the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the

On the whole our judgment inclines to the view still held by Duhm (2), to which we have called attention—that this fragment was composed by Isaiah towards the close of his life. Stade's contention that the ideas here represented are not those which belong to the lifetime of the prophet is merely to argue for a foregone conclusion. It fixes by a hard and fast a priori scheme what each century and all the writers who lived in it may or may not think or say. No one may climb to the mountain tops to greet the dawn! But such a mode of handling literature becomes futile when we come to deal with a great personality like Isaiah, to whom the greatness of Jerusalem and of the Lord of Hosts ('Israel's Holy One') who dwelt there was a fundamental conception. Much has been made by Staerk of the phrase in Hebrew rendered 'in the latter days,' which he considers to belong to a later date than the eighth century. It is quite possible that this expression, both here and in Hos. iii. 5, Gen. xlix. 1, &c., is due to the hand of a later redactor, but even of this we cannot be quite certain. In the Assyrian of the age of Isaiah we have almost exactly the same expression, ina aḥrat ûmî='in future times' (see Schrader, COT. i. p. 140, on Gen. xlix. 1). It may well, therefore, be assumed that it existed in Hebrew and was not 'first formed during the Exile,' as Staerk supposes (in ZATW. 1891, pp. 247-251). This argument is advanced by Cheyne himself (Introd. p. 11 foll., footn. 2). Lastly, it must be remembered that the idea of exile for God's people had been brought vividly before the mind of the prophet by the events of 721 B.C., when the inhabitants of the northern kingdom had been deported. That a like fate awaited Judah in the course of time was only too probable (Isa. vii. 18-20, viii. 8). That a writer like Isaiah, the author of the prophecy of Immanuel, would leave the problem of the ultimate future of Jerusalem unsolved is neither probable nor credible. Prophecies like Isa. ix. 5 foll. and xi. I-9 would be the natural, reassuring utterances of the poet-seer, addressed to his people as the dark clouds of foreign conquest loomed on the horizon or seemed to roll away. It is needful at this early stage to state at full length the critical attitude adopted in this commentary towards some of the literary problems that await us in the earlier chapters (i-xxxix) of the Prophecies of Isaiah. Comp. introductory notes to ix. I and xi. I foll.

2. The opening of this fragment resembles many others (vii. 18, 21, xi. 10, 11, &c.) and suggests the hand of a redactor. The writer contemplates a great physical change; the temple-mountain is to stand in appearance at least at the summit of the mountains

hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many peoples 3 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. And he shall judge 4 between the nations, and shall reprove many peoples: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any

more.

O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light 5 of the LORD. For thou hast forsaken thy people the 6

of Jerusalem and tower above all. LXX both here and in the Micah passage read mountain of the Lord' only. Probably Ezek. xl. 2 is an echo of these passages.

us ..

3. Render more in accordance with idiom, 'that he may teach and we may walk.' Here again, as in i. 9, we notice that law means properly 'instruction' and stands in parallelism with the 'word of the Lord.'

4. For reprove read 'give decisions.' The subject of the verb is of course Yahweh in his capacity as the Divine Judge.

The metal point of the spear is to be forged into a reapingknife. War shall be no more; cf. Isa xi. 6 foll. The picture is completed in Micah (verse 4) by an idyllic touch of peace and security, every man dwelling in safety under his own vine and fig-tree.

5. This verse is evidently based on an abbreviation of Mic. iv. 5, which probably formed an integral part of the original prophecy. Here it seems to form a link to what follows.

6-21 form probably a single oracle, of which verses 10, 17, and 21 are the refrain. It contains threatenings of Divine judgment amid the pride, prosperity and luxury of the nation. There is no hint here of foreign invasion (as we find in iii, 25, 26). Therefore it is fairly probable that this oracle (the text of which is disturbed and interpolated in some passages) belongs to the

A good illustration of such a reaping-knife or sickle, curved in form, may be seen in Enc. Bibl. Agriculture,' vol. i, cols. 80, 81. (Note especially the specimen discovered at Tell el Hesi (Lachish).)

house of Jacob, because they be filled with customs from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and 7 they strike hands with the children of strangers. Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land also is full of horses, 8 neither is there any end of their chariots. Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own 9 hands, that which their own fingers have made. And the mean man is bowed down, and the great man is brought 10 low: therefore forgive them not. Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, from before the terror of the LORD, 11 and from the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be brought low, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted 12 in that day. For there shall be a day of the LORD of

earliest delivered by Isaiah, not improbably, as Marti suggests, soon after 740 B. C., when Uzziah, according to 2 Chron. xxvi. 6-15 (which probably rests upon a historical basis), had materially increased the military prestige and material well-being of Judah (see 'Uzziah' in Hastings' DB.). He had also regained for Judah Elath, the port on the Elanitic gulf of the Red Sea through which foreign products found their way into his kingdom. These conditions of national prosperity are reflected in this section, and the reference to the Tarshish ships' in verse 16 is significant.

