbolical act is assigned to the prophet. We hold that 9-14 is an apocalypse by the post-exilic Zechariah. That which is apparently pre-exilic is to be judged in the same way as that which apparently belongs to the Assyrian period in the apocalypse Isaiah 24-27.
71. The suffering King. The first oracle (9-11) begins with the prophecy respecting judgments which are to fall upon the nations round about Judah. During the visitation of these judgments Zion (Jerusalem) is not only protected, but becomes the seat of a royal throne which rules the world (9:9).
"Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion, shout, daughter of Jerusalem, behold thy king comes to thee, he is just and saved, afflicted and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, a foal of she-asses."It is here worthy of note and is more favorable for the post-exilic than the pre-exilic composition that the royal glory rises upon the dark ground of suffering. The coming king is צַדִּיק (tzaddik/righteous) and נוֹשׇׁע (nosha'/savior) a righteous one whom God has helped out of tribulation and struggle to salvation and victory; hence he is also called עׇנִי ('ani), that is, bowed, pressed down through sorrow. We still see him as the sufferer. His lowliness is not yet transformed into pure and full glory. Therefore he does not come loftily on a noble steed or in a grand coach of state like the kings of this world, but upon a peaceful animal; not upon one belonging to another, but upon a colt which has never been ridden (compare Matt 21:2), for he is the king of humble mind, of tender heart, and whose final object is peace (ver 10):"And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the bow of war shall be cut off, and he speaks peace to the nations."This prediction of the end of the war harmonizes with Psalm 46:10, Micah and Isaiah; and the closing thought, that the king as Solomon's antitype will rule the world with his word as the sceptre of peace is clothed in language from Psalm 72:8.Matthew 21:2 Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me.
Psalm 46:10 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth;Remark. The Niphal participle נוֹשׇׁע cannot signify "having salvation": the meaning is passive and נוֹשׇׁע bears the same relation to נֶעֶזׇר (ne'ezar/helped by) as salvatus (save) to adjutus (help). The king is a righteous one, who has passed through the school of suffering and who through passion has attained dominion. Yet in the history of tht fulfilment the entrance and reception of Christ as king is only a transient prelude.
He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder;
He burneth the chariots in the fire.Psalm 72:8 May he have dominion also from sea to sea,
And from the River unto the ends of the earth.
72. The good Shepherd with the two Staves. The proclamation of the catastrophe in 11:1-3, taken literally, extends no farther than the domain of the northern kingdom, and it is true that the twofold symbolical act described in 11:4-14, 15 etc. appears to present characteristics of the time before the Syrian and Ephraimitic war, as well as before the depopulation and dissolution of the kingdom of Israel through the Assyrian ruler. But if the author is a prophet of the Persian period the world-empire stands before his vision in its Grecian form (compare 10:5 with 9:13), and the catastrophe (11:1-3) is the one which falls upon the Holy Land, from the Grecian world-empire, of which the Roman forms the background (compare the vision of the four chariots 6:1-8).
Zechariah 10:5 And they shall be as mighty men,The thought which controls the next symbolical act is, that the people of God falls under the power of internal and external tyranny, because it has not the right kind of shepherds since it deserts the true shepherds. The prophet is comanded to take the herd of slaughter under his charge, which is butchered and treated tyrannically by its possessors. A period of anarchy, of despotism, of destructiveness breaks out and the poor herd needs more than ever a faithful shepherd. The prophet accomplishes the commission. The symbolic act receives through this means a visionary character. The prophet becomes the image of a future One. He tends the herd of slaughter and at the same time those who are suffering among the herd, that is, he devotes special attention to the poor and the unfortunate. He tends them with two staves the one called "grace" (נֹעַם [no'am]), and the other "bands" (חֹבְלִים [chovelim] 11:7), and frees the people from three shepherds in a single month.
Treading down in the mire of the streets in the battle,
And they shall fight, because the LORD is with them;
And the riders on horses shall be confounded.Zechariah 9:13 For I bend Judah for Me,
I fill the bow with Ephraim;
And I will stir up thy sons, O Zion,
Against thy sons, O Javan,
And will make thee as the sword of a mighty man.Zechariah 11:1-3 Open thy doors, O Lebanon,
That the fire may devour thy cedars.
Wail, O cypress-tree, for the cedar is fallen;
Because the glorious ones are spoiled;
Wail, O ye oaks of Bashan,
For the strong forest is come down.
Hark! the wailing of the shepherds,
For their glory is spoiled;
Hark! the roaring of young lions,
For the thickets of the Jordan are spoiled.Zechariah 6:1-8 And again I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there came four chariots out from between the two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of brass. In the first chariot were red horses; and in the second chariot black horses; and in the third chariot white horses; and in the fourth chariot grizzled bay horses. Then I answered and said unto the angel that spoke with me: 'What are these, my lord?' And the angel answered and said unto me: 'These chariots go forth to the four winds of heaven, after presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth. That wherein are the black horses goeth forth toward the north country; and the white went forth after them; and the grizzled went forth toward the south country; and the bay went forth'. And they sought to go that they might walk to and fro through the earth; and he said: 'Get you hence, walk to and fro through the earth.' So they walked to and fro through the earth. Then cried he upon me, and spoke unto me, saying: 'Behold, they that go toward the north country have eased My spirit in the north country.'
Zechariah 11:7 So I fed the flock of slaughter, verily the poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Graciousness, and the other I called Binders; and I fed the flock.These three shepherds are the three leading classes: prophets, priests and princes, as was recognized by Ephrem (d. about 373 A. D.), Theodoret (d. 457 A. D.) and Cyril (d. 444 A.D.). The term וׇאַכְחִד (va'achchid) is not to be understood so much of the destruction of persons, as of a destruction which ends their activity as office-bearers. The Christ, whose representative the prophet here is, enters upon his threefold office as shepherd by making room for himself through the deposition of the three kinds of bad shepherds. But since the benefit which he thus bestows upon his people does not receive its deserved recognition, he becomes weary of his office. After they compel him to break the staff called grace he seeks to lead them to a declaration which will show, whether they will terminate the relation to him or not (11:12):"And I said unto them, If it be good in your eyes, give me my reward, and if not forbear then they paid me as my reward thirty pieces of silver,"an insultingly small recompence for his service which reminds us of the valuation of a slave (Exo 21:32). Then Jehovah spoke to the shepherd (ver 13):"Cast it unto the potter, the valuable price that I was prized at of them! — Then I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of Jehovah."The meaning is that he shall throw it to the potter in order that it may fall into the clay which he purifies by treading (Isa 41:25). It is thus indicated that Israel from whom this paltry sum comes needs a transformation, and we are also furnished with a clew to the citation in the New Testament, where the thirty pieces of silver returned by Judas were used for the purchase of the potter's field, that is of one which furnished clay. At the same time it is apparent how the memory of the one citing the passage (Matt 27:9 etc.) could wander off to Jeremiah (18:4). But the fact that the shepherd throws the paltry sum into the clay in the house of Jehovah is designed to indicate that he casts away the pieces of silver in God's presence, who will call His unthankful people to account. Here upon the good shepherd breaks the staff of bands. The people become disunited: the different attitudes of the Jewish people to the good shepherd who appeared in Jesus has really torn it asunder internally, and made an end of its national independence for about two thousand years.Exo 21:32 If the ox gore a bondman or a bondwoman, he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.
