ART. III.-DESIGNATION AND EXPOSITION OF THE FIGURES OF ISAIAH, CHAP. LXIV., LXV., and LXVI.

THE theme of Chapter LXIII., the humbling remembrances, confessions, and supplications to which the Israelitish nation is to be led immediately before its final redemption, is continued in this. They pray that Jehovah would come down through the opened heavens, cause the mountains to flow down at his presence, and display his power in such forms as to impress the nations with fear, vs. 1. They entreat, in their earnest desire, that the mountains may melt before him, because of the fearful acts he is to exert; and add that no ear has heard, nor eye seen, what he is to do for those who wait for him, vs. 2-4. He is then to recognise his true people, and they are to recognise and own him; and though they have sinned, he is to save them, vs. 5. They are to be penetrated with a sense of their unworthiness and guiltiness, and see and acknowledge that all their hope is in him, and that it is by him and not by themselves that they have been recalled from their blindness and delusion to acknowledge and seek him, vs. 6-7. They confess their helplessness and dependence, and implore his pity and love, vs. 8-9. Their cities are ruined, their temple is destroyed, their land is desolate; they plead with him to desist from his anger, and show them his mercy, vs. 10-12.

1. Apostrophe. The prayer of the last chapter to Jehovah is continued. "O! that thou wouldst rend the heavens; that thou wouldst come down; that the mountains might flow down at thy presence; as fire kindles brush, fire boils water to make known thy name to thine adversaries; that the nations may tremble at thy presence," vs. 1-2. This is a prayer that Jehovah would come from heaven, in person and visible glory, in order to their deliverance, and is a prophecy accordingly, that the Israelites who are to utter the entreaty, are to expect and desire the visible advent of the Messiah at the time of their final redemption from exile, and re-establishment in their national land.

2. Metaphor in the use of send, instead of depart, or unfold; to denote the suddenness and power with which he will reveal himself at his coming. It bespeaks also the

belief that his advent is to be personal and visible; as otherwise there would be no necessity for the unfolding of heaven, that as he leaves it, he may be beheld, and the train of angels and ransomed men that is to attend him.

3. 4. Comparisons of the flowing down of the mountains to the effect of fire on brush, in dissolving it into its elements, and on water in throwing it into agitation. This implies that the mountains when Christ descends, are to be dissolved by fire, as is foreshown in many passages, 2 Pet. iii. 12. The effect of these exhibitions of his power and anger is to be to show the adversaries who are to be assembled to intercept him from the redemption of the Israelitish people, his being, his attributes, and his rights and purposes, as Jehovah; and to cause all the nations of the earth to tremble before him.

"In doing the terrible things we look not for; O! that thou wouldst come down; that the mountains may flow down before thee," vs. 3. The terrible things the Messiah is then to do, are the defeat and destruction of the adversaries who are to be gathered against Israel. That the Israelites are not to anticipate it denotes, not so much that they will not have had intimations beforehand, of the mode in which that destruction is to be accomplished, as that they will not at the moment expect it. Under the defeats they will have suffered, their hopes will have given way to discouragement and despair. The desire that he should appear visibly and with all the signals of his omnipotence, will naturally spring from the fervent wish they will feel for indubitable proof that he is on their side, and that the deliverance from the power of their foes he is to work, should be absolute and final.

"From of old, they have not heard, they have not perceived by the ear; eye hath not seen that God except thee, who will do (such wonderful things) for (one) who waits for him,"vs. 4. The antecedent of the pronoun, they, is "the adsaries," and the nations whom his advent in his glory is to terrify; and the reason given for the desire that he should reveal himself in that form is, that it is an act of which he alone is capable; that no such interposition for the deliverance of worshippers was ever vouchsafed by, or expected from, any but Jehovah. The heathen princes, the Israelites

themselves will not have apprehended the redemption he is then to accomplish for his people; embracing not only a release from the power of their enemies, but a transformation from mortal to immortal, and full adoption as the children of God. 1 Cor. ii. 8-10.

5, 6. Metaphors in the use of meeting for manifesting favor, and of ways, for modes of action. "Thou meetest him who rejoices and executes righteousness; in thy ways, they remember (recognise) thee," vs. 5. He interposes for those who love him and do his will, and manifests to them his favor; and they, on the other hand, recognise him in the dispensations of his providence, in which he inflicts his anger on his enemies, and works deliverance for his people.

"Behold thou hast been angry, for we have sinned. In them (thy ways) there is continuance, and we shall be saved," vs. 5. The antecedent of them, is, most probably, the ways of God; that is, his dispensations of judgment towards his enemies, and of mercy towards his people. They confess that they have sinned, and that his anger which they had experienced was occasioned by their sins; God will, however, proceed with the great scheme of his administration towards men, and will at length save the Israelitish nation according to his gracious covenant.