6. LXX render: He hath forsaken his people,' based, as Duhm and Marti consider, on a more correct text. The translation should continue: for they are full of divination from the East, and of soothsayers like the Philistines, and are crowded with the children of foreigners.' By the East we might understand North Arabia or Babylonia; see Hastings' DB. article 'Soothsayer,' vol. iv, p. 600 ad init. The children of foreigners' mean slaves. On the rendering 'crowded' see Hastings' DB. 'Servant,' vol. iv, p. 463, footnote.

9. For the mean man read' mankind,' and for the great man read simply 'a man.'

10. Here we have the refrain preserved in its fuller form in the LXX, which supplies the missing line in our Hebrew text when He arises to shake the earth' (cf. verses 19 and 21).

12. a day of the LORD is an oft-recurring O. T. phrase

hosts upon all that is proud and haughty, and upon all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low: and upon 13 all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan; and upon all the high 14 mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up; and 15 upon every lofty tower, and upon every fenced wall; and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant 16 imagery. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, 17 and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low and

meaning a day of Divine judgment or visitation of wrath in the form of calamity, But judgment is not an end in itself; it is only in order to redemption, and behind the storm of judgment there always rises clear the day of salvation'; see the late Dr. Davidson's article on the Eschatology of the O.T. sub voce Eschatology' in Hastings' DB. pp. 735 foll.

16. The 'Tarshish ships' meant originally those which sailed from Mediterranean ports, especially from Tyre, to Tartessus, a commercial city frequented especially by the Phoenician merchantmen; cf. Ezek. xxvii. 12, 25 (oracle on Tyre)1. The phrase then came, like our word 'Indiaman,' to mean the larger vessels of merchandise. Then in 1 Kings xxii. 49 we read that these vessels made their way to Ophir. We bear in mind that about this time (739 B. C. ?) Elath in the gulf of Akaba was in the possession of Judah. It is almost certain that both vessels and crews were Phoenician. See Hebrew Antiquities (R.T.S.), pp. 134, 135 foll

The rendering pleasant imagery is as good as any that has been suggested. But the word for 'imagery' in Hebrew is very obscure. The context indicates that it may refer to the images carved on the prow of the vessels. So LXX ἐπὶ πᾶσαν θέαν πλοίων κάλλους.

1 See Enc. Bibl. under 'Tarshish,' where the various theories as to the identification are given. It is to be noted that the name is absent in LXX at this passage, and in xxiii. 1, 6, 11 is represented by Carthage. This, however, does not necessarily militate against the identification with Tartessus in Spain, since Carthage in the original Phoenician means 'New Town, and this would be a natural designation of a new Phoenician colony, which Tartessus probably was. Thus the new town' of Citium bore this name (see Winckler in KAT. p. 128).

18 the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. And the 19 idols shall utterly pass away. And men shall go into the

caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his 20 majesty, when he ariseth to shake mightily the earth. In that day a man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made for him to worship, to 21 the moles and to the bats; to go into the caverns of the

rocks, and into the clefts of the ragged rocks, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his majesty, 22 when he ariseth to shake mightily the earth. [R] Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?

3

[I] For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take

18. This verse seems to be a brief fragment. Not improbably several verses have been lost at the close of this remarkable poem. 20. We pass suddenly from poetry to prose. Perhaps the verse is the addition of some scribe suggested by the caves and holes of the earth (verse 19), into which the terror-stricken men fled from the terrifying manifestations of the Divine power casting the vain idols of His worship to the moles and bats which tenanted this dark abode.

22 is omitted in LXX, and is probably the pious ejaculation of a devout scribe who added this comment. For wherein, &c., read: 'at what value is he to be accounted?'

iii. 1-12, 13-15, 16-iv. I constitute a group of oracles which belong to yet later and more degenerate days. So serious does the state of the people, the oppression of the poor by the rich and the luxurious frivolity of the women, appear to the prophet that he sees an impending dissolution of the state, the destruction of the leaders, ruin and impoverishment, and, last of all, foreign invasion and loss of the male population. It is not easy to assign a definite date to this chapter. We are evidently surrounded by the conditions which prevailed in the days of Aḥaz. Verse 16 points to a state of luxury existing among the upper classes of society, and verse 12 to the undue influence exercised on the course of events by the women of the king's harem. Is the youthful Ḥezekiah, just placed on the throne, referred to in the same verse as the child-despot? If so we may assume the year