Isaiah 41:25 I have roused up one from the north, and he is come,Remark. Zion and Javan (Greece) in 9:13 are contrasted as the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world. Greece was really for a prophet of the Persian period the next great monarchy of the future, and in 10:5 the riders on horses signify the Greeks, which through the war with the Persians learned the value of cavalry; under Alexander the Great they numbered a sixth of the army.
From the rising of the sun one that calleth upon My name;
And he shall come upon rulers as upon mortar,
And as the potter treadeth clay.Matthew 27:9 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value;
Jeremiah 18:4 And whensoever the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Zechariah 9:13 For I bend Judah for Me,
I fill the bow with Ephraim;
And I will stir up thy sons, O Zion,
Against thy sons, O Javan,
And will make thee as the sword of a mighty man.Zechariah 10:5 And they shall be as mighty men,
Treading down in the mire of the streets in the battle,
And they shall fight, because the LORD is with them;
And the riders on horses shall be confounded.
73. The foolish Shepherd. The other half of the symbolical act (11:15 etc.) represents the prophet as putting on the clothes of a foolish shepherd, whom Jehovah at length terribly destroys. If the good shepherd is an image of the future Christ, the foolish shepherd is the counterpart of Christ, that is, the ανομος (anomos/lawless), in whom the apostasy from Christ culminates (2 Thess 2:8, compare Isa 11:4). A heathen ruler is not meant, but one proceeding from the people, which has the name of the people of God. The closing words are as follows (vers 17):
"Woe to the idol shepherd, who forsakes the flock. Sword upon his arm and upon his right eye. His arm shall be entirely dried up and his right eye shall be utterly extinguished."The apostolic predictions of the antichrist's destruction (2 Thess 2:8; Rev 19:11 etc.) take on another form. The form here corresponds to the prediction of the second oracle (9-11, 12-14) in shocking images.2 Thessalonians 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:Remark. It appears that the phrase רֹעִי חׇאְֶלִיל (ro'i ha'elil/shepherd of no value) should be explained according to Job 13:4. It signifies a shepherd, whose character and activity stands in the same relation to the ideal of a shepherd as no to yes. The ending "i" of רֹעִי as of עֹזְבִי is Chirek compaginis, see the introduction Delitzsch's Commentary to Psalm 113.Isaiah 11:4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor,
And decide with equity for the meek of the land;
And he shall smite the land with the rod of his mouth,
And with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.Rev 19:11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
Job 13:4 But ye are plasterers of lies,
Ye are all physicians of no value.
74. The Conversion of unbelieving Judah. The beginning of the second oracle like that of the first reminds us of an older prophet. The first oracle commences like the round of judgments in Amos upon the nations, and the second like the judgment of the nations in the valley of Jehoshaphat, as described by Joel. We find in the twelfth chapter, where the prophet describes the universal conflict of the nations against Jehovah, and mentions even Judah among the enemies which are encamped against Jerusalem — a thought which never occurs elsewhere among the prophets. It is exclusively in Zechariah that the partition of Israel rises to such an eschatological image. But while Judah thus makes common cause with the world which is hostile to Christ, through God's grace at the very summit of his enmity, like Paul before Damascus, he comes to himself. Judah, now inwardly changed does all in his power to raise the siege against Jerusalem. The knowledge which has dawned upon him is light, and this light becomes fire, the knowledge becomes an energy which destroys everything that is opposed to it. Judah has encamped on the side of the world, but through God's grace is brought around, and is released from the bands of the hostile world sooner than God's church itself. The church of God, which to a great extent owes its preservation to converted Judah, will go forth from this danger of destruction more glorious than ever (12:8):
"In that day shall Jehovah defend the inhabitants of Israel, and he that stumbles among them at that day shall be like David, and the house of David like Elohim, like the angel of Jehovah before them."We here encounter the same representation as that which is presupposed by the final vision in Ezekiel. Israel in the future, will again be a state under Davidic princes and each of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will be provided according to their need and their calling with supernatural strength, but on the contrary as verse 9 affirms in the gathering of the nations against Jerusalem God accomplishes the divine decree in their destruction.Zechariah 12:9 And it shall come to pass in that day,
That I will seek to destroy all the nations
That come against Jerusalem.
