prosperity and a numerous offspring, and describes how the heathen will come eagerly to enroll themselves among a people so highly favoured.

The first lines of this ode present a curious problem. The exiles appear to be blamed for not having offered sacrifices to Jehovah in Babylon. Now the Deuteronomic law, by forbidding sacrifice to be offered anywhere except in the Temple at Jerusalem, had made sacrifice in a foreign country impossible. Thus there seems to be a contradiction. Various explanations have been offered. One scholar brings down the composition of Deuteronomy to the post-exilic age. Another urges that in this prophecy 'sacrifice' is only a form of speech, used as a general term for worship. The discovery that in Upper Egypt there was a Jewish Temple much later than this time, where sacrifices were regularly offered, proves that some exiles did not regard the Deuteronomic prohibition as binding on them; and suggests that Deutero-Isaiah may have intended to reproach the people for not offering actual sacrifices. Yet again, it might be urged that he wrote thus because, living far from Babylon, he was ignorant of the actual conditions under which his countrymen were living. But no one of these explanations appears quite satisfactory. We must admit that we are puzzled.

§ 70. The first part of the prophet's argument is now complete. It has been demonstrated that Jehovah alone is God, and that he alone can foretell the future, and work deliverance for his people. And a fresh proof has been given, at once of his care for Israel and of his power to predict, in the promise that he will lead the exiles safely across the wilderness and back to Jerusalem. All this is now summed up in a few weighty lines, which conclude with an exhortation to Israel: Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee.

§ 71. The first act is brought to a formal conclusion by the prophet, who once more utters a brief lyric strain. He calls upon heaven and earth, the mountains and the forests, to celebrate the redemption of Israel and the revelation of Jehovah's glory.

No curtain falls; there is no indication of a change of scene; nor are we told that any of the characters leave the stage. But the gods of the heathen have played their part; they have been put to confusion; and in the rest of the drama they are neither seen nor mentioned. So we cannot but fancy that, while the prophet is chanting his hymn of triumph, we see the discredited idols steal away out of the presence of their conqueror, leaving the nations whom they once misled to pay homage where it is due.

CHAPTER XXII

CYRUS THE DELIVERER

THE first act of the drama has resulted in three main issues. The gods of the heathen have been confounded and discredited. The foreknowledge of Jehovah, involving his power to fulfil predictions, has been established. The redemption of Israel has been promised. In the second act we follow the development of the promise. To Israel and to the nations, who seem to have drawn nearer to each other, two revelations are made. The name of the champion, who is commissioned to deliver Israel, is Cyrus; and he is the conqueror before whom all the world now trembles. And this deliverance of Israel is no isolated fact, but part of a providential scheme. It is the pledge and foretaste of a blessing for all nations. For behind the restored people of Jehovah there rises a vision of an universal church, offering salvation to the whole world. In the invitation: Turn unto me and let yourselves be saved, all the ends of the earth,' Hebrew prophecy reaches the zenith of its redemptive conception.

Yet the chief dramatic interest of this act centres in two characters who do not appear upon the stage, but are presented as it were in picture before the eyes of the nations. The twin portraits of Cyrus the deliverer, and Babylon the oppressor, are drawn with admirable skill, and artistically balanced one against the other. The hero, the anointed one, the friend of Jehovah, stands in the full light of favour, triumphant in the assurance of victory and fame. On the other hand, the mournful figure of Babylon, the oppressor upon whom he is to execute vengeance, cowers in shadows. Yet the fallen queen of the world, pros

trate in the dust, and deserted by all whom she trusted, though drawn in dark colours by the hand of an enemy, makes a more vivid impression upon us than the bright figure of her conqueror. The contrast between these two pictures is one of the most brilliant effects in the whole drama.

The second act, though constructed on the same lines as the first, differs from it in several particulars. The disappearance of the idols, and the conviction assumed to be wrought in the minds of their worshippers, has removed an element of variety. Jehovah can no longer turn from the gods to Israel, and from Israel to the nations, with the dramatic changes of tone which enliven the first act. Jehovah's address to Cyrus, and the prophet's dirge over Babylon, vivid and poetical as they are, are dramatic only in the same secondary degree as a herald's speech in a Greek tragedy.

This change is accompanied by a slight confusion in the style. The prophet does not always distinguish clearly between his own words and those which are attributed to Jehovah. The great song of triumph over Babylon, in particular, suffers from an occasional uncertainty who is the speaker. On the other hand we observe some changes of style which decidedly enhance the effect. The thought becomes more consecutive, and therefore easier to follow. Instead of what I ventured to call recitative, we find a series of regularly constructed odes. There is less of that formal argument, which is always a little chilling in a drama, and more of that pathetic poetry for which DeuteroIsaiah has a special gift.

§ 72. The opening ode, consisting of five long stanzas, describes the commission which Jehovah has given to Cyrus. Two stanzas, forming one long sentence in the Hebrew, enumerate all the chief attributes which have been claimed for Jehovah in the first act. We are reminded of his greatness as creator and ruler of the world, his power to predict and to perform, his miracles, his promises of favour to Jerusalem, and his appointment of a champion. In the three remaining stanzas Jehovah

promises to give Cyrus the victory over his enemies, to enrich him with all their hidden treasures, and to extend his empire from the sunrise to the sunset. He will do this partly for the sake of Israel his servant, and partly in order that all nations may see that there is none other God but himself.

We cannot help noticing the resemblance, and also the contrast, between this passage and the famous address to Sennacherib, in the tenth chapter of Isaiah, § 25. Both kings are regarded primarily as instruments in the hand of Jehovah, to be used for the accomplishment of his great purpose of restoring or reforming Israel. But while the Assyrian king is a mere presumptuous tool, destined to be ruthlessly broken and cast away so soon as its work is done, the Persian is to develop from unconscious to conscious obedience, is to become a worshipper of Jehovah, his friend, and the shepherd of his people. That is clear, even though we reject the common reading in xli. 25, which expressly describes Cyrus as calling upon the name of Jehovah. Were that reading retained the case would be stronger still. How are we to account for this expectation, which was so far from being realized? Some scholars have explained it by supposing that the prophet shared the common belief that Cyrus was a Persian, and therefore an enemy of idols. But such a belief can hardly have arisen till later times. For Cyrus in his official documents described himself, not merely as a polytheist, but as a worshipper of Bel-Merodach and the other gods of conquered Babylon. If, as the book of Ezra tells us, he also professed to worship Jehovah, he did so in a mere polytheistic sense. A better explanation of the prophet's hope is to be found in his own simple faith in the power of truth to convert mankind. If he wrote a large part of his drama with a view to convince the heathen that their idols were naught, he might well hope that the experience of Jehovah's favour would turn the heart of the conqueror.

§ 73. A brief lyrical intermezzo calls upon heaven and earth to co-operate with the new revelation of righteousness. In