id
.
2-Vt^-,^5,
THE
EARLIER PROPHECIES
OF
ISAIAH.
BY
JOSEPH ADDISON ALEXANDER,
PROFESSOR IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY.
NEW-YORK & LONDON:
WILEY AND PUTNAM.
1846.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by
Joseph Addison Alexander,
in the Clerk's Office of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.
P 11 E F A C E .
To prevent misapprehension and facilitate the use of the fol-
lowing work, some explanation may be needed with respect to its
design and execution. The specific end at which it aims is that
of making the results of philological and critical research available
for purposes of practical utility. In attempting to accomplish this
important purpose, it was soon found indispensable to fix upon
some definite portion of the reading public, whose capacities, ac-
quirements, and wants might be consulted in determining the
form and method of the exposition. Some learned and ingenious
works in this department have been rendered to a great extent
practically useless, by the want of a determinate fitness for any
considerable class of readers, being at once too pedantic for the
ignorant and too elementary for the instructed. In the present
case there seemed to be some latitude of choice, and yet but one
course on the whole advisable. Works exclusively adapted to the
use of profound orientalists and biblical scholars are almost prohib-
ited among ourselves at present, by the paucity of competent wri-
ters and congenial readers. Works designed for the immediate
use of the unlearned must of necessity be superficial and imper-
fect, and are proved by experience to be not the most effective
means of influencing even those for whom they are expressly writ-
ten. The obscurer parts of Scripture, or at least of the Old Tes-
tament, can be most effectually brought to bear upon the popular
mind by employing the intermediate agency of an intelligent and
educated ministry. The people may be best taught in such cases
through their teachers, by furnishing a solid scientific basis for their
popular instructions. Under the influence of these considerations
an attempt has here been made to concentrate and economize the
iv PREFACE.
labours of the ministry in this field, by affording them a partial
succedancum for many costly books, and enabling them to profit
by the latest philological improvements and discoveries, without
the inconveniences and even dangers which attend a direct resort
to the original authorities.
What has now been said will explain a feature of the plan,
which might at first sight seem to be at. variance with the ultimate
design of the whole work, to wit, the exclusion of the practical
element, or rather of its formal exhibition in the shape of homilet-
ical and doctrinal reflections. A work upon Isaiah so constructed
as to constitute a series of lectures or expository sermons, instead
of doing for the clergy what they need and what they wish, would
be attempting to do for them that which they can do far better for
themselves, by presenting one of the many forms in which the
substance of the book may be employed for the instruction and
improvement of their people. The effect of this consideration is
enhanced by an impression, which the author's recent labours have
distinctly made upon his mind, that much of the fanciful and alle-
gorical interpretation heretofore current has arisen from a failure
to discriminate sufficiently between the province of the critical in-
terpreter and that of the expository lecturer or preacher, the effect
of which has been to foist into the Scriptures, as a part of their
original and proper sense, a host of applications and accommoda-
tions, which have no right there, however admissible and even
useful in their proper place. Let the professional interpreter con-
tent himself with furnishing the raw material in a sound and mer-
chantable state, without attempting to prescribe the texture, colour,
shape, or quantity of the indefinitely varied fabrics into which it is
the business of the preacher to transform it. From these consid-
erations it will be perceived that the omission now in question has
arisen, not merely from a want of room, and not at all from any
disregard to practical utility, but on the contrary from a desire to
promote it in the most effectual manner.
Another point, which may be here explained, is the relation of
the following commentary to the authorized English Version of
Isaiah. It was at first proposed to make the latter the immediate
basis of the exposition, simply calling in the aid of the original to
rectify the errors or clear up the obscurities of the translation.