75. The Pierced One. In 12:10 the prophet establishes what he presupposes in verses 5-8, that there will be a Jerusalem true to God and beloved by Him at a time when Judah will still be among His enemies (ver 10):
"And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication [for grace]."No mention is made here or hereafter of Judah. The house of David by synecdoche of the part for the whole (partis pro toto) takes the place of that which Paul (Rom 9:25 etc.) calls all Israel.Romans 9:25 As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.The word תַּחֲנוּנִים (tachanunim/supplications) also occurs in Jeremiah's predictions of the restoration of Israel (Jer 3:25, 31:9). The change in the relation to the God of salvation, which the prophet after the example of Joel (3:1) and Deutero-Isaiah (44:3) indicates as the effect of an out-pouring of the Holy Spirit, is at the same time a change with respect to the Mediator of salvation:"And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him like the mourning for his only son, and weep bitterly for him, as one weeps bitterly for his first-born."The reading אֶלַי ('ela/upon) instead of אֵלׇיו ('elav) is confirmed by the Septuagint, the Peschitto, the Targum and Jerome, on the contrary the New Testament cites the passage in an abbreviated form (John 19:37; Rev 1:7).Jeremiah 3:25 Let us lie down in our shame,
And let our confusion cover us;
For we have sinned against the LORD our God,
We and our fathers,
From our youth even unto this day;
And we have not hearkened
To the voice of the LORD our God.'Jeremiah 31:9 They shall come with weeping,
And with supplications will I lead them;
I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters,
In a straight way wherein they shall not stumble;
For I am become a father to Israel,
And Ephraim is My first-born.Joel 3:1 And it shall come to pass afterward,
That I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh;
And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions;Isaiah 44:3 For I will pour water upon the thirsty land,
And streams upon the dry ground;
I will pour My spirit upon thy seed,
And My blessing upon thine offspring;John 19:37 And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.The idea which is conveyed when Jehovah here indicates Himself as the pierced One, pierced namely in the good Shepherd, extends incomparably farther than that which is usually expressed concerning the inhabitation of Jehovah in His angel, or of Jehovah in His Prophet. It is the utmost individualization of the phrase Isaiah 63:9: In all their affliction he was afflicted. It presupposes an unique mutual immanence of Jehovah and His Shepherd or His Servant who is also called a pierced One Isaiah 53:5. The prophet next proceeds in the description of the final repentance of his people (ver 11):Revelation 1:7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
"In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon"that is, as in that place a great and deep mourning of the people was heard when it was known that the much beloved king Josiah had been mortally wounded (2 Chron 35:25). The prophet then describes how all ranks of the people are seized with repentant sorrow, and break out in lamentation (vs. 12-14):Isaiah 53:5 But he was wounded because of our transgressions,
He was crushed because of our iniquities:
The chastisement of our welfare was upon him,
And with his stripes we were healed."And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart — all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart."The unusual specification of the women is intended to show that the matter is not merely of a national character, in which the men alone are concerned, but that it is personal in which both duties and privileges are alike for man and wife. Moreover it is a national mourning like that for Josiah. It extends from Jerusalem and the house of David throughout the entire land. Hence the family of David stands at the head, with which that of Nathan is coordinated (2 Sam 5:14), and then is followed by the priestly family of Levi, with which the family of Shimei (Num 3:21) is reckoned. In both cases the chief and the side lines are classed together in order to indicate the families in their full extent. Finally the enumeration ends with the mention of all families which will still remain at that time of Israel's great repentance. It will be the remnant (שְׁאׇר [she'ar]) of the people which is penetrated through judgment; not the mass, but the remnant will recognize in the pierced One their Saviour.2 Chronicles 35:25 And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah; and all the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations, unto this day; and they made them an ordinance in Israel; and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.
2 Samuel 5:14 And these are the names of those that were born unto him in Jerusalem: Shammua, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon;And while the Spirit from above compels the Jewish people to feel the pain of repentance, nevertheless they need not despair because of the consciousness of their guilt (13:1):Numbers 3:21 Of Gershon was the family of the Libnites, and the family of the Shimeites; these are the families of the Gershonites.
"In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness."Here also the house of David and Jerusalem represent the entire people, and here also sin and forgiveness are placed in the closest connection with the pierced One, so that there is only a step to Hebrews 10:22 etc.; 1 John 1:7, compare 5:6.Hebrews 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
1 John 5:6 This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.
76. The Shepherd's Death and the scattering of the Flock. The prophecy in 13:7 after the analogy of these two oracles (מַשׇֹּא [masa']) recedes and transports itself to the time of the fateful murder and its direful consequences:
"Sword, awake against my Shepherd, and against the man of my fellowship, saith Jehovah Zebaoth. Smite the Shepherd, so that the sheep may be scattered: and I will turn my hand to the little ones."Jehovah Himself summons the sword, for all the sins of men serve even against their will the plan of God, and exactly in this judicial murder God fulfills His counsel (Isa 53:5 and 10). There arises for the mass of the people in connection with this capital crime deserved misfortune. The consequence of the Shepherd's death is the scattering of the flock, but there are some from whom God's grace does not turn away, little ones (צֹעֲרִים [tzo'arim]), that is, those who are meanly esteemed by themselves and others, whose opinion is not that of the mass. The New Testament references (Matt 26:31 etc., Mark 14:27) are so far fully justified, as they apply these utterances to Jesus Christ, to His death and its consequences. The verses 8-9 are a sketch of the final stadia of Israel's history resembling that in Isaiah 6:11-13.Isaiah 53:5 But he was wounded because of our transgressions,
He was crushed because of our iniquities:
The chastisement of our welfare was upon him,
And with his stripes we were healed.Isaiah 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to crush him by disease;
To see if his soul would offer itself in restitution,
That he might see his seed, prolong his days,
And that the purpose of the LORD might prosper by his hand:Matthew 26:31 Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.
Mark 14:27 And Jesus saith unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.
Zechariah 13:8-9 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD,
Two parts therein shall be cut off and die;
But the third shall be left therein.
And I will bring the third part through the fire,
And will refine them as silver is refined,
And will try them as gold is tried;
They shall call on My name,
And I will answer them;
I will say: 'It is My people',
And they shall say: 'The LORD is my God.'Isaiah 6:11-13 Then said I: 'Lord, how long?' And He answered:
'Until cities be waste without inhabitant,
And houses without man,
And the land become utterly waste,
And the LORD have removed men far away,
And the forsaken places be many in the midst of the land.And if there be yet a tenth in it, it shall again be eaten up; as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remaineth, when they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the stock thereof.'
77. Recapitulation of the Christological Predictions in Zechariah 2. In the two oracles (מַשׇֹּא [masa']) of the second part of the book of Zechariah there are, as we have found, in each two christological prophecies: in chapters 9-11 the prediction of the entrance of the King into Jerusalem with the air of a sufferer, and of the Shepherd who received a contemptuous reward. These two prophecies are a hysteron-proteron, for first the future One consumes Himself in work for His people, He is then exalted to a kingdom which rules the world — and in chapters 12-14 the prophecy of remorseful recognition by the Jewish people of their capital crime on the pierced God-man, and on the Shepherd beloved of God, upon whom Jehovah's sword falls; even these two prophecies move from the more remote to the nearer, for the lamentation because of the murdered One precedes the bloody deed, which they will confess as their greatest national sin, God's surrender of Him and this surrender of Himself, which they will recognize as the source of their salvation. After the great predictions of the passion in the second part of Isaiah such special disclosures respecting the sufferings and death of Christ need not surprise us. They cannot be explained on natural principles. It is enough that it was then God's chosen time to reveal them. There is a great difference between properly prophetic addresses, which were delivered more or less as they are written, and such apocalyptic disclosures which remain sealed until the time of fulfilment.
