18 of his heart. I have seen his ways and will heal him. And I will lead him, and I will restore comforts unto 19 him and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips, even peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him 20 that is near, saith Jehovah; and I will heal him. But the wicked are like the sea driven forward, when it cannot rest, and its waters drive forward the mire 21 and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, for the -wicked.

1

CRY WITH THE THROAT, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew to my people their transgression, 2 and to the house of Jacob their sins. For they seek me day by day, and delight to know my ways, as though they were a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God, [saying,] 'Wherefore have we fasted, and thou 36 seest not? We have afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge.' Behold in the day of your fast, ye pursue pleasure, and oppress all your labourers. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness. Ye should not fast as this day if ye would make your voice to be heard on high.

4

5

Is this such a fast as I should choose? a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to make a bed in sackcloth and ashes? 6 Wilt thou call that a fast, and an acceptable day to Jehovah? Is not this the fast that I should choose? to

1

LVIII. The house of Jacob.] This writer does not use the name of Israel for the nation. The jealousy against Samaria was at this time too strong to allow it. See Ezra and Nehemiah.

3 Ye oppress all your labourers.] This is the old complaint, that the rich were severe upon the poor. After the return of the captives the thoughtless poor again sold themselves into bondage, and there was again a cry for a release.

To loosen the fetters of injustice.] The law in Exod. xxi. 2 had ordered the bond servant's release

loosen the fetters of injustice, to undo the fastenings of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal out thy bread to 7 the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast down to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou clothe him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh ? Then shall thy light burst forth as the daybreak, and the healing of thy wounds be quickened: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of Jehovah shall be thy rearguard. Then shalt 9 thou call, and Jehovah will answer; thou shalt cry for help, and he will say, ' Behold, here I am.'

8

If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the pointing of the finger, and speaking vanity; and if 10 thy soul bring forth to the hungry, and thou satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise through the obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day; and " Jehovah will guide thee continually, and will satisfy thy soul in time of drought, and will strengthen thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters are not a deception. And some of thee shall build the waste places of the 12

after six years of service. When this was wholly neglected Zedekiah in his distress had ordered them all to be released at once (Jerem. xxxiv.); and then a new law in Deut. xv. appointed every seventh year as a year of release for all bond servants. Then came the Babylonian Captivity; and on the return home the new law was as little obeyed as the first. Now, however, soon after B.C. 488, the fiftieth year from the return from Babylon, our prophet speaks of "an acceptable day to Jehovah," as if a Jubilee ought to have been kept. This is further made probable by our finding a new law in Lev. xxv. written perhaps at the end of the second period of fifty years, or B.C. 438, ordering a Jubilee or year of release every fifty years. See chap. lxi. 2, and Note.

12 Shall build the waste places.] Thus, though the captives had now been at home for fifty years, yet so

13

14

4

past time. Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, 'The repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to 'dwell in.'

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and will call the sabbath a delight, what is holy to Jehovah honourable; and wilt honour it, not doing thine own ways, nor pursuing thine own pleasure, nor talking vain talk; then shalt thou find delight in Jehovah; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; -for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.

1 BEHOLD, JEHOVAH'S HAND is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from 3 you, that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken falsehood, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. None summoneth with justice, and none pleadeth with truth; they trust in vanity, and speak falsehood; they conceive mischief, and bring forth 5 iniquity. They hatch vipers' eggs, and weave the spider's web. He that eateth of their eggs dieth, and 6 when one is crushed, out breaketh a serpent. Their webs will not serve for garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works; their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their 7 hands. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their high8 ways. The path of peace they know not; and there is no justice in their track. They have made for themselves crooked paths; whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.

9

Therefore is justice far from us, neither doth righteousness come near us; we wait for light, but behold

scanty was the population that a large part of the country was a waste.

We

10

Well

12

obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. for the wall like the blind, and we grope as grope if we had no eyes; we stumble at noon-day as in the twilight; in desolate places we are as dead men. growl all of us like bears, and moan sore like doves. We wait for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them. We have transgressed and 13 lied against Jehovah, and turned away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And justice is 14 turned away backward, and righteousness standeth afar off; for truth stumbleth in the street, and equity cannot enter. And truth is not to be found.

15

Yea, he that departeth from evil findeth himself plundered. And Jehovah seeth it, and it displeaseth him because there is no justice. And he seeth that 16

17

there is no man, and wondereth that there is no intercessor. But his own arm will work salvation to him; and his righteousness it sustaineth him. For he will put on righteousness as a breastplate, and the helmet of salvation upon his head; and he will put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and will wrap himself in zeal as in a cloak. As were their deeds, so he will repay, wrath to his adversaries, like doings to his enemies; to the [Greek] islands he will repay like doings. And 19 they in the West shall fear the name of Jehovah, and

16

The high priest

LIX. There is no intercessor.] Jeshua, who returned with Zerubbabel, was probably dead. We hear nothing of his son Joiakim. In Isaiah liii. 12 Zerubbabel makes intercession for the nation.

19

They of the West shall fear the name of Jehovah.] We may be sure that many Jews had been drafted into the gigantic army which Xerxes I. was assembling in Asia Minor for the invasion of Greece, and the writer may boastfully fancy that their presence was important to the success of the army.

They in the West shall fear.] This verb may equally

18

they at the rising of the sun, his glory; when he [Xerxes I.] shall come like a pent-up flood, which the 20 breath of Jehovah driveth forward. And as a redeemer shall he come to Zion, and to them that turn from transgression in Jacob; Jehovah hath said it.

21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith Jehovah; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words, which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of

well be translated shall dread and shall reverence; and perhaps it ought to bear a different meaning in the second clause, as, "They in the West shall dread the name of Jehovah, and they at the rising of the sun [shall reverence] his glory," thus pointing to the expected conquest of Greece by Xerxes I. See Joel iii. 6 for the Greeks being looked upon by the Jews as enemies. For another case of a word bearing a different meaning in the second clause, see Gen. iv. 24:—“If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech [shall be punished] seventy and seven fold.”

20 As a redeemer shall he come to Zion.] If the writer is wishing Judea to be saved from the ill-treatment of Samaria, as appears from chap. lvii. 3, the redeemer hoped for may be Xerxes I. After assembling his gigantic forces in Asia Minor for the invasion of Greece, he travelled himself from Susa to Sardis in B.C. 481, and may have been expected in Jerusalem. He naturally followed the policy of Cyrus, when entering on a distant war, of cultivating the good will of the subject nations whom he left behind; and if we are right in thinking with Josephus that he was the Artaxerxes who gave to Ezra his appointment, he was as friendly to the Jews as Cyrus had been.

21 My words, which I have put in thy mouth.] The name of this prophet is unknown; but as his authority is to descend to his son and his son's son, he seems to be of the priestly line. The priests alone claimed to have hereditary religious power. In Deut. xviii. 9-xxvii., which I give to the time of Ezra, we have at xviii. 15 the promise of a prophet like unto Moses. The two