PREFACE, v
The primary reason for abandoning this method was its tendency
to generate an indirect and circuitous method of interpretation. A
still higher motive for the change was afforded by its probable
effect in promoting thorough biblical learning, and discouraging the
sluggish disposition to regard the common version as the ultimate
authority, and even to insist upon its errors or fortuitous peculiar-
ities as parts of a divine revelation. The contrary disposition to
depreciate the merits of the English Bible, by gratuitous depar-
tures from its form or substance, is comparatively rare, and where
it does exist is to be corrected, not by wilful ignorance, but by
profound and discriminating knowledge of the version and original.
The practical conclusion, in the present case, has been to make
the Hebrew text exclusively the subject of direct interpretation,
but to give the common version all the prominence to which it is
entitled by its intrinsic excellence and by its peculiar interest and
value to the English reader. It may be thought that the shortest
and easiest method of accomplishing this object would have been
that adopted by Maurer, Knobel, and some other writers, who,
without giving any continuous version of the text, confine their
comments to its difficult expressions. It was found upon experi-
ment, however, that much circumlocution might be spared in many
cases by a simple version, or at most by an explanatory para-
phrase. A literal translation of the whole text has therefore been
incorporated in the present work, not as a mere appendage or ac-
companiment, much less as a substitute or rival of the common
version, which is too completely in possession of the public ear
and memory to be easily displaced even if it were desirable, but
simply as a necessary and integral part of the interpretation. The
grounds of this arrangement will be stated more fully in the Intro-
duction, of which it may as well be said in this place as in any
other, that it makes no pretensions to the character of an exhaus-
tive compilation, but is simply, as its name imports, a preparation
for what follows, consisting partly in preliminary statements, partly
in general summaries, the particulars of which are scattered
through the exposition.
Another question, which presented itself early in the progress
of the work, was the question whether it should be a record of the
author's individual conclusions merely, or to some extent a history
VI PREFACE.
of the interpretation. The only argument in favour of the first
plan was the opportunity which it afforded of including all Isaiah
in a single volume. As to economy of time and labour, it was
soon found that as much of these must be expended on a simple
statement of the true sense as would furnish the materials for a
synopsis of the different opinions. The latter method was adopted,
therefore, not merely for this negative reason, but also for the sake
of the additional interest imparted to the work by this enlargement
of the plan, and the valuable antidote to exegetical extravagance
and crudity, afforded by a knowledge of earlier opinions and even
of exploded errors. These advantages were reckoned of sufficient
value to be purchased even by a sacrifice of space, and it was
therefore determined to confine the present publication to the
Earlier Prophecies (ch. i-xxxix), the rest being reserved to form
the subject of another volume. This separation was the more con-
venient as the Later Prophecies (ch. xl-lxvi) are now universally
regarded as a continuous and homogeneous composition, requiring,
in relation to its authenticity, a special critical investigation.
But although it was determined that the work should be his-
torical as well as exegetical, it was of course impossible to com-
pass the whole range of writers on Isaiah, some of whom were
inaccessible, and others wholly destitute of any thing original, and
therefore without influence upon the progress of opinion. This
distinction was particularly made in reference to the older writers,
while a more complete exhibition was attempted of the later liter-
ature. Some recent writers were at first overlooked through ac-
cident or inadvertence, and the omission afterwards continued for
the sake of uniformity, or as a simple matter of convenience. Some
of these blanks it is proposed to fill in any further prosecution of
the author's plan. The citation of authorities becomes less fre-
quent and abundant, for the most part, as the work advances and
the reader is supposed to have become familiar with the individual
peculiarities of different interpreters, as well as with the way in
which they usually group themselves in schools and parties, after
which it will be generally found sufficient to refer to acknowledged
leaders or the authors of particular interpretations. The promi-
nence given to the modem German writers has arisen not from
choice but from necessity, because their labours have been so
PREFACE. vii
abundant, because their influence is so extensive, and because one
prominent design of the whole work is to combine the valuable
processes and products of the new philology with sounder princi-
ples of exegesis. Hence too the constant effort to expound the
book with scrupulous adherence to the principles and usages of
Hebrew syntax, as established by the latest and best writers. The
reference to particular grammars was gradually discontinued and
exchanged for explanations in my own words, partly for want of a
conventional standard, alike familiar to my readers and myself,
partly because the latter method was soon found upon experiment
to be the most effectual and satisfactory, in reference to the object
which I had in view.