78. The Completion of the Theocracy. Zechariah, beginning with 13:8, describes the period of judgment which will purge away their dross, and the glory which will then break forth. The nations besiege Jerusalem. An earthquake which cleaves the mount of Olives helps the inhabitants to flee. It will be a day without a parallel, — a nocturnal day, but at evening time it will be light. Jerusalem will then be a source of living water. The three descriptions, Zechariah 14:8; Ezekiel 47:1; Joel 4:18 through their deviations from each other show that this eschatological picture of the living waters flowing from Jerusalem must not be understood literally. The prophet is transported to the period of the completed kingdom of God (14:9):
"And Jehovah shall be King over all the earth; in that day shall Jehovah be one, and His name one."The goal of redemptive history is nowhere more deeply, clearly, and pregnantly expressed in the Old Testament. The theocracy at length breaks through the existing barriers of the nation, and becomes in the entire earth a reality and a truth. This thought is also the solution of the theocratic psalms, which like Psalm 93 begin with "the Lord has taken the kingdom" (deus regnum capessivit). The above prediction of the prophet coincides with John 10:16: "There shall be one fold, one shepherd." Jehovah will be one, since in the consciousness and worship of the nations He has judged the false gods through the exhibition of His power and grace, and His name is one, since the names of the idols will be no more remembered (13:2), and His name alone will be called on in prayer, and proclaimed in preaching.Zechariah 13:8 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD,
Two parts therein shall be cut off and die;
But the third shall be left therein.Zechariah 14:8 And it shall come to pass in that day,
That living waters shall go out from Jerusalem:
Half of them toward the eastern sea,
And half of them toward the western sea;
In summer and in winter shall it be.Ezekiel 47:1 And he brought me back unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward, for the forefront of the house looked toward the east; and the waters came down from under, from the right side of the house, on the south of the altar.
Joel 4:18 And it shall come to pass in that day,
That the mountains shall drop down sweet wine,
And the hills shall flow with milk,
And all the brooks of Judah shall flow with waters;
And a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD,
And shall water the valley of Shittim.Zechariah 13:2 And it shall come to pass in that day,
Saith the LORD of hosts,
That I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land,
And they shall no more be remembered;
And also I will cause the prophets
And the unclean spirit to pass out of the land.
79. Universal Holiness. When Jehovah, as thus described, shall have become one and His name one, Jerusalem will be throughout a holy city, in which nothing will be found which is not consecrated to God and hallowed by Him (14:20):
"In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness unto Jehovah! and the pots in Jehovah's house shall be like the sacrificial bowls before the altar."The most common things will then be so hallowed that the inscription upon the plate of the high priest's holy crown (Exo 28:36) shall now stand upon the bells of the horses, and the former gradation in sanctity shall disappear to such an extent, that the pots in which the sacrificial flesh shall be boiled will be just as holy as the vessels, in which the priests catch the atoning blood that they may sprinkle it before the Lord. The prophet adds (ver 21):"And every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness to Jehovah Zebaoth, and all they that come to sacrifice shall take from them and shall boil in them, and there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of Jehovah Zebaoth in that day"that is there shall be no more temple-servants like the Gibeonites (Josh 9:27). The difference of rank in the service and in the relation to God has ceased. All is serviceable to God, and that which is serviceable to God is, without distinction, holy. The prophet thus describes in images and words, with which his age furnishes him the final glory of this world and the future glory of the next, which follows the final redemption. He beholds the final period of this world, and the next world in one vision.Exo 28:36 And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and engrave upon it, like the engravings of a signet: HOLY TO THE LORD.
Joshua 9:27 And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the LORD, unto this day, in the place which He should choose.
80. Malachi's Prediction concerning the Heathen. Zechariah prophesied under Darius Hystaspis (521-486 B. C.), Malachi under Artaxerxes Longimanus (464-424 B. C.) or his successor Darius Nothus (423-404 B. C.). The public evils, against which he directs his censure, are those which were found by Nehemiah in his second residence at Jerusalem. His censure in 1:6-2:9 concerns the priests. Jehovah had no pleasure in the priests of that post-exilic time. He was not willing to accept the meat offering which they brought to Him (1:11):
"For from the rising of the sun even to its going down, great is my name among the heathen, and in every place incense is offered to my name, a pure meat-offering, for great is my name among the heathen saith Jehovah Zebaoth."The present tense does not refer to the actual time of the writer, but to the future which appears to his prophetic eye as present, and Keil is right, when he here finds the thought, that the kingdom of God will be taken from the Jews and given to the heathen. The form which this thought takes is significant in two aspects:(1) the sacrificial ritual appears to be confined to the vegetable sacrifice (compare Isa 66:20).
Isaiah 66:20 And they shall bring all your brethren out of all the nations for an offering unto the LORD, upon horses, and in chariots, and in fitters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to My holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the LORD, as the children of Israel bring their offering in a clean vessel into the house of the LORD.(2) the connection of the divine service with Jerusalem seems here to be dissolved. — The phrase בְּכׇל-מׇקוֹם (b'chol makom/everywhere) harmonizes with the reply which Jesus gives in answer to the Samaritan woman (John 4:23), although the thought is clothed in a way which we might expect in the Old Testament.John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.Remark 1. If we apply the words of the prophet (1:11) to the present (as e. g. Kohler) the thought is expressed that the heathen everywhere, although unconsciously, worship the God who revealed Himself in Israel, but this idea extends far beyond Acts 17:23, is contradictory to Romans 1:25, and is without a parallel in the Old Testament (compare on the contrary Psa 9:18, 22:28). Both participles have the value of active present tenses with an indefinite subject, as "It is said," like "they say" Psalm 87:3. See Ewald, Ausfuhrliches Lehrbuch der Hebraischen Sprache, Gottingen 1870, sect. 295a . The ו before וּמִנְחׇה is an explicative, "and indeed" Ewald sect. 340b.Malachi 1:11 For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the sameRemark 2. The passages which Wellhausen, Geschichte Israels, Berlin 1878, p. 64 quotes for מִנְחׇה (minchah/offering) in the universal signification of offering need to be sifted. In Isaiah 1:13, etc. and everywhere in this prophet מִנְחׇה signifies the "meat offering." It does not include all oblations, not even in Numbers 16:15, excepting Genesis 4:3-5; 1 Samuel 2:17 (but not 2:29) and 26:19.