7, 8, 9, 10. Comparisons. "And we were all of us like the unclean; and all our righteousness like a filthy garment; and we all of us faded like the leaf, and our iniquities like the wind will carry us away," vs. 6. Instead of any merit of his approval, they are to confess themselves to be vile and odious in the utmost degree, defaced, and smitten by sin with blight like a withered leaf, and sure to be swept to destruction by their iniquities, if left to meet their just deserts; as a whirlwind bears away the faded leaves of autumn.

11, 12. Hypocatastases in the use of taking hold of, to denote application to, and trust in God; and hiding the face to signify withdrawing his favor. "And there is none who calls on thy name, that rouses himself to take hold of thee; for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast melted us because of our iniquities," vs. 7.

13. Metaphor in the use of melted, to denote their utter divestiture of strength by their defeats and sufferings. The Israelites, at the time, are to be forgetful of Jehovah and

unbelieving. They are not to invoke his interposition with a suitable sense of the place he is to fill in their salvation; they are not to arouse themselves to a proper faith in him as alone able to deliver them. He is to withdraw his favor and leave them without any signals that he is to interpose. for their relief; he is to subject them to punishments for their sins, that will divest them of their strength and reduce them to helplessness, as metal is melted by the dissolving heat of a powerful furnace. This is in accordance with the prediction Zechariah xiv. 1, 2, that the enemies of the Israelites will have triumphed over them immediately before the advent of the Messiah for their deliverance. They are to fight in their own strength for a period; and it is not to be till they are conquered by their foes, and made to despair of themselves, that he will descend for their deliverance. 14, 15. Metaphors in the use of clay and potter. "And now, Jehovah, thou art our father: we are the clay, and thon our potter; and the work of thy hands are we all. Be not angry, O Jehovah, to extremity, and do not to eternity remember guilt. Lo, look we pray thee; we are all thy people," vs. 8, 9. They now confess their utter helplessness, recognise his dominion and sovereignty, and appeal to his covenant mercy as their only hope.

"Thy holy cities are a desert: Zion is a desert: Jerusalem a waste our house of holiness and beauty in which our fathers praised thee, has been burned with fire, and all our pleasant places have become a desolation. Wilt thou for these restrain thyself, O Jehovah; wilt thou keep silence and afflict us to extremity?" vs. 10-12. They plead for his intervention also because of the desolation of the cities and temple that were consecrated to him, which he had specifically promised to remember in their ruin. Will he for ever keep silence in reference to them, as though he had uttered no promise of their restoration, and it had no connexion with his glory? Will he still continue to afflict them with all the terrible evils with which they had been smitten for so many ages? And this again shows that these confessions and supplications are prophetic of those which the Israelites are to utter immediately before the second coming of the Messiah. The prediction was penned before the destruction of the first temple by Nebuchadnezzar, but the

desolation from which Jerusalem and the land is to be restored, is not that to which they were reduced by the Babylonians, but by the Romans, and the conquerors who have followed in their train; as is seen from the consideration that the restoration, which is here contemplated, is not to be followed by another overthrow, but is the restoration that is to be wrought at the creation of the new heavens, when Jerusalem is to be made an eternal excellency; chapters lxv. 18, lx. 15. There is a parallel prediction of the self-condemnation, repentance, and supplication of the Israelites at their return to their land, and deliverance by the Messiah from the power of their enemies, in Zechariah xii. 9-14; Jeremiah xxxi. 8, 9; Ezekiel xxxix. 23-29.

Chapter LXV. The Most High now indicated the great measures of the administration he was to pursue to the time of the redemption of Israel. He was to call the Gentiles, who before had not asked after him, vs. 1. The long and unyielding rebellion of the Israelites was to draw on them his avenging judgments, vs. 2-7. He was not, however, wholly to destroy them, but was to preserve a remnant, and recall them to their national land, vs. 8-10. But the perverse he would punish with fearful inflictions, until despairing of themselves in their miseries, they should return, and acknowledge him as their God, vs. 11-16. He will then create the heavens and earth anew, and cause Jerusalem to be rebuilt a rejoicing to her people, vs. 17, 18. The curse is to be wholly removed. There is to be no more death in infancy, and no more death of the righteous, vs. 19, 20. They are to build and plant in safety, enjoy unmixed prosperity, and be the blessed of Jehovah, vs. 23, 24. The serpent, the wolf, and the lion will be changed to harmlessness, and no cause of evil any longer exist in the world, vs. 25.

1. Apostrophe to the Gentiles. "I have been inquired of by those that asked not: I have been found by those that sought me not: I have said, Behold me, Behold me, to a nation that was not called by my name," v. 1. In response to the pleas and entreaties of the Israelites in the preceding chapter, God announces first, that he has called the Gentiles to be the objects of his favor. For they are the nation that had not been called by his name. He was not to be thwarted in his purposes of mercy, by the apostasy of the