The appearance of the work has been delayed by various
causes, but above all by a growing sense of its difficulty and of in-
capacity to do it justice, together with a natural reluctance to con-
fess how little after all has been accomplished. To some it will
probably be no commendation of the work to say, that the author
has considered it his duty to record the failure as well as the suc-
cess of exegetical attempts, and to avoid the presumption of know-
ing every thing as well as the disgrace of knowing nothing. His
deliberate conclusion from the facts with which he has become
acquainted in the prosecution of his present task, is that quite as
much error has arisen from the effort to know more than is revealed,
as from the failure to apply the means of illustration which are
really at our disposal. As advantages arising from delay in this
case may be mentioned some additional maturity of judgment and
the frequent opportunity of reconsideration, with the aid of con-
temporary writers on Isaiah, of whom seven have appeared since
this book was projected, besides several auxiliary works of great
importance, such as Fiirst's Concordance, Nordheimer's Grammar,
Hiivernick's Introduction, Robinson's Palestine, the later numbers
of Gesenius's Thesaurus, and the last edition of his Manual Lexi-
con. It is proper to add that, although the plan was formed and
the collection of materials begun more than ten years ago, the
work has been wholly, and some parts of it repeatedly, reduced to
writing as it passed through the press. The advantage thus se-
cured of being able to record the last impressions and to make use
of the latest helps, has this accompanying inconvenience, that
viii PREFACE.
changes insensibly take place in the details of the execution, tend-
ing to impair its uniformity without affecting its essential charac-
ter. To such external blemishes it is of course unnecessary to
invite attention by any more particular description or apology.
Since the printing of the volume was completed, the typo-
graphical errors have been found to be more numerous than was
expected, although for the most part less injurious to the work
than discreditable to the author, who is justly accountable for this
defect, on account of the very imperfect state in which the manu-
script was furnished to the printer. Instead of resorting to the
usual apologies of distance from the press and inexperience in the
business, or appealing to the fact that the sheets could be sub-
jected only once to his revision, he prefers to throw himself upon
the candour and indulgence of his readers, and especially of those
who have experienced the same mortification. At the same time,
it will not be improper to direct the attention of the reader, at the
very outset, to a few of the errata, which more immediately affect
the sense, or do not readily correct themselves. — P. 3, 1. 11, for
verb read rest. — P. 47, 1. 7, for heard read hard. Of the errors in
the Hebrew, which for the most part may be easily corrected by a
reference to the Hebrew Bible, only one or two will be enumer-
ated here. On p. 110, 1. 29, for D^ffl read &W. — P. 198, 1. 15,
for lis read IIS. — P. 224, 1. 21, for XW read K'TO. — P. 408, 1. 3,
for iVrn read ^n\— P. 469, 1. 9, read ?j?n\— P.' 513, 1. 12, read
bs: yna. — P. 515, 1. 11, read nolloi. The want of uniformity in
the insertion or omission of the Hebrew points is certainly a blem-
ish, but will not, it is hoped, occasion any serious inconvenience,
even to the inexperienced reader. It arose from the accidental
combination of two different methods, each of which has its
advantages, the one as being more convenient for beginners, the
other as favouring the useful habit of deciphering the unpointed
text, and rendering typographical correctness more attainable.
Princeton, April 20, 1846.
INTRODUCTION.
The English words prophet, prophesy, and prophecy, have long been
appropriated, by established usage, to the prediction of future events. To
prophesy, according to the universal acceptation of the term, is to foretell,
and a prophet is one who does or can foretell things yet to come. This
restricted application of the terms in question has materially influenced the
interpretation of the prophetic scriptures by modern and especially by Eng-
lish writers. It is necessary, therefore, to compare the common use of these
expressions with the corresponding terms in Greek and Hebrew.