My name is great among the nations;
And in every place offerings are presented unto My name,
Even pure oblations;
For My name is great among the nations,
Saith the LORD of hosts.Acts 17:23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
Romans 1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
Psalm 9:18 The wicked shall return to the nether-world,
Even all the nations that forget GodPsalm 22:28 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the LORD;
And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee.Psalm 87:3 Glorious things are spoken of Thee, O city of God. Selah
Isaiah 1:13 Bring no more vain oblations;Remark 3. As a result of the modern theory concerning the origin of the Pentateuch the prophet Joel is considered post-exilic, since in his book Jerusalem appears as the centre of a worship which corresponds to that laid down in the so-called priestly codex. Duhm, Die Theologie der Propheten, Bonn 1875, p. 276, calls him in the frivolous manner which has now become the fashion, "an epigon (one late born), who has a great talent for the form, but is not overburdened with thoughts." Merx also in Die Prophetie der Joel und ihre Ausleger, Halle 1879, maintains that Joel lived after the execution of Nehemiah's reforms. We hold that all the reasons which are assigned for this position are invalid. Obadiah, Joel and Amos are trilologically united through their relation to the sad misfortune which befell Judah under Joram (2 Chron 21:16-17), and which became the real beginning of a Jewish diaspora. Obadiah is cited by Joel 3:5a , and Joel himself is one of the נְבִיא֪ים ק֭דְמוֹנִים [nevi'im kad'monim) (ancient prophets) which are referred to in Ezekiel 38:17.
It is an offering of abomination unto Me;
New moon and sabbath, the holding of convocations—
I cannot endure iniquity along with the solemn assembly.Numbers 16:15 And Moses was very wroth, and said unto the LORD: 'Respect not thou their offering; I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of them.'
Genesis 4:3-5 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering; 5 but unto Cain and to his offering He had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
1 Samuel 2:17 And the sin of the young men was very great before the LORD; for the men dealt contemptuously with the offering of the LORD.
1 Samuel 2:29 Wherefore kick ye at My sacrifice and at Mine offering, which I have commanded in My habitation; and honourest thy sons above Me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel My people?
1 Samuel 26:19 Now therefore, I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it be the LORD that hath stirred thee up against me, let Him accept an offering; but if it be the children of men, cursed be they before the LORD; for they have driven me out this day that I should not cleave unto the inheritance of the LORD, saying: Go, serve other gods.
2 Chronicles 21:16-17 And the LORD stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines, and of the Arabians that are beside the Ethiopians; and they came up against Judah, and broke into it, and carried away all the substance that was found in the king's house, and his sons also, and his wives; so that there was never a son left him, save Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons.Joel 3:5 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD
Shall be delivered;
For in mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those that escape,
As the LORD hath said,
And among the remnant those whom the LORD shall call.Ezekiel 38:17 Thus saith the Lord GOD: Art thou he of whom I spoke in old time by My servants the prophets of Israel, that prophesied in those days for many years, that I would bring thee against them?
81. The Angel of the Covenant. The prophet rebukes another cancerous affection of the people, from 2:17 to the end of his book. In connection with the blasphemous utterance of those who in the present allotment of events, fail to perceive the holiness and justice of God he prophesies the appearance of Jehovah in judgment, who will reveal the difference between the godless and the godly and who will introduce a new period (3:1):
"Behold, I send my angel and he prepares the way before me, and the Lord whom ye seek will suddenly come to His temple, and the angel of the covenant for whom ye long, behold, he comes, saith Jehovah Zebaoth."In both cases although the word מַלְאׇךְ (mal'ak/angel) does not designate one belonging to the order of real angels, yet it indicates a heavenly messenger sent by God. The angel of Jehovah, who prepares the way for the coming One, is according to 2:23 etc. Elijah, the prophet. Suddenly, that is immediately following His messenger, the Lord (הׇאׇדוֹן [ha'adon] which is the name of God Himself) will come. But in what relation does מַלְאׇךְ הַבְּרִית (mal'ak haberit/angel of the covenant) stand to הׇאׇדוֹן? The parallelism does not demand the identity of both, but only the immanence of the Lord in the angel. As verse 1a refers back to Isaiah 40:3-5, so the designation מַלְאׇךְ הַבְּרִית may be compared with Isaiah 42:6, 49:8, where it is said of the Servant of Jehovah that He will make him a covenant of the people (לִבְרִית עׇם [livrit 'am]).Isaiah 40:3-5 Hark! one calleth:Moreover this designation refers to Genesis 16, where the angel of Jehovah after the establishment of the covenant with Abram first appears to the exiled Hagar in order to secure the farther accomplishment of the covenanted promises. If we combine these fundamental passages, we find that מַלְאׇךְ הַבְּרִית is the name of the expected mediator of a new covenant, and that he is called the angel of the covenant, because in him the heavenly messenger, that is attained which the angelophanics of the primitive period prefigured and prepared. But nothing is said farther of the work of this mediator, for the future Christ, in the Old Testament prophecy, never had such an independent position beside Jehovah as to prevent him from always standing in the background in comparison with Him. The unbelieving pessimists of that period wish for the day of Jehovah, and therewith the angel of the covenant, without knowing what they desire. The Lord comes, and a messenger, who summons to repentance, prepares the way for Him. He comes in the angel of the covenant, He comes to His temple. What a visitation in the present decline of the priests and laity! He comes to establish a new covenant, because Israel has broken the old one and through this covenant has not become such a church as God desires (Jer 31:32).
'Clear ye in the wilderness the way of the LORD,
Make plain in the desert
A highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
And every mountain and hill shall be made low;
And the rugged shall be made level,
And the rough places a plain;
And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
And all flesh shall see it together;
For the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.'Isaiah 42:6 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness,
And have taken hold of thy hand,
And kept thee, and set thee for a covenant of the people,
For a light of the nations;Isaiah 49:8 Thus saith the LORD:
In an acceptable time have I answered thee,
And in a day of salvation have I helped thee;
And I will preserve thee, and give thee
For a covenant of the people,
To raise up the land,
To cause to inherit the desolate heritages;Jeremiah 31:32 ...not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; forasmuch as they broke My covenant, although I was a lord over them, saith the LORD.
