Chaps. xxx and xxxx 702 B. C.

Chap. xxii. 1-14, 701 B. C.

xxi. 13-17, its chronological position a quite unsolved problem; it might be either an early or late oracle of the prophet.

After 701 B. C. we may place the Messianic passages in the following probable order: ix. 1-7; xi. 1-9; xxxii. 1-8; 15-20; [xix. 19-22]; iv. 2-4 and ii. 2-4.

$ 7. RECENT IMPORTANT COMMENTARIES and aids TO THE STUDY OF ISAIAH.

First among these should be placed Cheyne's "Commentary, 2 vols. (third edition, 1884). This is a mine of well-sifted information and valuable exegetical help, but it does not furnish the latest views of the writer. These will be found in his Introduction to the Book of Isaiah (1895, A. & C. Black), a work of immense, careful re search into the minute details of a critical study of the individual oracles of the prophet. It is a monumental work with which no advanced student can dispense. Cheyne also contributes the volume on Isaiah to the SBOT. series, which will be found very useful.

Of equal importance to the student conversant with German, is Duhm's Das Buch Jesaia, contributed to Nowack's Hand-Kommentar series (1892-a second edition in 1902 contains no material alterations). This is perhaps the most valuable commentary that has appeared in Germany since the days of Ewald. Though many of the writer's conclusions as to the date of Isaiah's oracles

appear to the present writer extreme1, and his views respecting the looseness of the canonical framework of the prophets are scarcely tenable, yet this work remains the most notable as well as original contribution to the study of Isaiah of recent times. Duhm has devoted special attention to the metrical form of the oracles, and his restorations of text as well as critical conclusions as to authorship are frequently based thereon. Keen insight, a fine literary sense, rare combination-talent and a pungent,racy humour (especially when the views of Dillmann are under discussion) combine to make this volume one of the most illuminating as well as attractive that a Hebrew student can possess.

Dr. Karl Marti's Commentary (in German), contributed to another series (1900), is a compact and lucid work. The matter is well arranged. Though the materials are clearly presented and the best sources of information consulted, the work can scarcely make claim to originality. The author's conclusions are more advanced than those of Duhm (e.g. with respect to ix. 1-7, xi. 1–9, xxxii. 1-8, as well as ii. 2-4). It is, however, easy to see that the work is very largely influenced by Duhm and, in a less degree, by Cheyne and Hackmann. Dillmann's Commentary on Isaiah 2 (the fifth edition in the Kurzgefasstes exegetisches Handbuch series) is conservative in its treatment of Isaiah, as we might expect from the veteran scholar who to the last remained unconvinced by Kuenen's and Wellhausen's views respecting the date of the Priester-codex. Dillmann is on the whole a safe as well as learned guide. The most recent and best ascertained

(1 e. g. chaps. xxiv-xxvii placed as late as 128 B. C.; chap. xxxiii in 162 B. C.; chaps. xxxiv and xxxv in the days of John Hyrcanus. Respecting chaps. xv, xvi, and xix, as well as other sections, see the commentary.

2 Published in 1890, an entirely new work superseding the fourth edition by Diestel (1872), which again in its turn took the place of the earlier editions of Knobel's Commentary.

results of archaeology are always utilized. His critical judgment is uniformly sound, though slow to move. Since Dillmann's death the work has been edited afresh by Kittel (1898), whose views respecting the date and authorship of some of the sections are more advanced than those of his predecessor. There can be no question that the last edition is a considerable improvement on the fifth, and is an indispensable aid to the O. T. scholar. The earlier German commentaries on Isaiah-those of Gesenius, Ewald (in the Prophets of the Old Covenant), Hitzig, and Delitzsch (Franz)-it is not necessary to characterize. This has been done with some completeness by Cheyne in his Commentary (third edition, 1884), vol. ii. p. 277 foll.

Among recent English works devoted to Isaiah the student should take note of Skinner's Commentary (in the 'Cambridge Bible for Schools'), scholarly and compact, always characterized by a well-balanced judgment on critical questions, and especially useful as an exposition of the theological conceptions of the prophet.

Driver's Isaiah, His Life and Times is a very vivid and clear presentment of the history of the period, illustrated by citations from the Assyrian annals and the oracles of the prophet, of which excellent translations are given. A full description is given of the literary work of the prophet, and a very complete delineation of his style is furnished for the ordinary English reader. For the preacher and homiletic student Geo. Adam Smith's Isaiah, 2 vols. (Hodder and Stoughton), is a most eloquent and quite unique book of really priceless value. Few works published in recent years have been awarded a heartier welcome. Every page is rich in suggestion for the scholar as well as the preacher. We have found it impossible to quote such a book, as the process once begun would have easily ended in expanding the present work to an excessive size. The same writer's article 'Isaiah' in Hastings' DB. will be found very useful

and characterized by sound judgment. See also Bennett and Adeney's useful Biblical Introduction.

Among other accessory aids Schrader's Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament, 2 vols. (Williams and Norgate), will be found indispensable by the more advanced student. It contains quotations in transcribed Assyrian from all the cuneiform documents which throw light on the Old Testament, These are quoted and commented upon seriatim in connexion with each O. T. passage in the order in which it stands in the successive books of the Hebrew Canon. This work was originally published in German in 1882 and the English translation in 1885-8. The new edition (third) of the German work by two brilliant specialists, Winckler and Zimmern, is on a totally different plan. Cuneiform documents are not cited in connected passages, and the work is no longer a commentary on the Old Testament, but a systematic exposition of Assyrian and West-Asian History (by Winckler), and of Babylonian religion and philology (by Zimmern) with special regard to their bearings upon the Old Testament (as well as on the Apocrypha and New Testament). In Winckler's treatment his own special theories acquire considerable prominence.

1

No more important documents exist in the British Museum than a set of terra-cotta tablets brought over by Layard and other explorers from Nineveh. Our veteran Assyriologist, the late Sir Henry Rawlinson, was the first to explain their contents in a series of articles which he contributed to the Athenaeum in 1862. He there showed that these tablets were lists of Assyrian officials, each official standing to represent a particular year, in the same way as the pair of consuls at Rome or the archōn epōnumos at Athens. Thus the particular year in which an event happened is marked by the name of the official who was eponym, i, e. gave his na his name to the year. The eponymate was called in Assyrian by the technical name limu. The late George Smith wrote a useful work on this subject called The Assyrian Eponym Canon, containing transcriptions and translations of these lists. These may be found in Schrader's COT,, vol. ii. pp. 178-95, and KIB., i. pp. 204-15. An examination of the lists shows that there was a more or less regular series of officials appointed as eponyms. The series naturally began with the king, whose eponymate, however, does not necessarily come at the very beginning of his reign. Next to the king came the Turtanu or Tartan' (Isa. xx. I), or commander-in-chief. Then came the rab-êkali or chief of the palace (King's chamberlain). After him came an officer called tukultu. Then followed apparently the provincial or town governors. After the list of officials was exhausted the series recommenced. Four copies of these canons of rulers have been preserved in a more or less mutilated condition. But fortunately they supplement one another's defects. In this way we possess an unbroken series of annual eponyms extending over two

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