The Greek noocprizrig (from nooyqpt) is used in the classics not only to
denote specifically a foreteller, but more generally an authoritative speaker
in the name of God, in which sense it is applied to the official expounders
of the oracles, and to poets as the prophets of the muses, i. e. as speaking in
their name, at their suggestion, or by their inspiration. This latitude of
meaning, in the classical usage of the terra, agrees exactly with its applica-
tion in the Greek of the New Testament, not only to those gifted with the
knowledge of futurity, but in a wider sense to inspired teachers or expound-
ers of the will of God in the primitive church. It is evident, therefore, that
our prophet, prophesy, and prophecy, are much more restricted in their
import than the Greek words from which they are derived, as employed
both by the classical and sacred writers.
It may be said, however, that in this restricted usage we adhere to the
primary and proper import of the terms, as the ttqo in noocpijfit, and ngocpi'jrijg,
no less than the prae in praedico, must have originally signified before, i. e.
beforehand. Even this might be plausibly disputed, as the primary sense
of 7iq6 would seem to be not temporal but local, the idea of priority in time
being given by the best lexicographers as secondary to that of antecedence
or priority in place, in which case the particle in composition may have
originally signified, not so much the futurity of the things declared, as the
authority of the person who declared them. (Compare nqosatag, nQo'i'azdfxa-
vog, antistes, praetor, praefectus, foreman.) But even granting that the
obvious and common supposition is correct, viz., that the nqo in nq6(pr t ui and
A
x INTRODUCTION.
its derivatives has primary reference to time, the actual extension of the
terms to other authoritative declarations, and especially to those made in
the name of God, is clear from the usage both of the classics and of the
New Testament. Looking merely to these sources of elucidation, we might
still assert with confidence, that the modern use of the words prophet and
prophecy is more restricted than that of the Greek terms from which they
are derived.
But this is a very small part of the evidence on which the affirmation
rests. The prophets, of whom the New Testament chiefly speaks, are not
heathen prophets, nor even the nQoqirjrai of the apostolic churches, but the
prophets of the old dispensation. The terms applied to them must there-
fore be interpreted, not merely by a reference to etymology, or to classical
usage, or to that of the New Testament itself, but by an appeal to the
import and usage of the Hebrew terms, which the Greek ones are designed
to represent. As soon as we resort to this source of illustration, the doubt
which seemed to overhang the question, when considered as a question of
Greek usage, disappears. We have here no probabilities to balance as to
the primary import of a particle, no extension of the meaning of the whole
word to account for or explain away. The etymology of N" 1 ?;, and the
cognate verbal forms, makes it impossible to look upon foresight or prediction
as their primary and necessary import. The only derivation, which can
now be regarded as philologically tenable, is that which makes the word
originally signify the apt of pouring forth or uttering, a natural figure in all
languages for speech, and more especially for public, solemn, and continuous
discourse. In actual usage, the Hebrew words are admitted by modern
writers of all schools and creeds to signify specifically one who speaks (or
the act of speaking) for God, not only in his name and by his authority, but
under his influence, in other words, by divine inspiration. The precise
meaning of the noun Kiaa is clear from Exodus 7 : 1, where the Lord says
unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy
brother shall be thy prophet, i. e. thy interpreter, thy organ of communica-
tion. (See Gesenius's Thesaurus, s. v. KSJ.)' The etymology proposed by
Redslob, which gives x h nj the sense of a person sprinkled or baptized with
the Spirit of God, if it can be established, only makes the primary and
essential reference to inspiration still more certain than the common one.