82. The final Restoration. A new order of things is accomplished through judgment. The day of Jehovah has two sides, one worthy of the longing which is felt for it, and one which is terrible for those summoning it (3:2):
"And who can endure the day of His coming, and who can stand when He appears, for He is like a refiner s fire and like fuller's soap."This image of the refiner is retained in verse 3. The refining pertains particularly to the children of Levi, hence to the priestly tribe. When this shall have been winnowed and cleansed then they shall be according to verses 3b, 4:"[Such] as offer meat offerings unto Jehovah in righteousness. And the offering of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasant to Jehovah as in the days of old, and as in the former years."Malachi in his constant designation of the sacrifice as מִנְחׇה (minchah/offering) (2:12, 13, compare 1:10, 11, 13) betrays a certain opposition to animal sacrifices. When in verse 4 the glorious future appears to him to be essentially equivalent to a restoration of the glorious past (Isaiah 1:26), yet the angel of the covenant in verse 1 indicates a new covenant and hence the re-establishment of the commonwealth of Israel not only in the old form, but in one which will be new and glorified.Malachi 2:12, 13 May the LORD cut off to the man that doeth this,
Him that calleth and him that answereth out of the tents of Jacob,
And him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts.
And this further ye do:
Ye cover the altar of the LORD with tears,
With weeping, and with sighing,
Insomuch that He regardeth not the offering any more,
Neither receiveth it with good will at your hand.Malachi 1:10, 11, 13 — 10 Oh that there were even one among you that would shut the doors,
That ye might not kindle fire on Mine altar in vain!
I have no pleasure in you,
Saith the LORD of hosts,
Neither will I accept an offering at your hand.
11 For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same
My name is great among the nations;
And in every place offerings are presented unto My name,
Even pure oblations;
For My name is great among the nations,
Saith the LORD of hosts...
13 Ye say also:
'Behold, what a weariness is it!'
And ye have snuffed at it,
Saith the LORD of hosts;
And ye have brought that which was taken by violence,
And the lame, and the sick;
Thus ye bring the offering;
Should I accept this of your hand?
Saith the LORD.Isaiah 1:26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first,
And thy counsellors as at the beginning;
Afterward thou shalt be called The city of righteousness,
The faithful city.
83. The future Elijah. In 3:19 Malachi resumes the announcement of the day of Jehovah which he began with הִנְנִי (hinnei/behold) (3:1), and it is characteristic, that in verse 22 in connection with the prophecy of the day of Jehovah he says:
"Remember the law of Moses, my servant, whom I commanded in Horeb statutes and judgments for all Israel."The verb צִוׇּה (tzivah/which I command) is construed here as in Exodus 25:22 with the accusative of the person and of the thing. The חֻקִּים וּמִשְׁפׇטִים (chukim umishpatim/statutes and judgments) are the contents of the Thora as νομος εντολων (nomos entolon/law of commandments) (Eph 2:15). The prophet then returns to the messenger, who according to 3:1 prepares the way for the coming of the Lord (vs. 23, 24):Malachi 3:19 For, behold, the day cometh,
It burneth as a furnace;
And all the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble;
And the day that cometh shall set them ablaze,
Saith the LORD of hosts,
That it shall leave them neither root nor branch."Behold, I send you Elijah, the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of Jehovah, and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse".The prophet doubtless thinks of Elijah who together with Moses appeared with Jesus upon the mount of transfiguration. But in the fulfilment Elijah is only another Elijah, as Christ is another David, a powerful preacher of repentance, who causes, that the ancestors of Israel should agree with the children, and the children with their ancestors. The estrangement will cease, which now exists between the church of the old, better time and that of the present (compare the paraphrase in Luke 1:17).Exodus 25:22 And there I will meet with thee, and I will speak with thee from above the ark-cover, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.
Ephesians 2:15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
Malachi 3:1 Behold, I send My messenger,
And he shall clear the way before Me;
And the Lord, whom ye seek,
Will suddenly come to His temple,
And the messenger of the covenant,
Whom ye delight in,
Behold, he cometh,
Saith the LORD of hostsLuke 1:17 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.Remark. The termination of Malachi is so dreadful, that the Synagogue repeats the twenty-third verse after the twenty-fourth, but the Septuagint transposes the twenty-second verse to the end.
84. Wisdom as an Objective Existence. Malachi is the last voice of the Old Testament prophecy, and Coheleth (Ecclesiastes) of the Old Testament Chokma (wisdom). Even the Chokma in the midst of the religion of the Ancient Covenant has to a certain extent prepared the way for Christianity, since it stripped off the Israelitish husk from that which concerns man as such, and the external enactments of the Tora from God's will which pertains to mankind. Besides in its doctrine concerning the divine wisdom the Chokma prepared the way for the knowledge of the Logos and of the incarnation; for the fundamental idea of the Chokma-literature is that of wisdom itself. Wisdom appears even in the old proverbs of Solomon as in itself an existence in contradistinction to a subjective opinion (Pro 28:26). In the introductory discourses (1:7-9:18) an objectivity is assigned to it, which in its existence even approaches personality. She appears as a preacher and presents to all men life and death. She pours out upon those who do not reject it her spirit (1:23). She receives and hears prayers (1:28). She was with God even before the creation, as His primeval child possessing royal dignity (8:22-26). She was his chief worker (8:27-29, compare 3:19). She remained even after the creation His beloved, and daily pursued her delightful employment before Him, especially upon the earth, where man is her favorite (8:30 etc.). — The author of Proverbs 1:7-9:18 here stands upon Job 28, but raises himself to the conception of wisdom as the world-idea, and even almost to the conception of wisdom as a hypostasis, which as such has the world-idea in itself and is the medium of its creative and spiritual realization.
Proverbs 28:26 He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool;Remark. The utterances of Wisdom in Proverbs 1-9 come remarkably into contact with those of Jesus, especially in the fourth gospel, e. g. Proverbs 8:35, 36, compare John 8:51; and what is said in John 1:1 coincides essentially with the testimony of Wisdom respecting herself (Proverbs 8:22-23, 30):
But whoso walketh wisely, he shall escape.Proverbs 1:23 Turn you at my reproof;
Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you,
I will make known my words unto you.Proverbs 1:28 Then will they call me, but I will not answer,
They will seek me earnestly, but they shall not find me.Proverbs 8:22-26 The LORD made me as the beginning of His way,
The first of His works of old.
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning,
Or ever the earth was.
When there were no depths, I was brought forth;
When there were no fountains abounding with water.
Before the mountains were settled,
Before the hills was I brought forth;
While as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields,
Nor the beginning of the dust of the world.Proverbs 8:27-29 When He established the heavens, I was there;
When He set a circle upon the face of the deep,
When He made firm the skies above,
When the fountains of the deep showed their might,
When He gave to the sea His decree,
That the waters should not transgress His commandment,
When He appointed the foundations of the earth;Proverbs 3:19 The LORD by wisdom founded the earth;
By understanding He established the heavens.Proverbs 8:30 Then I was by Him, as a nursling;
And I was daily all delight,
Playing always before Him,"Jehovah brought me forth as the firstling of His way, as the earliest of His works of old. From everlasting I was set up, from the commencement after the primitive beginnings of the earth."Proverbs 8:35, 36 For whoso findeth me findeth life,
And obtaineth favour of the LORD.
But he that misseth me wrongeth his own soul;
All they that hate me love death.John 8:51 Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
85. Agur's Enigma. Even the comparison of Wisdom as equivalent to God's Son is consummated in the book of Proverbs (30:4):
"Who hath ascended up into heaven, and descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a cloth? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son's name if thou knowest?"The interrogator means by God's Son, the world-forming porwer which has gone forth from God and which is servicable to Him, the same which in chapter 8 is called wisdom, and is described as God's dear child. He might know God the creator of the world, and His Son the mediator of its creation in their being, but who could name them? The being of the Godhead transcends human knowledge! While Schultz, Alttestamentliche Theologie, Frankfort on-the-Main 1878, p. 513 holds that the question: "And who is His Son?" is to be understood as a proverb, Ewald acknowledges, Die Lehre der Bibel von Gott, Leipzig 1871-1876, vol. III, p. 82, that here the doctrine of the Logos as the first begotten and only Son is proclaimed. Wisdom and Word are mutually immanent ideas where we have to do with the medial cause (causa media) of the world's creation.Remark. A remarkable parallel to Proverbs 30:4 is found in Rigveda, Book I, Hymn 164, 4, where according to Haug's translation (Sitzungsberichte der bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Miinchen 1875, vol. II) we read: "Who has seen the first-born? who saw that one without a body bears one with a body? who was probably the life, blood, and soul of the earth? who went to the wise One to ascertain it."
Proverbs 30:4 Who hath ascended up into heaven, and descended?
Who hath gathered the wind in his fists?
Who hath bound the waters in his garment?
Who hath established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou knowest?
86. The Wisdom in the Sophia of Solomon. We need not be surprized to find that the development of this idea of Wisdom and the Logos is continued in the Palestinian Apochrypha and Targums, but especially in the Alexandrian book of Wisdom (7-9). Wisdom is here called a breath from God's strength, a pure effluence from the glory of the Almighty, a reflection of the eternal Light (7:25), a sharer of God's throne (9:4), as taking part in the creation of the world (9:9, compare 8:3-4). The author prays to her (9:10 etc.), as omniscient, as the right leader and guide.
Remark. The book of Wisdom was composed before the time of Philo. We do not yet find in it the representation of the Logos as an intermediate being between God and the world. The word is personified in 18:15 etc., but not differently than in Psalm 107:20.
87. Philo's Logos. The real founder of the doctrine of the Logos is Philo. It grew up in his writings from biblical roots, but not without the influence of Platonism and especially of the Stoa (compare Heinze, Lehre vom Logos in der griechischen Philosophie, Oldenburg 1872). Philo may be reckoned, to a certain extent, as belonging to the period before Christianity was founded, for when he came to Rome at the head of an embassy of Alexandrian Jews which were sent to Caligula (40 A. D.) he was an old man, so that he must have been born about 20 B. C. We need not be surprised that his doctrine of the Logos finds an echo in John's and Paul's writings. The divine origin of Christianity is not thereby lessened. Christianity not only realized the Spirit of the Old Testament revelation, but also manifested itself as the transfiguration and consecration of the elements of truth and the Hellenistic forms which were commonly employed for its expression. Philo's Logos is hypostatic, or as Zeller says, is suspended midway between personal and impersonal being. It is by no means a mere personification. He is God's son. He becomes a shepherd, leader, teacher, physician of the soul, but the thought of an incarnation of the Logos is absolutely incomprehensible for Philo. Matter and Godhead are for him such sharply contrasted antithises, not only physically, but also ethically, that he would be compelled to reject the thought of a union of both. Moreover in his system the Messiah occupies a very subordinate position, hence the Messianic hope is a heterogeneous matter of secondary importance.
Remark. All the promises requisite to John's conception: "The word became flesh" (1:14) are wanting in Philo; for (1) he lacks the insight into the fact of the fall and into the necessity of a divinely wrought redemption; (2) according to his doctrine man as man is sinful and the body as such is a source of evil; (3) the idea of the Logos and of the Messiah are never blended in his writings, not even when he refers ανατολη (anatole/a rising) (Zech 6:12) to the Logos. Once Philo expresses exactly the opposite of ο λογος σαρξ εγενετο (ho logos sarx egeneto/the Word became flesh) in the book entitled: Quis rerum divinarum haeres, 487, ed. Mangey: "That which was with God neither descended to us, nor came into bodily necessities," compare his book De Profugis 415: "The Logos who is exalted over all has not entered our form, since he has nothing to do with the things of sense." Philo is the precursor of New Testament cognitions, without anticipating them, since he lacked, as we have observed the necessary premises.