The few departures from this simple elementary idea, which the lexicons
still recognise, may all be reduced to it more easily and naturally than to
any other. For example, when Abraham is called a prophet (Gen. 20 : 7),
there is no need of diluting the sense of the expression into that of a mere
friend of God, which is sufficiently implied in the strict and common sense
of an inspired person. It is equally unnecessary, on the other hand, to
give the verb the sense of raving or becoming mad, when applied to Saul
INTRODUCTION. XI
' B
(1 Sam. 18 : 10), since it is there expressly mentioned that an evil spirit
from God had come upon him, so that he was really inspired, however fear-
ful and mysterious the nature of the inspiration may have been. A com
plete induction of particulars would show, with scarcely the appearance of
a doubtful case or an exception, that the essential idea, running through the
whole Hebrew usage of the verb and noun, is that of inspiration. The
suggestion of Gesenius, that the verb is used exclusively in passive or re-
flexive forms because the prophet was supposed to be under a controlling
influence, is not improbable in itself, and harmonizes fully with the usage of
the words as already stated.
Another obvious deduction from the usage of the language is, that
although K^i, like many other terms of such perpetual occurrence, is em-
ployed both in a wider and a more restricted sense, the distinction thus made
is not that between inspiration in general and the foresight of the future in
particular. There is probably not a single instance in which the word
denotes the latter, except as one important function of the power which it
properly describes. The gift of prophecy included that of prophetic fore-
sight, but it included more. The prophet was inspired to reveal the will of
God, to act as an organ of communication between God and man. The
subject of the revelations thus conveyed was not and could not be restricted
to the future. It embraced the past and present, and extended to those
absolute and universal truths which have no relation to time. This is what
we should expect a priori in a divine revelation, and it is what we actually
find it to contain. That the prophets of the old dispensation were not mere
foretellers of things future, is apparent from their history as well as from their
writings. The historical argument is stated forcibly by Gill when he ob-
serves, that Daniel proved himself a prophet by telling Nebuchadnezzar what
he had dreamed, as much as by interpreting the dream itself; that it was
only by prophetic inspiration that Elijah knew what Gehazi had been doing ;
and that the woman of Samaria very properly called Christ a prophet, be-
cause he told her all things that ever she did. In all these cases, and in
multitudes of others, the essential idea is that of inspiration, its frequent
reference to things still future being accidental, i. e. not included in the uni-
form and necessary import of the terms.
The restriction of these terms in modern parlance to the prediction of
events still future has arisen from the fact that a large proportion of the
revelations made in Scripture, and precisely those which are the most sur-
prising and impressive, are of this description. The frequency of such
revelations, and the prominence given to them, not in this modern usage
merely, but in the word of God itself, admit of easy explanation. It is partly
owing to the fact that revelations of the future would be naturally sought
with more avidity, and treated with more deference, than any other by
xii INTRODUCTION.
mankind in general. It is further owing to the fact that of all the kinds of
revelation, this is the one which affords the most direct and convincing proof
of the prophet's inspiration. The knowledge of the present or the past or
of general truths might be imparted by special inspiration, but it might also
be acquired in other ways ; and this possibility of course makes the evidence
of inspiration thus afforded more complete and irresistible than any other.
Hence the function of foretelling what was future, although but a part of
the prophetic office, was peculiarly conspicuous and prominent in public
view, and apt to be more intimately associated with the office itself in the
memory of man.
These considerations seem sufficient to account, not only for the change
of meaning which the words have undergone in later usage, but also for the
instances, if any such there be, in which the Bible itself employs them to
denote exclusively prophetic foresight or the actual prediction of the future.
But there is still another reason, more important than either of these, afforded
by the fact, that the old dispensation, with all its peculiar institutions, was
prospective in its character, a preparation for better things to come. It is
not surprising, therefore, that a part of this economy so marked and promi-
nent as prophecy, should have exhibited a special leaning towards futurity.
This naturally leads us from the theoretical idea of a prophet as a person
speaking by divine authority and inspiration, to the practical consideration of
the end or purpose aimed at in the whole prophetic institution. This was not
merely the relief of private doubts, much less the gratification of private curi-
osity. The gift of prophecy was closely connected with the general design of
the old economy. The foundation of the system was the Law, as recorded in