Zechariah 6:12 ...and speak unto him, saying: Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying: Behold, a man whose name is the Shoot, and who shall shoot up out of his place, and build the temple of the LORD;
88. The Machabean Insurrection and the Messianic hope. The Messiah in Philo is a king, through whom earthly relations are revolutionized for the better. But he is not, as a divine mediator, the originator of a radical, and above all, of a spiritual transformation. In general the Messianic hope, after the last prophetic voices, seems to die away and does not assume the spiritual character which was rendered possible, but becomes external, so that when the Messiah appeared in Jesus, the unspiritual character of this hope rendered the mass of the people incapable of recognizing in Him the promised One, and made it uncommonly difficult even for those who believed in Him to be reconciled to the manner of His appearance and working, without being scandalized by it. The reform, instituted by Ezra and Nehemiah sought to make the Mosaic law the ruling power of the people's life. This effort was crowned with unparalleled success. But the result was, that the spirit of the law involved in its letter was lost, and that prophecy as the authentic interpretation of this spirit was neglected. The elevation of the Machabees contributed to increase this ceremonial character of Judaism. It is indeed true that, if the Jewish people had not then preserved their national and religious independence, Messianic prophecy would have lost the basis for its realization. But since the struggle pertained to the external fulfilment of the law, and centered in circumcision and laws concerning food and worship, it brought with it the danger of considering these externals as of chief importance. It is characteristic, that even under Jonathan (160-143 B. C.), the youngest brother of Judas Machabaeus, the contrast between Phariseeism and Sadduceeism arose (Josephus, Antiquitates XIII, 5. 9), and that at the time of John Hyrcanus I (135-105 B. C.) it had already invaded the history of the people. The Saducees were the antitraditional, Hellenizing, aristocratic party; the Pharisees were the democratic party of legally minute observances, and of the national religion, who had the merit of maintaining the independence of Judaism, although by a lifeless system of ceremonials. It was also unfavorable for the maintenance of the Messianic hope in its purity, that now for the first time a priestly family stood at the head of the state and that the people out of gratitude appointed Simon, the elder brother of Jonathan, as high priest and prince forever (1 Mach 14:41), "until a reliable prophet should arise and give other information" (140 B. C.). The first union of both offices, which has even misled Christian interpreters, so that they have regarded it as the historical foundation of Psalm 110 (Hitzig, Olshausen), was an untimely anticipation which encroached on the redemptive fulfilment of the prophecy. And since under John Hyrcanus the Jewish people experienced a time of freedom, of prosperity, and of an extension of territory, such as had not been enjoyed since the time of David and Solomon, the consciousness of its spiritual calling to the entire world fell into the background before its political self-consciousness, and as after Hyrcanus the star of the Hasrnonean dynasty gradually went down in tyranny and fratricidal war, and was outshone by Antipater and his son Herod, an adherent of Rome, the people then hoped for scarcely anything more in the Messiah than a king who would likewise liberate it with iron weapons from the Roman yoke as the Machabees had freed it from that of the Seleucidae.
Remark. The relation of the Pharisees to the Sadducees has been made clear by Wellhausen (Die Pharisaer und die Sadducaer. Eine Untersuchung zur inneren judischen Geschichte, Greifswald 1874), following the precedent of Abraham Geiger (d. 1874). Compare Schurer's review of this treatise in Jenaer Literaturzeitung, 1878, No. 28.
89. The popular Literature and the Messianic Hope. We now possess for the most part, and in consequence of new discoveries, written memorials of Judaism, of a lyric, midrashic and apocalyptic character, which variously confirm the fact, that in the time of the Machabees and later in that of the Herods the future Messiah belonged to the contents of the national belief and hope. The Sibylline Oracles proclaim (Book III, ver. 652-794) a divinely sent king, who after Israel has been revenged on the heathen, and these have become subject to the law of God, raises an eternal kingdom of peace among mankind. In the book of Enoch (XC, 37-38) the Messiah appears under the image of a white bullock, for white is the color of the theocratic line. All the heathen pray to him and are converted to the Lord God. In Solomon's Psalter, of which Psalm 17 is the most pregnant and beautiful acknowledgement of the Messiah in the time of the Machabees, the Messiah is expected as a righteous, divinely instructed, and sinless king, who unites Israel and the heathen under his peaceful sceptre:
"Blessed are they who will be borne in those days to see the happiness of Israel in the reunion of the tribes, which God will create."Even a younger portion of the Sibylline Oracles (III, 36 92) announces the future of a holy ruler, who in the time which is hastening on will bring the entire earth under his sceptre.
90. The Recession of the Messianic Hope. On the other hand however we find in the Apocalypse of the Alexandrian Codex the acknowledgement of an everlasting kingdom, which was promised to the house of David (compare Sirach XLVII, 11; 1 Mach II, 57), but the person of the second David is nowhere mentioned. Even the Assumptio Mosis, which arose about the commencement of the Christian era, prophesies indeed the beginning of a divine kingdom which will be realized among all creatures, and from which the devil and all pain will be banished, but without the Messiah. And the book of Jubilees indulges in descriptions of the everlasting glory, but the ruler is the church of the Servant of God, and entire silence is preserved with reference to the Messiah. This is not surprising, for the dominant representation of the Messiah was not in accordance with everyone's taste. The Messiah was thought to be merely a king sent by God, who through bloody conflict should prepare the way for everlasting peace. The time of the Machabees threw the hope of the Messiah back to the one-sided image of the king, as it appears in the stadium before Deutero-Isaiah, Zechariah, and Malachi. Nor is it otherwise in Philo, although his doctrine of the Logos contains thoughts, which, blended with the image of the Messiah, were fitted to breathe into it a new life.
Remark. We leave out of account here: (1) the apocalypse of Baruch, published by Ceriani in Latin 1866, and in Syriac 1871, it is later than the Roman catastrophe; (2) the fourth book of Ezra, the most widely circulated of all the Jewish apocalypses; it was probably not written before the time of Domitian; (3) the Ascensio Isaiae, issued in Ethiopic by Dillmann 1877, and in Latin by Oscar von Gebhardt in Hilgenfeld's Zeitschrift fur wissenschaftliche Theologie, Leipzig, vol. XXI, 3. Its character is Jewish-Christian and it has the physiognomy of the second century after Christ.
91. Conclusion. The development of the Messianic idea after the conclusion of the canon remains, as we have seen, far behind that which precedes in the time of the Old Testament prophecy. It affords no progress, but rather a regress. Only Alexandrianism contains thoughts in which the active leaven (fermenta cognitionis) of the Old Testament literature continues to work; but they come far short of the apostolic thoughts, for the New Testament fulfilment extends far beyond the Old Testament preparation, and performs that which had not entered into any human heart. Hence Paul (Rom 16:25) calls that which has been revealed in the history of fulfilment: "a mystery which has been kept secret during everlasting ages" and (Eph 3:5 compare ver 9) which remained unknown in the earlier generations, and was a secret concealed in God from the eons. Even Old Testament prophecy, therefore, appears to the apostles compared with the actual revelation in the New as a deep silence.
Ephesians 3:5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;Ephesians 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
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